Cook's Illustrated's Ultimate Banana Bread - it sucked.

M

meryl

Well-known member
I baked Cook's Illustrated's Ultimate Banana Bread and was very disappointed. The taste was great, but the texture was too wet and dense. I like moist, not wet. Instructions were followed perfectly, and the toothpick came out clean. Plus, my oven is extremely accurate. This was a ton more involved than typical banana bread recipes - it was a PITA, and in the end, I wasn't happy with it. I was very surprised, because this recipe had lots and lots of great reviews.

 
It specifically said to use large bananas, and large eggs. It would have been more

helpful if they had specified the exact measurement of the mashed bananas instead of just the amount of bananas. So, if there's a chance my bananas were too big, there's no way to ever know. It also uses the reduced drained liquid of the bananas after freezing and thawing, but that's a specific amount.

I could tell there was too much liquid in there in proportion to the dry ingredients, but I usually have good luck with CI recipes, so I trusted that it would all work out. I should know by now to trust my knowledge and instincts. They use 5 large bananas for the filling (and 1 sliced banana for the top, which I omitted,) for the same amount of flour that most recipes use about 3 or 4 average size bananas.

 
I had that same reaction. Now I stick with Pats (CA) or nlb's or my old Crisco version.

The absolute key, though, is to use organic bananas because they are the only ones now that still taste/ripen like bananas used to.

 
I also made it and was underwhelmed considering all the extra steps.

 
The carrot cake made in the sheet pan is good and the frosting is great.

 
NO!! This is my all-time favorite and I've made it several times. LOVE it! So sorry you had trouble

 
As I said, I loved the flavor, but the texture sucked. I posted my results on a few other

cooking/baking forums and several people were also disappointed, ie, ended up with wet bread.

 
Yeah, it was such a big deal to make this, as opposed to other recipes, and I expected better

results - it was definitely subpar texturely. It's a shame, since the flavor was good.

 
You are not alone - it had so many great reviews. I don't get why some people ended up with mushy,

bread, while others had great results. The only thing I can think of is the variation in the banana sizes and the liquid left in the bananas after straining. I didn't weigh the bananas, since I didn't even notice the weight measurement (I wish I had noticed that), but others did weigh the bananas, and still ended up with wet bread.

I also read on a few sites that if the mashed bananas are kept more lumpy, the bread will not be as wet. But that still doesn't explain why this recipe didn't work, since they were mashed and drained, and then the liquid was reduced from 1/2-3/4 cup to 1/4 cup.

Meanwhile, in the end, the toothpick came out clean, so why was the bread so WET????

 
Does anyone know what happened to nlb? I think she stopped

posting before I came home from Saudi.

 
Not sure what eventually happened. One or two of our 'regulars' were...

...in touch with her for awhile. Some tried to help her when life got tough.

From what I understand, she pretty much dropped off the map and never contacted anyone again after a certain point.

Michael

 
Oh, I'm sorry to hear that. She was so vibriant and had so much

to offer. So sad. Thanks Michael

 
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