Recipe Re-Do: Banana Nut Bread

Once upon a time, I wrote a post about banana bread.  It was good, but I wrote the following: “The outside of my bread was a little crispy and dark.  I think I should have left my oven rack where it was instead of moving it down.  It seemed like when I moved it down, the tops of the pans would be in the center like the directions said, but I should’ve actually used the pans to judge that.” 

After making the bread this time, I have concluded that this is not the problem.  I tend to be a stickler for following the rules when making a recipe.  I am trying to break myself of this, espeically when something doesn’t turn out right.  I AM good at changing things up when I just don’t have an ingredient on hand or don’t have something else the recipe calls for, but for the most part, I like to follow the suggested temperatures, baking/cooking times, and anything else that I can. 

Anyway, for these two loaves of banana bread, I did move the oven rack down, but I really clued into the fact that Betty’s (as in, Betty Crocker) recipe states to bake two 8 in loaf pans for about an hour.  I had been very strictly baking them for 1 hour.  I decided to take 10 minutes off of the baking time and see what happened.  It is amazing what 10 minutes can do.  By baking the loaves at 350* for 50 minutes, they did not come out dark and crispy on the outside, and they were not dry like the others. 

The lesson I would like you all to take away from this lazy excuse for a post is that not all ovens are created equal.  You may need to adjust baking temperatures and times, and it’s okay. (READ: Strict rule followers, take a breath and trust me on this.)

Without further adieu, here is the link to the previous post: banana nut bread.

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