Dense soggy banana bread

[AlexB]

Hi very new to baking and although taste is great - it ain’t that fluffy and light?? I’m sure it’s a simple tweak somewhere??

 

[Cahoot]

Hi Alex, welcome to the forums! It's hard to troubleshoot without the actual recipe, but from what I know there are many reasons that can cause a dense or soggy banana bread:

• Too many liquids: are you measuring your ingredients by weight or volume? Volume measurements of flour aren't precise, and if the recipe just said "X bananas", you could have easily ended up with way more than intended as bananas naturally also vary considerably.
• Related to the point above, sour cream or yogurt can especially make for denser banana breads.
• Incorrect amount of leavening: too little means not enough rise, but too much can also cause it to collapse.
• Overmixing (which is especially easily done in the muffin mixing method) creates too much gluten, toughening the product and inhibiting rise.

Another thing to remember is that banana bread is a quick bread, so it's not really supposed to be light and fluffy, although I'll admit many banana bread recipes out there are closer to cake than bread. If that's what you're going for, then you could just search for a banana cake recipe - nothing wrong with that!

 

[Norcalbaker59]

Hi very new to baking and although taste is great - it ain’t that fluffy and light?? I’m sure it’s a simple tweak somewhere??

Just adding to what @Cahoot said...

1. Your pan is too large for the amount of batter. Even if the batter rose 2” - 3” more, it would still be a pretty flat loaf. I can tell by looking at the depth of the loaf that the pan was too large.

2. oven temperature was too high. The crust on that loaf is extremely dark. So the batter set too soon and inhibit rise. Lower the baking temperature by 15°F - 25°F.

3. If your loaf pan is a dark metal or nonstick coated metal definitely reduce the baking temperature by 25°F. These types of metal pans conduct heat much more intensely. The batter sets too soon causing low rise on sides. In cake batters, which are much lighter, they cause the sides to set low and center to rise in a dome. When it’s too hot the cake will push through the center and crack open like a volcano. These pans also produce a dark dry brown crust. So you definitely want to reduce the temperature by 25°F.

 

[retired baker]

Hi very new to baking and although taste is great - it ain’t that fluffy and light?? I’m sure it’s a simple tweak somewhere??

Thats banana bread. Its normal.

 

[Norcalbaker59]

Thats banana bread. Its normal.

yup, that about sums up banana bread