Are you a fan of banana bread, but frustrated with your loaves sinking in the middle? If so, you’re not alone. This is a common problem that many home bakers face when making banana bread.
There’s nothing worse than pulling a beautiful, golden loaf out of the oven only to discover a sunken center. It can be disappointing and leave you wondering what you did wrong. However, fear not!
In this blog post, we’re going to explore the reasons why banana bread sinks in the middle and share some practical tips to help you create perfectly risen loaves every time
Why Does My Banana Bread Sink In The Middle?
There are many reasons why banana bread didn’t rise. We will show you a few common errors you should check out.
1. You Use Too Much Or Too Little Banana
You will need to use the correct number of bananas to get a good loaf of bread. For every 400 grams of cake flour and baking soda, you need 400 grams of mashed bananas.
It is important to note that you need to use the oil as an emulsifier to bind the loaf of banana together. It will moisten banana bread and prevent it from cracking or sinking.
Usually, this oil naturally comes in fruits (in this case, bananas) and egg yolks. Moreover, don’t forget to use ripe bananas.
2. Leavening Agent Out Of Date
Foods often come with an expiry date. Even when it is stored in the refrigerator or airtight container, you still need to follow that recommended date by the manufacturer.
Using out-of-date ingredients, such as sour buttermilk, will destroy your bread eventually.
Especially for baking ingredients like baking soda, baking powder, milk, and eggs, as soon as the expiration date ends, they will ferment and taste sour.
When you put them in the banana bread batter mixture, air bubbles will appear, causing the cake to bloom quickly in the first few minutes but deflate and sink.
More seriously, if you eat food that has expired, you will be at risk of intestinal diseases, digestive disorders, even food poisoning.
You need to pay attention to distinguish the words “use by date” and “best before date” written on the package.
3. You Measure The Wrong Amount Of Ingredients
In a banana bread recipe, there are many chemicals that play an important role in deciding the dish’s appearance.
Recipes are made so that the chemical reactions between baking powder, flour, sugar, and banana are perfect.
If you deviate only 10g of baking soda (which is a minimal amount), the bread will be very prone to dents.
Even factors like the amount of water need to be accurately measured. If too little water is added, your banana bread will be too dry or blooming poorly.
On the contrary, when there is too much water, the over-evaporation process will happen, causing the crust to expand rapidly but not hard enough to hold the steam, resulting in the crust flattening.
At the same time, the crumb will become moist. As a result, the cake will become thick and dented when taking the crust out of the oven.
The water also appears in wet ingredients like melted butter and whisking the eggs to dissolve together with the ingredients.
Therefore, if the butter is not boiled or beaten into insoluble eggs, the inevitable consequence will be that the cake sinks in the middle.
Moreover, there are contradictory materials that can cause severe health effects and could be dangerous. You should only substitute certain ingredients allowed to ensure the flavor of the cakes.
4. The Banana Bread Is Not Cooked Thoroughly
When baking, it’s important to make sure it’s fully cooked.
Ingredients like baking soda and yeast will work best at the right oven temperature and time.
If the baking time is not enough or the temperature is too low, it will make the surface of the cake light, dry, and thick, not golden, soft spongy.
The outside of the cake may be cooked, but the inside of the cake will still be sticky, runny, and soft. Especially when eaten, there will still be a dough and egg smell, and due to incomplete cooking.
How to Fix Banana Bread That Sinks?
1. Follow The Ingredients Recipe
Proper measuring is one of the key factors determining the success of baking. Each ingredient has a different texture, composition, and flavor, which leads to a different way of acting.
Following the banana bread recipe helps the baker know step by step to take, how to do it, and what results should be achieved?
Every home baker should have basic tools such as scales and measuring cups.
You also need to equip yourself with knowledge of commonly used measurement units in baking, such as tablespoons and teaspoons, to avoid banana breads’ bad appearance.
However, if you want to shake things up a bit and alter the flavor of the cakes by adding chocolate chips, vanilla extract, or using peanut butter and zucchini bread, then you need to adjust the recipe yourself. This might be difficult for amateurs, and errors will be inevitable.
2. Measure Temperature Carefully
It is common to have a banana bread baking temperature of 350 F for 30 to 35 minutes. If you have special requirements like wanting to add chocolate chips, you will need to check your bread to see if it is done, since that may change the time it needs to be baked.
So, how to tell if banana bread is done?
My favorite way to tell if banana bread is done is to insert a toothpick in the center of the bread.
