When I was young, on special occasions we would go to Cookie’s Steak Pub at the Walt Whitman Mall in Huntington Station, NY for dinner. They were known for the large quartered chunks of iceberg lettuce served with a choice of 4 creamy dressings, a shrimp cocktail bar, and endless mini slices of banana bread that I loved. With all the great greens available, I rarely have iceberg lettuce now. Steaks and shrimp have been off my menu for a long time. But banana bread endures, better than ever, with no refined flours or cholesterol, slightly sweet and good for you. Baked in mini loaf pans, I slice the bread to resemble the restaurant version in my sweet memories.
Ingredients:
2 cups rolled oat flour or millet flour (try other flours if you like!)*
1/4 ground flax seeds
1 teaspoon cinnamon
4 ripe medium bananas or three large ripe bananas, mashed
6 medjool dates, pitted and cut into small pieces
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/3 cup water (I like to use carbonated water)
Note: We often make our own flours. Making Oat flour from Rolled Oats is easy. In a blender or spice grinder process oats into a flour. Millet is a little harder in texture. We use high powered blender designed for dry ingredients.
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350oF.
Line two mini loaf pans with parchment paper or grease with oil.
In a large bowl, mash the bananas with a fork. Add in vanilla extract, walnuts, dates, ground flax seeds and cinnamon. Gently add in the water, carbonated water will foam a bit.
Fold in the flour to make a moist batter.
Scoop the batter into the two loaf pans. Press the batter into the pans evenly with the back of a tablespoon spoon.
Moisten the spoon by dipping in water. Brush the tops of the loaves with the back of the spoon to smooth out the tops.
Bake for 40 minutes. Let cool.
Remove from pan, slice and serve. Bread may be stored in a sealed container and refrigerated.
Alternatively you can use the batter in a doughnut pan and make banana bread bagels. They will bake in about 30 minutes. Let them cool and carefully remove from pan. If they stick a little, you can gently loosen the edges first and lift them out. They look like sliced bagel halves.
