Baking this in WI, USA... Using a light in color heavy steel pan.
Since you brought up the pan I did some research on material. Seems like Aluminized Steel would yield better results?????????
Here we go..
Pre-heat to 350 degrees.
Ingredients:
3 – Ripe Bananas
6-tablespoons melted butter
1-Cup Sugar
1-Egg
1-teaspoon Baking Soda (not powder)
1 & ½ Cup Flour-sifted with a pinch of salt
1-cup of chocolate chips
Process:
Smash 3 ripe bananas in a bowl
Add in the following and mix by hand until well blended:
1-Egg
6-tablespoons melted butter
1-cup sugar
In a separate mixing bowl combine sifted flour, BAKING SODA and salt
Add in sifted flour, BAKING SODA and salt to wet mixture.
Mix by hand until all the dry ingredients is wet. Try not to over mix and don’t use a mixer.
Grease and flour pan or use parchment paper to line pan. (Parchment paper can be tricky but works best. It is best to have a couple inches sticking over the edges on all 4 sides). You can get away with just using paper on the long sides and greasing/flouring the short sides.
Bake at 325 degrees for 65 Min.
Remove from the oven and cool on a wire rack for 30 Min.
I don’t think what you’re dealing with is really an oven temperature issue so much as a batter consistency issue that comes from the formula itself.
Baking is basically a controlled chemical reaction over time and temperature, and the only way to control those reactions is by controlling ingredient ratios. That’s where volume measurement works against you. Volume only tells us how much space something takes up in a cup—it doesn’t tell us anything about how that ingredient relates to the others in the batter. In baking, everything really needs to stay in proportion to the flour.
The biggest variable here is the bananas. Bananas contribute a surprising amount of water, and the riper they are, the more water they contain (unripe 68% water vs. ripe 75% water). When bananas are measured by number instead of weight, there’s no way to control how much water is actually going into the batter.
A peeled banana can weigh anywhere from about 115 g to well over 250 g. So using three bananas could mean 345 g or 450 g. That’s roughly a 25% swing, which is a lot of extra water if the bananas are on the larger side. If your bananas were small, 115 g each, for a total of 345 g and you measured your flour with the spoon and level method for roughly 120 g per cup, 1 1/2 cups would be roughly 180 g flour. 345÷180 = 1.91, or 191% banana to flour ratio. That’s above the standard range of 145% - 185% banana to flour ratio. So the recipe is out of balance even if the lowest amounts of banana are used with the 1 1/2 cups flour.
Flour measured by volume adds another layer of variability. A “cup” of flour can weigh anywhere from about 115 g to 175 g depending on how it’s measured. Historically, many American recipes assumed around 145 g per cup, while a lot of modern recipes assume closer to 120 g—but there’s no actual standard. The actual weight of the flour determines how much water the batter can absorb.
The brand of flour matters too, because flour is the main structural binder in this recipe. Higher-protein flours absorb more water and build a stronger gluten network. A bleached all-purpose flour like Gold Medal or Pillsbury (around 10.5% protein) don’t have the same absorption capacity as an unbleached flour like King Arthur (about 11.7%), Kirkland Organic (around 11.5%), or even some unbleached organic flours at similar protein levels. In a high-moisture batter, those differences really show up in how well the loaf sets. I never use a bleached flour in my quick breads. I use unbleached organic flour with about 10.5% protein, usually Wegmans brand or Simple Truth. Target Good & Gather Organic Flour is also good flour for quick breads.
When you put the banana variability and flour variability together, it’s very easy to end up with far more water than the flour can support, which is why the center takes so long to set while the edges keep baking.
On top of that, this recipe has a fairly high sugar level and just one egg in a banana-heavy batter. Sugar slows setting, and egg is one of the main binders. If the water content is high, one egg just isn’t doing much structural work, so the center naturally lags.
Most quick breads use oil instead of butter. It’s fine to use butter but know that oil is 100% fat, 0% water. Butter on the other hand has about 18% water. When you melt the butter, the batter has immediate access to that additional water. So in addition to the bananas, butter and egg are also contributing water.
If you’d rather not use a food scale, one way to make this more consistent is to control the bananas themselves. Using smaller bananas helps, but you can go a step further by mashing them first, then gently heating them. Place the mashed bananas in a mesh sieve set over a bowl or small saucepan and let them drain for about 20 minutes to release excess free water. You can then gently reduce that banana liquid on the stove, cool and mix it back into the bananas before adding them to the batter. That keeps the banana flavor while giving you more control over moisture.
325°F is pretty low for a quick bread. I would recommend starting at a slightly higher temperature, maybe 360°F for the first 10-15 minutes. Then reduce to 325°F for the remainder. I would not place a baking sheet under the loaf pan. If you want insulation, I would recommend you line the loaf pan with parchment paper. If you feel the top of your loaf is baking too quickly place a sheet of parchment paper over the top toward the end of baking.
Pan choice definitely influences how evenly the loaf bakes. Aluminized steel pans are my go-to pans for most all my baking because they conduct heat evenly without overheating the sides. I use Chicago Metallic, Williams Sonoma Traditional Touch, and USA Pan aluminized steel pans. USA pans run a bit hotter, which I actually like for quick breads, some rolls, and focaccia, though I often line my USA loaf pans with parchment depending on the batter.
