Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Banana Bread

This Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Banana Bread recipe is the perfect combination of comforting and hearty. Make this banana oat bread with oat flour, bananas and, of course, chocolate chips.

Make a Hearty oatmeal banana bread with chocolate chips

Why You’ll love this Recipe

• Perfect for snacks – this hearty oatmeal banana bread with chocolate chips is one of my favorite mid morning or afternoon snacks
• Easily gluten free – if you use certified gluten free oats and oat flour this delicious banana bread is easily gluten free. It is so delicious and fluffy that you won’t even realize its a gluten free recipe.
• Naturally sweet – This easy banana bread recipe is sweetened naturally with the ripe bananas and some maple syrup. It is made just a touch sweeter with the addition of semi-sweet chocolate chips
• Make it into muffins – I love to make this banana bread into banana oat muffins for our toddler. They are perfect for meal prep. Enjoy the muffins all week long as a mid morning snack or afternoon pick me up!

What is oat flour? Can I make oat flour at home?

Oat flour is just rolled oats that have been ground down into flour. You can buy oat flour at the grocery store or make it at home from rolled oats.

To make your own oat flour at home put rolled oats in a blender and blend. Bled until a smooth flour remains. You can also use a food processor to blend the oats, but it might not be as fine of a flour. I like to make a big batch at a time and then store it in my pantry in an airtight container.

Depending on what texture you like for this oat flour banana bread recipe you can keep the flour more coarse or grind into a smooth flour.

Then you can use your homemade oat flour to make this oatmeal banana bread or other oat based recipes! Try these other oat flour recipes:

• Pumpkin Oat Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars
• White Chocolate Cranberry Oatmeal Cookies

Ripen your bananas in the oven

There is nothing worse than waiting for your bananas to ripen so that you can make a loaf of banana bread. Luckily there is a trick that will help you get ripe bananas in 15 minutes. Ripe bananas are sweeter and I find they have a stronger banana flavor.

To ripen bananas quickly, preheat your oven to 300F and place bananas in their peel on a baking sheet. Bake for 10-20 minutes at 300F and remove from the oven as soon as the peel turns black.

Allow the bananas to cool slightly. Then, peel the bananas and use them in your recipe!

Use this brown butter banana bread recipe to make a classic banana bread with salted brown butter. The riper the bananas, the sweeter this banana bread will be.

Ingredients

• Large eggs – eggs help this bread come together and give it a bit of a natural rise.
• Ripe bananas – overripe bananas with lots of brown spots are the key to making this recipe extra delicious
• Vegetable oil – I like to use melted coconut oil or avocado oil, but you can use any neutral vegetable oil.
• Maple syrup – adds a bit of extra sweetness to the naturally sweet bananas
• Vanilla extract – I personally like to use vanilla bean paste in place of pure vanilla extract.
• Baking powder and baking soda – the mix of these two leveaning agents helps make the bread loaf fluffy and airy.
• Salt – a bit of kosher salt enhances the flavor of sweet recipes.
• Oat flour – You can make your own in the blender with old fashioned oats or quick oats. For best results, blend the oats until finely ground.
• Rolled oats – I use a mixture of rolled oats and oat flour for this recipe for the ideal texture.
• Chocolate chips – add a bit of extra sweetness with semi-sweet or dark chocolate chips.

ingredient substitutions

If you would like, you can swap out the oil for melted butter. Use salted butter or unsalted butter, but if you use salted butter, just omit the kosher salt to reduce the sodium.

If you want to use a regular flour instead of oat flour, just use the same amount of a standard all purpose flour. You can use coconut sugar to sweeten in place of the maple syrup but reduce the flour in the recipe by a quarter cup. Any liquid sweetener can replace the maple syrup in a 1 to 1 ratio.

Make this oatmeal banana bread vegan by using flax eggs instead of regular eggs. Mix ground flax with water and use this gel mixture in place of eggs.

I like to mix chocolate chips into this quick bread recipe, but there are many mix-in options! You can use any kind of nuts like chopped walnuts or pecans in addition to the chocolate chips.

You can make a healthy trail mix style banana bread by mixing nuts, dried cranberries and mini chocolate chips into the oatmeal banana bread batter. That would be a great recipe for breakfast on the go! I like to add a nice nutty flavor by topping a slice with a drizzle of peanut butter or almond butter.

Let’s make some Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Banana Bread!

Step 1: Prepare batter

To begin, preheat the oven to 350F and line a loaf pan with parchment paper or grease with oil. Then, mash the ripe bananas in a large mixing bowl with a potato mashed or the back of a fork.

Next, whisk in the eggs, oil, maple syrup and vanilla extract into the large bowl with the mashed banana. In a separate small bowl combine oat flour, rolled oats, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.

Then, fold dry ingredients into wet ingredients and fold in chocolate chips and any other mix ins you want to add.

Step 2: Pour into loaf pan

Next, grease a loaf pan or line with parchment paper. Pour the oatmeal banana bread batter into the prepared loaf pan. Sprinkle the top of the loaf with additional chocolate chips, oats, and a sprinkle of brown sugar to get a glistening top.

Step 3: Bake and cool

Then, place in the oven and bake for 45 minutes. Check that the loaf is completely cooked through by inserting a toothpick into the center. If the toothpick comes out clean, the banana bread is cooked through.

Allow the loaf to cool completely to room temperature. Remove from the loaf pan, slice into about inch thick slices and enjoy!

Can I make this banana oat bread into muffins instead of a loaf?

Yes! It is so easy to make these into little oatmeal chocolate chip banana bread muffins. Just follow the recipe to make the batter.

Then, pour into lined muffins tins and bake at 350F for 30 minutes. Check that the muffins are fully cooked through by inserting a toothpick into the middle.

Allow them to cool completely prior to enjoying! Muffins are great for breakfast on the go or an afternoon snack.

How to serve

My favorite way to serve this oatmeal banana bread is warmed with a slab of creamy butter spread on top. I also like to sprinkle a bit of flakey sea salt on top of the butter.

To add some extra protein and fiber to this healthy snack, slather a slice with almond butter or peanut butter and top with berries. This banana oat bread tastes delicious with any kind of coffee or tea. I like to have a slice in the afternoon with a cup of tea for a pick me up!

storage, reheating and freezing

I personally store this healthy banana bread recipe in the refrigerator. I like to wrap it tightly in plastic wrap to preserve the flavor. It should be good in the fridge for up to 7 days.

I like to remove it from the fridge and slice. Then, I reheat each slice in the toaster oven and top with a little butter, peanut butter or greek yogurt.

You can freeze this oatmeal banana bread for up to 3 months. I like to slice into individual slices before freezing so I can defrost them one at a time.

Check out these other healthy baked good recipes

• Grain Free Chew Chocolate Chip Cookies
• 5 Ingredient Cookie Dough Bites
• Mini Chocolate Chip Banana Muffins
• White Chocolate Cranberry Oatmeal Cookies

You can find the full recipe below. If you make this recipe, please rate and review it in the comments, or share it with me on Instagram!

Images by Ella from Alpine Ella.