Celebrate National Homemade Bread Day 2015!

Talk about timely ideas. Over a week back I had an awesome coupon and savingstar deal for bananas. This turned into a desire to make bread nut chocolate chip bread. My husband is allergic to tree nuts but he also hates bananas. My other partner loves bananas but he doesn't like tree nuts and claims he doesn't like chocolate (he does!). I decided to bake for myself for a change. And while waiting for the bananas to over ripen I found out that today, Tuesday, November 17th, is National Homemade Bread Day!  To celebrate I'm sharing my recipe with all of you.

Lighter Chocolatey Banana Nut Bread
by TammyJo Eckhart, PhD

Ingredients:
8 oz softened Fat Free Cream Cheese
1/4 C egg substitute
2 tsp vanilla extract
5 T skim milk
1/2 T baking soda
3/4 C Splenda granulated sugar substitute
1/2 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
2 C whole grain flour
3 overripe bananas
6 oz mini chocolate chips
5 oz shelled and broken up walnut pieces

Instructions:

1) Let cream cheese get to room temperature and preheat oven to 350°F. Coat loaf pan with non-stick baking spray or grease and flour the pan.

2)Measure out the rest of your ingredients. Peel and then cut bananas into one inch size chunks.

3) Milk together all the wet ingredients and the cream cheese until evenly blended.

4) Add in bananas, baking soda, sugar substitute, baking powder, and salt. Beat well for at least one minute.

5) Slowly add in flour until the entire mixture is smooth and doughy. Add in more skim milk if it seems too dry to pour easily but only 1 T at a time.

6) Stir in chocolate chips and walnuts.

7) Pour batter into loaf pan and place in oven for at least 1 hour. Use toothpick method to see if it is done.

8) Remove pan from oven and lay it on its side on a baking rack for 5 minutes before turning out the entire loaf.

9) Allow to cool for another 10-15 minutes before cutting into slices.

10) Store completely cooled leftovers in tightly sealed containers. Place in refrigerator to keep for up to a week.

There you have it. The finished slices!

I shared this with a few others and we all really liked it. It was very moist but you do need to really like walnuts to like this bread.