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It’s never a bad day for banana bread at my house. While poking around on Instagram the other day (as one does), I came across a hack for making the popular baked treat that I had to try: mashing bananas with a mixer instead of a fork.
Is a Mixer the Best Tool for Mashing Bananas?
I was curious—so I pulled out my go-to recipe and gave it a whirl. The results piqued my curiosity even more and my food science brain got to work. While I ultimately discovered that using a mixer to mash bananas does not necessarily yield better bread, I do think there is a time and place for this particular approach.
If you’ve ever eaten a slice of banana bread and been immediately put off by a large piece of mushy banana, using a mixer in place of a fork to mash your bananas yields a much smoother and homogenous batter. That results in a more cake-like crumb. The mixer technique almost entirely eliminates chunks of banana and is a method I might use when I want something that’s silkier and more refined. The loaf that I made was delightfully moist with an even crumb similar to velvety pumpkin bread.
The two different techniques—using a fork or a mixer to mash bananas—yield two different products. To me, this is the real hack: You can produce two equally satisfying results with one simple alteration in methodology.
Nevertheless, this is not a banana bread trick that I would universally employ. Before you use a fork or mixer for your banana bread, ask yourself: Do I want banana bread or banana cake? If you are aiming for a smooth, cake-like crumb, try the mixer. If you want a more traditional, country-style banana bread, just use a fork. There is room in the world, and certainly in my kitchen, for both.
My 101-Year-Old Grandma's Best Tip for Banana Bread Is a No-Brainer
Drawbacks to Using a Mixer to Make Banana Bread
Using a mixer to process your batter can easily lead to overmixing, which often results in a tough or dry loaf. You could probably use your mixer only to mash your bananas, and then mix the remaining ingredients by hand with a fork or spoon. However, this leads to my other gripe with this hack, which is that it creates more dishes for a recipe that typically requires very few.
I’ve always known that banana bread is magic—but it’s even more magical now that I know that one simple change in the recipe’s execution can yield such a different product. The versatility of this humble recipe knows no bounds. While I’m not going to change the way I make banana bread every time, I am going to keep the mixer hack in my back pocket for times when a more cake-like loaf is called for.
Best Banana Bread Recipes
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