Oatmeal Wheat Bread
I’ve always been a little intimidated by baking. It seems so rigid, and there is little room for error. Typically, I buy my bread from the bakery inside my grocery store and pay exorbitant prices, or I’m stuck with the bread that hardly tastes like bread and is full of preservatives and unhealthy ingredients. Even those that claim to be healthy rarely are.
So, in my quest lately to eat healthier and feed my children fewer processed foods I decided to bake our own bread for the week. I have to admit, it was way more simple than I was expecting. Dare I say I actually might have enjoyed kneading the bread.
banana bread with chocolate and pecans
Ingredients:
1 1/4 Cups sugar
1 stick of butter, softened
2 eggs
3 ripe bananas, mashed
1/2 Cup of buttermilk
1 Tsp vanilla extract
2 1/2 Cups all-purpose flour
1 Tsp baking soda
1 Tsp salt
3/4 Cup chopped pecans
1/2 Cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
Preheat your oven to 350. Grease your loaf pan (9x5x3).
Mix together sugar and butter in a large bowl. Add in the eggs and blend well. Add in the bananas, vanilla and buttermilk. Stir in flour, baking soda and salt until just blended. Fold in the pecans and chocolate chips next.
Bake 1 hour 15 minutes, or until a toothpick is inserted into the middle and comes out clean. Allow to cool for about ten minutes in pan, and then carefully remove and set on a wire rack to finish cooling for a couple of hours.
