Usually Apricot Banana Oat Bread

i love oats. i mean i really love oats. so much so that eating oats makes me deliriously happy. if i make a baked good, you would do well to bet there is some oat flour in there somewhere, or a really good reason why it isn't. perhaps somewhere down the line i am part scottish. i know i am part german/hungarian/welsh/english but maybe there is a bit of scottish in there somewhere, not so far off. but where was i? ah yes, the oat bread. i made up this recipe to incorporate some of my favorite ingredients (apricots/buttermilk/oats) and to warm us up on cool weekend mornings. i've been tinkering with the recipe for about 4 years, getting the proportions just right to make it moist and rich, yet healthful/oaty/fruity. only 15 minutes to put together and little under an hour to bake. great with tea. 

apricot banana oat bread

dry ingredients

1 cup old fashioned oats

1 cup unbleached all purpose flour

1/2 cup whole wheat flour

1/4 cup oat flour

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

wet ingredients

3/4 cup of brown sugar (could use agave nectar here)

1 stick of butter, softened (have substituted half olive oil for this, works perfectly well but somehow i know the butter is missing)

1/2 cup buttermilk

2 large organic eggs

2 tsp vanilla extract

2 large or 3 small mashed overripe bananas

1/2 cup chopped dried apricots snipped into quarters or seeded chopped medjool dates or chopped apples

Preheat oven to 350 F. Mix dry ingredients together in a bowl with a spoon or wide whisk. Mix butter, sugar, eggs, buttermilk, vanilla extract and bananas together in another bowl with an electric mixer until thoroughly mixed, a couple of minutes. Add dry ingredients, stir only until incorporated. Next, stir in dried apricots (dates or apples). Pour mixture into oiled loaf pan. Bake for 50 minutes or so, until cake tester comes out clean.

* note: this last time, i didn't use dried apricots, i used organic medjool dates, lending a richer fudgier taste, whereas the apricots are tart and bright tasting, both good. i have been known to use chopped apples once or twice as well, oh and yes some pecans would make a nice addition with any of the aforementioned fruits. versatile truly versatile.