Peanut Butter and Jilly

I normally don’t do a lot of baking, but banana bread is a favorite of mine to make. It allows you to use up ripe bananas and it doesn’t require lugging out the mixer. Plus for a baked treat, it’s on the healthier side; using mini chocolate chips gives you a bigger chocolate bang for your buck since they distribute well, a portion of the flour is whole wheat, and after all, its bananas! Make a loaf for your family or try using mini loaf pans and give them out to friends.

Ingredients:

(Makes 1 loaf or 3 mini loaves)

2 eggs
1/2 cup canola oil
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 ripe bananas, mashed
3/4 cup flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1/2 cup mini chocolate chips
Cooking spray

Direction:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine eggs, canola oil, sugar and vanilla extract in a large bowl and beat until creamy. Add the mashed bananas and blend well. Add flour, whole wheat flour, baking soda, chopped walnuts and mini chocolate chips and stir well. Spray a loaf pan with cooking spray. Pour mixture into pan and bake in the oven for 45-50 minutes or until toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

Notes:

Before you add the chopped walnuts and mini chocolate chips, toss them with a little flour so they don’t sink to the bottom of the loaf. Also, if you are using 3 mini loaf pans, bake in the oven for 25-30 minutes.