Banana bread recipe | Jamie Oliver recipes (2024)

FAQs

How do you make banana cake Jamie Oliver? ›

Peel and mash the bananas in a separate bowl with the back of a fork, then whisk in the melted butter, sugar, eggs, yoghurt and vanilla extract. Add the flour mixture to the banana mixture and whisk until just combined. Spoon into the cake tin and bake for 40 to 50 minutes, or until an inserted skewer comes out clean.

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.

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.

Long ago, bakers learned that the addition of vinegar to baked goods helped them rise and kept the baked goods fluffy and moist. Apparently, the vinegar reacts with the baking soda in a recipe to produce carbon dioxide, a gas that enhances the rise.

If you purposely or accidentally used baking soda instead of baking powder without making any changes to your recipe, you'll definitely end up with a bitter taste. Remember, baking soda is an alkaline, or base, ingredient that naturally has a bitter taste. Baking powder is a multi-ingredient leavener.

Avoid using overripe bananas that have these characteristics

If black bananas are spotted with mold, then it's time to step away! You absolutely should not use them for banana bread or consume them at all. At that point, it's wise to consign them to the trash can or compost.

Let the bananas ripen (and overripen) at room temperature. Depending on the weather, this could take a few days, or up to a week. The best bananas for banana bread aren't yellow; they're black. Or they're at least streaked with black/brown, with just the barest hint of green at the stem.

An overmixed banana bread batter will result in a dense, rubbery loaf. As you're prepping your batter, heed the advice of "stir until just moistened" and "no more than 10 seconds."

Therefore, the loaf was also heavier than the one-banana loaves, as Allrecipes noted. As Askinasi proved, using only one extra banana won't necessarily ruin the loaf. On the contrary, it could make it more moist and flavorful. However, using too many can ruin it.

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?

Why do you put apple cider vinegar in muffins? ›

Vinegar helps with the rise of our baked goods

When vinegar reacts with baking soda, it creates carbon dioxide bubbles, which act as leavening agents. So as the batter bakes, these tiny bubbles expand, causing the cake to rise and giving it that light, airy texture we all love.

Ingredients for Patti LaBelle's Banana Pudding

To recreate Patti LaBelle's iconic banana pudding, you'll need sweetened condensed milk, cold water, instant vanilla pudding mix, heavy cream, ripe bananas and vanilla wafers.

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. So, it's a good idea to always stick to the recipe's instructions. But why is this such a problem?

Ripeness of bananas: To make banana cake, your bananas need to be very ripe. Please don't try to make this with green or very firm bananas as it just won't work in the same way. The banana skins should be very speckled, or (ideally) almost totally brown or black on the skins.

If you use a yellow (or even worse a green) banana in your cake not only will it not have as much flavour it will be significantly drier. It's important to make sure your bananas are well mashed. If they aren't broken down well enough less moisture is released from the fruit, effecting the texture of your cake.

Bananas can go from yellow with brown spots to totally black and still be okay to eat and use for baking. In fact, black bananas are some of the best for making banana bread because they have developed more sugar as they sit around and therefore taste sweeter. They may also be moister, which is perfect for baked goods.