Best Flour for Making Banana Bread

How does it feel? The smell of fresh banana bread from the oven, smells delicious, right? Baking is satisfying to the stomach and any home and when you bake banana bread, you are guaranteed to have an amazing dish. It is easy to make banana bread, it is such an art, however, there are ingredients used in making banana bread and you have to use the best options if you want to make the best.

We want to find out the best set of ingredients you can use to make your banana bread. The flour you use is one very important ingredient for making banana bread and you have to understand that flour is made differently. You will find different kinds of flour when you get to the market and there are a lot of brands out there. It could be a bit overwhelming to decide the flour you want to use because your recipe will only tell you to use flour without being specific about the type.

This is why we are here to be your guide and show you the best kinds of flour to use when you want to make your banana bread. You are advised to keep reading if you want to find out all you need to know about the best sets of flours to use for making your banana bread so that you can best enjoy the amazing meal.

Table of Contents

Types & Details – Flour vs. Flour

We believe the best thing to start with is to check out the different kinds of flours that we have out there. You will find so many of them when you get to the market, you need to understand their qualities as well as the best things each is used for.

Gluten-Free Flour

Recently, healthier substitutes for flours have been provided because of people who are allergic to eating gluten, and people who are trying to live a healthier lifestyle. This flour includes almond flour and coconut flour and some other ones made from rice, nuts, or grains. It is common to substitute all-purpose flour and other types for gluten-free flours. Often time, gluten-free flour will affect the texture of what you are baking and it could be an acquired taste, however, you will adapt to it, and will also help your health.

Bread Flour

There is also bread flour. You might not have heard this before, but it exists. You could consider bread flour to be the best choice for making banana bread, however, some other flours could also give quality bread. The content of protein is higher in bread flour than any other flour. The flour is a very strong one and it gives tenderness and ultimate strength in one combination. You could blend bread flour with other ingredients to get the perfect softness and volume in bread. The crust of your bread could be browner when you use bread flour.

Cake Flour

The name has already described itself, if you want the texture of your bread or cake to be finer, this flour will work well for it. Cake flour contains a more superior compound that has a higher compilation of protein gotten from soft wheat that it is usually made with. It also has lower gluten content than all other flours.

You could mix batters and still keep the batter lightweight and the texture very fine thanks to the perfect clumping qualities associated with cake flour. An additional type of flour called pastry flour is also associated with cake flour and pastry flour could be termed similar to the cake flour but the protein level is slightly higher. It could be difficult to get pastry flour in stores.

Whole-Wheat Flour

This particular flour is considered to have more nutrients than any other flour. It is made by combing both the germ and the bran, offering higher nutrients and less alteration for your finished product. The flavor associated with whole-wheat flour is often unique and slightly nutty. This makes the texture to be dense. This flour will work best when used for cakes that other fillings will be added to them like applesauce cake. There is also a possibility of mixing this flour with some other flours to maintain an overall texture.

All-Purpose Flour

Just as it is named, the flour can be used for almost anything you want to bake. The flour is versatile and will help you do your job properly. Recipes usually refer to all-purpose regular flour when it comes to baking and it is most popularly used for bread, cakes, and cookies. There is a likelihood that you will not notice any significant difference in using this flour because it is most times the most used flour when baking is done at home. It could be used to make banana bread, however, you could likely consider other options that give more tenderness and finer texture as listed above.

The Best Flour for your Best Banana Bread

You have now known the basic information concerning the different kinds of flours that are available, we should no proceed to check out the best one you should use to make banana bread. If you are yet to guess, guess what you think the best one for making your banana bread will be. The answer might surprise you.

Cake flour is the best flour you should use for making banana bread. You should not allow the title of bread flour to fool you, even though you can use it, it may be a bit too thick to be used for the banana bread. Use cake flour if you want the best outcome for the banana bread. All-purpose regular flour is considered as the second option if you cannot find cake flour.

The 3 Best Cake Flours for Banana Bread

King Arthur Unbleached Cake Flour

This particular cake flour is unbleached and organic. The cake flour is of high quality and the brand has in their mind the desires and respect to protect the universe. You can use this flour for baking, helping you to make banana bread appropriately.

Pros:

Works for delicious cakes and bread perfectly.
Can be stored up to a year if placed in a dry and cool place.
The flour is organic and has superior quality.

Cons:

It is still new in the market and has a limited review of information and research.

Kauffman’s Fruit Farm Enriched Purasnow Cake Flour

If you use this particular product, it will give you delicious banana bread and cake products. The flour has a high ratio and offers ultra-fine grain and silky texture. The flour has some excellent volumes for baking and bread.

Pros:

The flour is of high-quality and it is cared for and hand bagged each time.
The price is based on each pound, larger bags have decreasing prices.
It is found available in various pound bags like 5, 10, 20, and 50.
It is homegrown in the US.

Cons:

The texture could be slightly dense.

Pillsbury Softasilk Cake Flour

This particular cake flour is enriched and has also been bleached for it to be easily used for making white cakes whenever needed. This product has specifically been tested over time through different baking products and it is affordable, yet offering high quality.

Pros:

You can mix it with all-purpose regular flour
The flour is pre-sifted.
It is contained in a 32 ounces box with two divided packages of flour portioned for one cake per packet.

Cons:

It is not the “self-rising” flour.
It is slightly more expensive than other cake flour options

Summary

The whole thing summarizes that you need to use flour that gives your banana bread a very light texture and to get the best outcome, you should use cake flour for baking your banana bread. You can mix all-purpose regular flour with cake flour if you want to lower your cost. You will still get a very similar result.

We do not recommend that bread flour should be used to bake banana bread because it is heavier and denser than what banana bread should be. In case you don’t want to spend big by getting cake flour, use all-purpose regular flour which you can buy online or from your local grocery store.

Best Flour for Making Banana Bread