Eggless Cardamom Flavored Banana Oat Wheat Bread

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Ripe bananas are no longer something I worry about, they are actually welcomed in my home now. There was a time when I used to worry that when there were ripe bananas in my fruit basket, that they would not get consumed and may spoil. But since I started using these ripe bananas in my baking I find that ripe bananas are something I welcome because it provides me with an opportunity to try something new with it . In the past I have baked banana bread and sugarless oatmeal raisin cookies with bananas, though cookies with bananas have been featuring more often in my kitchen than bread. This time when I found myself with a couple of ripe bananas, I was in the mood for some banana bread but wanted to try something different. 

So I looked around for some recipes and I found a recipe here and again here on red chillies site. I used this recipe as my base recipe and I adapted the recipe quite a bit. I used oat flour in place of all purpose flour, changed the proportions of the flour, pureed dates with milk and added that to the batter and increased the quantity of cardamom powder since I thought the quantity in the original recipe was not enough. The bread turned out soft and chewy and even with just 1/3 cup sugar I thought it was pretty sweet, the cardamom flavor added a dimension that we thoroughly enjoyed. For those of you familiar with the cuisine from southern India, this bread may remind you a little of appam (a fried snack made out of rice,jaggery and bananas). It definitely reminded me of appam, only a healthier version of it. We loved this version of banana bread and I am now looking forward to the next time I have ripe bananas so that I can make this again :-)

Another view of the bread........................

Click here for a printable view of this recipe

Ingredients and method to make the banana oat wheat bread

1 cup whole wheat flour (atta)

1 cup oat flour ( I processed rolled oats in my spice grinder to obtain oat flour) (you can use store bought flour too)

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

3/4 tsp cardamom seed powder

2 large ripe bananas

1/3 cup milk

12 large soft seedless dates

1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce

1/3 cup brown sugar

4 tbsp smart balance light (or butter) or any other vegan butter substitute

1/4 cup raisins

Preheat oven to 350 deg F 

Mix whole wheat flour, oat flour, salt, cardamom powder and baking soda in  a large bowl and keep aside.

 Blend the seedless dates, milk and bananas in a blender until smooth. Add the milk+bananas+dates mixture to the flour mixture and mix well. 

Add sugar, applesauce and smart balance (melted or melted butter ) to this mixture and mix well. Finally add raisins and mix well and keep aside

Grease a bread baking dish with a drop of oil or little butter, add the batter to this and bake between 35 to 45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Remove from oven, cool thoroughly and slice into desired thickness and enjoy. :-)

Notes 

Baking times vary depending on the size and material of the dish you use so do keep that in mind and adjust times accordingly. ( I used a glass bread loaf size dish)

This bread along with my Rye dosai/crepe and Pesto Pizza with Oat Wheat Crust is off to the JFI- Wheat event being hosted by Roma