What Happens If You Use Cake Flour To Make Banana Bread
The next time you have a bunch of ripe bananas perfect for making banana bread — like our amazing brown butter banana bread recipe — instead of reaching for the all-purpose flour or bread flour, grab the cake flour from your pantry. Why, you ask? Well, this is what happens when you use cake flour to make banana bread: It comes out of the oven lighter in texture and less dry. When baking, we always choose cake flour over all-purpose for more tender cakes.
The reason behind this lies in the composition of cake flour. Cake flour, compared to all-purpose and bread flour, has more starch and around 2% less protein, which means there's less gluten formation and development. While you need some protein and gluten for structure and chewiness, you don't want so much that your baked goodie's texture toughens. So, for banana bread that is moist and fluffy, cake flour, with its lower protein content, is your best bet.
How to swap all-purpose flour with cake flour in your banana bread recipe
Ready to make a batch of light, moist, and fluffy banana bread with cake flour? Be sure to go over some of the best tips for making the best banana bread, like using only ripe bananas. While the riper the better, there are signs that your banana is too ripe for banana bread, including bad odor and mold. Otherwise, even if the banana peel has blackened, it's good for turning into banana bread.
Once you have your bananas ready, choose a recipe. You can use our brown butter banana bread recipe as mentioned, or try Dominique Ansel's delicious banana bread recipe. Just be sure to swap out the all-purpose flour in Ansel's recipe with cake flour (If you don't have it on hand, you can make cake flour in a pinch by mixing cornstarch with all-purpose flour). A good rule of thumb to follow is for every cup of all-purpose flour you're replacing with cake flour, use a cup plus 2 tablespoons.
When working with cake flour, be sure to sift it before incorporating it into the banana cake batter. This will help keep the batter light. Other ingredients in banana cake batter will also keep the dish tender, moist, and fluffy, including yogurt, buttermilk, or sour cream.