Lactation Bread

This is an adaptation of my oatmeal banana bread recipe. I have added some extra ingredients to help increase breastmilk production. There are a lot of lactation ingredients in this bread including: oatmeal, eggs, cinnamon, almonds, pecans, flax and coconut!

Note about oat flour In the instructions I tell you how to make the oat flour using a blender and rolled oats. It is very easy to do and the best option if you are making this recipe gluten-free. Alternatively you can buy oat flour as is, but it is difficult to find gluten-free oat flour. Oats and oat flour is naturally gluten-free but it is usually processed on the same machines as grains that contain gluten so there can be cross contamination unless you buy oats that are sold as “gluten-free”. Bob’s Red Mill is one company that offers gluten-free oats.

Makes: 1 loaf, 20 muffins, 48 mini-muffins

Preparation time: 20m
Cooking time: 20m
Total time: 1h10m

Ingredients:

  • 6 ripe bananas ((medium-large))
  • 1/2 cup plain applesauce
  • 2 organic eggs
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 teaspoon almond extract
  • 12 ounces rolled oats (or oat flour - if making this recipe gluten-free make sure to get gluten-free rolled oats)
  • 2 tablespoons ground flax seeds
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
  • 1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
  • 1 cup sliced almonds or pecans (or both)
  • 1/2 cup unsweetened shredded coconut

Equipment: large bowl, medium bowl, blender, scale, baking vessel of your choice

Instructions:

  1. Preheat the oven to 350ºF/180ºC and prepare your baking vessel (e.g. loaf pan, muffin cups)
  2. In a large bowl mash the bananas with a fork until all the chunks are gone. You can either use a fork or a potato masher. Then mix in the applesauce, eggs, vanilla and almond extracts. Set aside.
  3. If using rolled oats, place them into a blender or food processor and puree until all of the oats are completely chopped up and resemble flour. Now you have oat flour. Depending on your blender you may want to only blend 4 ounces at a time. Do not over blend or the oats will get gummy.
  4. Place the oat flour into a medium-sized bowl. Then add the baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt and sift these dry ingredients together.
  5. Stir the dry mixture into the wet mixture about 1/2 cup at a time until it is all incorporated.
  6. Fold in the nuts. Then you can either fold in the coconut, or sprinkle it on top of the loaf.
  7. Pour the batter into prepared loaf pan, muffin cups or mini-muffin cups.
  8. Bake at 350ºF/180ºC until a toothpick inserted in comes out clean. This should be about 45-50 minutes for a loaf, 27-32 minutes as muffins, or 18-20 minutes as mini muffins.
  9. Eat as is, or top with almond butter for a extra lactation boost.