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.

Candy Critic Dessert Club – The First Recipe - Banana Bread

Welcome to the first of what we hope to be many installments of the Candy Critic Dessert Club. We hope to regularly post our experiences making various desserts from around the world. In some cases we may be making something we're familiar with, other times we'll make something brand new to us. Often we'll get creative with our desserts either out of necessity or because we're being "creative".  The rules for us are simple; we won't edit out our mistakes. Sometimes desserts won't work, and you'll hear all about it.

For our first recipe we’re going to be making banana bread.  I chose this banana bread recipe because it’s the one I’m known for right now.  When I get invite to a party, people often ask me to make this banana bread.  I’ve made it a million times before, so I’m pretty sure I’ll get it right.  I know that I’m going to mess up a lot of recipes in the future, so I figured that I should try and make Dessert Club entry right.

Here’s the ingredient list:

2-3 very ripe bananas, peeled
76 grams cup melted butter
1 cup of maple syrup, honey, or brown sugar
1 egg, beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon baking soda
Pinch of salt
1 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour
1 cup of walnuts
½ cup of chocolate chips

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.  Melt the butter, and mash the bananas. Once the butter is melted, ad it to the mashed bananas.  Then ad the maple syrup/honey/brown sugar, if you want to be creative you can ad a mix of any one, two, or three of these three sugars.  After everything is all mixed up, ad the egg, vanilla and baking soda. Ad the pinch of salt I always have a problem when a recipe says pinch of salt, how much is that exactly?), and gradually mix in the flour.  Once it’s all mixed together, stir in the chocolate chips and the walnuts.

Put everything into a greased and floured baking pan, and bake for about an hour.  Check on it after about 45 minutes by sticking a toothpick in, if the toothpick comes out clean it’s ready.  If it’s not yet baked, return to the oven for 10 minutes and check again.  Once the toothpick comes out clean, let it cool for about 15 minutes, remove from pan slice and slather it with butter.

This is a seriously tasty and simple recipe.  The biggest difficulty is judging when it’s done.  I’ve often under and over cooked my banana bread but fortunately you have some wiggle room both directions. Slightly under-cooked bread is OK, and slightly over cooked banana bread has a slightly nutty flavour. This time I over cooked the bread a little, but it still worked out pretty well.

I have to admit; this was a pretty boring first attempt at a dessert club.  I’m sure my friends are going to love it because they now have my famous banana bread recipe, but risk wise I didn’t really do much at all.  I think next time I’m going to try something a little more daring.  I’ve never made ice cream before, and I don’t own an ice cream maker, that sounds like an idea.

Do you have a family recipe you'd like to share? Maybe an Internet dessert creation you've discovered. Even if you've heard of some kind of exotic dessert you think we should attempt. Send us a note, link, or scan, because we'd love to try it.

Whenever we try a new dessert recipe we'll post about it on our social media (Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr), just in case you want to try it with us.

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This Week In Candy

This past weekend our sister site bewarethecheese.com had an art show opening.  The show had two themes, food and travel.  When it comes to food you had to know that candy was well represented.  An entire wall of the show was dedicated to gummy bears.  The show ends tonight, the reviews of the show have been very positive, and everybody is happy with the turn out.

This week we're starting off one of our many new projects, it's a dessert club.  Every so often we're going to post a blog with a recipe of one of our favorite desserts that we love to cook.  This week we're baking our famous banana bread.  We'll document the day of baking, even if it doesn't work out (as baking can sometimes).  We're hoping that you might have some recipe ideas we can try as well.  We're looking for fairly simple, but very tasty ideas.

This week on Snack Facts, our Instagram feed, we're going to have a bit of a mix of facts. No theme this week, just some random snack facts about all kinds of treats.  So check our Instagram feed every day this week and learn something new about the food you snack on. Don't use Instagram, don't worry, we'll also post Snack Facts on our Facebook page and Twitter feed as well.

Last week we posted a review-a-thon all about the snacks we found on our African adventure. This week's new review is a treat we picked up on our way home from the adventure, at the airport.  One of the interesting facts about this Toblerone bar is that you can only get it at the airport (and I mean it's available at almost every airport I've ever stepped foot into).  So next time you fly, you might want to pick one up. Click here to read the review.

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