How was your long weekend? I ended up staying in the apt all weekend long with the oven cranking, testing Valentine’s Day recipes. Yeah, that holiday is flying towards us quickly, have you seen the drug stores?! They’re like Valentine’s Day vom-ed everywhere.
I’ve also continued my diet situation and I’m feeling really good…except for those moments when a chocolate cake is on the counter and I have to stay N-O. DA STRUGGLE.
One thing that I feel super chill about eating is this banana bread. The coziest of cozy foods will always and forever be banana bread. This is a bit of a healthier iteration utilizing spelt flour (my favorite) and oat flour. The butter was replaced with olive oil. There’s only a lil’ bit of brown sugar to make it taste delicious but it could easily replaced with coconut nectar or brown rice syrup, if needed. And I love the additions of cocoa nibs, millet seeds and dates. It’s a banana bread that’s yes, moist (shudder), but filled with great texture and flavor.
It’s a good breakfast situation. I say make it at night and eat it slice by slice, one day after next. This banana bread was adapted from the one in The Year of Cozy. I’d say it’s its healthier cousin that can make you feel badly about yourself for loving pizza as much as you…but nicer and way more chill.
Ingredients
Dry Mix:
- 1 cup spelt flour
- 1/2 cup oat flour plus a handful of old-fashioned oats for topping (*see below in "notes" on how to make oat flour)
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
- 3/4 teaspoon salt
Wet Mix:
- 1/3 cup olive oil
- 3 ripe yet firm bananas mashed
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 2 tablespoons coconut nectar or brown rice syrup if you don’t have either of these, you could skip them entirely
- 1 large egg
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Mix-ins:
- 4 dates, seeds removed and diced
- 3 tablespoons cocoa nibs
- 2 tablespoons millet seeds plus more for topping
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 8 x 4-inch loaf pan and set aside.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the spelt flour, oat flour, brown sugar and salt.
- In another medium bowl, combine the mashed bananas and baking soda; mix. Then add the coconut nectar or brown rice syrup, egg and vanilla extract. Fold the dry ingredients into the wet and mix until speckles of flour disappear. Fold in the diced dates, cocoa nibs and millet seeds.
- Transfer the batter to the loaf pan and smooth out the top. Sprinkle the top of the loaf with oats and millet seeds. Transfer to the oven to bake for 40 to 45 minutes, until a skewer inserted into the center comes out clean.
I love this banana bread. Made it last night and just had first slice for breakfast. I don’t like overly sweet breads and this was just right, even without the 2 Tablespoons of liquid sweetener. I only added millet (no cocoa nibs or dates) and loved the little bit of crunch. Trying the banana tahini recipe next. Thanks, glad to find your blog!
Well I’ll be damned. Turned out very moist and very tasty.
P.S. I used maple syrup to replace the liquid sweeteners that were listed because that’s what I had on hand.
I made this quick bread last night and it is very good! Thank you for the recipe!
I used what I had on hand; grapeseed oil to replace the olive oil and mini Enjoy Life brand chocolate chips to replace the cacao nibs. I used 1/2 tsp., not 3/4 tsp. salt and thought the balance of flavors worked well with this amount of (sea salt).
I baked the bread in 3 baby loaf pans (5″x 3″) and they took 36 minutes and they were done.
The flavors today after sitting at room temperature since last night are even better than warm from the oven.
Thanks again for this winning recipe. I am sure I will be making it often.