Wholemeal Oat Banana Bread

I love bread! Banana bread.

Bananas are those fruits or should I say berries that are easily accessible and pretty affordable. You probably have some in your kitchen right now. Ripe bananas are versatile and can be eaten as is, in muffins, breads, pancakes, smoothies or even nice creams. I am not big on eating bananas plain so I love trying new ways of incorporating them in food.

This banana bread is wholesome and a perfect accompaniment for your tea or cocoa in this cold weather.

Bananas breads tend to be dense cakes and need all the moisture they can get. To ensure this cake is moist, I used vegetable oil instead of butter in the batter. I also added maziwa mala which can substituted for plain or vanilla yogurt. Mala or yogurt add moisture in cakes and muffins. That’s enough use of the word moist 🙂

This recipe is pretty easy to follow and I made the batch to fit a loaf and them some batter leftover for muffins. That way you can bake the loaf for a loved one and snack on the muffins. Win win.

Whenever I’m baking sweet stuff for my family I tend to use wholemeal (atta) flour. Probably because that’s what I usually have on hand.

These are the ingredients you will need.

No need for fancy equipment, a wooden spoon or handheld whisk will do just fine.

Mix the flour, oats, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and nutmeg at set aside. Then pre heat the oven at 180 degrees C.

For the bananas ensure they are very ripe, that way they mash easily and add sweetness to the bread. Use a fork to mash.

Add the vegetable oil and sugar and whisk to combine.

Notice the tiny hands, my daughters were lending me a hand.

Add vanilla essence and then beat in the eggs one at a time.

Once, eggs are in and combined. Add the flour mixture in thirds alternating with the mala.

Mix until combined. Ensure you don’t over mix.

Prepare your loaf tin and cupcake tin.

Bake the mini muffins at 180°C for 15 -18 minutes and loaf for 50-55 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean.

Let the loaf cool for 10 minutes before removing from the tin.

Slice it up and enjoy.

Variations:

You can add shredded coconut to the batter

You can add dried fruits (raisins and sultanas) or even chocolate chips.

You can substitute 1/2 cup of flour with cocoa powder and add 1/4 cup sugar to make a chocolate loaf

And yes you can use all purpose flour instead of wholemeal flour.

 

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