The Mango Bread Project

I had a thought recently, and it was all about baking. My theory was sound, but I had to find out if it would work in real life (spoilers, it did not really work this time). My theory was this; bananas are replaceable in banana bread recipes. I figured that that if you replace the banana with any soft (or pureed) fruit, it would have all the features of banana bread only with the flavour of the other fruit. I figured if you would change nothing except the fruit and it should work.

I should mention that I make a mean banana bread. I make it a lot and I love eating it. I have what I would consider a great banana bread recipe that works most of the time. I don’t want to brag, but people love my banana bread. So I figured, since it was mango season where I am and I have some ripe mangoes... why not?

I followed my banana bread recipe to a t. I pureed the mango so it would have the consistency of mushed up bananas. It seemed to be working out pretty well all the way through the mixing process. The batter was a little wetter than usual, but it didn’t seem too bad.

I put the batter in my favourite banana bread loaf pan and popped it in the oven. I was extra careful baking it as I thought this might be the moment when things might work differently. I thought one of two things might happen. I thought that the batter might be a little wetter and therefore might require a little more baking (it did). I was also worried about the amount of sugar in the mango and thought it might burn a little on the outside (it did not).

I carefully checked my mango bread several times, poking in with a toothpick until it came out clean. I would say that it took about 20 minutes longer than my banana bread, but that seemed okay.  I pulled it out of the over and was thrilled with the results. It had risen well, it was a gold brown and the outside seemed just right.

I decided to wait 30 minutes to let it cool before slicing into it. This is where things went a little sideways. Upon my return the mango bread had settled... a lot. It was only about one and a half inches tall, half the height that it was when I pulled it out of the oven. It was very sad looking.

I sliced into it and it was very gooey and felt almost raw. It’s weird because the toothpicks came out clean, but the centre was way too gooey. I had a slice and it tasted okay, but the texture was way off.

The problem is that I’m not sure if this is a failure or not. I mean this particular cake is most certainly failure, but I believe the problem is that I added too much mango puree. So I’m tempted to try again with less mango. I’m also tempted to try again with different fruit as well. I’m not saying my theory is proven, but I believe it also hasn’t been dis-proven either. Maybe any fruit might work in banana bread, you just have to figure out how much to add.