World's Best Banana Bread Recipe - Cooking With Karli (2024)

FAQs

Why is my banana bread not fluffy? ›

You Over-Mix the Batter

For soft and tender banana bread, gently stir the wet ingredients into the dry — don't overmix! The more you stir, the more gluten will develop. The result will be a tough, rubbery banana bread. Simply stir until moist, and then do no more.

Ripe bananas are not only softer and easier to mash and blend into a batter, but they are also sweeter, which is why baking recipes specifically call for ripe bananas in ingredient lists.

Using too much baking soda or baking powder can really mess up a recipe, causing it to rise uncontrollably and taste terrible.

Potato Flakes or Potato Water

Starch helps the dough by trapping the gas from the yeast in the dough and makes the bubbles stronger. This helps the bread to rise and be lighter and fluffier. If you are boiling potatoes, you can use the unsalted water in place of the water in your bread recipe to help out the yeast.

Banana bread recipes typically ask you to use overripe bananas so that they're easier to mush. This means it's tempting to toss all your bananas into the mix when you're ready to bake, to avoid food waste. But if you add too much of the fruit into your batter, your bread could turn out mushy, heavy, and wet.

In my experience, using bananas with a dark brown or even black peel for banana bread is ideal, as long as the inside isn't rotten. Key takeaway: As long as your bananas aren't starting to get moldy, infested with fruit flies or beginning to rot they aren't too ripe for baking banana bread.

Bake for longer: If the center of your banana bread is still gooey, you may need to bake it for a longer time. Check the bread every 5-10 minutes by inserting a toothpick into the center. If it comes out with moist crumbs, continue baking until the toothpick comes out clean or with a few dry crumbs.

The reason is as you mix, the gluten begins to develop, and when too much development happens, you can end up with a dense, chewy loaf rather than the soft and delicious banana bread you were hoping for.

As the cake rises, the center will come up level with the edges. What are the causes for an uncooked center when baking banana bread? You can salvage the results by covering it with aluminum foil and baking it another 10–15 minutes.

Let it cool for 10 minutes — this helps the loaf solidify and makes it easier to remove from the pan. Remove from pan and cool another 10 minutes. Grasping the parchment paper sling, lift the loaf out of the pan and place on the cooling rack. Cool for another 10 minutes before slicing.

How long does banana bread cook in the oven? ›

Bake for 55 to 65 minutes at 350°F (175°C), or until a toothpick or wooden skewer inserted into the center comes out clean. A few dry crumbs are okay; streaks of wet batter are not.

As a general rule, you can use either baking soda OR baking powder in banana bread – both ingredients will make your banana bread rise. While baking soda will react with acidic ingredients in the batter to raise your bread, baking powder can leaven banana bread without the addition of acidic ingredients.

Baking powder: Baking powder can be used to replace baking soda, though not at a 1-to-1 ratio. Because the former is not as strong as the latter, it's important to use three times the amount of baking powder as baking soda. Be aware, a slightly bitter, off-putting taste might result from using that much baking powder.

*The chlorophyll in sunflower seeds may react with baking soda, causing the center of the bread to turn a green color when cool. This is completely harmless! To help keep bread from turning green, you can reduce baking soda by half, or a splash of lemon juice in the batter may also help.

There are a variety of reasons why yours may be sinking on cooling but it is most likely that it isn't quite fully baked. Banana bread tends to form a firmish crust on the outside, so even if it looks baked it may not quite be done which means that it will sink as it cools.

Overworking the dough can cause the gluten strands to break down, resulting in a tough and dense bread. To ensure a light and fluffy texture, knead the dough just until it becomes smooth and elastic. This usually takes about 7-10 minutes by hand or 5 minutes in a stand mixer.

The yeast releases carbon dioxide, which fills the dough and increases its volume. Due to the heat, more gas bubbles emerge when this dough is baked. The bread rises and becomes soft and fluffy as the gas leaves.

Using a lot of bananas adds excess moisture, and there are two ways to get rid of it. You could either add more flour or increase the baking time. Add a tablespoon of extra flour at a time into the batter and give it a good whisk until its consistency starts to look right: thick but runny enough to fall off a spoon.