Cooking Light: Banana-Chocolate-Walnut Bread

I've become dissatisfied with banana bread recipes.  I want a moist crumb that is just sweet enough to be a treat, but not so overwhelming that my teeth rot.  But it also has to have something else...something to make it special.  And I never thought I would find that something in Cooking Light magazine.

The banana bread I made is called Banana-Chocolate-Walnut Bread, and it is absolutely delicious.  The flax seed that you add into the batter gives it this amazing nutty flavor that goes so well with the ripe banana and sweetness of the sugar.  The yogurt helps to keep it moist over multiple days.  And of course everything is better with chocolate.  I didn't melt the extra chocolate chips; instead I just threw them all into the batter.  This will definitely be the recipe I reach for when I have a craving for banana bread.

Banana-Chocolate-Walnut Bread
Adapted from Cooking Light magazine, October 2010

1½ cups mashed ripe banana
⅓ cup plain fat-free yogurt
5 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
2 large eggs
⅓ cup granulated sugar
⅓ cup packed light brown sugar
6.75 ounces all-purpose flour (about 1½ cups)
¼ cup ground flaxseed
¾ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
⅛ teaspoon ground allspice
⅔ cup semisweet chocolate mini chips, divided
⅓ cup chopped walnuts, toasted and divided
Cooking spray

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Combine first 4 ingredients in a large bowl; beat with a mixer at medium speed until blended. Add sugars; beat until blended.

Weigh or lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flour and next 5 ingredients (through allspice) in a small bowl; stir well with a whisk. Add flour mixture to banana mixture; beat just until blended.

Fold mini chips and nuts into batter; pour batter into a 9x5-inch loaf pan coated with cooking spray. Bake at 350°F for 55 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Remove from oven; cool 10 minutes in pan on a wire rack. Remove bread from pan; cool completely on wire rack.

Makes 16 servings