Oatmeal-banana Bread with Apricots and Ricotta

Oatmeal-banana Bread with Apricots and Ricotta is a rich sweet bread, perfect for company. It’s nice to wake up to for breakfast, and makes a great snack, too.

Hostess extraordinaire

You know how when you have out-of-town guests coming to stay and you begin to prepare by grocery shopping to stock up on the food you’ll serve? Part of my pre-guest prep even includes planning charming table settings in my head, like the ones on the pages of my favorite magazines. I imagine how nice it will be to relax together and savor the meals of the day. (I need to add someone to wash dishes in this scenario!)

Where brown bananas go

Okay, so things don’t always go as planned. You end up running around town from dawn to dusk, seeing the sights and taking in the local restaurants. And that means the bananas go brown. What’s left for brown bananas other than… Oatmeal-banana Bread with Apricots and Ricotta.

I had dried apricots, and ricotta cheese in the fridge, so I thought these would be great additions to a standard oatmeal-banana bread recipe. This Oatmeal-banana Bread with Apricots and Ricotta is dense, yet moist, and great as part of a simple (or quick) breakfast. If you’d like, try smoothing on plain cream cheese or butter, although it’s perfectly delicious as-is.

You might already know this trick, but I learned from The Kitchn that you can keep fruit from sinking to the bottom of your quick breads or muffins. I love this site and have learned some great stuff from it.

Recipe for Oatmeal-banana Bread with Apricots and Ricotta
Makes 1, 10-slice loaf

INGREDIENTS

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 cup uncooked old-fashioned rolled oats
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 3 ripe bananas
• 1 egg, beaten
• 3 heaping tablespoons ricotta cheese
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 teaspoon apricot preserves
• 1/2 cup dried apricots, diced

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease, then flour a 10x5x3-inch bread loaf. Tap out the excess flour and set it aside.
2. In a large bowl combine the flour, rolled oats, brown sugar, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon and salt. Whisk to combine.
3. Take about 2 tablespoons of this mixture and toss the apricots in it and set them aside.
4. In a medium bowl, mash three ripe bananas until they’re as smooth as possible. Add to it the egg, ricotta cheese, vanilla, and apricot preserves. Blend until smooth.
5. Mix the banana mixture into the dry ingredients. Fold the apricots into the mixture.
6. Pour the batter into the bread loaf and bake for about 40 minutes, or until the top turns lightly golden and a knife inserted into the center of the bread comes out clean.
7. While in the pan, allow the bread to cool for about 5 minutes on a wire rack. Carefully flip the pan over, placing your hand on the open side of the pan, and remove the bread. Allow it to cool completely on the wire rack.

Makes 1, 10-slice loaf