Banana Bread with Shortening {easy one bowl recipe} (2024)

FAQs

What does shortening do in baking? ›

Shortening traps more air bubbles and has a higher melting point than butter, so recipes using shortening tend to produce baked goods with more lift and that hold their shape during baking. Interior texture will also be softer and lighter.

You Over-Mix the Batter

For soft and tender banana bread, gently stir the wet ingredients into the dry — don't overmix! The more you stir, the more gluten will develop. The result will be a tough, rubbery banana bread. Simply stir until moist, and then do no more.

Coconut oil makes a great one-to-one swap for shortening, but keep in mind that it might impart a subtle coconut flavor to your baked goods. Look for refined coconut oil, which has a neutral flavor.

The Ripeness Spectrum: Finding Your Perfect Banana

Green Bananas (Under-ripe bananas): These are a no-go for banana bread. They lack the sweetness and moisture needed for a delicious loaf.

Shortening is a type of fat used in cooking and baking. It's typically made from hydrogenated vegetable oil and has a long history of use in American kitchens that dates back to the early 1900s. However, shortening has fallen out of favor in the past few decades because of its high trans fat content.

Swap one for the other in recipes. If you want to add additional flavor to the dish, lard is the right choice. Shortening is ideal for its neutral flavor, many professional bakers use it for icing.

Coconut oil or coco butter, which are good sources of medium-chained fats (just note that it will give recipes a slight coconut taste) Depending on the recipe, healthy oils like olive oil or avocado oil (which are vegan and can make good vegetable shortening substitutes in some recipes/baked goods)

How to Substitute. No matter what you're using, use the same amount called for in your recipe. In other words, it should be a one-to-one swap. If your recipe calls for one cup of butter, you can use one cup of shortening and vice versa.

You'll notice these differences if baking with butter instead of shortening. Cookies made with butter or margarine may be softer and spread a little more. Cookies made with butter are usually crispier than chewy cookies made with shortening, but the flavor is richer with butter.

Traditional banana breads are made with ingredients such as white flour, sugar, and oil. As such, this dish is often high in calories, carbs, and added sugar.

Why does my banana bread not taste good? ›

Using too much butter makes for a heavier cake with less banana flavor. Using double the amount of butter that the recipe called for left me with a loaf that was dry on the outside and moist on the inside. The coloring was almost identical to that of the loaf made with too little butter.

Bananas can go from yellow with brown spots to totally black and still be okay to eat and use for baking. In fact, black bananas are some of the best for making banana bread because they have developed more sugar as they sit around and therefore taste sweeter. They may also be moister, which is perfect for baked goods.

You'll notice these differences if baking with butter instead of shortening. Cookies made with butter or margarine may be softer and spread a little more. Cookies made with butter are usually crispier than chewy cookies made with shortening, but the flavor is richer with butter.

Basically, cookies made with butter spread more and are flatter and crisper if baked long enough. However, they are more flavorful than cookies made with shortening. Cookies made with shortening bake up taller and are more tender, but aren't as flavorful.

The Best Substitute for Shortening for Frying or Cooking

Vegetable oil, cocount oil, peanut oil, avocado oil and grapeseed oil all have high smoke points and can be used for frying - although vegetable oil will truly be your best bet because it's inexpensive and flavorless.

Shortening is used in most doughs and batters, to give the baked product a crisp and crumbly texture. Rubbing the fat in causes the baked product to have a flaky texture, as the dough is separated into layers.