Banana bread is one of those dishes that not many people can turn down. Not only is it delicious and sweet, but it is somehow more banana flavored than bananas themselves.
But what happens if you are unable to use the usual all-purpose flour that you would normally make banana bread with?
Well, you’ll be happy to know that if you don’t have all-purpose flour to hand, then you can use bread flour instead, although you will have to make some alterations to the recipe itself. Bread flour is slightly drier, so you might have to add a little bit more moisture to the mix to keep it gooey.
So how easy is it to make banana bread using bread flour rather than all-purpose flour? How can this affect the flavor and texture of your banana bread (Did you know you can make banana dog treats? Read more here)? Well, we have all the information that you need to make sure that your banana bread turns out perfectly using bread flour.
What Is Banana Bread?
This is a type of sweet bread, much smaller than a regular loaf, that is made with bananas as one of the main ingredients. This can often be made in a loaf tin and uses ripe bananas, as they are a lot more flavorsome.
It was originally invented to use up ripe bananas during the Great Depression. This is often eaten with tea or coffee or served as one in a selection of different cakes. There are a few different versions of banana bread, including the following:
Banana raisin bread
Banana nut bread
Chocolate chip banana bread
Banana bread muffins
Banana crumble bread
Vegan banana bread
Blueberry banana bread
What Flour Is Commonly Used In Banana Bread?
There are many types of flour that are used for banana bread, the most common being all-purpose flour. This is solid flour and although it can sometimes be a little dry, it works great for allowing the banana bread to rise.
You can also use cake flour to make your banana bread rise. It has a light and fluffy texture, which is perfect for all types of cakes (regardless of the word ‘loaf’, banana bread is a type of cake).
If you want to give your banana bread that nutty texture, then you can also use whole wheat flour. This contains a much more earthy texture, which pairs very well with other foods that contain fruit like bananas, oranges or apples.
How Can You Use Bread Flour For Banana Bread?
You can use bread flour in your banana bread, although you’ll have to be prepared for the fact that it will alter the texture of your banana bread. You might also have to adjust different aspects of your recipe to accommodate for the difference in moisture.
Usually, the eggs and the bananas are the binding agents in banana bread and that is what gives them their moisture. Because banana bread is very heavy and filled with gluten, then you will have to add more water to prevent it from getting too dry.
What Are The Issues With Using Bread Flour In Banana Bread?
There are a few issues with using bread flour with your banana bread. One of which is the gluten levels, another issue is the lack of moisture in your banana bread mixture. Let’s have a look at these issues in detail:
Higher Gluten Content
You won’t be able to swap out your all-purpose flour for bread flour, it won’t be that simple. You will have to accommodate this switch with changes to some of the other ingredients, mainly the eggs and the banana.
This is because bread flour is a lot denser and sucks up more moisture. Bananas are also a very weighty ingredient. When you combine these with the heavy flour, then you’ll have a much thicker and drier mixture overall.
This is why it is important to have light flour for banana bread. It simply won’t be the case with this bread. You could use cake flour instead of bread flour for your mixture, although once again you might have to make a few adjustments to your recipe.
What you can do to alleviate this problem is try mixing some rice flour with your bread flour. Rice flour is completely gluten-free and will make your final banana bread loaf a lot less dense.
Moisture
As we have mentioned earlier, using bread flour will result in a lot more moisture being absorbed, which means that you’ll have to have to add more moist elements to your food to make sure that it balances out.
We would recommend adding some more eggs to the mixture, although probably no more than 1. You could also add another half or 1 whole banana to your mixture to increase the moisture levels.
The general rule should be that for every cup of bread flour that you add, you should add 2 tablespoons of liquid. This can be water or milk. If you are making vegan banana bread, you can add soya or almond milk.
All-Purpose Flour Vs. Bread Flour
The difference between bread flour and all-purpose flour is what is contained in the bread itself. All-purpose flour is made from a combination of flour, wheat and rye, whereas bread flour is made from all wheat.
Bread flour also has much higher levels of gluten than all-purpose flour. This is the protein that is found in a lot of wheat that some people find hard to break down in the digestive system. Bread flour has around 11% gluten in it, whereas all-purpose flour contains around 9%.
The lightest flour that we have mentioned on this list is cake flour, which comes with around 6% gluten. The reason why all-purpose flour has the gluten levels that it does is that it is designed to be used in all different sorts of cakes and pastries.
This makes it perfect for softer cakes like banana bread. The reason why bread flour has a higher gluten concentration is so it can provide the density that is needed for bread, including a thick crust and a chewy inside.
All-purpose flour also contains a lot of fat, which is what helps it maintain its shape and texture. The yeast in your dough causes the bread to rise, which is why gluten is such an important part of the process.
Is Bread Flour More Expensive Than All-Purpose Flour?
The fact that all-purpose flour is available from pretty much any supermarket means that it is usually a lot cheaper than the much rarer bread flour. If you are baking more than just banana bread, then it might be more sensible to buy the cheaper flour as you will be using it for a lot of different things.
However, if you are going to be baking bread and just want to try your hand at banana bread, then maybe bread flour might be the right one for you. However, you’ll need to make sure that you make the recipe adjustments that we have listed above.
What Should You Use Bread Flour For?
Bread flour is mainly used to bake loaves of bread. It is also used in pizza dough, sourdoughs and yeast bread. The fact that this flour is higher in gluten means that it will rise a lot easier, which is exactly what you want from your bread.
Bread flour also contains a lot of starch, which will certainly help with the rigidity and constitution of your bread (you won’t want it too soft or it will collapse in on itself).
However, this makes it much more difficult to use in cakes, which need to be soft by their very nature. The protein in bread flour will also be great for things like pizza, which needs to maintain its shape while it is being cooked at high temperatures.
What Is the Ideal Flour For My Banana Bread?
If you are going to go for any type of flour, then we would recommend that you use cake flour. This is extremely light and perfect for cakes like banana bread. This flour is a good counterbalance for the heavy bananas that feature predominantly in this recipe.
Other than this, we would suggest that you use all-purpose flour, again, because it has a lower starch content and contains a moderate amount of gluten. Whatever flour that you choose to use, you’ll need to make sure that it has a lighter consistency.
Rice flour is great to use in your banana bread if you want to create a completely gluten-free option. This is a very light flour, so it will blend in well with heavy bananas.
Conclusion
We hope that our guide to using bread flour in banana bread has helped you to mix up your next batch. You’ll need to remember that banana bread is very heavy and you’ll need to balance out any additional gluten or starch that you add with your flour.
Have you ever made something so delicious that you wished you could savor it forever?
Only to find that the recipe has now mysteriously vanished from your phone and the entirety of the internet. Yep, there’s not much more painful than that.
Hi, my name is Mark Williams and I have been infatuated with cooking since I was young. I would beg my mother to pull a chair up to the counter so I could watch what she was doing.
