Cream Cheese Chocolate Chip Banana Bread Recipe (2024)

FAQs

Why use mushy bananas for banana bread? ›

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.

Baking powder and baking soda both produce carbon dioxide, which helps raise or "leaven" baked products. Baking soda works best in conjunction with an acidic ingredient. In the case of banana bread, this may be buttermilk, brown sugar, molasses or the bananas themselves.

Wrapped well and stored at room temperature, banana bread will last about five days. If stored in the fridge, it should last a full week. A frozen loaf of banana bread will last up to a year in the freezer, wrapped well with storage wrap and 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.

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.

So for the sweetest possible banana bread/shakes/smoothies/etc, let the banana peel turn completely black, but harvest the banana before the insides turn to dark brown or black since that will indicate that the flesh has spoiled.

Baking soda is a leavening agent. It creates air bubbles (technically, carbon dioxide) in your batter, when heated. Without it, your baked goods will not rise to the desired levels and the airy texture you're looking for will be adversely affected.

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.

Learning 1 – Too much baking soda makes banana bread turn green or blue.

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.

Should you refrigerate banana bread batter before baking? ›

Preparation is easy. Simply preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and let the batter rest unrefrigerated at room temperature for 15 minutes. Then cut open the packet and squeeze the batter evenly into a non-stick loaf pan, and place in the oven to bake for 60-70 minutes.

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.

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?

Skimping on the sugar can dry out a loaf of banana bread and leave it flavorless. It turns out, sugar does more than just make things sweeter. When it comes to banana bread, cutting back on sugar will leave you with a dry loaf totally devoid of any distinguishable flavor.

A banana that's way too squishy and soft for your cereal is just perfect for banana bread: the blacker the banana, the sweeter and more assertive its flavor. If you can't find overripe bananas, you'll need to create your own.

Overripe bananas are actually preferred by many bakers for these recipes because they have a stronger, sweeter flavor and a softer, moister texture. Just make sure to mash them well before adding them to your batter.

That said, Rogers states that if your bananas are jet black and mushy, your safest bet is to cook with them rather than eating them out of hand or using them raw in things like smoothies or nice cream. "The riper the bananas get, the more levels of bacteria could be on them," he says.

Discoloration: As bananas ripen, they change from green to yellow and then to brown. However, if the banana is starting to spoil, it may develop dark spots or black patches on the skin. Softness: A ripe banana will be slightly soft to the touch, but if it feels mushy or overly soft, it may be starting to spoil.