Banana Bread! ... who does not love banana bread?  I search the internet to look for a recipe that is simple to put together with regular ingredients from a normal kitchen.  Found several recipes and some has sour cream, some require a mixer to put the bread together, some require melted butter, some softened butter... But most of them says "Do Not Overmix!"....I was overwhelmed by so many recipes out there! So, I picked a few to try out...

​

Naturally, I failed several attempts to get them right!... Initial batches were rubbery, gummy, lack tenderness, batter could not rise, colour was not right...but the flavour of bananas were there...and what bothered me was "Overmixing!" What is overmixing? When do you stop mixing? OMG!

​

It was supposed to be simple and easy recipe to make use of overripened bananas... So it cannot be that difficult right? Well.... Banana Bread is not that simple!

​

Anyway, after researching and watching Youtube, I finally got it right!

 

Yes, Banana Bread has to be brown on the outside with moist and tender crumb.

 

Yes, you can cut down sugar, but too little sugar, you will not get that crusty exterior.

 

Yes, you do not need a mixer to get the ingredients together! 

 

Yes, it is a quick bread. Muffins, coffeecakes, scones, waffles, and pancakes are all breads that can be made in a short period of time and with very little effort. The difference between yeast breads and quick breads is the leavening agent. Yeast is a living cell that multiplies rapidly when given the proper food,
moisture, and warmth. It must “proof”, or rise, to allow the production of carbon dioxide that allows the bread to rise during baking. Quick breads use the chemical leavening agents of baking powder and/or aking soda. Baking powder and baking soda do not require time for rising, so the batter for quick bread
is cooked immediately after mixing. The best thing about quick breads is that the options are limitless when it comes to ingredients. The limiting factor in good quick breads is the correct mixing. Over mixing or under mixing will result in a poor quality product.

​

So what is overmixing? It means that the mixture has been agitated to the point that the gluten in the flour has been developed. Most often it’s pancake batters and muffin batters (things made via the muffin method) that are said to be overmixed, though cookie and cake batters can be overmixed, so can biscuit doughs, though I always think of that as “over-kneading“. To prevent overmixing, mix batter until “just combined” means that you should stop mixing as soon as you can't see the ingredient that you just added. For example, if you are adding flour to butter and sugar, you should immediately stop mixing once you no longer see any white powder. A little bit of white flour is fine!

​

I found alot of help from this Youtube video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CrsWf63wnQI) from Chef Thomas Joseph, who made a scrumptious Banana Bread with simple to follow instructions and no mixer needed! It was certainly a game changer for me and I finally understood how to make a perfect Banana Bread!

​

Bliss!

​

​

​