apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

Banana pancakes, banana bread (many permutations, with coconut and a lime glaze it's excellent) and finally banana pudding, yes that with the nilla wafers and boxed cook and serve pudding, no instant, the heat changes something and its always better the next day. If I'm totally lazy I just toss them.

Usually banana bread. We buy our fruit at Haymarket (the fruit and vegetable market in Boston), and frequently by the time we get home the bananas have all started to show big bruises (which of course, we couldn't see at the market, they never let you take the display bananas, they grab one from behind and don't let you look at it)

I love that fruit bowl, Faith - any chance you remember where you got it?

As for bananas, try David Leibovitz's Roasted Banana Ice Cream. (The recipe is in his book The Perfect Scoop, and also at the end of this interview: http://www.travelerslunchbox.com/journal/2007/4/11/the-perfect-scoop-qa-with-david-lebovitz.html)

When I was little, my mom would always use up overripe bananas with a quick Foster. There are a million Bananas Foster recipe on the internet, but if I remember correctly, hers was something like melt some brown sugar and butter in a pan, slip in the bananas and some rum. When everything has caramelized to your liking, carefully light the rum on fire. Wait for your small children to be wowed by a mom who lights things on fire, and dish them up some bananas, preferably with ice cream.

I pretty much always turn to my Nana's recipe for banana bread:

For One Loaf

2/3 c Sugar
1/3 c Margarine
2 Eggs
1 tsp. Vanilla
1 generous cup mashed, ripe Banana (approx 3-4)
1/4 c Honey
3/4 c Whole Wheat Flour
1 c Unbleached Flour
1/2 tsp. Salt
3 tsp. Baking Powder
1/2 c nuts (optional)


Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Cream first 6 ingredients. Sift dry into wet ingredients; Gently fold in nuts. Grease and flour bottom of a loaf pan, pour in batter and let rest 20 minutes. Bake for about and hour, until golden brown and tester comes out clean.

For a while I kept freezing really ripe bananas to bake with some other time, but they always turned sort of weird and slimy and the water separated out of them, so I would end up feeding them to the chickens. I also froze some peels and all, but that didn't work either, though some people swear by it. Mine were probably too ripe to freeze.

I purposely buy extra bananas and let them get really, really, really ripe, then I make Mexican Monkey Cake:
http://foodiefarmgirl.blogspot.com/2005/11/let-them-eat-mexican-monkey-cake.html or Blueberry Banana Bran Muffins:
http://foodiefarmgirl.blogspot.com/2007/02/back-into-bran-muffins.html

I made some banana cookies recently that were really good, too. If you don't feel like baking, you can always toss your really ripe bananas into smoothies. It's amazing how much more flavor an icky looking super ripe banana has than a pretty yellow one. I always buy organic bananas. At not much more expensive than conventional, they're an organic bargain, and I find they're tastier - not to mention better for the environment of course.

NinaC - it was an after-holidays sale special at JoAnn Fabrics!

And yes, Bananas Foster is so good - we did something similar here: Braised Bananas in Brandied Caramel.

banana walnut chocolate chunk cookies

I second the recommendation for Roasted Banana Ice Cream. It's heavenly.
Also, I have roasted the bananas and then frozen for later use (pancakes or ice cream or whatever) and that seems to have less of a water issue.

Oatmeal banana waffles!!!

I mash them up and put them in the freezer in bags of 3, for banana muffins.

Best Ever Banana Muffins

In a large bowl:
3 mashed bananas
3/4 c sugar (or honey)
1 egg, beaten

Mix well, then add:
1.5 c flour
1 tsp b.soda
1 tsp b.powder
1/2 tsp salt

Optionally add chocolate chips or whatever takes your fancy. This recipe takes alteraions really well. It used to have 1/4 c butter, which I've dropped entirely. I've also sometimes added apple sauce instead of the egg, when I was out of eggs.

Bake for 20 mins at 375° F. Makes 12 muffins.

I usually make banana bread or banana chocolate chip cookies. I've been meaning to try a banana cake recipe by Doris Greenspan but have been eating bananas and no good brown bananas around the house :-)

I either go the Bananas Foster route (although I don't drink, so I just make it with butter, maple syrup and bananas) or I make banana milk. (Banana and milk in a blender.) So tasty.

um, i just put them in the freezer where they accumulate until i throw them out. i keep saying i'll make banana bread, but, um, yeah, no. i haven't. maybe i'll force myself to do it already, cuz i have like 20 frozen frickin' bananas!!!

