Instant Pot Banana Bread Recipe (2024)

FAQs

Can you bake with an instant pot? ›

Baking an Instant Pot Cake without a Pan + Other Options

If you'd like to make an Instant Pot chocolate bundt cake, you can try using a 6-cup bundt pan that will fit inside the Instant Pot like this one.

Using too much banana could make your bread heavy and damp in the center, causing it to appear undercooked and unappealing. If you have bananas leftover, you can always freeze them for later use.

You can double a standard banana bread recipe, as long as you bake the batter in two same-size loaf pans, or one after the other.

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Look at your knife set and find the one with the thinnest blade. Then insert the blade into the center of the cake. If the knife comes out clean, the cake is done. If batter or crumbs stick to the blade, let your cake bake a few minutes more and retest with a clean knife.

What to do if you've used too many bananas. If you must add an extra banana into your batter, there are ways to prevent the bread from turning mushy. Using a lot of bananas adds excess moisture, and there are two ways to get rid of it. You could either add more flour or increase the baking time.

The Cake Maker setting on the Instant Pot is not “baking” by circulating dry, hot air around the food to cook it. Instead, it is utilizing the same function as Pressure Cook by heating water past its boiling temperature and using the resulting steam to cook the food.

This is why pressure cooking is faster than simply boiling. Water and steam transfer heat better than air. That's why pressure cooking is faster than baking. Once the pot comes to pressure it does cook faster but the time spent building the pressure will not be faster.

Adding more eggs makes for a spongy, less flavorful banana bread. Doubling the number of eggs I was using resulted in a spongy cake with a moist texture. While the banana flavor was present, it wasn't as prominent as it was in other loaves. This had more of a hint of flavor.

While it's okay if the banana peel is dark brown or even black, if the inside is too, then the fruit is beyond ripe and now on its way to rotten. Another sign that bananas have gone bad is if they start leaking any fluids. When in doubt, just toss the bananas out.

How long should you leave bananas for banana bread? ›

Let the bananas ripen (and overripen) at room temperature. Depending on the weather, this could take a few days, or up to a week. The best bananas for banana bread aren't yellow; they're black. Or they're at least streaked with black/brown, with just the barest hint of green at the stem.

You need about a quart of ripe bananas (roughly 6 to 8). In a stand mixer, this batter comes together in just about 10 minutes.

A little bit of good vanilla extract really brings out the banana flavor. Did you know that you can make this batter the night before, and bake it fresh in the morning?

If you're planning to eat your banana bread within three to four days, it can be left out at room temperature. To keep it fresh, place a paper towel in the bottom of an airtight container.

Fill the pan until it's two-thirds full, and if there is any remaining batter, fill up a muffin tin. This ensures you get a beautifully risen loaf instead of a potentially flat loaf in a 9×5.

Let it cool for 10 minutes — this helps the loaf solidify and makes it easier to remove from the pan. Remove from pan and cool another 10 minutes. Grasping the parchment paper sling, lift the loaf out of the pan and place on the cooling rack. Cool for another 10 minutes before slicing.