Wild Raspberry Banana Bread

My parents live on a huge piece of land in the Adirondacks of New York, and there is a veritable feast right in the woods surrounding their house, all for free! Each year I learn more and more about the wild edibles in this area and find myself foraging for them and then finding ways to incorporate these free goodies into my cooking. My most favorite thing to forage is wild berries, they are incredibly healthy and so full of flavor. There is nothing more satisfying than spending an afternoon listening to the birds sing, completely alone and filling a bucket with ripe, plump berries. My daughter sometimes comes along, and stays on the edge of the patch just stuffing her face with whatever she can reach. Right now the red raspberries are in season and there are literally thousands of them, just steps from my parent's front door. I filled an entire beach bucket with them along with a few wild blueberries. The berries go bad rather quickly so I wanted to use them right away; I had some very brown bananas sitting on my counter so naturally banana & wild raspberry bread was on my mind! I filled my bread with whole grains, natural brown cane sugar and heart healthy coconut oil. The result was sweet, moist and incredibly decadent. The raspberries are slightly tart and have a very floral quality that perfumes the bread with their flavor. The bananas, on the other hand, keep the bread moist and are intensely sweet, the two go so well together.

This recipe makes one loaf of bread.

Ingredients

1 Cup unbleached, organic, all purpose flour
1/4 Cup organic whole wheat flour
1/2 Cup wheat germ
1 1/4 Cup fair trade, organic brown sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1 Tbsp organic cinnamon
1 tsp sea salt
2 Farm raised eggs, room temp.
1 Tbsp organic, pure vanilla extract
1/3 Cup vanilla almond milk, mine was sweetened. Regular whole milk can be used.
3 Very ripe, fair trade bananas, mashed.
1/2 Cup organic coconut oil, melted and cooled. Canola or other heart healthy oil can be used.
1 Cup wild raspberries, organic farm raised raspberries can be used.
1/2 Cup pecans, chopped.

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Prepare a loaf pan or baking dish by buttering and flouring, or lining it with parchment paper.

In a large bowl whisk the flour, sugar, baking soda, salt and cinnamon. Whisk out all the lumps and to combine.

In a medium bowl mix the eggs, vanilla, almond milk, bananas and coconut oil. Stir the wet into the dry and mix only till combined, do not over mix. Fold in the nuts and raspberries very gently. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 55-65 minutes. The bread is done when it bounces back to your light touch and a toothpick comes out clean. Let rest and cool before cutting, about 10 minutes.

Serve with butter, honey or a homemade raspberry jam! Enjoy!