Banana Bread (v1)
A few days ago, I just learned about the idea of using sour cream as moisturizing ingredients in cakes. The post said that the acid in sour cream would inhibit gluten, making the cake softer. While I don't know how accurate this statement is, I realize that many quick bread recipes use sour cream. Thus, I decided to give it a try and made some sour cream tweaks to Elise Bauer's banana bread recipe (which I agree with Elise - the best by far). I also intended to put some cinnamon sugar on crust to create the crunchiness yet forgot to buy it (next time then).
Recipe:
300g (about 1 cup) mashed bananas
1/4 cup avocado oil*
1 teaspoon baking soda
Pinch of salt
1/2 cup white sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 large egg, beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour
1/3 cup of sour cream
Dashes of cinnamon
* Butter surely contributes a lot to the flavor and mouthfeel, there was also a crude rule of thumb that lots of butter = good cake. Yet in banana bread, I want the banana flavor stands out rather than the generic buttery taste. Given that, I usually substitute it with grapeseed oil due to its mild flavor. Since I'm out of grapeseed oil, I tried avocado today but I don't like it as much as grapeseed.
The procedure is exact to Elise's recipe. One thing I would add in her recipe is cinnamon; it enhances the fruity sweetness in the bananas. You can add cinnamon in while mashing bananas. Another trick I love is putting it in the final mix and let the mix sit for 1-2 minutes before baking. It would create a gradual color transform from lighter on top then darken at the bottom.
Result:
The cake was very moist, in fact, moister than I like. The cake was not firm as I prefer. I definitely should reduce the sour cream/oil ratio next time to see if it had much effect in moistness than other ingredients. The sour cream also leaves some flavor, making the banana taste less notable. I'll try 1/4 cup sour cream and 3/4 oil for the next batch to see how the moisture changes and to reduce the invading taste. Otherwise, I feel that the brown sugar substituting is unnecessary, it doesn't affect moisture much.
Recipe:
300g (about 1 cup) mashed bananas
1/4 cup avocado oil*
1 teaspoon baking soda
Pinch of salt
1/2 cup white sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 large egg, beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour
1/3 cup of sour cream
Dashes of cinnamon
* Butter surely contributes a lot to the flavor and mouthfeel, there was also a crude rule of thumb that lots of butter = good cake. Yet in banana bread, I want the banana flavor stands out rather than the generic buttery taste. Given that, I usually substitute it with grapeseed oil due to its mild flavor. Since I'm out of grapeseed oil, I tried avocado today but I don't like it as much as grapeseed.
The procedure is exact to Elise's recipe. One thing I would add in her recipe is cinnamon; it enhances the fruity sweetness in the bananas. You can add cinnamon in while mashing bananas. Another trick I love is putting it in the final mix and let the mix sit for 1-2 minutes before baking. It would create a gradual color transform from lighter on top then darken at the bottom.
Result:
The cake was very moist, in fact, moister than I like. The cake was not firm as I prefer. I definitely should reduce the sour cream/oil ratio next time to see if it had much effect in moistness than other ingredients. The sour cream also leaves some flavor, making the banana taste less notable. I'll try 1/4 cup sour cream and 3/4 oil for the next batch to see how the moisture changes and to reduce the invading taste. Otherwise, I feel that the brown sugar substituting is unnecessary, it doesn't affect moisture much.
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