Homemade Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Bread & a Trick

This past weekend, I tried a new recipe that I got from Danielle's blog for homemade Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Bread. Oh my word, it was delicious! I love making things from scratch. Homemade food tends to be healthier, allows you to know exactly what you are putting in your body (substituting ingredients, if desired), and is less expensive. I was excited to learn I had everything I needed to make this delicious bread, minus the buttermilk and chocolate chips. No biggy, I needed to head to the grocery store, anyway. I am big on meal planning (which I will discuss in another post), so I always have a list. Silly me forgot to add the buttermilk to the list! I never, ever buy buttermilk. I quickly learned, thanks to the ever-faithful Google, that you can easily substitute buttermilk with two ingredients I always have on hand-- regular milk and vinegar! Sounds disgusting, right? I certainly wouldn't drink it alone, but it worked wonderfully in this recipe! Put one tablespoon vinegar into a measuring cup, then add milk (I used whole milk, because that is what we drink) until the mixture reaches the 1 cup mark (if using a recipe that calls for more than 1 cup of buttermilk, adjust accordingly). Then, let sit for 5 minutes and you have the perfect solution without having to run back out to the store! I am sure to use this trick over and over, as to avoid buying buttermilk for a recipe, only to end up throwing the unused portion away once it spoils from sitting untouched in the fridge.

Want to try your hand at this heavenly bread? Here is the recipe:

1 & 1/3 cup all purpose flour

2/3 cup oats, either rolled or old fashion

1/3 cup white sugar

1/3 cup brown sugar

1 & 1/2 tsp baking powder

3/4 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/3 cup chocolate chips

1 egg

3 TBS melted butter

1 cup buttermilk (or substitute, discussed above)

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Mix all dry ingredients (flour, oats, sugars, baking powder and soda, cinnamon, chocolate chips) together. In a seperate bowl, mix all wet ingredients (egg, butter, buttermilk/substitute). Stir wet ingredients into dry ingredients, and pour mixture into a greased & floured 9x5 loaf pan. Bake 40-45 minutes, or until inserted knife comes out clean. Let cool and enjoy!

Now, it only took mine 30 minutes to be done. I have a finicky oven, and always have to adjust baking times. I cannot wait to move into our house with a new oven! :D

If you try this recipe, please leave a comment to let me know how it turned out! Have a great day everyone!

♥ Amber