freezing banana nut bread

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i have a question about freezing banana nut bread. is it better to bake the bread first and then freeze it? or better to form the loaf and wrap and freeze it before baking it?

and what is your favorite recipe?

thanks and have a great day

gene

-- gene ward (gward34847@aol.com), September 22, 2001

Answers

Freeze after baking. Definitely. Wrap tightly in plastic wrap, then foil (or a zip lock bag

-- Ann Markson (tngreenacres@hotmail.com), September 22, 2001.

"Form it before Freezing", so are you talking a quick bread with nuts and bannana's say with baking powder for rising, or you talking yeast bread in which you add nuts and bananas? Frozen or canned bannana darkens quite a bit, it also sogs some around the fruit. Now you wouldn't win any home economics ribbons at the fair with it, but it still tastes yummy! I make yeast breads and freeze before baking, (I form into loaves, freezing several on a baking sheet, then piling them into ziplocks when frozen solid) I would also add the bananas and nuts after thawing and before baking. But we can and or bake quick breads and freeze after baking. Well obviously the canned breads, aren't frozen :) Vicki

-- Vicki McGaugh TX (vickilonesomedoe@hotmail.com), September 22, 2001.

Every now and then I have a surplus of bananas and I make a bunch of banana nut bread to freeze. I can tell you this: baking first is an absolute cinch. The baked loaves freeze beautifully and defrost quickly.

If you use baking powder or baking soda to leaven your loaves you could run into some frustrating problems if you freeze your dough without baking it because both leaveners start to work once they come into contact with moisture (in the case of baking powder) or acid (in the case of baking soda). Because of this, the extra time involved in defrosting the dough before you bake it make cause the leavener to lose efficiency.

In addition, dough that is only partly defrosted can throw your baking time and temperature way off, as you might imagine. And as far as bananas darkening is concerned, your best banana bread is made from bananas that are black, or almost black, to begin with. But whatever color they are, the bread itself will usually be a dark brown.

Anyway, considering how easy it is to bake before freezing, I just can't find any reason to do otherwise, and that's my 2 cents worth!

-- Leslie A. (lashkani@hotmail.com), September 23, 2001.


I always bake and then freeze any quick breads. Let them cool completely and wrap tightly in waxed paper and then again in foil.

-- Patricia Ramsey (woolspin@aol.com), September 23, 2001.

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