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I agree with your bread and cake definition , you are for me some sort of bread jedi and my pizza/bread dough making improved by a magnitude of 10 times ever since I watched back in 2022 your fundamentals of baking (temperature control, hydration , folding, preferments...). I get absolute consistent results and your channel has affected my life (since I love bread so much). More than any other. Keep it up buddy, you have an amazing channel.
I have about the same thoughts about the bread vs cake debate. But still there is stuff like flat breads, that do not use yeast, and there is stuff like puncakes that can be done using yeast, and there is soda bread. But sometimes the exceptions make the rule. Will deffinetlly think more about this when baking in the future)
This is one of my pet peeves with many discussions on the internet (not so much this channel, which is quite refreshing). A lot of people view baking as a black art that follows opaque rigid rules. Baking, according to this point of view, must precisely follow a written recipe and there is no wiggle room ever. I love how Charlie shows that things are a lot more fluid. You can go from a cake to a bread or vice versa, and you can often pick arbitrary points in between both extremes. And as long as you understand the technique and how the different ingredients and their ratios affect the outcome, baking can be very creative or even amenable to ad hoc modifications. This particular video was super fun in showing two very different interpretations of the same theme. I also agree that English naming conventions for banana "bread" are somewhat confusing. We have this conversation regularly at home, when we can't quite agree if something is cake or bread. On the whole, I am with you here, exceptions are awesome. I like making baked goods in non-traditional ways. It frequently results in amazing new dishes. Yeasted cakes in particular are quite awesome. I fondly remember eating "Hermann" cakes made from sourdough, when growing up in Germany. And I have had great cake-style Christmas stollen, even if a good yeasted version is more traditional. And yes, over the years, I have worked out good recipes for both options.
Not when there's as many exceptions as the rule. lol Fermentation is irrelevant to cake/bread. Cake is iced/glazed could be a definition. but the most accurate definition is clearly the purpose. Cake is a dessert. Bread is something that accompanies on the side of a meal or is a snack. Otherwise, they're the same thing.
Charlie: For banana bread you want riper bananas the ones with freckles, which are sugar spots and indicates a high level of sweetness, softer flesh and more flavor.
I let em get almost black and then pop them in the freezer. Then I can pull them out to use whenever. Once defrosted, they look absolutely disgusting, but they are so sweet. Barely even have to mash them. Only thing is that they come out a quite runny after a freezer vacation. I'm sure there's some scientific explanation about cell walls rupturing from being frozen, releasing more water, etc... but I'm no scientist. Wonder if it effects the hydration of the bread. I smell an experiment- and some banana bread- in my future!
Hi Charlie I'm with you on the definitions of bread vs cake. I absolutely love how your comparison videos address questions I never really thought I should wonder about! I do miss watching you knead bread though..in my opinion thats the most fulfilling part of the bread making process ! 😄
Baked both the "cake" and the "bread" recipes today - had enough banana to also make an additional "bread" with raisins. Enjoying all three slices as part of my dinner, with hazelnut spread on the cake and bread (with chocolate chips) and peanut butter on the bread with raisins. All are quite delicious indeed. 🍌🍌 Thanks for sharing this "twofer" recipe/comparison video. Photos have been posted on "Charlie's Baking Buddies".
Hey man I just wanted to drop a line that I’ve been watching you recently and I’m making this exact “true baking” banana bread recipe right now. Waiting for the first 45 min to pass before the 2nd fold. Great work man, keep it up!
Great video, thanks for two great recipes! Im from the States and have always said Banana Bread, not Banana Cake. But Europe has a lot of words that are the same but have different meanings (ie cake, cookie, biscuit and pudding). I really appreciated your dive into it and your helpful definition! But I just I will still always call it Banana Bread... but now I do want to try and make your Banana Cake and real Banana Bread it does look good and interesting to try!
I learnt from an article (just can't recall where) Banana "bread" = banana quickbread. From a same recipe, Big loaf = Quickbread Small size = Muffin Quickbread base is soda bread (need acid and alkaline reaction) And..... One article mentioned get the whole thing into the oven within 3 minutes of bringing the batter together, otherwise will not get a good rise due to the acid and alkaline reaction already started.
My experience is as long as you pour the batter into the pan quickly and then handle the pan carefully it can sit and wait for at least 20 minutes without the bubbles leaving the batter.
While traditional soda bread remains an exception, modern cake, muffin, or quickbread recipes that call for baking powder tend to use "double acting" baking powder. That provides leavening not just on initial dissolution into the liquid, but also during the bake itself as the batter comes up to temperature. Recipes that rely exclusively on a baking soda plus acid reaction can exhaust the leavening power before baking, as you describe. The bubbles so-created can still grow with oven spring, but working the dough long after introducing the leavening can still flatten out the quickbread/cake/muffin.
For me, cake vs bread difference is in the consistency, regardless of how it's made. Cake is soft and easy to break apart. Bread is fluffier, harder and the crumb is stronger. I could be wrong, but that's how I see it.
I do like yeast-raised banana breads, and they’re pretty rare, so I am glad for another. I don’t like banana quick breads made with a lot of sugar, though. If I want that I make banana cake.
When I was a kid my mom would make banana "bread" aka cake, one with walnuts and one with chocolate chips. We would toast it for a minute to get it warm, then we would smear a nice amount of Nutella on it, much like you did! Fun video :)
I made both recipes last Saturday. It was the first time I ever tried making bread without the usage of a bread machine. When making the cake I lazily mixed all ingredients together at once; it turned out the most moist cake I have ever tried. The bread I made several mistakes; I forgot to score the bread, and I didn't know how to shape it. I ended up baking it longer than necessary in order to get the desired color, and then when cutting into it it was obviously underproofed. I also cut it earlier than appropriate; I usually let my bread rest overnight before cutting into them, but I didn't wait for either of these recipes. It also turned out amazing. Today I am making them again, trying to avoid my mistakes. The bread is made with a different brand of bread flour, and the butter was not quite yet fully softened before being mixed in, but otherwise no mistakes. I noticed this time the bread dough is far more dry and less sticky than the first time. Last time it was necessary for me to wet my hands and scraper for folding, but this time the bread dough is almost as dry as cookie dough. My best guess is I mistakenly used the wrong amount of flour last time. Do you have any thoughts? The bread is at this point in time in its second rise.
Finally made this (the yeasted bread) and it's SO good! I can't believe how banana-y it tastes. I did cold ferment, extra choc chips, and added walnuts. Seriously, make this loaf. It makes PB&J taste like heaven.
as long as the people i'm baking for will eat it, they can call it whatever they want ! I have a banana bread (cake?) recipe i've been making for a few years, mostly to bring into the office. its 1.5 cups white flour, 1.5 cups wheat flour, 3 bananas (I freeze them then thaw, this breaks them up mechanically) 1 cup sugar , 1 stick butter , salt and baking soda and two eggs. Vanilla extract of course. Over the years i've switched the banana out for other things like canned pumpkin or various winter squash. Acorn squash and butternut squash are my favorites, and pumpkin does well but might need to bake a little longer. Various spices for each... pumpkin spices for pumpkin, cinnamon for butternut , a little cinnamon and a little nutmeg for acorn squash. Try it out if you want! Can also cut the sugar down to 2/3 if you prefer (I do, personally, but I bake for others so I always judge my bread by how much didn't get eaten ultimately)
I recently find out that not always using bread technque (ingredients?) is best solution. I made christmas bread with poppy seeds, but this time, since that was brioche-ish recipe, I tried adding salt. Originally it has flour, milk, sugar, yeast, eggs and butter. And I must say that salt kinda ruined the flawor. I mean it was not that bad but far better without salt.
