1

I've looked up a number of recipes for banana bread and zucchini bread, which I think of as pretty similar foods in terms of texture, moistness, etc. As I expected, the recipes I find online all tend to be pretty similar - same general ratios of flour, fat, sugar, eggs, and of course banana or zucchini.

The thing that surprised me is that for some reason, banana bread recipes pretty consistently call for butter, which is creamed with the sugar, whereas zucchini bread recipes invariably call for vegetable oil (presumably melted butter would work too).

I'm aware of the reasons in baking for creaming butter vs using a liquid fat. I'm wondering: what's the difference between bananas and zucchini, that one bread is usually made with solid butter, but the other not? (Or is there in fact a deliberate textural difference between "normal" banana bread and zucchini bread, which was absent in the versions I grew up with?)

Josh
  • 2,106
  • 1
  • 18
  • 20
  • 1
    Maybe the difference is that a banana is a creamy sweet fruit compared to a zucchini that is a vege that is not creamy or sweet. You do not chop or shred up the banana and the sugar content is not the same. Try making it with butter and see what happens, melted and creamed. When I make carrot cake, it is more like a dump cake receipe, with oil. Remember that when melted butter cools off, and if everything is not at room temp, you may have chunks of butter here and there. Maybe the oil has a consistency in it that keeps the veges and everything cohesive when you spread it out. Just a thought – user33210 Apr 28 '15 at 01:52
  • My family banana bread recipe calls for oil. I don't think there is a rule here. – Jason P Sallinger May 11 '15 at 12:34

0 Answers0