why oh why does my banana bread always burn??

[peachygirl]

I need help

My banana bread always seems to burn on the outside and often is soggy in the middle. It always seems to take ages to cook through

Why is this so?? It is never golden brown like in the pictures in the book

We have a fan electric oven and today I adjusted the time and the tempreture but it is still scorched on the outside.

It is edible but how can I make it better

Other cakes e.g sponges come out fine

too hot maybe? it's cooking on the outside quicker than the inside

turn it down even lower, and cover with a bit of greaseproof

Does your oven cook evenly?

Mine is a fan oven, but I know it's a bit temperamental, e.g. the front right hand corner cooks faster than the back left, the middle shelf cooks slower than the top shelf etc.

So I'd experiment with positioning in the oven, and beyond that I would do what thisisyesterday suggests and part way through cooking lay a bit of foil or something over the top to stop it catching.

Also, do you always use the same banana bread recipe? Bananas are very sugary fruit, and then with sugar and maybe honey in the recipe, it doesn't take much for it to burn. You could maybe look at different recipes and see whether other ones cook more reliably.

I always put foil over the top of mine (not tightly, just loosely over the top)

I let it cook for about 30 mins first then put the foil on (or put foil on the whole time)

Might be worth considering getting an oven thermometer to check the temperature, in case the thermostat is knackered. Also maybe use a little less banana? Could it be the mixture is too moist, so the outside is burned before the inside can set? That's the trouble with the old '3 medium bananas' thing - very subjective, variable moisture content etc.

I use Jill Dupleix's recipe from Times Online (I think) and have never had problems with scorching. Also, if you fancy trying different recipes, have a look at Orangette - she has several recipes on there with ginger and cinnamon and chocolate and all manner of yummy stuff!

Thanks everyone I'll give these suggestions a try.

This time the bananas were quite small and the recipe uses dark brown sugar and honey too is I will try another one. It's a shame the inside is lovely.

You are right about positioning in the oven the top at the back is always the hottest.

Oven thermometers look good too, not expensive so maybe I'll invest in one.

Thanks again