Banana bread can be a really fun treat to bake and eat with loved ones. What’s even more fun is if it has a few chunks of chocolate thrown in. It’s one of those fun treats that can be enjoyed for days. Also, it can be customized any way you like. Imagine banana bread with blueberries tossed in, or even a chocolate chip banana bread with walnuts and Dairy Milk chunks. The possibilities are truly endless!
But when you’re baking banana bread, there’s also a lot that can go wrong. If you’re not careful and not focused on the small details, you can have bread that’s undercooked, unevenly baked, or even burnt. So, keep these 5 points in mind before you start baking. These are common mistakes, so don't feel bad if you’ve faced any of these issues. Just keep these points in mind for the next time.
If you’re using bananas that aren’t ripe enough then your loaf will lack natural sweetness and depth of flavor. You want bananas that are fully ripe -- soft, speckled, even blackened on the outside. The darker they are, the richer and more caramel-like their flavor will be in the bread. If you’ve already bought bananas and they aren’t fully ripe yet, you can ripen them in the oven. Don’t peel them, just pop them in in the oven at 150C or 300F for about 15 minutes, until the skins turn black, and the insides are gooey.
Banana bread requires a gentle hand and a soft touch. Too much stirring will develop the gluten in the flour, resulting in a dense, rubbery loaf instead of that tender crumb you’re after. The overmixing essentially causes the bread to lose its lightness and airiness. So, make sure you only mix your wet and dry ingredients until they’re well combined but don’t overmix. Don’t worry if it’s not evenly mixed in and a few streaks of flour remain -- they’ll disappear during the baking process.
Chocolate chips bring their own richness and sweetness to the party. Pairing them with too much sugar in the batter can tip your loaf into overdone territory, where all you taste is sweetness, and the nuanced banana, vanilla, and cocoa notes are pushed to the background. So don’t add too much sugar or use overly sweet chocolate chips without adjusting the recipe. If your bananas are super ripe and sweet, reduce the sugar in the batter by 2 to 3 tablespoons. And use semi-sweet or bittersweet chocolate chips, like Bournville, to keep the flavor balanced.
Be careful with your choice of chocolate chips. They can sink to the bottom during the baking process, or they can melt into little blobs, losing all structure. An easy trick to prevent these things from happening is to toss your chips in a little all-purpose flour before folding them into the batter. This helps suspend them evenly throughout. Also, avoid mixing them in if your bananas or melted butter are still hot since heat can cause premature melting and streaky batter.
Inside the oven, if the temperature is too high, the outside browns too quickly while the center stays raw. Conversely, if it’s too low, the loaf becomes dense and dry. Baking the bread at an inaccurate oven temperature is going to be risky. Leaving the bread in for too long can cause it to dry out. So always preheat your oven and use an oven thermometer if possible. Bake at 175C or 350F and start checking for doneness at 50 minutes. A toothpick inserted in the middle should come out either clean or with just a few moist crumbs. If it’s wet batter that’s coming out, or really dry batter, something is wrong. And if you notice that the top browns too quickly, cover it loosely with foil to slow down the baking at that part.