Banana bread pudding.

kdkaboom,

Ditto. Drive my husband batty. :)

Smoothies
Scoup of soy protien, juice (sunny D or TJ's Apple), soy yogurt, blueberries and stawberries, blend and enjoy.

yep...fruit smoothies... the frozen banana gives it texture and just a bit of sweetness. You can add anything...i like almonds, water, a cored apple, maybe some blueberries or strawberries. Just put it all in a blender and voila ! A quick breakfast on the go... and if it's not sweet enough , a spoonful of honey does the trick. you can easily get 3-5 of your fruit servings all in one blender !

make a mean banana and sour cream bread...recipe is in my blog: cookandcook.blogspot.com

make a mean banana and sour cream bread. recipe is in my blog: cookandbook.blogspot.com

I want to (but haven't yet) made a hummingbird cake. A friend brought one to Thanksgiving a couple of years ago and I remember it being one of the tastiest things I'd had in ages.

Now I just need to think of a plausible enough excuse to make it!

Banana bread if you have time, and smoothies if you don't. Bananas are what give smoothies a thick, milkshake-like texture. Mmm... my toddler and I enjoy these every morning. My recipe is simple:

1 banana
1 c. juice
1 c. yogurt
1 c. fruit

I don't even own a blender. I just use an immersion mixer and the same stainless steel pitcher I use for steaming milk for coffee.

I HATE bananas, but I buy them for my kids. When they start to rot I always make muffins. Lots and lots of muffins.

I make banana cake with chocolate ganache. The recipe in Cake Bible is lovely.

Smoothies in the summer...banana bread (replacing butter or margarine with plain yogurt) all the year.

There are two waiting in my little kitchen to go into bread even as I type!

I give them to my dad--he loves brown bananas. I like them with a hint of green at the ends.

peanut butter, banana, and nutella sandwiches, with something fruity and fizzy to wash it down with.

I'm purposely letting bananas go brown on my counter, because my current kitchen obsession is developing an awesome hefty muffin recipe. I want something with more heft than my banana bread, fluffy but more than just white flour and bananas. The project is also giving me confidence that baking isn't all magic, and that it's okay to adapt/change recipes (at least for quickbreads!)

A lot of comments with recipes have mentioned cutting butter/oil out entirely, or replacing with yogurt for moisture. I find the butter is really an integral component for texture, and 4 Tbs across a dozen muffins won't kill me. I'd rather skimp on sugar (easy when your bananas are wicked ripe!) then take a super-dry muffin.

I freeze them and make Banana Chiffon Cake or Banana Bread when the craving hits.

I've been making lots of cookies this winter, mostly from a cookbook I got at Christmas from my sister. It's Big Fat Cookies and most of the recipes so far have been wonderful (just not the chocolate chip ones - for some reason they've turned out horribly!). I don't like bananas, but my husband does, so this weekend I made Banana Cream Double Dates.

The cookies themselves take 2 ripe bananas (usually about the quantity that's laying around getting brown, in my experience) and some dates, and then they are turned into sandwich cookies with some cream cheese frosting that is flavored with cinnamon. Everyone who has tried them has loved them.

Beware this book - the cookies are all huge and so tempting that it's hard not to gain weight just thinking about them!

Well you eat 'em!!. There're not spoiled , actually that's when they taste the sweetest and best. As long as they're not bruised they're perfectly fine for eating fresh.
Coming from the former banana capital of the world Costa Rica, Im always puzzled at how much bad rap the freckled /spotted or browned bananas get, when they should be revered as being in their best shape for a "monkey bite".;-)

smoothies for the kid for post-hockey hydration or ...

mushy banana cookies. basically make banana bread and do drop cookies and then sprinkle with sugar or cinnamon sugar and bake. so yummy.

My post-run smoothie includes:

1 cup or so vanilla soy milk
1 frozen banana
1 scoop protein powder (I use Whey Vanilla from Trader Joe's. They recommend using 2 scoops and that tastes too protein-powder-esque, so for added protein I add...)
1-2 spoonfuls of peanut butter

Blend. Pour. Drink. YUM!

I like mine ripety-ripe, too, klyncher! But when they're too ripe, even for me, I make banana oatmeal. I put about 2-3 cups of milk into a pan with two beaten eggs, about 1/4 c. brown sugar (or some honey - both can be omitted), and a few glugs of vanilla. Then I blend a chopped banana with a splash of milk in my mini-blender and throw that in. Stir well and whisk, fairly constantly, until the mixture JUST starts to boil. Take off the heat and add enough quick oats to get a "soupy" mixture (it will thicken over the next few minutes); cover for about 5-10 minutes. A drizzle of honey or maple syrup and some milk - damned good!