Mom's favourite Banana Oats Wholewheat Bread

Let me come straight out and say it. My mom is a health nut. I know i am supposed to value half my audience when there are only 2 people reading this whole thing, but hey its true. And she doesn't look like she is going to get cured of it anytime soon. I mean i 've been waiting for what thirty odd years now. I 've learnt to pick my battles when discussing what food is good for you. That is, not pick any when the person on the other end is mom. It's then easier to change sides and quickly jump over to the winning side.

So while my bakes have been commended by one and all, mom has, at best, been quiet about them or gently chided me on why these sugar laden goods with white flour are not really the best for me or anybody. Consequently, when picking a recipe to bake for mom, i hesitantly picked one that i thought had a fighting chance. Little did i know that it was going to be a huge triumph. That this simple bread would be raved about and second helpings would be asked for. And i would finally get unequivocal praise on my bakes from highly health-conscious mom. Of course, she did suggest that i could have done completely without the sugar in this recipe. So there :-)

The first time i baked this bread i didn't click a single pic. It was only during the re-make prodded on by previous success did the camera get a look at this culinary treat.
This bread was originally an egg-less recipe. But unless specifically requested, i never try egg-less bakes. Turns out, however, that most good blogs on the internet are intent on showcasing successful egg-less bakes. I, on the other hand, see no point in trying out egg-less version unless they are banned from your diet. So i frequently do some reverse engineering and replace the egg-less alternatives back with eggs. That is what i did here. This is a wonderful healthy breakfast/anytime food and if you insist on egg-less please follow the recipe from the source link given below. Hope you will enjoy this one as much as my parents did.

Inspired from: Lite Bite 
Prep time: 15-20 min
Baking time:  30-40 min

Ingredients

• 2 eggs
• 2 Tablespoon vegetable oil 
• 1/2 cup sugar or grated jaggery
• 1 cup mashed banana (approx 4 small bananas)
• 4 Tablespoon milk
• 1 cup oats (quick cooking)
• 1 cup wholewheat flour
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon powder
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 tablespoon Sunflower seeds/ any chopped nuts or seeds of choice

Method

1. Preheat oven to 375F. Grease a rectangular bread baking tin. No prep required if using non-stick baking tin. I used a foot long non stick bread loaf pan.
2. Take a large mixing bowl and add eggs, oil and sugar/jaggery. Whisk till the egg mixture is slightly frothy. Add mashed banana into it and stir.
3. Add the milk and oats and stir them in. Let it rest for 10 minutes while the oats soak in the milk.
4. Add the cinnamon, wholewheat flour, baking powder, baking soda and mix well until the dry ingredients are completely blended into the batter.
5. Pour batter into the baking tin and sprinkle sunflower seeds on top. Press lightly with the back of a spoon to embed them into the loaf.
6. Bake at 375F for 30-40 minutes or till done. Slice after cooling completely.

La's Notes:
Reducing the amount of baking powder or baking soda can result in a very dense bread.
Replacing the wholewheat flour with all purpose flour will give you a lighter and fluffier bread.
This bread is only mildly sweet. You can double the sugar for a sweeter version. I only used 1/3 cup of jaggery in the above pics.
I used chopped hazelnuts (that my kid sister brought me back from Switzerland!) for topping the first time. I assume any nuts/ seeds/ chocolate chips would be great for topping the bread.