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I want to make a few slices of banana bread for breakfast, but don't want to have to purchase the flour and make the bread from scratch, so would rather use existing bread already made, however I can find no recipe on the internet which gives instructions for this method. So, I was just wondering if I can start out with existing bread, and then use a French toast method to infuse the banana flavor. I want to use banana instead of egg in the batter.

Will this be successful? What can I expect the result to look and taste like, will it be close to banana bread? If not, will it at least be reasonably edible?

For anyone that is unsure about the process I am referring to, to make eggy bread/French toast, then I shall leave a link to the instructions I am following below. BBC goodfood

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    Banana bread is bread made from bananas. You could likely make a banana spread (jam, jelly, etc.) of some sort to coat regular bread and then fry it but that would still not be banana bread, merely regular bread with bananas spread on it. Aug 27, 2022 at 13:11
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    Banana bread is a quick bread (more muffin / dense cake like in texture), not a traditional yeast bread.
    – Joe
    Aug 28, 2022 at 3:46
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    I can't understand why this question has been closed. It is not a matter of opinion whether it is possible to infuse banana in to preprepared bread or not. Aug 28, 2022 at 8:20
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    @JohnStrachan I think that there were two problems. First, you asked "is there a recipe", and we don't swap recipes here. Second, I think people were confused, maybe because you were using terms differently from how most our (US-skewed) users understand them. In US English, "banana bread" is a set term for a cake/quickbread made with bananas in the dough, and what you call "eggy bread" is more widely known as "French toast". I will edit out the recipe formulation and try to make it closer to what people here expect, then reopen, let's see if the community will accept it that way.
    – rumtscho
    Aug 29, 2022 at 10:20
  • @rumtscho The same definitions hold in British English as well.
    – dbmag9
    Aug 30, 2022 at 17:44

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I would say what you mean is Banana Toast as per this recipe:

https://www.food.com/recipe/banana-toast-459282

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  • I did actually mean banana bread. However I will make do with banana toast and will use the recipe you provided. Aug 28, 2022 at 8:26
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Banana bread is actually a kind of cake (quick bread) made from bananas. It is not the same as regular bread, and there is no way to turn regular bread into banana bread, any more than you can turn it into chocolate cake. If you wish to make French toast with bananas, you would still need to use them in addition to the regular eggs/milk/etc, since bananas are too viscous to be absorbed by bread and won't cook in a pan the same way that eggs do. Regardless, the result will not be banana bread, but rather banana-flavored French toast.

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  • "there is no way to turn regular bread into banana bread, any more than you can turn it into chocolate cake" Depending on your definition of "chocolate cake", this arguably isn't true. Bread pudding is a thing that exists, and you could certainly add chocolate to it. Similarly, you could definitely use bread as an ingredient in an ice cream cake.
    – nick012000
    Aug 31, 2022 at 10:19
  • @nick012000 if bread pudding with chocolate is chocolate cake, then bread pudding with bananas is banana bread, I guess ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ But I don't think most people would consider a chocolate bread pudding to be chocolate cake.
    – Esther
    Aug 31, 2022 at 14:01
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Making a new loaf of banana bread using old bread as a starch source will be difficult due to changes in the starch structure from the first bake.

Starch in raw flour is in a crystalline form made up of very tightly packed strands of amylose. When it's hydrated and heated during dough making and baking, the crystals loosen and unwind. After baking and during cooling, the starch partially recrystallizes to set the crumb structure. With enough moisture and heat the amylose fully unravels and floats around in the water. This adds viscosity, and is not easily reversible - it's also how roux and other starches thicken.

Adding to this, the gluten formed from the first bake is set in its structure, and may be unable to re-form a mesh to trap gasses when shredded and ground.

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