Banana bread recipe | Jamie Oliver recipes (2024)

FAQs

Can you put too much banana in banana bread? ›

Fight the urge to use more banana than called for in your recipe. Using too much banana could make your bread heavy and damp in the center, causing it to appear undercooked and unappealing. If you have bananas leftover, you can always freeze them for later use.

Here's the secret: overripe bananas don't necessarily mean too-ripe bananas for banana bread. It really comes down to personal preference. Those brown-speckled, mostly yellow bananas are still ripe and will bake into a great loaf.

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. As the bananas ripen, the fruit converts starches to sugars, making them sweeter and more flavorful.

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

You may find banana bread delicious, but conventional banana breads tend to be high in added sugar, refined carbs, and calories. Thus, it's best to enjoy banana bread occasionally as part of a balanced, nutrient-dense diet.

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.

Using too much flour makes for an extra crumbly bread.

If you're tapping your measuring cup to level out flour as you measure, or you're pushing down the piled-up powder, you'll end up using too much of it. I packed my flour for this loaf, and what I got was a crumbly cake with a dry crust all around.

Mold on bananas is fuzzy white, gray, or greenish—it looks a lot like mold on bread. If a banana smells rotten or fermented or is leaking fluid, it's time to say goodbye. If the fruit inside, not just the peel, is black, that's a sign that your banana is too far gone to safely eat.

In moderation, bananas are a great low-calorie treat for dogs. They're high in potassium, vitamins, biotin, fiber, and copper. They are low in cholesterol and sodium, but because of their high sugar content, bananas should be given as a treat, not part of your dog's main diet.

If your banana bread doesn't taste like bananas, it could be that you didn't use bananas that were ripe enough. The flavour of a ripe banana is quite different than a green banana. Choose the ripest bananas possible. Some bakers recommend using bananas that are on the verge of over-ripe with completely black peels.

Can I use moldy bananas for banana bread? ›

While black bananas are great for banana bread thanks to the moisture they add and the sweetness they bring to the baked good, there are some other things to look for in and on black bananas before adding them to your batter. If black bananas are spotted with mold, then it's time to step away!

If you use baking powder instead of baking soda, add a total of three times the amount of baking powder than the recipe recommends for baking soda to “fix” the mistake. However, keep in mind that adding too much baking powder can cause the baked goods to taste bitter. The batter can also rise too quickly and then fall.

Just using baking soda as your leavening agent will work perfectly fine in banana bread in most cases. However, if you don't have any acidic ingredients on hand, like buttermilk, and you're only using a small amount of mashed bananas, you might need to use baking powder.

Bicarbonate of soda (baking soda) is the raising agent and this can sometimes taste bitter or soapy if the wrong quantity is used. Make sure that you measure the bicarbonate of soda with a proper 1 teaspoon/5ml measuring spoon and the spoon measurement should be level.

Old or expired baking soda/powder can lead to banana bread rising problems. Always use relatively fresh baking soda/powder when making banana breads & quick breads (such as pumpkin bread).

Using too much or too little baking powder or baking soda in proportion to the other ingredients in your recipe could be the reason your banana bread collapses when cooling. To measure correctly, Quaker Oats recommends spooning the powder into the measuring spoon instead of scooping it.

Sugars are hygroscopic, meaning they attract water. Within baked goods, sugars help maintain a moist and tender crumb. Sugar on the exposed tops, however, will grab water from humid air, creating a wet or sticky top.