TWD—Oatmeal Breakfast Bread (Applesauce or Banana/Chocolate Chip)

This breakfast “bread” is really just coffee cake in disguise.  Kinda like this picture of Taylor with a mustache.  (hehe)  That’s a really expensive mustache.  Three dentist visits and too many cavities filled and this is the prize—a mustache.  Gotta get these boys brushing better.  (But I know me and my siblings had lots of cavities as kids and I have great teeth now that the dentist/hygenists are always surprised at how great and plaque free they are.  I have hope for my boys.)

Natalie from Oven Love picked our recipe this week.  Oatmeal Breakfast Bread (page 44 of Baking From My Home to Yours) was the choice.  I love the tastes and idea of quick breads, but I just don’t love baking them in bread pans.  They take too long to bake and I don’t like when they are sometimes not done in the center and/or sink a little (I know it’s my own incompetent  issues).  So I knew I was going to make muffins.  Or so I thought.

As I was reading through the recipe, it struck me as something that would work perfectly as a coffee cake.  So I went ahead and baked it in an 8x8 inch square pan.  The only changes to it that I made was that I did not add any dried fruit, so in place of the fruit, I added 1/2 cup toasted, chopped walnuts.  I love a little crunch and I knew that would be okay since there was a streusel-like topping on this.  I didn’t add the ground cloves.

Perfect applesauce oat coffee cake.  The boys liked this one night when I made it.  I froze the rest and served it at a family function Sunday night and those who had some LOVED it. 

This was perfectly moist, had great flavor and I loved the nutty crunch and probably wouldn’t have loved fruit bits, even though I usually love dried fruit in things, so I’m glad I didn’t add them.  (I mostly did it because I knew the boys wouldn’t like it and by boys I mostly mean Kevin. ;)

________________________________________________________________________________

While I was looking through the ingredients in this breakfast bread, it hit me that this is VERY similar to my favorite banana chocolate chip coffee cake.  The biggest difference is the oats.  Well, that and the bananas instead of applesauce.  I knew it would work and I knew I had to make it as well.  So two coffee cakes it was!

I used whole wheat flour just for fun.  Four small bananas made 1 1/4 cups of banana puree.  I used cinnamon for the spice and no nutmeg or cloves.  And I doubled the topping ingredients (plus 3 1/2 ounces of chopped Lindt dark chocolate!) so I could put half of it in the middle for the streusel-ripple effect, just like my favorite coffee cake again--made as a bundt cake—which I’ve made almost too many times to count.  This was MY favorite version of Dorie’s Oatmeal Breakfast Bread, but the applesauce version is also very good.  Are you surprised I like the one with chocolate and bananas?  Well, you shouldn’t be.  This is one of my favorite flavor combinations ever.

Banana Oat Chocolate Chip Coffee Cake, by Katrina, Baking and Boys!, adapted from Oatmeal Breakfast Bread, Baking From My Home to Yours

For the topping:

1/2 cup packed light brown sugar

1/2 cup toasted walnuts, chopped

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

3 1/2 ounces dark chocolate, chopped (mini chips work, too)

For the cake:

2 large eggs

1 1/4 cups banana pureed, about 4 small bananas

1/3 cup canola oil

1/4 cup low fat buttermilk

1 1/4 cups whole wheat flour (all purpose would work fine)

3/4 cup granulated sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup old fashioned oats

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Line an 8x8 inch square pan with foil (non-stick is my favorite).  Spray the foil with cooking spray. 

Make the topping:  In a medium sized bowl, combine the sugar, nuts, chocolate and cinnamon.  Toss together with your fingers.  Set aside.

Make the cake:  Whisk together the eggs, applesauce, oil and buttermilk until well blended.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt.  Stir in the oats.  Pour the liquid ingredients over the dry and stir with a rubber spatula just until everything is evenly moistened.  Do not overmix.  Scrape half the batter into the pan.  Sprinkle half the topping mixture over the batter.  Spread the rest of the batter over that.  Then sprinkle the remaining topping over the second layer of batter and press it down lightly with your fingers.

Bake for 35-40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out mostly clean (it will have some melted chocolate on it).  Transfer the cake to a rack to cool.  Remove from pan by lifting the edges of the foil.  Cut into pieces.

This is so good.  A little different from my favorite cake, the oats add a nice little dimension.  Thanks for the fun pick, Natalie.  I enjoyed playing around with this one.  You can get the recipe for the Oatmeal Breakfast Bread on Natalie’s blog.  You can also check out all the other TWD blogs to see how their “bread” turned out.

Love me some sleeping baby.