Cottage Charm Bakery

I’ve seen posts online where people shared a photo of their sweet breads that are dry and/or flat… asking “what did I do wrong”? One photo of a banana bread in particular stood out for me (the photo below). My guess, by looking at this photo, a couple things went wrong. The moisture content was too low and they probably used a dark nonstick loaf pan to bake it.

For sweet breads to have a moist bakery style texture, moister content is important. You don’t want it to be too thick or heavy when you pour it into your baking pan. It needs to be a tad thicker than pancake batter .. and sometimes even looser (like for pumpkin bread). My tip would be to use 4-5 big, ripe bananas for banana breads, and for other breads add more milk, buttermilk, etc that already have those listed in the ingredients, ONLY if the batter seems too thick. Don’t be scared to tweak your recipes!

Another factor for a good bake is use light colored pans like stainless steel for lighter crusts and even baking. Dark pans absorb heat fast and focus that heat on the bottoms and edges, creating tougher, dry sides. I like to lightly grease my pans and add a thin coat of flour, then turn the pan upside down to tap out any excess flour stuck on the sides and corners. You can also line your pans with parchment paper for less mess, but cutting it to size can be a pain at times.

I would strongly recommend getting a little oven thermometer to hang from the middle rack, so you can turn on your oven light and see the temperature easily and know your oven is at the correct temp without opening the oven door and letting heat escape. Making sure your oven is properly heating is also very important.

In the “ber” months, baking can take a little longer because our homes are cooler and your oven has to work a little harder to stay at the programmed temperature. Keep that in mind while you’re baking and add an additional 5-10 minutes to your bake time. Once you’ve done it a couple times you won’t feel so nervous about leaving your bake in longer.

If you have any baking tips and tricks, share them in the comments below, we would love to hear them!