There isn’t a single baking recipe that doesn’t benefit from salt whether it’s cakes, cookies, or bread. If salt ruined something you made, you used too much.
@@annchovy6 i added around 2% which wouldn’t make things salty, would just make bread taste specific taste. Like in this case, it wasn’t salty but changes the taste in a way i’d say is not desirable in this recipe
I prepared both banana recipes for yesterday's family gathering. Out of the two, the banana cake stood out as the most remarkable one I have tried so far. I enhanced its flavor by incorporating additional chocolate and a few prunes, which truly elevated its taste.The banana bread dough turned out to be a bit sticky, despite my efforts to improve its texture by folding the dough and adding more flour. Although it did not rise significantly during baking, it had a wonderful, strong banana flavor, and I must admit that I prefer it over the banana cake. Perhaps, you could make a similar video demonstrating how to prepare both quick cornbread and yeast cornbread.
Great recipes; I will try them asap! I never really thought about ( in my experience) that the banana bread I have been eating my whole life was actually cake. Will skip the chocolate bits though.
Hello Charlie, I am from Brazil and always follow your videos I would like to suggest two Brazilian breads one is eaten in the traditional Brazilian churasco and another very traditional bread made with cheese, their names are "pão de alho" and "pão de queijo".
Well I guess a cake is not bread, but bread can be a cake if you enrich it enough. Oh wait, what about soda bread! It's fun to explore the difference!Thank you for the great video
About the debate, back in the day I'd start my Fridays with a flat white and "banana bread". I remember asking the chef there why it's called banana bread when its pretty much a cake. He said it's probably because it's baked in a loaf tin. I said "but what about pound cake?" He gave me a blank look and served the next customer. 12 years later and I finally have an answer... IT'S NOT! I totally agree. Banana bread, as we know it, is cake. But no harm in that, and I'll keep calling it that. But when making your actual banana bread, I'll call it banana bread too but call it Bana-nana-nana-nana-nana bread!
I wouldn't be surprised if taxes were the culprit! In the past, breads, cakes and other baked goods were taxed at different rates. I would guess bread at one point was taxed less than cakes, so bakeries started calling different cakes as breads as a result?
Your chef wasn’t very informed. It’s called banana bread because it’s a QUICK bread just like biscuits, scones, pancakes, and muffins are. If you go to culinary school they teach you this is in the beginner pastry course for culinary arts students. A quick bread is leavened with baking powder and/or soda. In spite of how people interpret banana bread (ie by adding lots of sugar and fat), quick breads are differentiated from cake by being made with the blending or cutting methods (reverse creaming kind of fits the cutting method) rather than by creaming or whipping. Quick breads also contain less sugar and fat than cakes and are of denser texture than cake. I get lots of people make banana cake and call it bread, but I don’t call them bread if they have equal or close to equal amounts of sugar. If I’m making something with a fine and very light crumb, that’s cake. I have the same problem with how muffins are interpreted outside of the USA. A lot of that is Americans’ fault in the first place for using lots of sugar in muffins, but non-Americans really do seem to think a muffin is a cupcake without frosting based on every muffin recipe being made with creamed butter and tons of sugar.
To me I think the difference between a banana quick bread and a banana cake, is the pan you bake it in. I always bake cake. Grandma Sue in central Indiana
Hello, Fearless Leader: I decided to bake your banana bread loaf, but I dearly love what you call banana cake - and I have to agree that it's more cake than bread. I thought about what I could use instead of bananas and decided on chunky applesauce, currants and more cinnamon. I love cinnamon so I added a lot more, but I kept in mind what you told us about cinnamon affecting the yeast. To compensate, I added extra yeast and for more flavor and texture, I added chopped walnuts. I was concerned this morning when I took the dough out of the fridge because it hadn't risen much. I hoped that was because our refrigerators are set to a colder temp than normal. I put the dough in the oven with the light on and that helped. The dough didn't produce a great rise but I suppose that was normal because of the sugar and cinnamon content. I shaped the dough into rolls and used my burger bun tin, brushed them with egg wash, and put them back in the oven to rise. I baked them at a lower temp about 35 minutes so the crust wouldn't burn. Oh, my goodness, but they turned out tender, moist and delicious! I hope it is okay with you if I use your recipes as a starting point for some of my baking. I will definitely bake these again.
As others have pointed out, not all bread contains yeast. Soda bread is leavened with baking soda, and other chemical leaveners are used in other breads, but those are still breads. Matzah has no leavener in it at all, but it is still bread. And cakes can be leavened with yeast; indeed, before the invention of chemical leaveners, there was no other way to make cakes. So it cannot be the leavener that defines the difference between bread and cake. I would say that the defining difference is that bread is made from dough, and cake is made from batter. If you pour it into its container to bake, it is a cake. If you place it into its container to bake, or, even more so, it does not need a container at all, it is bread.
It's not just about the leavener. Like I said it's also the high proportion of eggs, butter, and fat. But I do like the definition of dough vs batter ✌️
Interesting point you made at the beginning at 0:30. But a lot of people actually refer to pandoro and panettone as cake, even though they are kneaded.
My differentiation of cake and bread: Cake needs pan/mold to cook on to while bread does not. Cake needs baking pan because it's liquidy/loose. Bread can be shapen and baked without pan because it's more structured even before baking.
And that's why I never say "pan de banana" (banana bread) but "budín de banana" ("budín" is a cake but long, made in a mold like the one you used here, or longer). Well, now I will have to try and make a real banana bread!
Baked a double batch of the Banana Bread last night this time with raisins instead of chocolate chips. Sharing at the office (everyone loves this bread) and serving it with the Pine Nut Butter Praline Spread from our friend @AveryRaassen - photos have been posted.
Charlie, personally what do you think of toasted flour? Since we don't need gluten when making banana cake, is it alright to change 20% of cake flour to toasted flour?
Hmm... I would say a cake is anything baked from a batter (liquid) and a bread is anything baked from a dough (solid... sort of) though I'm sure there's lots of exceptions to that, and there's more than just cakes and breads. I would consider shortbread something different entirely; same goes for cookies (UK biscuits), and pie crusts and the like obviously aren't a type of bread. A brownie may technically be a type of cake, but personally I'd consider it something different entirely. It seems like there's a lot of rules in baking, like baker's percentage, fermentation time and the like, but the actual result of baking might be something that can never be defined by simple rules 🤔
You can use the liquid from a can of chickpeas as an egg replacer. 3tbsp equals one egg. You can also use flax seed mixed with water, but I forget the ratio. If you Google it there are a bunch of options out there.
Great vid as always! I have a question that's not directly related to the video, but to the principles of baking. If both fat and whole wheat shorten gluten strands, then how come fats can make a bread puff up larger and softer, and whole wheat makes breads heavier and denser?
Whole wheat does not necessarily shorten the gluten strands. It depends on how it's made and how much water is used. Fat not only makes the dough looser but it gives it a certain mouth-feel when eating it. Flour alone can't do that.
