Chocolate Chip Almond Banana Bread

Preheat the oven to 325. Oil and dust a loaf pan - I use coconut oil and rice flour in a glass pan.

Combine:
*1 c whole raw almonds, ground (1 1/3c almond meal/flour)
**2/3 c brown rice flower
**1/4 c starch (tapioca starch or corn starch)
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/4 tsp baking soda
2 tsp baking powder

*To grind almonds, pulse 1/2c at a time in a blender (or coffee grinder or food processor) until it's a fairly uniform almond meal. 1c of whole almonds will make about 1 1/3c of almond meal/flour.

**Use 3/4 c light whole spelt or wheat flour instead of the brown rice flour and starch if you like.

Combine separately and beat together:
2 large eggs
2 Tbsp melted butter or coconut oil
1/3 c agave syrup, maple syrup or mild honey
1/3 c milk or milk substitute (I use unsweetened almond milk)
2 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp freshly grated nutmeg (optional)
1/2 tsp freshly grated lemon or orange zest (optional)

To this, mix in:
2 large hand-mashed very over-ripe bananas (~3/4c)

Mix dry and wet mixtures together until just combined. Then fold in:

2/3 c dark chocolate chips (I'm not one to push brands, but Ghirardelli 60% cocoa bittersweet chocolate chips are awesome!) Sprinkling a bit of flour (or dry ingredient-mixture) over the chips helps prevent them from sticking to the pan.

Pour batter into the prepared pan, smoothing the top with a spatula. Bake for about 55 min, rotating half way through baking. It will be ready when a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Allow to sit in the pan for about 10 minutes before removing and placing on a cooling rack.

This bread tastes great warm and fresh out of the oven, and even better the next day. When cool, wrap it up and store in the fridge.

Enjoy ♥