Whole Grain Chocolate Chip Banana Bread

Welp.  It’s that time of year when I bake a lot of loaves of things.  So, buckle up, y’all.

I make a lot of banana bread… I always find myself with overly ripe bananas, so it’s really an easy thing to whip up.  What’s interesting about this is that I don’t like the flavor of bananas… I do love bananas.  Buuuut I only love bananas that are still slightly green.  And taste nothing like banana flavored anything.  But once they ripen and start tasting more like… banana, I just can’t do it.  So that’s when I freeze them, or start baking!  My general go-to Banana Bread happens to be supremely healthy.  It’s gluten free and refined sugar free and is absolutely amazing.

But this time I wanted something a little different.  I have a ton of rye flour and have been experimenting a lot with it lately (remember the pancakes?  And the other day with tomato soup, I made my Italian bread using rye and whole wheat flour.)  So for this banana bread I decided to use rye and spelt flour (no white flour involved… all healthy, whole grains!), used extra virgin olive oil as the fat, and decided to add some chocolate to the party.  My kids have eaten this for both breakfast and dessert this week.  They love it!

It’s really easy to make, and the perfect thing to whip up this weekend… especially if you’re hurricane watching like many of you are!

So if you’re stuck inside today, may as well do it deliciously 😉

WHOLE GRAIN CHOCOLATE CHIP BANANA BREAD

In a large mixing bowl, combine the following wet ingredients..

• 3/4 cup light brown sugar
• 1/2 cup applesauce (I always keep the packs of individual cups on hand, and 1 container=1/2 cup)
• 2 TB extra virgin olive oil
• 2 large eggs
• 5 large, very ripe bananas, broken in pieces
• splash vanilla extract

Mix this with an electric beater until smooth, making sure to break down all the bananas.

Add in the following dry ingredients…

• 1 cup rye flour
• 1 1/4 cup spelt flour
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1 1/2 tsp kosher salt + fat pinch
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp ground ginger

Mix with the beaters until fully combined.

With a spatula, stir in…

• 1 cup dark (or semi sweet) chocolate chips/morsels

Once the chocolate chips are evenly mixed in, pour the batter into a greased standard loaf pan.

Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 1 – 1 1/2 hours, or until a wooden skewer inserted into the very center of the cake comes out with moist crumbs and not wet batter.  (It will be firm to the touch and have pulled away from the sides of the pan.)

Keep it in the pan and allow it to cool on a rack until safe to touch.

Slice and serve warm/room temperature.

Enjoy!

xoxo