I've always gone for butter with banana bread, rather than Nutella. And I don't think I've ever had chocolate chips in banana bread. I believe it's usually a soda bread here in Australia. I've always assumed that they call it "bread" because it alliterates. Similarly, the loaf made with carrots is called carrot cake* because that also alliterates. Other than my alliteration theory for banana bread and carrot cake, I'm not going to get into when something _technically_ is or isn't bread. You could use "uses yeast to leaven the dough" as a criterion but then I've seen one or two recipes that have both yeast and a chemical leavening. And then there's unleavened bread. This is like the question: when is a pair of pants not a pair of jeans? I can't answer it - and I find it better to avoid thinking about it because, if I do, I will do my head in. * And now, thinking about it, the banana bread is not iced, whereas the carrot cake is. EDIT: After watching Max Miller's episode on WW 2 carrot cake, icing vs no icing isn't a criterion, either. You can have cakes that aren't iced and there are some buns that are. The only other possible criterion I've come up with is: if it's made with yeast then it's definitely not a cake - but it may be bread even if it isn't made with yeast. But I have this really vague memory of things called "yeast cakes" so I am probably still wrong.
Charlie: When making banana bread you should always use golden raisins, regular dark raisins have a stronger flavor that can blunt the delicate flavor of bananas. I always want English walnuts in my banana bread too. Try it you will see a major difference and let me know what think.
Hello! I made your recipe and the flavour was excellent - although the crust didn't brown as much as yours. I followed your temperature recommendation (I cooked for 40 mins at 150 ºC) but turns out the fan makes a big impact. In a quick search I found out that if your oven doesn't have a fan you have to increase temperature by 20 ºC, so in an electric oven you cook it at 170 ºC. Can you confirm that? Thanks in advance and thank you for your excellent bread content! Love your channel!
Baked another loaf of the Banana Bread this week (along with several other bakes) to share at the office - they really, really like it. I will add this to my menu of "regular" bakes for the office. 🍌 🍞🍌🍞❤❤
What is the difference between a muffin and a cupcake? :) Is it a batter or is it a dough? A "quick bread" I suppose. love the idea of a leavened banana bread.. going to try your recipe. however, I do think, banana "cake" is better with a higher % of banana puree....hmm.. glad to have found your channel.
I grew up with banana CAKE being a staple bake Within our house. The recipe used was always my grannies recipe. Now as a 35-year-old mother, I still make my grannies banana cake but for my own family. I agree on the yeast and baking powder front - but also, my banana cake always uses the older, slightly brown bananas, which are sweeter and are more moist. Modern “banana bread” recipes seem to ask for fresh bananas, with no brown marks which are less sweet & sugary… Lockdown brought the banana bread craze on & now, when ever I make my family banana cake, everyone is like ‘ oh, you’ve made banana bread!’ And I always try clarify, no, it is Cake. There is a difference 😂 (and in my opinion, better 😉)
Baguettes made anywhere else in the world can be called baguettes etc., so I think it does not work the same way as with wines or cheeses. Bread is a much simpler thing to replicate and there is nothing so much special about it no matter where it is made.
I notice you are not using metric measurements for the size of the loaf pan I measured my pans at 1.2 litres because that's how much water they hold. How does this compare with your 1 pound pans? Does a 1 pound pan hold 1 pound of water or is that the weight of the dough you put in it?
I prefer over ripe bananas I think it gives a better flavor. no matter what method I use I enjoy watching the expression on people's face as they eat the bread/cake.
Everything does. But some are more important than others. There are no rules for chocolate. More cinnamon can slow down fermentation. The water in the banana will increase dough hydration.
That is a good question. It's just how most cakes are made and I have never questioned it. The main purpose is to melt the sugar. If you whisk the sugar and eggs instead of butter and sugar, and then try to add the butter it may not incorporate into the mix that well perhaps. I guess I'm going to have to try it out now 😅
To me, the leavening agent is irrelevant. What matters is how I plan to consume it. Cake is a sweet treat, can be eaten as dessert, by itself or with a hot beverage of your choice. Bread tends to be plain (ie can't bee too sweet), tends to be flavor neutral, but may have a distinct flavor profile, and is meant to accompany other components of a meal.
In the Principles Of Baking you recommend delaying the addition of fat until gluten is formed. However, in banana bread, you added fat before flour. Is it because the fat here is less than 14%? As you stated once earlier that a small percentage of fat won’t have a great impact on gluten. Would you please confirm the safe percentage of fat to add without affecting the strength of gluten?
@@ChainBaker Interesting! So, I should be concerned about the timing of adding the fat, only if I’m using the kneading method. Thank you for your reply, and for the insightful videos/tutorials you share.
Historically, cakes were leavened with yeast, so defining cakes and bread depending on their yeast content or lack thereof is kind of moot. Maybe how you eat the item has more to do with whether or not it is a cake or bread.
In my opinion, the most fundamental difference between both is structure. Breads have way more structure than cakes, which is clearly visible in the final product's crumb and texture. However, this is only a layman opinion.
I have had the worst time with banana 'bread', which by your way, no yeast, is cake. I think most call it bread simply because it's usually in a loaf pan. The only time mine came out right was when I poured it into a bundt pan. I will try your way of bread. I'd rather have bread than cake anyway :)
It's funny my wife made a a sugar free cake the other day and she wanted me to try it and I did, I told her it tasted like bread (dense bread). She put like 2 table spoons of my sugar free Whole Earth sweetener into the mix. It was dense, just like bread without the yeast. So many channels talk about sugar free and then they are adding maple syrup or powered confectioners or my Whole Earth type of sweetener. I'm wondering if there is a less dense cake that can have the sugary taste without, fruits are OK. I'm thinking also she may believe less sugar equals less calories which I don't think is the case. I do think she is looking for a good moist cake without all the calories associated. Any ideas would be welcome. I know it is a tall order but if someone has an idea I know it will be you.
When adding the sugar for the banana cake is it 100g total or is 100g for each type of sugar? Also it looks closer to a cup of sugar total to me but idk.
99% of the banana bread recipes on the internet tells how to make your banana cake which always confused me. now this is the banana bread we're talking. Although I will still go for the cake as a lazy baker
There's a legal definition, at least in some countries, and that caused problems for the Sandwich producer Subway. In Germany, bread and cake are legally distinguished by their sugar content, thus, if you drown a dough in sugar, you can make it look like a baguette or sandwich, but you're not allowed to sell it as such... IMHO, a cake can be made with sourdough, and bread can contain sugar, eggs, milk, nuts, resins, or even spices. What makes a bread a bread is to me, that it's made of flour, and yeast, and is meant as primary nutrition and not a treat. The fat content would not be a good indicator, as many breads do have milk, butter, or other fats to a high degree. Many of them have fallen out of favor (except Naan), but they were beloved for being filling (often carried with smoked sausage, and butter by travelers). Difficult cases would be the Japanese bread you made, as it has a fairly high sugar content, and things used as breads that have not been risen with yeast. Similarly, using rice, oatmeal, etc instead of wheat, or similar grains makes it a bit blurred. PS: I occasionally recycle brown bananas with oatmeal to make what some call energy balls. It's something one can do fast, cheap, and can be stored for days, and used on the go.
Wow, even more wrong than the usual repeating of this myth. The Subway bread vs. cake story comes from Ireland, not Germany, and the Irish courts did not rule that Subway’s bread is cake or that it cannot be called or sold as bread, despite what many on the internet would have you believe. The whole thing just comes down to a tax dispute. Ireland taxes basic, staple foods differently from other food products. One of these staples-for-tax-purposes is “bread”, which the tax law defines to be essentially lean dough bread (i.e. just flour, water, salt and yeast) or very minimally enriched dough bread. That means that things like cakes and pastries don’t qualify as staple “bread” under the tax law, but it also means that enriched dough breads like brioche, challah and most “sandwich bread” also do not fall into the lower tax category. Subway wanted to pay lower taxes on their bread, similar to other sandwich shops that were using lean bread. The court ruled that Subway’s bread was too enriched to qualify for the tax break. That is all. Despite some really sloppy reporting and endless repetition on the internet, the Irish court did not rule that Subway’s bread is legally cake, or that it cannot be advertised, referred to, or sold as bread. It’s just not low-tax, staple food bread.
