quickbread - healthy banana bread

By tinathorn

Ingredients

• OPTIONAL INGREDIENTS:
• 2 2 2 cups gluten-free oat flour (or make your own)*
• 1 1 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 1 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 1/2 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 1 1 cup pitted dates
• 1/2 1/2 1/2 cup unsweetened non-dairy milk (I used almond milk)
• 2 2 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 3 3 3 large very ripe bananas (if they aren’t soft and the skin isn’t turning brown, they are not ready)
• You can customize this bread any way you like with the following:
• fresh ground nutmeg, chopped nuts, raisins, cranberries, vegan/gf chocolate chips
• NOTES:

Details

Servings 1
Adapted from 86lemons.com

Preparation

Step 1

Preheat oven to 350ºF. Lightly coat the bottom and sides of a 4×8 loaf pan with coconut oil or non-stick spray.

Skip this step if you’re not making your own oat flour. If making your own, place 2 cups of gluten-free oats into food processor (with S blade) and process until finely ground. This takes a couple of minutes or so (depending on your food processor). Mine doesn’t get super-fine, but I think that’s what helps to give this bread such a hearty texture.

In a large bowl, whisk together  dry ingredients (oat flour and/or spelt flour, cinnamon, baking powder, salt).

Using a food processor, blend together the dates, non-dairy milk and vanilla extract until smooth.

Add date mixture and mashed bananas to dry mixture; stir until combined. Add in optional ingredients (I added fresh ground nutmeg, ½ cup chopped walnuts and ½ cup vegan, gluten-free); stir until combined. Scoop/pour mixture into prepared loaf pan. Bake for 1 hour at 350°F.

In the last 10-15 minutes, check the bread by inserting a toothpick in the middle. When it comes out clean and the bread has come away from the edge of the pan, the bread is done. Allow the bread to cool in the pan on a cooling rack for 5 minutes. Remove bread from pan and allow it to cool another 10 minutes on cooling rack before slicing.