Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Quinoa Banana Bread

Posted on October 7, 2013  |  Print Recipe

This hearty but moist banana bread is healthy enough for breakfast while still being sweet enough to feel like a treat.

Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Quinoa Banana Bread

I have so much good stuff for you.  There was basically a three-day baking marathon to get ahead on blog posts.  The problem is, whenever I build up some recipe inventory, I have the hardest time waiting to share everything.

Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Quinoa Banana Bread

This banana bread isn’t quite the most exciting recipe of the bunch, but it was necessary.  Sometimes you just need a baked good that isn’t going to give you an internal guilt trip if you eat it for breakfast!  Plus, with the bazillion brown bananas on my counter, banana bread was inevitable (my frozen banana collection is already out of control).

What I love about this recipe is that the banana bread came out moist but hearty.  I had a habit of cutting off a bit at a time until a huge slice was devoured, but Matt also enjoyed it for snacks over the course of a few days.  I think his favorite way to eat it was toasted with a smear of almond butter.

Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Quinoa Banana Bread

Quinoa flour is an ingredient I’ve never used before.  It’s actually commonly used in gluten-free recipes (there are some here), which is why I bought it in the first place, but I had bookmarked this high protein banana bread on Madison’s site a few months ago and decided to try it out.  Wondering where to get quinoa flour?  I actually found it at TJ Maxx (random much?), but Whole Foods, health food stores and Amazon are probably good resources as well.  I’m looking forward to playing around with it in future recipes!

Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Quinoa Banana Bread

Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Quinoa Banana Bread
 
This hearty but moist banana bread is healthy enough for breakfast while still being sweet enough to feel like a treat.
Makes: 8 nice-sized slices

Ingredients
  • 2 ounces (4 tablespoons / ½ stick) unsalted butter, softened
  • 6⅞ ounces (1¼ cups) white whole wheat flour
  • 2 ounces (~1/2 cup) quinoa flour
  • 10½ ounces (~1 cup) mashed brown banana (~3 medium)
  • 1⅞ ounces (~1/4 cup) granulated sugar
  • 1 x-large egg lightly beaten, at room temperature
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • ¼ cup milk (any type will work, I used almond milk) at room temperature
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • 3½  ounces (~1/2 cup) mini semi-sweet chocolate chips

Instructions
  1. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees; lightly grease and flour a loaf pan; set aside
  2. Brown the butter: Heat butter in a small heavy saucepan over medium heat, stirring constantly, when butter turns to an amber/light brown color, remove from heat immediately (You should be able to smell the deeper more caramel flavor of the butter) pour browned butter immediately into a small bowl and set aside to cool
  3. In a medium bowl, whisk together flours; set aside
  4. In a large bowl, combine banana browned butter, sugar, egg, and vanilla; whisk until all ingredients are combined
  5. Add milk, baking soda, cinnamon and salt; whisk until combined
  6. Slowly whisk in flour mixture and do NOT overmix; when flour is ALMOST combined, fold in chocolate chips; again, do not overmix
  7. Pour batter into prepared pan and bake for 40-45 minutes or until knife comes out clean from center
  8. Set aside to cool before removing from pan to slice

Notes
Very slightly adapted from Espresso and Cream
Store tightly wrapped with seran wrap for a few days; you can also freeze individually wrapped slices for future snacking
The brown butter isn’t prominent and you could likely just melt the butter instead, but I do think it added just a little something to the recipe

 

Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Quinoa Banana Bread

Get ready for more butter, more sugar, and more indulging over the next few weeks.

Make something from the blog? Be sure to share it on Instagram with the tag #KeepItSweetDesserts.

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Vanilla Roasted Strawberry Banana Bread

Gluten-Free Chocolate Chunk Blueberry Banana Bread

Gluten-Free Chocolate Chunk Blueberry Banana Bread

 

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