I don't think neither gluten contents or yeast leavening makes for a very good definition, as you mention there's plenty of options for gluten free bread and there's a lot of old recipes all over Europe for yeast leavened cakes. One quality that might separate the two could be whether the process involves creating a dough or a batter.
Hard one this. I guess for me it is the sugar content that makes it a cake or bread. Few exceptions on both ways. But these days with the no carb stuff and keto friendly people are quick to call something 'bread' coz the make up you have is where you normally would have bread. It's like the plant based burgers that are not real burgers but still have burger or a hint of the word burger in their name.
What a fun baking comparison - Banana "cake" is what we would call a "quick bread" - and I have never made a Banana "yeasted" bread. I have some ripe bananas - I just might have to give this a try. 🍌🍌 ChainBaker fans! If you haven't already, please share your bakes with family and friends and post photos on your social media channels and of course, don't forget to mention ChainBaker's YT channel and ask them to subscribe - we are now at 135K subscribers and continue to grow each week!!!! 🤩🤩🤩 Don't forget to sign up for "Charlie's Baking Buddies" - a great community with other bakers - we share photos, advice, comments, ideas and recipes (211 members sharing almost 1300 photos of their beautiful home bakes). You can find the link in the Description section (click "SHOW MORE"). Go "Team ChainBaker"!!! 📣
Hahahaaaah!!! Here it is! I've been waiting for this one with baited breath, as you may have guessed! [edit] I remember back when we discussed this like... a year ago! I'd just made a chocolate banana challah based on your chocolate challah! Crazy! You've been perfecting this for almost a year?! Will be making this (bread) with the kids on Tuesday. Will cold ferment the final prove in the fridge overnight and have fresh "actual" banana bread in the morning! And if i were to double up, would i need to adjust fermentation times?
I'll let you in on a secret - most of the breads I film are made for first time there and then 😅 Sometimes they turn out and sometimes they don't. But most times they do. This recipe could be perfected and made even better with some adjustments I'm sure. Did you try it? How did it turn out? A larger dough tends to ferment a bit more actively, so you may want to reduce the yeast or make it cooler or adjust the fermentation times.
@@ChainBaker Hahaha, that’s f*in badass. 😂😂😂 I’m not surprised though. That’s pretty much how it goes for me following your recipes and principles. 👍🏻 It turned out quite good. Very nice flavour; buttery and not too sweet; rose well; best toasted with butter! I’ll give details in the community. But just quickly I doubled the recipe and adjusted the fermenting times because it was super sticky (heritage flour wasn’t tightening) and my kitchen was quite cold (18°C). Got quite dark in the bake too. Left to ferment from 01:00-11:00. I’ll post photos. 😉 Dreaming about breakfast tomorrow. 😂👍🏻
Your opinion is interesting and I don't want to contradict it. I do have a friend that can't consume gluten, so is her gluten-free bread considered cake?
Here is something for you Sir. I have been studying with AI on sweet-breads. I have been using your teachings and trying things and such, and I have found something quite curious and I want you to know. If possible, you should be the one who does it. Coin a term (there is no term as of now) for that wonderful, sweet-gooey coating that develops on the outside of the bread in the culinary world as I can find. If there is, please tell me what it is called. t.y. :)
I’m going to try this without the chocolate. Then if I like it, I’ll add the chocolate bc I prefer my banana loaf with pecan or walnuts or even plain rather than chocolate.
Charlie: The main difference between banana bread and cake is the type of flour and mixing techniques. Banana bread is made with all purpose flour and while you don't want to beat it to death it is a reasonably strong quick bread leavened with baking powder. Banana cake on the other hand requires cake flour and a much gentler touch when mixing the ingredients. Banana bread is a great afternoon snack and can easily be converted to muffins. Banana cake is a light delicate cake that requires a nice icing great for afternoon tea. Either is delicious. Banana cake is the fussier cousin of banana bread.
I don't think there's a useful rule to distinguish bread from cake. To begin with, I think a bread can also be a cake at the same time. But more importantly, I think that what distinguishes them are many different traits, or qualities, and the relationship between those traits. Yeast as a leavener points in the direction of bread, but doesn't make it bread. High sugar content points in the direction of cake, but doesn't make it cake.
Great recipes! But have you tried letting the bananas darken a bit, to increase the sugar concentration in them? I think this should make the taste a little richer.🤔 Although I understand that the bananas that were available were taken for the video.
My poor brain. Dunno about the Bread / Cake definition, but I do know the difference between Biscuit and Cake. McVities set the definition since the UK government were trying to charge them extra tax to sell Jaffa Cakes as biscuits. So, somethings a biscuit if “when it goes stale it turns soft”. A cake on the other hand, turns stale when it goes hard 😂 Was on an episode of QI back when Stephen Fry had it.
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I agree with your bread and cake definition , you are for me some sort of bread jedi and my pizza/bread dough making improved by a magnitude of 10 times ever since I watched back in 2022 your fundamentals of baking (temperature control, hydration , folding, preferments...). I get absolute consistent results and your channel has affected my life (since I love bread so much). More than any other. Keep it up buddy, you have an amazing channel.
I have about the same thoughts about the bread vs cake debate. But still there is stuff like flat breads, that do not use yeast, and there is stuff like puncakes that can be done using yeast, and there is soda bread. But sometimes the exceptions make the rule. Will deffinetlly think more about this when baking in the future)
This is one of my pet peeves with many discussions on the internet (not so much this channel, which is quite refreshing). A lot of people view baking as a black art that follows opaque rigid rules. Baking, according to this point of view, must precisely follow a written recipe and there is no wiggle room ever.
I love how Charlie shows that things are a lot more fluid. You can go from a cake to a bread or vice versa, and you can often pick arbitrary points in between both extremes. And as long as you understand the technique and how the different ingredients and their ratios affect the outcome, baking can be very creative or even amenable to ad hoc modifications. This particular video was super fun in showing two very different interpretations of the same theme.
I also agree that English naming conventions for banana "bread" are somewhat confusing. We have this conversation regularly at home, when we can't quite agree if something is cake or bread.
On the whole, I am with you here, exceptions are awesome. I like making baked goods in non-traditional ways. It frequently results in amazing new dishes. Yeasted cakes in particular are quite awesome. I fondly remember eating "Hermann" cakes made from sourdough, when growing up in Germany. And I have had great cake-style Christmas stollen, even if a good yeasted version is more traditional. And yes, over the years, I have worked out good recipes for both options.
Not when there's as many exceptions as the rule. lol Fermentation is irrelevant to cake/bread. Cake is iced/glazed could be a definition. but the most accurate definition is clearly the purpose. Cake is a dessert. Bread is something that accompanies on the side of a meal or is a snack. Otherwise, they're the same thing.
Charlie: For banana bread you want riper bananas the ones with freckles, which are sugar spots and indicates a high level of sweetness, softer flesh and more flavor.
I let em get almost black and then pop them in the freezer. Then I can pull them out to use whenever. Once defrosted, they look absolutely disgusting, but they are so sweet. Barely even have to mash them.
