Moist Banana Bread Recipe (2024)

FAQs

What makes a bread soft and moist? ›

Moisture is key when it comes to banana bread, and the ratio of flour to banana makes all the difference. If you use too much flour, you'll end up with dry bread. If you don't use enough, your bread will be too wet. The secret is actually in how you measure the flour.

You can use light or extra-virgin olive oil. The olive oil will make any bread cake moist. Other things I do for my banana bread are adding a little molasses, just a little bit more sugar and vanilla flavor and more bananas. I usually let it cool a little and then wrap it in aluminum foil.

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.

The method involves briefly cooking a small percentage of the recipe's flour and liquid (usually water or milk) into a slurry mixture, instead of adding them directly to the bread's other ingredients. This slurry is then worked into the remaining recipe, and gives the resulting bread a much more pillowy soft interior.

Honey adds both sweetness and moisture to breads such as challah. Be sure to use a pasteurized honey, as wild honeys contain antibacterial properties that can kill yeast. Store honey at room temperature, out of direct sunlight. Honey would makes everything better, but especially sourdough.

Excess moisture (when compared to the recipe's dry ingredients) means a greater potential for banana bread to sink in the middle. Recipes that provide you with the exact amount of mashed bananas by measuring cup (i.e. 1 ½ cups of mashed bananas) or by weight (i.e. grams) tend to have fewer problems.

If they smell off, that's another good indicator that they are no longer okay to use. Rotten bananas will often have a fermented or alcohol-like smell. While it's okay if the banana peel is dark brown or even black, if the inside is too, then the fruit is beyond ripe and now on its way to rotten.

Plastic wrap will make especially moist quick breads (pumpkin, banana) gummy, while aluminum foil tends to crinkle and looks a little too pulled-from-the-freezer. Waxed paper or parchment is the way to go here.

Baking soda and baking powder are not the same. Sodium bicarbonate and bicarbonate of soda are other names for baking soda. Baking powder is made of baking soda plus cream of tartar and cornstarch. Baking powder can be substituted for baking soda by tripling the amount of baking powder.

What happens if you put too much baking soda in banana bread? ›

Bitter Taste: Excessive baking soda can leave a bitter taste in the bread. Baking soda is alkaline, and an excessive amount of it can result in an unpleasant flavor. Unpleasant Texture: Too much baking soda can lead to a coarse and crumbly texture in the bread.

If so, I would dump out all the flour, remeasure and then add in the correct amount, subtracting a little bit (say a half teaspoon) for the flour you couldn't remove that stuck to the other ingredients. Was it before you baked it?

Using too much butter makes for a heavier cake with less banana flavor. Using double the amount of butter that the recipe called for left me with a loaf that was dry on the outside and moist on the inside.

Kneading: This process develops gluten, making the bread soft and stretchy. Over-kneading, however, can lead to hard bread. It's a delicate balance! Proofing: Allowing the dough to rise in a warm, humid environment ensures a soft and airy crumb.

Store airtight with the two cut halves facing each other and pressed together. Wrapping bread to retain moisture keeps it soft, though it robs crusty artisan bread of its crispy crust. Wrapping in plastic (or foil) rather than cloth keeps bread soft longer.

“Wet" dough will still bake. The final bread will be more dense but the trade-off is that bread from a wetter dough actually lasts longer before going stale.

Milk yields dough with a higher pH compared to water dough, and the fermentation will be slower. Fermentation tolerance (the ability of the dough to work properly in a range of temperatures) will be slightly improved. Bench time will be extended as the dough ferments more slowly at this stage.