The Kitchen

Microwave Banana Bread

By on Saturday, March 17, 2018

How’s your banana?

If your bananas are more freckles than fruit, fear not, and follow me. Today, we’ll be pushing the unfortunate fruit to the very limits of what it means to be solid. This is banana bread…with a microwave.

Click below for full recipe and measurments.

Note: This recipe will make enough for one loaf tin…or a muffin tray, or a third of a baking tray, just pick something. This is banana bread, not neuroscience.

 

Prepare the bananas

 

Ripen your bananas fully by sealing them in a bag (2-3 days)

Ripening is accelerated by ethylene, a gas produced naturally by bananas and other climacteric fruit. Sealing the bananas together will trap the ethylene they produce, accelerating the ripening process.

  • 5 bananas

 

 

Once bananas are ripe

 

Cover the ripe bananas in a bowl with cling film and microwave ( 5 munud)

This will rupture the cells of the bananas, causing them to release their water. We can then reduce this water down, whilst keeping the banana flesh, maximizing banana flavour without introducing too much moisture to the cake.

  • 5 bananas, ripe and peeled

 

Drain the bananas over a saucepan to collect their water. ( ~ 15 munud)

You should collect about 120-180ml of water from the bananas

  • 5 bananas, microwaved

 

Reduce the banana liquid down over a medium heat. ( ~ 5 munud)

Aim to reduce the mixture to 60ml, so a reduction to between a half and a third

  •  banana liquid

 

Add the reduced banana liquid back to the banana flesh and mash / whisk until almost smooth.

  • reduced banana liquid
  • softened banana flesh

 

 

The bananas are now ready to be used in the recipe

 

Preparing the cake

 

Whisk the sugar, eggs and vanilla into the prepared banana mixture ( ~ 5 mins)

  • mashed banana mix
  • 150g light brown sugar
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract

 

Add the dry ingredients to the mixture and fold in. ( < 1 mins )

There should still see some streaks of flour in the mix when you stop folding. This prevents over developing gluten, which leads to tough cake

  • 8 3/4 oz / 250g plain flour
  • 1 tsp / 5g sodium bicarbonate
  • 1 tsp / 2.5g Sea salt (or 1/2 tsp table salt)

 

Preheat oven to 180°C (160°C fan).

 

Line a baking tray/tin of your choosing with baking paper.

Again, this can be anything, from a roasting tin to a muffin tray, whatever you want your banana bread to look like.

 

Bake the banana bread (45 – 55 mins for a loaf, 35 – 45 mins for trays )

The cake is fully baked when it’s centre registers  95°C / 205°F, the point at which an inserted skewer would come out clean.

 

Remove the banana bread from the oven and let cool. ( 1 hour)

Transfer the banana bread to a wire rack when it’s cooled enough to handle without breaking.

 

Once cooled, if intending to sculpt/decorate the banana bread, now would be the time to cut it to shape and place it in the freezer to firm up.

Prepare the icing as follows, as the cake cools / the cut cake is frozen.

 

Icing the cake

 

Beat the cheese, sugar and vanilla until smooth. ( ~ 5 mins)

Slow and steady wins the race here. Unless you enjoy inhaling and sweeping up clouds of icing sugar that is.

  • 75g cream cheese
  • 150g icing sugar
  • 1 tbsp vanilla icing

 

Whisk in the oil until homogenous. ( < 1 munud )

This is the amount of oil that gave the ideal consistency to my icing. Soft but firm at room temperature, fluid and free flowing at body temperature.

  • 25-30g rapeseed oil (or other neutral flavoured oil)

 

Remove the banana brad from the fridge / freezer

Warm the icing in the microwave until free flowing . ( ~ 10 – 20 eiliad )

Be sure to mix your icing as you heat it, so that it’s heated evenly throughout. This will keep the icing’s flow smooth and the cake’s finish flawless.

 

Spoon / pipe the icing onto the banan bread working from the top rim inwards.

The hope here is that the warm icing will meet the cold cake surface and set instantly at the boundary, whilst icing from above will continue to flow over the set layer beneath, creating a smooth, continuous finish.

Store the cakes in the fridge to allow the icing to set anf for the banan bread beneath to thaw before serving.

 

More Stuff

Hope you’ve enjoyed this little experiment into ethylene and icing. For more kitchen science and wizardry, check out out universal Cookie Dough recipe which uses browned butter as it’s secret culinary hack.

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