Only thing is that they come out a quite runny after a freezer vacation. I'm sure there's some scientific explanation about cell walls rupturing from being frozen, releasing more water, etc... but I'm no scientist. Wonder if it effects the hydration of the bread.
I smell an experiment- and some banana bread- in my future!
This is the video I never knew I always wanted. Whenever I try a recipe for banana bread, it ends up being cake. Now I know.
Hi Charlie I'm with you on the definitions of bread vs cake. I absolutely love how your comparison videos address questions I never really thought I should wonder about! I do miss watching you knead bread though..in my opinion thats the most fulfilling part of the bread making process ! 😄
Baked both the "cake" and the "bread" recipes today - had enough banana to also make an additional "bread" with raisins. Enjoying all three slices as part of my dinner, with hazelnut spread on the cake and bread (with chocolate chips) and peanut butter on the bread with raisins. All are quite delicious indeed. 🍌🍌
Thanks for sharing this "twofer" recipe/comparison video. Photos have been posted on "Charlie's Baking Buddies".
FYI - everyone in the office LOVED both the cake and the bread - but I think they favored the "bread" version, even the one with raisins.
Hey man I just wanted to drop a line that I’ve been watching you recently and I’m making this exact “true baking” banana bread recipe right now. Waiting for the first 45 min to pass before the 2nd fold. Great work man, keep it up!
My definition: I would eat both! Thank you, Charlie!
Great video, thanks for two great recipes! Im from the States and have always said Banana Bread, not Banana Cake. But Europe has a lot of words that are the same but have different meanings (ie cake, cookie, biscuit and pudding).
I really appreciated your dive into it and your helpful definition! But I just I will still always call it Banana Bread... but now I do want to try and make your Banana Cake and real Banana Bread it does look good and interesting to try!
This is how cake and bread are defined in my house. I've never seen a genuine banana BREAD though. Gotta try this, thanks mate.
I learnt from an article (just can't recall where)
Banana "bread" = banana quickbread.
From a same recipe,
Big loaf = Quickbread
Small size = Muffin
Quickbread base is soda bread (need acid and alkaline reaction)
And..... One article mentioned get the whole thing into the oven within 3 minutes of bringing the batter together, otherwise will not get a good rise due to the acid and alkaline reaction already started.
My experience is as long as you pour the batter into the pan quickly and then handle the pan carefully it can sit and wait for at least 20 minutes without the bubbles leaving the batter.
While traditional soda bread remains an exception, modern cake, muffin, or quickbread recipes that call for baking powder tend to use "double acting" baking powder. That provides leavening not just on initial dissolution into the liquid, but also during the bake itself as the batter comes up to temperature.
Recipes that rely exclusively on a baking soda plus acid reaction can exhaust the leavening power before baking, as you describe. The bubbles so-created can still grow with oven spring, but working the dough long after introducing the leavening can still flatten out the quickbread/cake/muffin.
Interesting comparison, thank you!
The best thing on banana bread/cake (we call it banana bread) is a nice schmeer of cream cheese. It balances the sweetness just perfectly.
For me, cake vs bread difference is in the consistency, regardless of how it's made. Cake is soft and easy to break apart. Bread is fluffier, harder and the crumb is stronger.
I could be wrong, but that's how I see it.
Yeah I totally agree with you makes total sense
I made the bread today and it turned out just like yours!
I do like yeast-raised banana breads, and they’re pretty rare, so I am glad for another.
I don’t like banana quick breads made with a lot of sugar, though. If I want that I make banana cake.
When I was a kid my mom would make banana "bread" aka cake, one with walnuts and one with chocolate chips. We would toast it for a minute to get it warm, then we would smear a nice amount of Nutella on it, much like you did! Fun video :)
I made both recipes last Saturday. It was the first time I ever tried making bread without the usage of a bread machine. When making the cake I lazily mixed all ingredients together at once; it turned out the most moist cake I have ever tried. The bread I made several mistakes; I forgot to score the bread, and I didn't know how to shape it. I ended up baking it longer than necessary in order to get the desired color, and then when cutting into it it was obviously underproofed. I also cut it earlier than appropriate; I usually let my bread rest overnight before cutting into them, but I didn't wait for either of these recipes. It also turned out amazing. Today I am making them again, trying to avoid my mistakes. The bread is made with a different brand of bread flour, and the butter was not quite yet fully softened before being mixed in, but otherwise no mistakes. I noticed this time the bread dough is far more dry and less sticky than the first time. Last time it was necessary for me to wet my hands and scraper for folding, but this time the bread dough is almost as dry as cookie dough. My best guess is I mistakenly used the wrong amount of flour last time. Do you have any thoughts? The bread is at this point in time in its second rise.
It could be that. No matter how strong the flour is, this dough should never have a dry texture like that.
Finally made this (the yeasted bread) and it's SO good! I can't believe how banana-y it tastes. I did cold ferment, extra choc chips, and added walnuts. Seriously, make this loaf. It makes PB&J taste like heaven.
as long as the people i'm baking for will eat it, they can call it whatever they want !
I have a banana bread (cake?) recipe i've been making for a few years, mostly to bring into the office. its 1.5 cups white flour, 1.5 cups wheat flour, 3 bananas (I freeze them then thaw, this breaks them up mechanically) 1 cup sugar , 1 stick butter , salt and baking soda and two eggs. Vanilla extract of course.
Over the years i've switched the banana out for other things like canned pumpkin or various winter squash. Acorn squash and butternut squash are my favorites, and pumpkin does well but might need to bake a little longer. Various spices for each... pumpkin spices for pumpkin, cinnamon for butternut , a little cinnamon and a little nutmeg for acorn squash. Try it out if you want!
Can also cut the sugar down to 2/3 if you prefer (I do, personally, but I bake for others so I always judge my bread by how much didn't get eaten ultimately)
Tip for the flavor of either the cake or the bread: if you don’t use chocolate chips, a bit of grated lemon zest is a tasty addition.
I recently find out that not always using bread technque (ingredients?) is best solution. I made christmas bread with poppy seeds, but this time, since that was brioche-ish recipe, I tried adding salt. Originally it has flour, milk, sugar, yeast, eggs and butter. And I must say that salt kinda ruined the flawor. I mean it was not that bad but far better without salt.
There isn’t a single baking recipe that doesn’t benefit from salt whether it’s cakes, cookies, or bread. If salt ruined something you made, you used too much.
@@annchovy6 i added around 2% which wouldn’t make things salty, would just make bread taste specific taste. Like in this case, it wasn’t salty but changes the taste in a way i’d say is not desirable in this recipe
I prepared both banana recipes for yesterday's family gathering. Out of the two, the banana cake stood out as the most remarkable one I have tried so far. I enhanced its flavor by incorporating additional chocolate and a few prunes, which truly elevated its taste.The banana bread dough turned out to be a bit sticky, despite my efforts to improve its texture by folding the dough and adding more flour. Although it did not rise significantly during baking, it had a wonderful, strong banana flavor, and I must admit that I prefer it over the banana cake. Perhaps, you could make a similar video demonstrating how to prepare both quick cornbread and yeast cornbread.
This is deliciously scientific! Thanks!
Great recipes; I will try them asap! I never really thought about ( in my experience) that the banana bread I have been eating my whole life was actually cake. Will skip the chocolate bits though.
Hello Charlie, I am from Brazil and always follow your videos I would like to suggest two Brazilian breads one is eaten in the traditional Brazilian churasco and another very traditional bread made with cheese, their names are "pão de alho" and "pão de queijo".
