We have been tinkering with our banana bread doughnut. What kind of tinkering? Adjusting the hydration and changing how we treated the bananas. Both of these ideas are intertwined. When we stopped cooking the bananas, the hydration for the dough dramatically changed. We needed substantially less water. We slowly stepped down the water in the dough, batch by batch until we reached a delicate and pliable dough that did not need additional folding and flour additions, besides bench flour, when we rolled and cut the doughnuts.
The dough took longer than I anticipated to dial into a place of happiness. (No real surprise there, most ideas in doughnutland have been taking longer than I hope/believe because of my lack of patience and the want and need for instant improvements. Of course those issues deserve there own deep dive.) As I worked on dialing in the doughnut I kept the coating simple to allow me to analyze the dough, I used our cinnamon cardamom sugar. Once the dough was dialed in I wanted a glaze with more substance, more uniqueness, more impact. I wanted a banana glaze for our banana bread. To make the glaze I cooked bananas with water, sugar, salt and vanilla. I pureed the bananas with powdered sugar and a bit of citric acid to make the banana flavor pop. I dipped the doughnuts in the glaze and rolled the holes in the remainder. The banana glaze set up beautifully and provided an intense sweet and creamy banana exterior to the yeasty banana bread beneath. A side effect of this creation is the use of banana with its thickening potential rekindled my want to explore the use of pectin in some other glazes.
Years Past
April 9, 2005
Ideas in Food: Great Recipes and Why They Work
Maximum Flavor: Recipes That Will Change the Way You Cook
Gluten Free Flour Power: Bringing Your Favorite Foods Back to the Table
