Review: Toni's Chocolate Chip Banana Bread

[VictoriaL]

From May '06, and I'm sure that I got the name wrong but I'm sitting here eating a slice and I don't feel like going back into the kitchen to get the magazine!

This is a great quickbread. Not too sweet, good banana flavor and the chocolate chips are still a bit gooey. I will chop the walnuts a bit coarser next time, though, since I can barely distinguish them in the bread.

A change which I made:
I didn't have enough whole wheat pastry flour (4 cups), and I was a little concerned about the heaviness of a quickbread that contained 2 cups of whole wheat flour each, so instead I used:
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour, 2 cups white whole wheat flour, and 1 cup of all-purpose flour.

The texture was so nice that I think I will try all 4 cups of whole wheat flour next time.

I also used 3 tablespoons of canola oil rather than 1/4 cup. Every little bit helps...

And I was concerned about the lack of eggs in the batter, but shouldn't have been.

This recipe will definitely be on my rotation of healthy "snack foods"!

[Linda in MO]

Thanks for the review. I was just looking at that recipe today.

[patissac]

This is good to hear, DD is allergic to egg whites and its hard to find recipes that are eggless that I can bake for her. I've been eyeing this one so I will now go ahead and make it. Thanks for your review!

[pilgrim719]

I made this today and just tried it and it is excellent! Very moist, great banana flavor, hint of cinnamon, and great topped with PB! I love the chocolate/banana combo, so I was pretty sure I'd love this recipe. It's sweet enough for dessert, but not too sweet for breakfast or snacking. I made half the recipe and got 12 muffins. I also used mini chocolate chips to get a better dispersement since I was making muffins instead of loaves.

Kari

[patissac]

I made this last night and it was surprisingly good! I made it for DD whose allergic to eggs so I'm more then ecstatic that she liked this as well. Since it made 2 loaves I'm freezing one for later. I can't believe how moist this bread was too!

[sadie]

Despite the good reviews I was skeptical of the texture of a quick bread with no eggs, very little oil and all whole wheat flour. Much to my surprise it's excellent...moist and dense, not too sweet, and not rubbery at all like some low fat quick breads. I made a half recipe in 3 mini 5X3-inch loaf pans and they took 45 minutes to bake. I realized after they were in the oven that I'd completely forgotten to add the oil, so my loaves are not only eggless, they're fat-free as well, except for the chocolate chips and walnuts (I toasted the walnuts first). I used 4 small bananas for the half recipe and ended up with more than 1 cup of mashed, which is probably why omitting the oil didn't have a detrimental effect on the texture. I think I'd use more banana and no oil the next time too. I used all whole wheat flour. Added 1/2 tsp. of banana extract to boost the flavour. Sprinkled the tops with finely crushed almond and raisin granola cereal (the stuff that's in the bottom of the bag) and Turbinado sugar to add a bit of crunch.

[SweetTooth]

ok everyone...can someone pleeeeeeeease post this recipe?

I have some whole wheat flour and frozen bananas that I need to use.

Yum!!


Thanks!

[sadie]

Just happened to have it right in front of me.

Toni's Banana Chocolate Chip Walnut Bread

2 cups mashed ripe banana (about 4)
1 cup vanilla fat-free yogurt
1/2 cup reduced-fat vanilla soy milk
1/4 cup canola oil
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
4 cups whole wheat pastry flour (about 20 1/2 ounces)
1 cup sugar
2 tsp. baking powder
2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp. salt
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
cooking spray

1. Preheat oven to 350°.
2. Combine first 5 ingredients in a food processor; process until smooth.
3. Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flour and next 5 ingredients (through salt) in a large bowl. Add banana mixture to flour mixture, stirring just until moist. Stir in chocolate chips and walnuts until well combined. Divide mixture evenly between 2 (9x5-inch) loaf pans coated with cooking spray.
4. Bake at 350° for 50 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pans on a wire rack 10 minutes. Remove from pan; cool completely.

Yield: 2 loaves; 16 servings per loaf (serving size: 1 slice)

CAL 150 (29% from fat); FAT 4.9g (sat 1.2g, mono 1.8g, poly 1.6g); PROTEIN 3.2g; CARB 25.8g; FIBER 2.7g; CHOL 0mg; IRON 0.9mg; SODIUM 153mg; CALC 41mg

[sherri]

This thread just reminded me of the bread, glad to hear good reviews. I am going to try it soon!

[knunes]

Did everyone use vanilla soymilk? Does anyone think buttermilk might work just as well?

[VictoriaL]

I used plain unflavored soymilk. I don't know about the buttermilk, though, because (I think) you would have to add baking soda and decrease baking powder because of the acidic quality of buttermilk.

My sister used regular milk and it worked for her.

[dneilson]

Did everyone use vanilla soymilk? Does anyone think buttermilk might work just as well?