Well I guess a cake is not bread, but bread can be a cake if you enrich it enough. Oh wait, what about soda bread! It's fun to explore the difference!Thank you for the great video
About the debate, back in the day I'd start my Fridays with a flat white and "banana bread". I remember asking the chef there why it's called banana bread when its pretty much a cake. He said it's probably because it's baked in a loaf tin. I said "but what about pound cake?" He gave me a blank look and served the next customer. 12 years later and I finally have an answer... IT'S NOT! I totally agree. Banana bread, as we know it, is cake. But no harm in that, and I'll keep calling it that. But when making your actual banana bread, I'll call it banana bread too but call it Bana-nana-nana-nana-nana bread!
I wouldn't be surprised if taxes were the culprit! In the past, breads, cakes and other baked goods were taxed at different rates. I would guess bread at one point was taxed less than cakes, so bakeries started calling different cakes as breads as a result?
Your chef wasn’t very informed. It’s called banana bread because it’s a QUICK bread just like biscuits, scones, pancakes, and muffins are. If you go to culinary school they teach you this is in the beginner pastry course for culinary arts students. A quick bread is leavened with baking powder and/or soda. In spite of how people interpret banana bread (ie by adding lots of sugar and fat), quick breads are differentiated from cake by being made with the blending or cutting methods (reverse creaming kind of fits the cutting method) rather than by creaming or whipping. Quick breads also contain less sugar and fat than cakes and are of denser texture than cake. I get lots of people make banana cake and call it bread, but I don’t call them bread if they have equal or close to equal amounts of sugar. If I’m making something with a fine and very light crumb, that’s cake. I have the same problem with how muffins are interpreted outside of the USA. A lot of that is Americans’ fault in the first place for using lots of sugar in muffins, but non-Americans really do seem to think a muffin is a cupcake without frosting based on every muffin recipe being made with creamed butter and tons of sugar.
@@xXWhatzUpH8erzXx very interesting. Didn’t know that.
To me I think the difference between a banana quick bread and a banana cake, is the pan you bake it in. I always bake cake.
Grandma Sue in central Indiana
Hello, Fearless Leader: I decided to bake your banana bread loaf, but I dearly love what you call banana cake - and I have to agree that it's more cake than bread. I thought about what I could use instead of bananas and decided on chunky applesauce, currants and more cinnamon. I love cinnamon so I added a lot more, but I kept in mind what you told us about cinnamon affecting the yeast. To compensate, I added extra yeast and for more flavor and texture, I added chopped walnuts. I was concerned this morning when I took the dough out of the fridge because it hadn't risen much. I hoped that was because our refrigerators are set to a colder temp than normal. I put the dough in the oven with the light on and that helped. The dough didn't produce a great rise but I suppose that was normal because of the sugar and cinnamon content. I shaped the dough into rolls and used my burger bun tin, brushed them with egg wash, and put them back in the oven to rise. I baked them at a lower temp about 35 minutes so the crust wouldn't burn. Oh, my goodness, but they turned out tender, moist and delicious! I hope it is okay with you if I use your recipes as a starting point for some of my baking. I will definitely bake these again.
That is great! Experimentation is what it's all about. Recipes are just guidelines. Make it yours! 😎
In North America we have banana bread/loaf and banana cake. They are very different in texture.
Amazing video as always
As others have pointed out, not all bread contains yeast. Soda bread is leavened with baking soda, and other chemical leaveners are used in other breads, but those are still breads. Matzah has no leavener in it at all, but it is still bread. And cakes can be leavened with yeast; indeed, before the invention of chemical leaveners, there was no other way to make cakes. So it cannot be the leavener that defines the difference between bread and cake. I would say that the defining difference is that bread is made from dough, and cake is made from batter. If you pour it into its container to bake, it is a cake. If you place it into its container to bake, or, even more so, it does not need a container at all, it is bread.
It's not just about the leavener. Like I said it's also the high proportion of eggs, butter, and fat. But I do like the definition of dough vs batter ✌️
@@ChainBaker Thanks!
Interesting point you made at the beginning at 0:30. But a lot of people actually refer to pandoro and panettone as cake, even though they are kneaded.
I've been making this recipe every week!
My differentiation of cake and bread:
Cake needs pan/mold to cook on to while bread does not.
Cake needs baking pan because it's liquidy/loose.
Bread can be shapen and baked without pan because it's more structured even before baking.
And that's why I never say "pan de banana" (banana bread) but "budín de banana" ("budín" is a cake but long, made in a mold like the one you used here, or longer). Well, now I will have to try and make a real banana bread!
Nicely done!
Baked a double batch of the Banana Bread last night this time with raisins instead of chocolate chips. Sharing at the office (everyone loves this bread) and serving it with the Pine Nut Butter Praline Spread from our friend @AveryRaassen - photos have been posted.
Charlie, personally what do you think of toasted flour? Since we don't need gluten when making banana cake, is it alright to change 20% of cake flour to toasted flour?
I've never tried it, but I have heard that it makes for a great flavour boost :)
Hmm... I would say a cake is anything baked from a batter (liquid) and a bread is anything baked from a dough (solid... sort of) though I'm sure there's lots of exceptions to that, and there's more than just cakes and breads. I would consider shortbread something different entirely; same goes for cookies (UK biscuits), and pie crusts and the like obviously aren't a type of bread. A brownie may technically be a type of cake, but personally I'd consider it something different entirely.
It seems like there's a lot of rules in baking, like baker's percentage, fermentation time and the like, but the actual result of baking might be something that can never be defined by simple rules 🤔
Hi Charlie, Your recipes are really very delicious can you please
share an eggless version to Thanks
You can use the liquid from a can of chickpeas as an egg replacer. 3tbsp equals one egg. You can also use flax seed mixed with water, but I forget the ratio. If you Google it there are a bunch of options out there.
Great vid as always!
I have a question that's not directly related to the video, but to the principles of baking. If both fat and whole wheat shorten gluten strands, then how come fats can make a bread puff up larger and softer, and whole wheat makes breads heavier and denser?
Whole wheat does not necessarily shorten the gluten strands. It depends on how it's made and how much water is used. Fat not only makes the dough looser but it gives it a certain mouth-feel when eating it. Flour alone can't do that.
@@ChainBaker Thanks!!
I've always gone for butter with banana bread, rather than Nutella. And I don't think I've ever had chocolate chips in banana bread. I believe it's usually a soda bread here in Australia. I've always assumed that they call it "bread" because it alliterates. Similarly, the loaf made with carrots is called carrot cake* because that also alliterates.
Other than my alliteration theory for banana bread and carrot cake, I'm not going to get into when something _technically_ is or isn't bread. You could use "uses yeast to leaven the dough" as a criterion but then I've seen one or two recipes that have both yeast and a chemical leavening. And then there's unleavened bread.
This is like the question: when is a pair of pants not a pair of jeans? I can't answer it - and I find it better to avoid thinking about it because, if I do, I will do my head in.
* And now, thinking about it, the banana bread is not iced, whereas the carrot cake is.
EDIT: After watching Max Miller's episode on WW 2 carrot cake, icing vs no icing isn't a criterion, either. You can have cakes that aren't iced and there are some buns that are.
The only other possible criterion I've come up with is: if it's made with yeast then it's definitely not a cake - but it may be bread even if it isn't made with yeast. But I have this really vague memory of things called "yeast cakes" so I am probably still wrong.
