Banana Blueberry Quickbread

These last three weeks, my trip to America for my sister's wedding, have been a real vacation from everything in my life, including, sadly, blogging. Now that I'm back, I'm determined to catch you up on all of the things I baked, before I flew and while I was in America. This won't be easy, as I'm going back to base tomorrow to welcome a whole new group of soldiers and some hard work, but stick with me and you won't be disappointed. On to the matter at hand. Every trip to America includes ordering some baking books on Amazon and every return to Israel includes bringing most of them back. I love to scour the bargain books and usually order the ones available there. The Sweeter Side of Amy's Bread has been on my wish list for ages and when I saw it on the bargain books list, I didn't hesitate to buy it. I mentally made a note of some recipes to try when I got it, but it was only when there were some blueberries and overripe bananas laying around my parent's house that I put it to use. The bread is pretty simple to put together and includes a nice amount of oats. I love the idea of the added blueberries and later bought strawberries to next time but never got around to it. I also chose to sprinkle the top of the loaves with demerara sugar for added crunch. I tasted a bit of this bread and was pleased to taste a bread with nice banana flavor and that wasn't overly sweet at all. Some might say it's not sweet enough, but I thought it was just perfect. This recipe makes two loaves, but I halved it to suit what I had on hand. Feel free to do the same.

Banana Blueberry Quickbread
barely adapted from The Sweeter Side of Amy's Bread

5 large eggs, lightly beaten
7/8 cup vegetable oil
1 1/4 cups plus 2 tbsp milk or soy milk
1 3/4 cups old fashioned oats, quick cooking are okay, too
4 1/8 cups flour
1 1/4 cups sugar
1 tbsp plus 2 tsp baking powder
1 tbsp plus 1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/4 tsp baking soda
2 cups ripe, mashed bananas
3 cups fresh blueberries
demerara sugar, optional

Preheat your oven to 375 and grease two 9x5 loaf pans.
In a large mixing bowl, combine eggs, oil, and 1/4 cup plus 2 tbsp of the milk with a whisk and set aside.
Pour the remaining cup of milk over the oats and let them soak for five minutes.
In another bowl, place flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and baking soda and whisk.
Pour the egg mixture into the dry ingredients and stir until partially moistened. Add the oat mixture and the bananas.Gently fold together until nearly mixed. Fold in the blueberries. Divide the batter evenly between the two pans and sprinkle the tops with demerara sugar, if using. Bake for ten minutes then reduce the temperature to 350 and continue baking for 45-55 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let the loaves cool in their pans for fifteen minutes then turn out onto a rack until completely cooled. For storage, wrap in plastic and store in the fridge.