One of my biggest pet peeves is when people don’t recognize a perfect banana. I get that we all have different preferences, but just because a banana is spotted or somewhat brown does not mean it’s “rotten.” My ideal banana is somewhat spotted, and never green.

In fact when a banana has some brown to it/ is somewhat over ripe, this is when the nutrients are most readily available for absorption! Plus we all know that spotted bananas make for delicious treats!

Two sights really captured my soul recently. A cloudy sky, and the above overripe bananas next to two containers of fresh raspberries.

Two completely different sights, both with the same meaning.

Baking.

A hot sunny day hasn’t stopped me from baking in the past, but a cool overcast makes it much easier. We go through a lot of bananas at Starbucks, and when they start to look “not yellow”, they’re mine!

We’ve already discussed the abundance of raspberries I’ve been hoarding eating in previous posts, and I decided to attempt a new recipe. Not only have I never combined raspberries and bananas together in a bread, but I’ve also never made my own flour. Until now.

How I’ve never attempted the simplicity that is oat flour before is beyond me, but now that I have I can say with ease this is a new flour staple in my house. So easy, so simple, so delicious, and so CHEAP!

Raspberry Chocolate Banana Oat Bread

Ingredients

• 2 1/3 cup whole GF rolled oats (before making into powdery flour)
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 3 very ripe bananas
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 2 flax eggs (2 tblsp fresh ground flax + 6 tblsp warm water)
• 1 cup smashed fresh raspberries
• 1/2 cup dark chocolate chips (plus another small handful)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 F and wipe a 9x5in loaf pan with coconut oil.
2. Make your oat flour by using a high speed blender or food processor. Blend/process until flour like. This should make around 2 cups, which is what you will need for this recipe.
3. In a medium bowl combine your 2 cups of oat flour with your baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
4. In a separate medium sized bowl combine mashed bananas, brown sugar, vanilla, and flax eggs until smooth and creamy.
5. Slowly add flour mixture into the wet mixture and mix until well combined.
6. Fold in smashed raspberries and chocolate chips. Pour batter into your oiled pan, and sprinkle a small handful of chocolate chips on top. Bake for about 40 minutes, or until a knife inserted into the center comes out clean. Mine took closer to an hour, I have an old oven.
7. Cool for 10-15 minutes, then remove from pan onto a rack.
8. Eat with a heaping scoop of vanilla coconut ice cream.

I can’t express how much fun I had experimenting and creating this bread. Having an evening free to bake instead of work or study really made the process that much more enjoyable.

I had two pieces right away, one by itself and one with PB and more berries, because you can never have too many berries.

This bread is delicious, thick, & dense. Don’t bake this expecting light, airy, & fluffy bread. For a better balanced density use multiple mini loaf pans instead of one large one. I could care less, I ate every bit.

I hope my friends at the Virtual Vegan LINKY Potluck don’t mind that I used raspberries for my bread/dessert again. I just can’t get enough!

Q: What’s your favorite summer berry? Can I say all of them?