Overmixing Your Banana Bread Batter Is A Disaster Waiting To Happen

There's a long list of tips for making the best banana bread — including things like opting for brown butter over regular, incorporating citrus for flavor and nuts or seeds for crunch, and using bananas with the perfect amount of ripeness. In some cases, however, the state of your banana bread depends less on the things you do (or don't do), and more on the things you over-do. We spoke with Joy Wilson, baker, author, and blogger at Joy the Baker, about making the perfect banana bread. "Overmixing banana bread batter is like picking a fight with gluten, and spoiler alert, gluten always wins," Wilson says. "Too much stirring activates the gluten in the flour, making your sweet, tender loaf tough and rubbery instead of soft and cake-like. It might still taste banana-y, but the texture will be more banana brick than bread."

Fortunately, Wilson also offers us a "golden rule" solution to avoiding that. Banana bread recipes usually call for the separate mixing of wet and dry ingredients before combining them together, but Wilson does it a little differently. Rather than whisking until completely combined, Wilson encourages you to practice some restraint. "The golden rule: mix the wet and dry ingredients just until they come together," she says. "It's okay if there are a few flour streaks left, but a few more folds of the rubber spatula should take care of those without making for a rubbery dough."

Now that you know not to overmix your banana bread batter, you can focus your attention on the ingredients you put in it — specifically ones that will work hand-in-hand with your mixing technique. To double down on ensuring your banana bread comes out with a soft and cake-like texture, you want to make sure you're including ingredients that add moisture to your batter. Oil, for example — be it olive, coconut, or avocado — is an essential ingredient for achieving a soft, tender crumb. Other ingredients, such as Greek yogurt or sour cream, will help to add moisture, too.

Now, if you want to elevate your banana bread's texture and not just maintain it, you'll have to start thinking outside of the box. Nuts and seeds are an obvious choice for giving your bread a nice bit of crunch. But, other ingredients such as cream cheese — which can be swirled in after pouring the batter in the pan — can turn your banana bread into something else entirely, creating a mind-changing hybrid of banana and cheesecake in every bite. Even less expected is the inclusion of actual pureed banana peels into your batter, which will create a springier, bouncier texture that will be difficult to resist.