Sunday, September 6, 2009

Banana Cherry Bread — Recipe and Questions

banana-cherry-bread

The Recipe

Slightly modified from Alton Brown, I'm Just Here for More Food

Wet Ingredients 1
3 to 4 / 340g / 12oz Overripe Bananas
1 Cup / 210g / 7.5oz Sugar

Wet Ingredients 2
1/2 Cup /4oz Vegetable oil (original called for 1 stick butter, melted and cooled)
2 large / 100g / 3.5 oz Eggs
1 tsp / 6g/ .25oz Vanilla extract

Dry Ingredients
2 cups / 255g / 9oz All-Purpose Flour
1 tsp / 6g / .25oz Baking Soda
1 tsp / 6g / .25oz Salt

Frozen Cherries, approximately 1 - 1-1/2 cups (whatever looks good to you!)

cherries

Directions
  • Preheat oven to 350°F with rack in center of oven.2. Grease loaf pan.
  • Place bananas and sugar in a large mixing bowl and mash them together with a potato masher until smooth (I used my mixer with the beater attachment).
  • Combine Wet Ingredients 1 in separate bowl, then add to sugar/banana mixture.
  • Combine Dry Ingredients in separate bowl. Add combined Wet Ingredients to Dry mixing until just combined.
  • Fold in cherries and pour into prepared pan.
  • Bake for 50 min or 1 hour until toothpick comes out more or less clean.
  • Cool in pan for 15 minutes then turn out onto a rack. Cool completely before slicing.

The Verdict

Very good! Flavorful and moist and I love having the cherries in there. It's a unexpected but welcome change from regular banana bread. But it could be better.

I have a few questions I wanted to ask you guys what you think.

As you can see from the photo, the edges got over done. I kept checking the loaf and it was never going to hit the temp Alton called for (210°F) and it was still a bit wet on the toothpick, so I let it cook longer. Should I have pulled it out sooner? It cooked for over 1 hour.

Also, I didn't have the full amount of bananas and therefore less volume of wet ingredients. If I'd cut back on the flour would that have helped with the cooking time and doneness issues? Could the batter have been too dense?

I still have problems judging baking times with quick bread and tend to err on the side of over done to avoid a raw center. Any tips you might have would be greatly appreciated!

3 comments:

  1. When the top starts to brown too fast I cover it with aluminum foil. That way the edges don't get that chewy texture.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I make quick breads frequently (read weekly) and I've never been as scientific as Alton when it comes to checking the temp but my optimal baking time for nearly every quick bread I make is 52-55 minutes at 350 degrees. A toothpick would never come out clean, they are naturally moist breads. And, yes, I think this recipe calls for a lot of flour - I'd try 1.5 cups and see how it turns out.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thanks for the tips, guys! I appreciate the help. I'm going to give it another shot with those modifications.

    ReplyDelete

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