Charlie: When making banana bread you should always use golden raisins, regular dark raisins have a stronger flavor that can blunt the delicate flavor of bananas. I always want English walnuts in my banana bread too. Try it you will see a major difference and let me know what think.
I always thought of yeast as the defining factor. If it needs yeast and rise it is bread.
But not all bread is made with yeast 😁
Let's combine the two names and call it brake. There...all cleared up. 👍
And you eat banana brake when having a break. You might be onto something.
So in a restaurant when you are served you say give me a brake 😂
"A rose by any other name is. . . . still a rose!"
Hello! I made your recipe and the flavour was excellent - although the crust didn't brown as much as yours. I followed your temperature recommendation (I cooked for 40 mins at 150 ºC) but turns out the fan makes a big impact. In a quick search I found out that if your oven doesn't have a fan you have to increase temperature by 20 ºC, so in an electric oven you cook it at 170 ºC. Can you confirm that? Thanks in advance and thank you for your excellent bread content! Love your channel!
I go by the rule of increasing by around 10%, so 20C is just about right. 160C fan = around 180C no fan.
Baked another loaf of the Banana Bread this week (along with several other bakes) to share at the office - they really, really like it. I will add this to my menu of "regular" bakes for the office. 🍌 🍞🍌🍞❤❤
What is the difference between a muffin and a cupcake? :)
Is it a batter or is it a dough?
A "quick bread" I suppose.
love the idea of a leavened banana bread.. going to try your recipe.
however, I do think, banana "cake" is better with a higher % of banana puree....hmm..
glad to have found your channel.
I grew up with banana CAKE being a staple bake Within our house. The recipe used was always my grannies recipe. Now as a 35-year-old mother, I still make my grannies banana cake but for my own family.
I agree on the yeast and baking powder front - but also, my banana cake always uses the older, slightly brown bananas, which are sweeter and are more moist. Modern “banana bread” recipes seem to ask for fresh bananas, with no brown marks which are less sweet & sugary…
Lockdown brought the banana bread craze on & now, when ever I make my family banana cake, everyone is like ‘ oh, you’ve made banana bread!’ And I always try clarify, no, it is Cake. There is a difference 😂 (and in my opinion, better 😉)
What about Irish soda bread? It contains no yeast but I definitely consider it as bread. So I wouldn't restrict the definition exclusively to yeast.
It contains no eggs, butter, or sugar. Or at least not even close to the amount that a cake would contain
I just had a (maybe) stupid question, if some wines and cheese in Europe have denomination of origin, does bread have something like that?
Baguettes made anywhere else in the world can be called baguettes etc., so I think it does not work the same way as with wines or cheeses. Bread is a much simpler thing to replicate and there is nothing so much special about it no matter where it is made.
Hello, Can you make Chimney cake please. It's originally from Hungary and it would be interesting to see your recipe. Thank you
I love using banana cake to make vanilla ice cream sandwiches
I notice you are not using metric measurements for the size of the loaf pan I measured my pans at 1.2 litres because that's how much water they hold. How does this compare with your 1 pound pans? Does a 1 pound pan hold 1 pound of water or is that the weight of the dough you put in it?
It is 1 pound dough weight. So, I reckon your pan could be quite close.
I prefer over ripe bananas I think it gives a better flavor. no matter what method I use I enjoy watching the expression on people's face as they eat the bread/cake.
Cake recipe! Oh wait still not for Chimney Cake... Yup still waiting ;)
Does the banana, cinnamon and chocolate factor in the bakers percentage?
Everything does. But some are more important than others. There are no rules for chocolate. More cinnamon can slow down fermentation. The water in the banana will increase dough hydration.
Can't seem to find the recommended oven temperature to bake both breads.......
160C fan on or 180C fan off.
Funny! I was making brioche today, and there are some who would call brioche, cake
What's the reason to mix the sugar with the butter first and then adding the eggs, rather than adding the eggs first and then mixing?
That is a good question. It's just how most cakes are made and I have never questioned it. The main purpose is to melt the sugar. If you whisk the sugar and eggs instead of butter and sugar, and then try to add the butter it may not incorporate into the mix that well perhaps. I guess I'm going to have to try it out now 😅
To me, the leavening agent is irrelevant. What matters is how I plan to consume it.
Cake is a sweet treat, can be eaten as dessert, by itself or with a hot beverage of your choice.
Bread tends to be plain (ie can't bee too sweet), tends to be flavor neutral, but may have a distinct flavor profile, and is meant to accompany other components of a meal.
In the Principles Of Baking you recommend delaying the addition of fat until gluten is formed. However, in banana bread, you added fat before flour. Is it because the fat here is less than 14%?
As you stated once earlier that a small percentage of fat won’t have a great impact on gluten. Would you please confirm the safe percentage of fat to add without affecting the strength of gluten?
I don't use that method anymore. Nowadays I only make no-knead bread and the butter can be added right at the beginning no matter how much is used.
@@ChainBaker
Interesting!
So, I should be concerned about the timing of adding the fat, only if I’m using the kneading method.
Thank you for your reply, and for the insightful videos/tutorials you share.
Historically, cakes were leavened with yeast, so defining cakes and bread depending on their yeast content or lack thereof is kind of moot. Maybe how you eat the item has more to do with whether or not it is a cake or bread.
In my opinion, the most fundamental difference between both is structure. Breads have way more structure than cakes, which is clearly visible in the final product's crumb and texture. However, this is only a layman opinion.
Plain and simple. If I made it, I call it whatever I want. If you made it, call it whatever... There's a definition for you! :D
I have had the worst time with banana 'bread', which by your way, no yeast, is cake. I think most call it bread simply because it's usually in a loaf pan. The only time mine came out right was when I poured it into a bundt pan.
I will try your way of bread. I'd rather have bread than cake anyway :)
Whould it changed anything if i used whole wheat flour as a substitute for White bread flour?
You'd need to increase the amount of liquid.
Do you recommend any particular bread pan that does NOT have a "nonstick" coating?
I recently got a USA Pan Pullman loaf pan. It's anodized aluminium. Been doing a great job so far.
It's funny my wife made a a sugar free cake the other day and she wanted me to try it and I did, I told her it tasted like bread (dense bread). She put like 2 table spoons of my sugar free Whole Earth sweetener into the mix. It was dense, just like bread without the yeast. So many channels talk about sugar free and then they are adding maple syrup or powered confectioners or my Whole Earth type of sweetener. I'm wondering if there is a less dense cake that can have the sugary taste without, fruits are OK. I'm thinking also she may believe less sugar equals less calories which I don't think is the case. I do think she is looking for a good moist cake without all the calories associated. Any ideas would be welcome. I know it is a tall order but if someone has an idea I know it will be you.
Less calories and cake are two things that do not go together as far as I can tell 😅
@@ChainBaker Yeah I know. I thought there might be something magical I did not know about.
When adding the sugar for the banana cake is it 100g total or is 100g for each type of sugar? Also it looks closer to a cup of sugar total to me but idk.
100g total ✌️
@@ChainBaker alright ty!
99% of the banana bread recipes on the internet tells how to make your banana cake which always confused me. now this is the banana bread we're talking. Although I will still go for the cake as a lazy baker
There's a legal definition, at least in some countries, and that caused problems for the Sandwich producer Subway. In Germany, bread and cake are legally distinguished by their sugar content, thus, if you drown a dough in sugar, you can make it look like a baguette or sandwich, but you're not allowed to sell it as such...
