Oat Flour Banana Bread

Delicious Banana Bread with a few changes like substituting satisfying oat flour for all purpose wheat flour and reducing the fat becomes something more people can enjoy!

I think everyone has a favourite banana bread recipe, or is looking for one. 

Who eats all of their bananas up at their peak all of the time, right?

I like to try different recipes to see how they compare, just for fun, but my favourite one is, well, mine.  This is another one of mine but wheat free.  I don’t have any major issues with wheat thank goodness, but I think it is a good idea to switch things up and I know I feel different in a good way when I leave wheat out for a little while.

For another wheat free baked banana treat there is also Buckwheat Banana Muffins Sweetened with only Dates.

Sugar and oil

There is less sugar than some banana bread recipes, but remember that sugar is still needed for proper rising and for the batter to come together, not to mention, it tastes better, so you will eat it!

There is only a quarter cup of butter, or oil in the whole loaf, so if you want to do some math, I’ll try to make it easier by saying a quarter cup is four tablespoons, half of the oat flour banana bread would have two tablespoons. I’ll probably put butter on mine anyway, but this is about using oat flour for banana bread. It just happens to be low in added sugar and fat, how convenient! 

The natural sugars come from the bananas.  The rest of the fat comes from the eggs.

Ingredients for the Oat Flour Banana Bread

Rolled Oats for oat flour

Rolled oats are not the quick cooking kind, and certainly not the instant kind.  It is the second most simply prepared of the oatmeal family.  The first being steel cut or Irish oats.  The first also taking the longest to cook.  (But worth it in my opinion).

When I make my own oat flour, I whiz it in the food processor. I can’t get it as fine as if I bought oat flour, so it is a bit grainy.  The coarser oat flour gives it a nice texture. The bread also comes out less heavy.

If you would rather use prepared oat flour, you will have a finer texture but I think this banana bread is much nicer with a bit of a bite from home made oat flour.

Oatmeal is known to make you feel full, you know, stick to your ribs, so that feeling of being sated and knowing how good it is for you, but you don’t have to focus on that necessarily, but it is worth a slice or two with or without butter!

Here is some more oatmeal info

Sorghum Flour

Sorghum flour is made from ground sorghum.

Wait! What is sorghum?

Sorghum is one of those words that start to look odd the more you write it.

Sorghum is a grain, like barley or wheat.  Unlike wheat, it is free of gluten.  It is high in fibre and in protein which makes it a good choice to use to make a soft flour.

I have added it to give this banana bread a little more structure because with just oat flour it can be a bit too crumbly.  If you omit the sorghum flour, that will be about the worst of it.

Bananas

Bananas are a great source of potassium.  It helps to regulate our blood pressure and our muscles to react properly. Other good sources of potassium are potatoes, spinach, avocados and sports drinks.  Potassium is an essential mineral, an electrolyte.

Don’t add extra banana if you have a little more.  Maybe a small amount, but too much and it will be too much “liquid” ingredient and will be heavy and will have a hard time rising.

Some Steps to make the Oat Flour Banana Bread

Grease and flour or line a 9”x5” (23x 13cm) loaf pan. (8 cups by volume).

Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C)

Add the vinegar to the milk and stir.

Prepare the bananas by blending or mashing. Don’t use too much more or it will be very dense.

Add the sour milk to the bananas and mix.

Combine the dry ingredients.

Beat the butter or oil with the sugar until creamy. 

There isn’t a lot of creamed mixture here so I slowly add a little of the eggs at a time to make sure they emulsify.  It gives baking structure when the egg and liquid can combine.

Beat in the vanilla.

Add about a third of the flour mixture to the egg mixture and mix in a bit.

Mix in half of the banana and sour milk mixture.

Add another third of the flour mixture, then the rest of the banana mixture.

After adding the last of the oat flour mixture, do not over mix.

Optional- add a cup of semisweet chocolate chips or walnuts to the batter before baking.

Is It Baked?

Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan.

Bake in the preheated 350°F (180°C) oven for 55 -60 minutes.

Banana bread is very rarely dry so I always say to make sure it is baked.  Underbaked banana bread comes out with a thick sunken bit in the middle. This one is a little difficult to test with a toothpick because the texture is less fine.

Test it and if you are uncertain but it seems close, bake for another 5 minutes.

Remove from oven and leave in the pan on a rack for about 10 minutes.  

Then turn it out so the sides and bottom don’t get too moist.