Banana-date-nut bread

Have a couple of bananas that are overripe? Do not throw them away - make a nice, tasty, healthy loaf with them!

Preparation time: 30 minutes
Baking time: 1 hour
Makes 1 loaf of about 1.1 kg (2.4 lbs)
Freezes well.

INGREDIENTS

Dry ingredients:
200 grams (1.5 cups) whole-wheat, or multi-grain flour
90 grams (1/2 cup) regular white flour ("all-purpose & bread") - do not use self-rising flour!
In France, I use flour type 55 (type 550 in Germany)
2 teaspoons (non-aluminum) baking powder (do not use baking soda!)
1/2 teaspoon sea salt

Wet ingredients:
300 grams (10 oz) very ripe bananas. They should be heavily speckled (they are 3 times as sweet as "spotless" bananas!) but not completely black!
Weight is after peeling; this takes about 3 small/medium bananas - not critical
60 ml (1/4 cup) canola oil (or other regular vegetable oil with a neutral flavor)
240 ml (1 cup) of orange juice, or orange-grapefruit juice
2 teaspoons vanilla extract (real extract, not artificial flavoring)
1 egg, lightly beaten

Other ingredients:
24 dates, pitted, halved lengthwise
80 grams (3 oz = rounded 1/2 cup) walnuts, quartered
100 grams (3.5 oz = 1/2 cup packed) raisins
I prefer "Thompson" seedless raisins over "Sultanas"

EQUIPMENT & SUPPLIES

Large bowl
Wire whisk
Fine-mesh sieve
Medium size bowl
Medium size loaf pan or cake pan (1 liter / 1 quart)

PREPARATION / DIRECTIONS

Pre-heat the oven to 175 °C (350 °F)
In the medium size bowl, mix the white flour and whole-wheat flour, and whisk to get any clumps out
No need to use a sifter - a whisk is at least as good, faster, and easier to clean
Spread the baking powder and salt on top of the flour, and mix well with a fork or whisk
Peel the bananas, cut into chunks, and transfer to the large size bowl
Mush the banana chunks with a large fork - do not puree the banana: small pieces are good!
Add the orange juice, oil, vanilla extract, and beaten egg to the pureed bananas, and blend - no need to use a kitchen machine, just use a fork.
Gradually add the flour mix to the banana mass, and mix well with a sturdy fork.
If you're not strong enough, use a hand mixer or stand mixer / kitchen machine.
Flour the raisins, to help prevent them from sagging to the bottom of the baking pan:
Put the (separated) raisins in the sieve, hold the sieve over the bowl with the flour mix, spread a couple of tablespoons of flour over the raisins, toss the raisins in the sieve to remove excess flour.
Flour the date pieces
Flour the walnut pieces
Fold in the flour-dusted dates, walnuts and raisins.
Stir until the date pieces etc. are separated and well distributed.
Transfer the dough/batter to a lightly greased cake (loaf) pan and spread out.
Bake for 1 hour (with oven fan on).
A paring knife or metal skewer should come out nearly clean: the banana will not solidify, and may stick to the knife or skewer.
If you have a food/meat thermometer, the temperature at the center of the loaf should be at least 98 °C (208 °F)

NOTES

I adapted this from a recipe of the Washington Athletic Club
I have tried this recipe with cranberries / craisins instead of raisins, but it had a lot less flavor - I don't recommend it.