Preheat the oven to 350°F and line a 9×5 inch bread pan with parchment paper.   If you don’t have parchment paper, you can opt to grease the pan with a light coating of oil.

Before you get too far into the recipe, take a moment to mix the flaxseed meal, or ground flax, with the water. Set it aside to allow it to thicken.  It should be ready to go in about 10 to 15 minutes or sooner.  By the way, if you are new to dairy-free baking, don’t sweat the flax egg replacer process.  It thickens up easily. Just combine the flax and water together and let the mixture sit a few minutes.

Now, in a large bowl, add the oat flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, salt, nuts, if using, or old-fashioned oats. Mix these dry ingredients well to combine and set aside.

In a food processor, add the dates, almond milk, vanilla extract, and apple cider vinegar. Process the date mixture until it’s smooth, like a paste or sauce.

Next,  in a medium-size bowl, mash the banana with a spoon or fork and then stir in the chia seeds and flax egg mixture until well combined.  Add the blended dates to the banana, flax, and chia mixture and stir. After that’s mixed, add the wet mixture to the dry ingredients mixing just until combined.

Pour the batter into the prepared bread pan lined with parchment and top with a sprinkling of the optional additional chia seeds. (I use about one teaspoon on top – I like how it looks and tastes.)

Place the batter filled pan into the oven and bake for 50-60 minutes, or until a toothpick or fork comes out fairly clean. Remove the gorgeous bread from the oven to cool.  And be sure to cool completely before cutting to achieve pretty, uniform looking slices.