Where has my banana bread *bump & crack* gone???

M

marilynfl

Moderator
I ALWAYS had a high rise, a thick top crust and a long deep crack running down the middle.

Now? Nothing but flatness as far as these disappointed eyes can see.

And it's not just my old recipe (from the 70's, using Crisco. Don't judge). I also got a flat loaf from Steve in LA (bet he's laughing his butt off up in heaven). My friend's dependable cracky version failed. Genius Kitchen's, Serious Eats, and FLOUR's recipe. ALL FLAT.

I tested both my baking soda and my baking powder. Both are fresh and both react. I don't know what else to do.

I'm using organic bananas when possible, but went back to plain old Dole. Still no difference.

I thought it might be the altitude change from 7 feet in Florida to 3,000 feet in NC. But I never adjusted my recipe in ABQ at 5,000 feet and my old recipe worked fine then.

I just want my crack back. It was the best part of the whole loaf.

I'm thinking of putting a poster on a milk carton next.

 
I have been checking my oven temp. It's spot on, but takes 10 minutes PAST the little ding it gives

to actually REACH the specified temperature. That could be an issue with the earlier attempts if I put the pan in the oven right when it "said" it was ready.

 
Don't think it's that. I usually beat the sugar/fat, then add banana, then fold in flour mix.

Unless a recipe tells me to do it another way, that's the method I follow.

Always worked before, dang it.

 
This is what I was going to say. I am envious of your ability to consistenly get . . .

the "bump and crack" on your banana bread. I have been baking for years and cannot get that consitently!

And the term "bump and crack" sounds like British slang for the down and dirty! smileys/smile.gif

 
I’d try preheating your oven even longer…

Because you jogged my memory. My mother-in-law‘s “new“ stove in the 1990s takes at least 45 minutes of preheating oven temp be damned. The first time I roast a chicken at her house it took an hour longer than at my house – in my dandy spot on 1959 pink wall oven.

When my friend had similar problems with her expensive Thermidor wall ovens, it was the repair person that said new stoves and ovens don’t have the same type of insulation that the older ones did and he recommended at minimum 35 minutes to preheat newer ovens.

My old oven always gives me the bump/crack. You aren’t using a different size pan are you?

 
I've always used my OLD bread pans, which are 9x5. I picked up some 8x4 (remember, I asked how to

clean them) at the thrift shop, hoping that might help.

But it wouldn't explain why my original pans always worked before.

You know, I just realized that I've gotten much more anal about weighing out and measuring accurately. I wonder if I was always putting in more flour and less bananas. Because back then I put in whatever bananas I had that were close to the recipe. Now I weight and ONLY use what the recipe specifies. hmmmm, this could be a test.

 
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