banana, oat, & dark chocolate bread

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Before I left college, my beautiful sister flew half way across the country to visit me for a weekend. Despite sickness, delayed flights, dying cell phones, missed trains, enormous amounts of homework, and already-booked concerts, we managed to have a delightful time. On Saturday, we stopped by my favorite little French bakery to pick up a treat before heading into the city. I had this amazing banana chocolate chip muffin and knew that I wanted to attempt to replicate it when I got home . . .

And this is the result. I wanted to make it without any white sugar, so I opted for agave nectar. I also added in some extra whole wheat flour and oats and some dark chocolate, of course. And the buttermilk makes them perfectly moist. Yumminess all around.

Banana, Oat, and Dark Chocolate Bread (or Muffins)
adapted from Eating Well

Ingredients:

3/4 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup light agave nectar
1/4 cup canola oil
2 large eggs
1 cup mashed ripe bananas (2-3 bananas)
1 1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour
3/4 cup all purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup dark chocolate chips
1/3 cup whole organic rolled oats

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease loaf pan or muffin cups. (You can use any size loaf pan; just adjust the amount of time that you bake according to the size of the pan.)

Whisk buttermilk, agave nectar, oil, and eggs in a large bowl. Stir in bananas.

In a separate bowl, whisk whole wheat pastry flour, all purpose flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Add dry mixture to the wet ingredients and stir just until combined.

Fold in chocolate chips and oats. Transfer batter to prepared pan. Bake until toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean, approximately 50 minutes for a 9x5 loaf pan or 15-17 minutes for muffins.

(And p.s., speaking of sugar, this little intro to natural sweeteners is wonderful if you're looking to stay away from white and processed sugars.)
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