Deliciously Light Banana Oat Bread

When I saw this recipe from Amy at The Mother Load, I knew I'd have to give it a try. I always, always have bananas and I bought extra when Charming came home for Spring Break AND HE DIDN'T EAT ANY! Now I have a lot of bananas ripening and not enough people to eat them. What better excuse to try a new recipe? We all agreed that this bread was not your typical banana bread. The oats give it a lot of texture and body and keep it from being heavy, as banana breads tend to be. The buttermilk gave it a richer flavor. Of course, then we added butter to our slices and gave it a really, really rich flavor, but, hey, that is just us.

In case you, too, have bananas that are just crying to be made into something, here is the recipe. Please note that I really do have a lot of bananas, so I doubled the recipe to get two loaves.

Deliciously Light Banana Oat Bread
(Yields one loaf)

1 1/2 cups flour
2/3 cup brown sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup rolled oats
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 cup mashed banana (approximately 2 1/2 per loaf)
1/3 cup buttermilk (I keep buttermilk powder in the refrigerator...so much easier!)
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 eggs, beaten
Cooking spray

Preheat oven to 350°F and spray a 8 x 4 inch loaf pan with cooking spray.

Combine banana, buttermilk, oil, vanilla, and eggs in a small bowl or measuring cup.

Pour wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir gently just until the dry ingredients are moistened. (Note: I put all my wet ingredients into my mixer bowl instead of a small bowl, mixed them there, and added the dry ingredients to that, rather than doing it the other way.)

Spoon batter into the prepared pan and bake for 55 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Cool on a wire rack, in the pan, for about 15 minutes (I left mine in longer and it was fine). Remove the bread from the pan after 15 minutes and cool thoroughly on the rack. (We're not so big on waiting...I tipped mine out of the pan right away and we ate it about 10 minutes after it came out of the oven. Warm with butter...it was amazing!)

This is not as sweet or "desserty" as some banana breads. When I think of my tea time friends, I think they would have loved it if I'd served this one afternoon.