The banana bread I made last week was a hit with the family – yay! One week and many breakfasts later, there’s now only one ripe banana left. It’s spotting and possibly too soft and mushy to eat on its own. What now? Make another banana bread of course! But I only had one banana and a pretty long loaf pan – would it work? I found a number of one-banana banana bread recipes (c/o Food52, A Beautiful Mess, The View from Great Island and The Faux Martha just to name a few) which suggests this is actually a thing and it really does work. Is the one-banana way about making the same flavours in a smaller loaf, or is it about making a 9-inch pan loaf with a lighter banana flavour, I wonder?
So here we go with another banana bread experiment. I also have one blueberry and half a lemon rind leftover by the way, and will probably throw them in too just for fun, because why not? Experimenting is life!
I liked my previous adaption of Smitten Kitchen’s recipe – the sweetness and texture were just right with my different flours, and so I wanted to stick with it as much possible. But going from three bananas down to one, I knew I had to get the ratios right. I compared a number of different recipes and their ratios – the amount of butter, eggs, number of total ingredients (I only wanted to use what I had in my pantry, and not buy anything just for this baking experiment) – and ended up going with Faux Martha’s banana bread recipe.
Banana Bread Experiment #2 – One Banana Banana Bread
Recipe adapted from Faux Martha and baking methods again from Smitten Kitchen’s Jacked Up Banana Bread
Ingredients
1 medium-sized ripe bananas, smashed
1/3 cup of milk
1/2 lemon, zested
3 tablespoons of olive oil
1/2 cup (125ml) light brown sugar
1 teaspoon honey
1 egg, beaten
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon of salt
40ml all purpose flour*
85ml whole wheat flour
1/2 cup (125ml) organic wholemeal bread flour
*see tasting and baking notes below, I would just use 1/2 a cup next time but today I ran out so had to alter!
Directions
Preheat oven to 350F / 180C. Smash the one banana in a bowl. Mix in milk, lemon zest, olive oil, egg, honey, sugar and finally cinnamon. Give it a good mix. Add in baking soda, baking powder and salt, then mix. Add the flour last, mix again. Bake in a 9-inch pan for 40 mins, or until done. Cool on rack. All mixing done by hand.
Tasting and baking modification notes
- Sweetness – again, this turned out just right. Right out of the oven when cooled, it’s not too sweet at all. 1/2 cup of sugar seems to be the right amount for this size of a loaf and I’m definitely going to be sticking to it the next time I bake this kind of bread.
- Flavour – There’s a mild taste of banana as well as a tiny hint of lemon. Probably would need more than half a lemon for a more citrusy flavour.
- Flours – I ran out of all purpose flour so in the end I only used 16% of a cup, which works out to be roughly 40ml. The recipe calls for 1/2 a cup, so I topped up the next lightest flour in the house – whole wheat flour. Still lighter than the wholemeal, which I also added.
- Texture – just right, it’s not too moist and is bit loose but not crumbly. Which is surprising considering the ratio of flour I used, there was very little all purpose flour in there this time. Was it the baking powder that helped to loosen it up
- Cinnamon – I reduced the amount of cinnamon in half, simply because I was using a 1/2 teaspoon and I forgot to do two scoops. This ended up working perfectly because the resulting loaf size for this recipe is slightly smaller than normal.
- Olive oil instead of butter – I don’t like using too much butter when I’m baking. With that and the amount of sugar it just feels like a lot of unhealthiness in a single bite. I switched out the butter from Faux Martha’s recipe and used our regular olive oil instead. Just the kind we use for cooking, nothing special but it turned out perfectly. Use less olive oil than you would butter – references for ratios from Southern Living and blah.
- Olive oil first or last? Olive oil and water don’t mix. I doubt it mixes with milk either. So… do we add in all the wet ingredients first then dry, which includes the olive oil? Would I ever add the olive oil in last? There’s a reason we mix all the wet ingredients first and then add the dry ingredients in – it ensures a good and even mix. Doing it the other way (pouring wet ingredients into dry) often results in a flour and uneven mix. So olive oil first it is. Reference from Cooks Illustrated.
- Lemon zest and milk – I know lemon juice and milk cause it to curdle, but what about the zest (and any accidental juice that came out as a result of zesting)? Would that be okay and how would it affect my cake? Apparently it doesn’t – cheese is essentially formed from curdled milk. It might taste sour like vinegar but not harmful. Zest itself doesn’t coz curdling so I thought I’d be safe. References from Food52 and even from lemon cakes made with milk c/o Cooking on the Weekends.
- Baking powders and baking sodas – I modified the amount of baking soda and powder in this recipe, because when I compared my two inspiration recipes, Faux Martha’s had slightly more than Smitten Kitchen’s and it also included baking powder. Since the texture of my last bread turned out fine, I thought I’d stick with what I know. I nearly skipped the baking powder though but it seems as though baking powder gives more lift, I decided to keep it. It seems as though baking powder also might have a taste, but with the half lemon, banana and cinnamon, I thought the taste would turn out fine – which it did! References from Bon Appetit and Bob’s Red Mill.
- Pouring flours slowly, a third at a time – I followed Smitten Kitchen’s method to add in the flour last. Based on my previous experiment fails where I added in too much flour and resulting in a bread covered in flour, I now pour in 1/3 of the required flour at a time. I’ll give stir once each time so as not to overmix the batter. This has worked really well for a baking newbie like me so far!
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