IMHO, a cake can be made with sourdough, and bread can contain sugar, eggs, milk, nuts, resins, or even spices. What makes a bread a bread is to me, that it's made of flour, and yeast, and is meant as primary nutrition and not a treat.
The fat content would not be a good indicator, as many breads do have milk, butter, or other fats to a high degree. Many of them have fallen out of favor (except Naan), but they were beloved for being filling (often carried with smoked sausage, and butter by travelers).
Difficult cases would be the Japanese bread you made, as it has a fairly high sugar content, and things used as breads that have not been risen with yeast. Similarly, using rice, oatmeal, etc instead of wheat, or similar grains makes it a bit blurred.
PS: I occasionally recycle brown bananas with oatmeal to make what some call energy balls. It's something one can do fast, cheap, and can be stored for days, and used on the go.
'It's made of flour, and yeast, and is meant as primary nutrition and not a treat.' That is a great definition!
Wow, even more wrong than the usual repeating of this myth.
The Subway bread vs. cake story comes from Ireland, not Germany, and the Irish courts did not rule that Subway’s bread is cake or that it cannot be called or sold as bread, despite what many on the internet would have you believe. The whole thing just comes down to a tax dispute. Ireland taxes basic, staple foods differently from other food products. One of these staples-for-tax-purposes is “bread”, which the tax law defines to be essentially lean dough bread (i.e. just flour, water, salt and yeast) or very minimally enriched dough bread. That means that things like cakes and pastries don’t qualify as staple “bread” under the tax law, but it also means that enriched dough breads like brioche, challah and most “sandwich bread” also do not fall into the lower tax category. Subway wanted to pay lower taxes on their bread, similar to other sandwich shops that were using lean bread. The court ruled that Subway’s bread was too enriched to qualify for the tax break. That is all. Despite some really sloppy reporting and endless repetition on the internet, the Irish court did not rule that Subway’s bread is legally cake, or that it cannot be advertised, referred to, or sold as bread. It’s just not low-tax, staple food bread.
@@markhamstra1083 Yes, I got the events conflated. Germany has similar rules though.
Sugar must have a curve, right? A little faster ferment, a lot apparently becomes Biostatic. This surprised me. This what I assume.
I don't think neither gluten contents or yeast leavening makes for a very good definition, as you mention there's plenty of options for gluten free bread and there's a lot of old recipes all over Europe for yeast leavened cakes. One quality that might separate the two could be whether the process involves creating a dough or a batter.
That's why I also said that a large proportion of eggs, sugar, and fat play a part in it also. But dough vs batter is a good definition too.
My definition of bread and cake is exactly the same as yours.
Hi! :)
How could I adjust the ingredients if I use whole wheat flour?
Increase the liquid by about 25%
@@ChainBaker Thank you! 😃
Hard one this. I guess for me it is the sugar content that makes it a cake or bread. Few exceptions on both ways. But these days with the no carb stuff and keto friendly people are quick to call something 'bread' coz the make up you have is where you normally would have bread. It's like the plant based burgers that are not real burgers but still have burger or a hint of the word burger in their name.
What a fun baking comparison - Banana "cake" is what we would call a "quick bread" - and I have never made a Banana "yeasted" bread. I have some ripe bananas - I just might have to give this a try. 🍌🍌
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Hahahaaaah!!! Here it is! I've been waiting for this one with baited breath, as you may have guessed! [edit] I remember back when we discussed this like... a year ago! I'd just made a chocolate banana challah based on your chocolate challah! Crazy! You've been perfecting this for almost a year?!
Will be making this (bread) with the kids on Tuesday. Will cold ferment the final prove in the fridge overnight and have fresh "actual" banana bread in the morning! And if i were to double up, would i need to adjust fermentation times?
I'll let you in on a secret - most of the breads I film are made for first time there and then 😅 Sometimes they turn out and sometimes they don't. But most times they do. This recipe could be perfected and made even better with some adjustments I'm sure.
Did you try it? How did it turn out?
A larger dough tends to ferment a bit more actively, so you may want to reduce the yeast or make it cooler or adjust the fermentation times.
@@ChainBaker Hahaha, that’s f*in badass. 😂😂😂 I’m not surprised though. That’s pretty much how it goes for me following your recipes and principles. 👍🏻
It turned out quite good. Very nice flavour; buttery and not too sweet; rose well; best toasted with butter! I’ll give details in the community. But just quickly I doubled the recipe and adjusted the fermenting times because it was super sticky (heritage flour wasn’t tightening) and my kitchen was quite cold (18°C). Got quite dark in the bake too. Left to ferment from 01:00-11:00. I’ll post photos. 😉
Dreaming about breakfast tomorrow. 😂👍🏻
Enjoy! 😎
Iron skillet kettle and bread exchange with pops
Thanks for the cinnamon fact! 🤓
Your opinion is interesting and I don't want to contradict it. I do have a friend that can't consume gluten, so is her gluten-free bread considered cake?
If it's not full of eggs, fat, and sugar, then I'd call it bread.
Here is something for you Sir. I have been studying with AI on sweet-breads. I have been using your teachings and trying things and such, and I have found something quite curious and I want you to know. If possible, you should be the one who does it. Coin a term (there is no term as of now) for that wonderful, sweet-gooey coating that develops on the outside of the bread in the culinary world as I can find. If there is, please tell me what it is called. t.y. :)
I'd call it crust 😄
I’m going to try this without the chocolate. Then if I like it, I’ll add the chocolate bc I prefer my banana loaf with pecan or walnuts or even plain rather than chocolate.
Nice. I’ll to try that 😅
Charlie: The main difference between banana bread and cake is the type of flour and mixing techniques. Banana bread is made with all purpose flour and while you don't want to beat it to death it is a reasonably strong quick bread leavened with baking powder. Banana cake on the other hand requires cake flour and a much gentler touch when mixing the ingredients. Banana bread is a great afternoon snack and can easily be converted to muffins. Banana cake is a light delicate cake that requires a nice icing great for afternoon tea. Either is delicious. Banana cake is the fussier cousin of banana bread.
cake used to be leavened with yeast
I don't think there's a useful rule to distinguish bread from cake. To begin with, I think a bread can also be a cake at the same time. But more importantly, I think that what distinguishes them are many different traits, or qualities, and the relationship between those traits. Yeast as a leavener points in the direction of bread, but doesn't make it bread. High sugar content points in the direction of cake, but doesn't make it cake.
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Great recipes! But have you tried letting the bananas darken a bit, to increase the sugar concentration in them? I think this should make the taste a little richer.🤔 Although I understand that the bananas that were available were taken for the video.
Yep. Darker bananas are tastier for sure. I just use them as they are whenever I decide to bake.
I made an orange/cranberry/walnut loaf. Know what I call it? Gooooooooooooooood!
Oh yes it is! 🤩
My poor brain. Dunno about the Bread / Cake definition, but I do know the difference between Biscuit and Cake. McVities set the definition since the UK government were trying to charge them extra tax to sell Jaffa Cakes as biscuits.
So, somethings a biscuit if “when it goes stale it turns soft”. A cake on the other hand, turns stale when it goes hard 😂
Was on an episode of QI back when Stephen Fry had it.
I can't find the temperature to bake :(
160C fan on.
Nutella, making banana bread spectacular since this video came out.
It definitely takes it up a level 😁
Why does your banana cake look different at the top and from midway to the bottom.
It is very moist and because it sits in the tin gravity pulls it down making the bottom moister and denser.
I gotta say, up until this video, that banana bread was just an abroad term for banana cake 😅.
P. S.
The part with Nutella was great 😆😋