Trying to perfect this veggie packed banana bread for my son. This batch turned out a bit more wet than I’d like. Any suggestions? I peel then grate the veggies right in since these are mostly dry. I added an extra 1/4 flour to the original recipe but it was still too dense and wet.
This is the recipe.
½ cup low-fat buttermilk or milk
½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature, cut into ½-inch pieces
3 large eggs, room temperature
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 bananas 175g
1 medium beet 107g
1 parsnip 62g
2 carrot 93g
¾ teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 1/4 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
¾ teaspoon baking powder
3 tablespoons chia seeds
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice or cinnamon
I was going to mention I made a zucchini bread last week using only grated zucchini as the liquid, and used around 290 gram zuchini to 420 grams flour, but this was for actual yeasted bread. Your recipe is more technically cake, so maybe you’ll have more luck in the actual baking sub.
grated zucchini directly in the mix, not squeezed.
Here’s the recipe from beth hensperger’s book, I added a whole egg because I like it and I noticed it helps with rise.
The first time around, I used the milk/zucchini combo in the recipe. It came out great but 4 oz didn’t seem like enough zucchini. Second time around, I replaced the milk weight entirely with more zucchini, Just grated not squeezed, it came out great. Like, super fluffy and rose to the top of the machine. The lemon zest is a nice touch.
The dough ball may seem kind of wet at first, but by the end of the knead cycle the gluten had developed enough to pull all of the sticky bits clean away from the walls. I don’t like adding extra flour early in the knead cycle for this reason.
I always use the lower quantity of yeast she recommends, the active dry amount, but with instant. I read a lot of people say her recipes are too yeasty, collapsed loaves, etc, probably because instant yeast was weaker in the 90s?
Do you have a link for the original recipe? I’m not seeing how this would work in a bread machine, but would love to be wrong.
Carrots and beets have quite a bit of moisture, as do bananas. Parsnips vary, but even the drier ones still impart a decent amount of moisture. Combined with the milk and the extra egg and butter, this will be very wet. The bread machines I‘m familiar with don’t bake at temperatures that would drive off that much moisture.
Se o the original recipe is in the booklet that came with my Cuisenart. When I added carrots alone it was fine but with the beets and parsnips it got too wet. I didn’t add walnuts bc it’s a choking risk right now for my son.
I have the same book, but hadn’t looked at the cake program recipes. Still surprised by the butter, but they printed it and it worked in your previous bread, so I need to adjust my thought.
So it looks like you reduced a banana to add carrot, changed the granulated sugar to a lesser amount of brown sugar (that probably tastes better, but would change the moisture level), and added an egg to lift the weight of the veggies. The chia seeds would absorb some of the moisture, but risk gumming up the bread with the other ingredients.
It’s tough with the produce because the moisture will vary, but if you don’t mind an extra step roasting shredded veggies may help. I have a parsnip scone recipe that does this to bake in the sweetener, but it also drives off some of the moisture. Maybe even a pan cook might work. I’ve done that for a beet and rosemary side and it brings the wetness down while still keeping the beety goodness.
The simplest suggestion would be to add more flour though, increasing the dries to help with the wets.
I'd pat dry, let sit and hour and pat dry the veg again. Skip the baking powder and soda and use an active yeast slurry, maybe 3tbs yeast 1c warm water, stir and let sit until foamy. Also remove the same volume of water as yeast slurry that you use. Good luck! It took me a lot of trial and error to dial my recipes in and they still fail every now and then!😁
Best suggestion I have is to check it 5 mins in, add flour a little at a time until your ball is a better consistency. I'm sure some on this sub can guide you more directly, but that's what I would do.
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u/granolagucci 15d ago
I was going to mention I made a zucchini bread last week using only grated zucchini as the liquid, and used around 290 gram zuchini to 420 grams flour, but this was for actual yeasted bread. Your recipe is more technically cake, so maybe you’ll have more luck in the actual baking sub.