This easy-to-make banana bread is plant-based, moist and delicious. It’s low in sugar and made with ground rolled oats (oat flour), ripe soft bananas, fresh frozen cranberries and almond milk. When blended and cooked together, these ingredients create their own natural sweetness.

For extra flavour, I’ve added walnuts, but you can use other nuts, such as almonds or pecans. You can also substitute the cranberries with other berries, or add a pinch of cinnamon or cardamon. It’s what you prefer, as long as the basics remain the same.

This loaf is great to have at breakfast time, as a mid-day snack or for dessert. A slice before working out will also give you a boost.

Banana oat cranberry bread

1 loaf pan, greased and lightly floured -or- lined with parchment

Standard oven: 350 F° / 180 C°

I’VE ADDED AN ADDITIONAL TIP ON THE AMOUNT OF OAT FLOUR. SORRY FOR NOT BEING CLEARER IN MY FIRST POST. THANK YOU FOR YOUR FEEDBACK WHEN THINGS ARE NOT CLEAR. MUCH APPRECIATED! 🙂

Wet ingredients

• 3 ripe and soft medium-size bananas, chopped
• ½ cup almond milk (homemade -or- a store-bought kind with no added sugar)
• 1 cup fresh or frozen cranberries or other berries with their juices, roughly chopped in two
• 1/3 cup light tasting oil, such as vegetable, canola or grape seed oil

Dry ingredients

• 2 to 2½ cups oat flour (start with 2 cups and, if need be, add a bit more flour at the end, up to ½ cup more, if the mixture is on the wet side due to bananas that are very ripe and slightly larger and/or juicier berries)* (see note below)
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/3 cup granulated organic sugar cane (I use Mascogado)
• 2/3 cup walnuts or other nuts, coarsely chopped

* Note:  For fresh oat flour, I measure 2½ cups rolled oats and process them in a small blender or Nutribullet until I get a  powdery mixture that looks like four. This works really well, and it takes less than a minute to make the flour. I also prefer the taste to the store-bought kind. Make sure that your blender/Nutribullet bowl and blade are dry. 

Procedure

In a medium-size bowl, add the bananas and almond milk and hand mash the bananas with a potato masher. Add the chopped cranberries (or other berries) with their juices and lightly mash and mix — just enough to squeeze out some of the extra berry juice, allowing the banana mixture to take on the colour of the berries. Mix in the oil with a fork. Set this aside.

In a separate and bigger bowl, mix with a fork all of the dry ingredients. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and mix again with a fork or hand whisk until the ingredients are well combined. The mixture should be thick and creamy and not runny or too wet. If need be, add a little more oat flour (not more than ½ cup) and mix.

Bake for 50 to 60 minutes on centre rack in preheated oven until top is golden and cracked and toothpick inserted comes out dry. Take out.

Let cool for 20 minutes and then loosen around the sides passing a dull knife. Revert on a cooling rack. Allow loaf to cool completely before slicing. Cover leftover loaf with foil or store in an airtight container. Keep at room temperature or in fridge if you prefer it chilled.