Optional – You can also turn this recipe into chocolate chip banana bread or blueberry banana bread. To make bread machine chocolate chip banana bread, you should add 3/4 of a cup of mini semi-sweet chocolate chips after the first mixing is finished and before the second/final mixing has started. I don’t like to use heavier regular chocolate chips because they tend to sink to the bottom of the batter (mini chips seem to spread out better). To make bread machine blueberry banana bread, you should add 3/4 of a cup of frozen blueberries after the first mixing is finished and before the second/final mixing has started. I like to use frozen blueberries because they seem to survive the bread machine mixing process better (less likely to burst) than fresh blueberries.
Bread machine banana bread generally involves less work & steps than an oven-baked banana bread. A bread machine will mix the ingredients for you and bake the banana bread for you in the same machine. In contrast, an oven-baked banana bread involves more work & steps (i.e. you will need to mix the ingredients, pour into a bread pan and move to an oven).
If you are still having trouble finding the quick bread setting, check your bread machine manual for details regarding the cake setting on your machine. Some bread machines have a cake setting that states that they can be used for quick breads (and the mixing & baking will last roughly for 1 hour 40-50 minutes). However, other bread machines have a cake setting that is not designed for quick breads. For example, my bread machine (Sunbeam) has a cake setting (that lasts for 2 hours 50 minutes) and a quick bread setting (that lasts for 1 hour 40 minutes). Therefore, this recipe would probably not work well with the cake setting on my machine. I know this can be super confusing… but always read your bread machine manual and look for the specific setting designed for “quick breads” (that use baking soda/powder). zojirushi home bakery virtuoso breadmaker canada
The instructions that came with my (gifted) Hamilton Beach machine included a mixing, kneading, cooking time chart for each setting. I searched and found that one or two other brands also had somewhat similar charts. But most of the machines I researched did not. So, there may be no way to compare settings, and no way to predict outcome from an incomplete bread machine recipe. I even tried to identify the machine used by this author (from the pix of his control panel) but I had no luck. So, I have no idea how the settings on his machine might compare with the settings on mine.