I wouldn't worry about buttermilk too much. The recipe already has yogurt which has the lactic acid necessary for baking soda to neutralize it and produce the gases necessary for leavening. (Sure sounds like alot of baking soda for only a cup of yogurt...usually 1 tsp is plenty) If you're concerned, replace with non-fat canned evaporated milk with a tbsp of sugar (soy milk is sweetened) and up the vanilla to 3/4 tsp. I'm going to give this recipe a try also...I have a dozen favorite banana bread recipes with variations and somehow seem to never have enough. ...my other sucessful recipes have a higher ratio of sugar to flour...1 to 2. This is 1 to 4. However, I cannot dismiss the favorable reviews so I'm going to give it a whirl.

Thanks for posting your reviews!
Dolores

[valchemist]

made the full recipe today...

only changes were to use regular milk instead of soy milk and I used a 6 oz container of vanilla yogurt and made up the rest of the cup with ff sour cream.

I think it is very good. definitely has a healthy taste with all that ww pastry flour, but that doesn't mean it's bad. I used a bit over 2 c mashed very ripe bananas and thought it could be a bit more banana-y in taste. but I am kind of picky about that. overall, great recipe especially for something so healthy. I'll definitely make it again. my 4yo DD loved it.

oh, I didn't bother messing up my food processor so I just did the first step with a mixer.

[cookiecrazed]

I've been meaning to post about this as we made it a couple of weeks ago and enjoyed it a good deal. I had low expectations because, as it turned out, I had to make several substitutions. I chose to leave out the walnuts (DD doesn't like nuts in baked goods.) I used skim milk in place of the soy milk, and I used TJ's Vanana yogurt (which is low-fat, not ff). I didn't have any WW pastry flour, so I used 1/2 WW and 1/2 AP flour. I also used my KA mixer (and skipped the food processor step,) and might have over-mixed, so I was half expecting two banana flavored bricks.

Well...they were not bricks at all. The texture was quite nice and I really, really enjoyed the still warm slice I had (the cc were still gooey!) but I realized as I was cleaning up (right after I'd put the loaves in the oven) that I'd completely omitted the sugar!! I decided not to tell my family until after they had been enjoying it for two days. They didn't seem to mind, but I noticed that my husband starting spreading peanut butter on his slices after that!

I really would like to try this recipe again the right way. The only thing I noticed is that my chocolate chips (TJ's) had a slightly funny texture in the cooked bread. Even after it had completely cooled, the chips stayed sort of mushy. I have never experienced that before, and I use those chips A LOT! Did anyone else notice anything like that?

Overall this was a repeater for me. Thanks for posting!

[chocojun]

Will omitting the walnuts mess up this recipe?

[SueK]

Will omitting the walnuts mess up this recipe?

Not at all! I don't care for them and have made this bread at least 4 times recently and the kids still gobbled it up.

[pilgrim719]

Will omitting the walnuts mess up this recipe?

I left 'em out, as I don't like walnuts at all. Didn't harm the recipe a bit!

Kari

[Husker]

I made this using sour cream instead of yogurt (only had lime flavored in the house), regular skim milk and whole wheat flour. I made 1/2 of the recipe and made them into muffins. Made 12 muffins and baked them for about 25 to 30 minutes. I was impressed with the texture and flavor. I will be making these again. Enjoyed both the chocolate chips and walnuts but would agree that if you are not a nut person you would not miss anything without them.
Does anyone remember the "Toni's banand bread" from a couple of years ago? It is my favorite banana bread recipe. Noticing a lot of "Toni's" lately in the titles.

[Rhi-Anon]

I made this but, since I knew from the comments above that DH and I would be eating it all (and fairly soon), I cut the amount of oil in half. I can't see that this made this bread any less delicious!

[fancyn]

Yummy!!! I baked this up last night since I had a couple of black bananas. I halved the recipe, used skim milk, half ww flour and half cake flour, and kept the full amount of vanilla. Baked these up into 2 mini loaves, and the bake time was about 24 mins. Oh, and instead of semi-sweet chocolate chips, i used dark chocolate. I'll definitely be making these again!!

[Peggy]

I just got around to making this recipe last night and we all love it. I substituted nonfat milk for the soy milk and just added alittle extra vanilla extract. I was worried the texture would be dry but the bread is very moist. My DH has eaten one-half of a loaf all by himself and it is still morning!

Peggy

[Julia1Pin]

Oh so good!!! I made this exactly as written, except for subbing King Arthur White whole Wheat flour for the pastry flour.

I know you're supposed to let it cool completely, but it was very good warm, righ tout of the oven!

We've almost finished the loaf I kept at home, and the one at work is almost gone as well.

What a great low-fat treat that's extremely flavorful!!!

[Linda in MO]

Another thumbs up!
I used 1% milk instead of soy and upped the vanilla; used half white sugar and half brown sugar; used low-fat yogurt instead of fat-free; used 4 chopped up Hershey bars instead of choc. chips; omitted the walnuts.

[berry99]

This bread is so good. It was exactly what I was seeking. Something to cure my never-ending sweet tooth. I have been having a piece every night along with some vanilla soy milk and it is really satisfying.

Does anyone have any variations of this bread that they do? I was thinking of substituting apple sauce for the bananas and cinnamon chips for the choc chips. Hmm, it can't be that bad right?

Karin