Hearty Banana Date Bread

I knew I wanted to make banana bread - I had 2 bananas sitting on the counter getting browner by the day. Laina doesn't like to eat them once they start to get too soft, so these ones were destined to be bread. I also have a humongous tub of pitted dates. Hadley's no less - way out here in Colorado! I have great memories of taking road trips with my family growing up and we would always stop at Hadley's if we were driving towards Palm Springs. Their date shakes were a special treat! I had no idea they were so widely distributed now.

Anyway, on with the story.

So I needed to make banana bread. And I had a huge tub of dates that, even though Laina and I love dates, we would be hard-pressed to make it to the bottom of. So I had this wild idea to make banana date bread. I searched online for a recipe that would suit my fancy. I wanted it to have, of course, dates and bananas, and preferably be healthy. Not finding anything I liked, I decided to improvise. The following recipe is my own concoction and I'm pleased to say it came out wonderfully!

Hearty Banana Date Bread

1 cup regular flour (I use unbleached white)
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup ground flax seed
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 cup chopped dates
2 very ripe bananas, mashed (mine were med-large)
1/2 cup canola oil
2 eggs
1/8 to 1/4 cup agave nectar (I started with 1/8 cup but ended up adding a little more)
1/8 cup water

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease an 8x4" loaf pan with cooking spray. Mix dry ingredients in large bowl. Stir in dates. In separate bowl, beat bananas, oil, eggs, agave and water until smooth. If the batter is too thick you may need to add a bit more water. Stir wet mixture into dry mixture and mix well. Pour into prepared loaf pan and bake for approx 55-60 mins, or until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean. Cool a few minutes, slice and enjoy. I store mine in the loaf pan on the countertop covered with foil.