Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Oatmeal Banana Bread (Printer-friendly)

Moist banana bread featuring ripe bananas, peanut butter, oats, and chocolate chips for a hearty breakfast or snack.

# What You'll Need:

→ Dry Ingredients

01 - 1½ cups all-purpose flour
02 - 1 cup old-fashioned rolled oats
03 - 1 teaspoon baking soda
04 - ½ teaspoon baking powder
05 - ½ teaspoon salt
06 - 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

→ Wet Ingredients

07 - 3 medium ripe bananas, mashed (approximately 1 cup)
08 - ½ cup creamy peanut butter
09 - ½ cup light brown sugar, packed
10 - ¼ cup neutral oil such as canola or sunflower
11 - 2 large eggs
12 - 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

→ Mix-ins

13 - ¾ cup semisweet chocolate chips
14 - ¼ cup chopped roasted peanuts, optional

# Steps:

01 - Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease a 9x5-inch loaf pan and line with parchment paper for easy removal.
02 - In a large mixing bowl, whisk together flour, oats, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon.
03 - In a separate bowl, combine mashed bananas, peanut butter, brown sugar, oil, eggs, and vanilla extract. Whisk until smooth.
04 - Pour wet ingredients into dry ingredients. Mix gently with a spatula until just combined, avoiding overmixing.
05 - Fold in chocolate chips and peanuts, reserving a few for topping if desired.
06 - Pour batter into prepared loaf pan and smooth the top surface. Sprinkle with reserved chocolate chips and peanuts.
07 - Bake for 50 to 55 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the center emerges with a few moist crumbs.
08 - Cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely before slicing.

# Expert Advice:

01 -
  • The oats make it feel substantial enough for breakfast but the chocolate chips keep things fun and a little bit dessert-like.
  • It's forgiving enough that you can make it on autopilot on a sleepy morning and still end up with something that impresses people.
  • Peanut butter and banana together somehow taste even better than either of them do alone, especially when they're baked into something warm and soft.
02 -
  • Overmixing is your enemy here—once you see just a few flour streaks, step away; the batter doesn't need to be perfectly smooth and homogeneous to bake into something wonderful.
  • The moisture in banana bread actually deepens as it sits overnight, so if you can resist eating a slice immediately, tomorrow's slice will be even better than today's.
03 -
  • Bring your peanut butter to room temperature before mixing so it combines smoothly with the wet ingredients instead of clumping stubbornly in your batter.
  • If your chocolate chips seem to be sinking to the bottom, toss them in a tablespoon of the dry flour mixture before folding them in—it helps them distribute more evenly throughout the bake.
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