cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/24218324
I have both and wanted to see what difference there was (if any) between them.
Banana Bread w/ dried cranberries and black currants.
Same recipe, same measures in both.
Ceramic pan has a blonde interior, cast iron is black ceramic.
Baked at 350° for 30 minutes, rotated left to right and front to back, then 30 minutes more.
The ceramic baked slightly taller. This may be a function of the loaf pan being just slightly narrower than the cast iron. 5" vs. 5 1/8" (127 mm vs 130.175 mm)
I THINK I shared this recipe before, but I find the pan comparison interesting.
At the 30 minute mark I caught our two youngest cats sitting on the stove trying to figure out where the smells are coming from. LOL. Was not fast enough to get that picture!
INGREDIENTS for blackcurrant banana bread:
3 ripe bananas
60g melted butter (1/4 cup or 1/2 a stick)
150g sugar (2/3 cup)
200g unbleached flour (1 1/4 cups)
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 egg, beaten
1 teaspoon baking soda
150g of fresh or frozen blackcurrants (without defreezing before use) (1 1/2 cups)PREPARATION of blackcurrant banana bread:
Preheat oven to 350°F (180°C)
If using dried cranberries or currents, soak them in cold water for 30 minutes, dry fruit sucks the moisture out of the bread otherwise).
Mash the bananas in a bowl
Add the egg and butter
Put all the dry ingredients together into a fine mesh sieve or sifter and sift into the bowl
Mix well with a wooden spoon
Bake in a buttered loaf pan until a toothpick stuck into the bread comes out clean, 55 to 60 minutes.
Slice and serve.
Let it cool, still warm. Ceramic on the left, cast iron on the right:
Cast iron baked up sightly darker and tasted overcooked. Same oven, same temp, same time, rotated 1/2 way through, left to right front to back.
So, going forward, all ceramic all the time, or, if in cast iron, maybe reduce the time from 60 minutes to 50 or 55 minutes.
Did you take them out of the pans immediately after taking them out of the oven? Cast iron holds heat really well, so if you leave it in the pan, you effectively continue to bake it.
This is true, and that may have been the flaw in the plan. Was a little too hot to remove immediately.
Was a little too hot to remove immediately.
Sounds like exactly the kind of insight the experiment was designed to find.
I thought you were supposed to pop the bread out right away regardless of cast iron vs enamel so it doesn’t overcook/burn.
Generally, with a soft bread like banana bread, it will fall apart if you do that.
If you use a strip of parchment paper at the bottom of the pan and leave the ends sticking out of the top, it’s easy to pull the loaf out safely.
That makes sense, I’ve only made harder breads so far (my first loaf could have probably been weaponized lol)
I always though ceramic cast iron was more about coating the cooking surface to make it more non stick. Whats the point of ceramic on the ouside? I feel like it just makes something that otherwise would not crack to being able to crack.
Ceramic on the outside adds color?
Ceramic is an insulator (does not conduct heat well) and cast iron, well, conducts heat well. You’d get the same results with glass instead of ceramic.
