Banana Oat Bread

Banana Oat Bread is amazing – and easy!

Whenever we have our family with kids visiting, they have this habit of leaving bananas behind. It’s kinda weird, I admit, but it seems to happen more often than not. But here’s the thing – we don’t care for bananas. Neither of us is ever tempted to eat a banana – not even a little bit. BUT – we do like baked stuff with bananas and that is where Banana Oat Bread comes in handy!

Bananas are perfect for baked goods

Bananas kind of disappear when you make a bread or cake from them. They are usually mashed for that kind of recipe, which makes them more or less melt into the batter. I wanted to go in a slightly different direction, as you will see in a minute.

Why use oats?

I already have a perfectly lovely Banana Bread recipe here on the blog. I even have a Double Chocolate Banana Bread, which is probably my personal favorite. This recipe is different though. I wanted to incorporate oats, because I like the flavor of oatmeal in baked goods. It also has some fiber, and that is always good, right?

Don’t mash the bananas!

Usually, bananas are mashed for breads and cakes, but I wanted to try something different. Just chop the bananas into about 1/2 inch pieces, and the pieces stay nice and jammy and rich in the baked bread. So good.

Lower in sugar

Something about leaving the bananas in chunks, rather than mashing them, makes the bread taste sweeter, without a lot of extra sugar added. I tried this with a more expected amount of sugar for a recipe like this, and it was sweeter than a quick bread should be. So the final result has just 1/3 cup of sugar in the dry ingredients and a couple tablespoons of honey mixed with the egg and oil.

Toast the walnuts and grind the oats a bit

These are extra steps, but neither one takes very long and they add a lot to the flavor and texture. I use my Nutribullet to just zhush the oats up a bit. Not powdery at all – just a bit broken down. You can use quick oats for this Banana Oat Bread, and if you do, those will be fine as is. I like the flavor of whole oats better though, so that is what I used.  Toast the walnuts lightly – this can be done in the oven, in a frying pan or in the microwave – just watch them carefully, no matter how you do it, so that they don’t burn. Toast then chop roughly.

Egg, avocado oil and honey

We have entirely stopped using seed oils, and for baking, avocado oil is my preference. Still neutral in flavor, but without the inflammatory troubles that can come with using ‘vegetable’ oil. Any kind of oil will work, however. I like to use local raw honey, but again, any kind will work.

Quick breads use the “muffin method”

The ‘muffin method’ involves combining all of the dry ingredients in one bowl, all of wet ingredients in another bowl, or measuring cup, and then quickly combining the two mixtures, without over-mixing. The resulting batter will be on the rough side [or ‘shaggy’ rather than smooth] with some small bits of flour showing here and there. The amount of mixing needed to make the mixture smooth, will develop too much gluten and make the bread tough, rather than more airy.

Sprinkle the top with a few whole oats

This is purely decorative, but it’s nice to give people a little hint about what they are about to enjoy.

How to make Banana Oat Bread

Enjoy Banana Oat Bread warm or toasted

This bread is great fresh from the oven, but if you need to reheat it, I suggest toasting it – so yummy!