Everyone needs a repertoire of delicious and easy recipes with overripe bananas for when your bunch of bananas turns brown overnight.
My Recipe Philosophy
Easy and delicious don’t have to be mutually exclusive. In knitting, we talk about being process knitters (knitting for the love of knitting) versus product knitters (knitting because of the result). I fall somewhere in the middle. If I apply the same concept to cooking – cooking for the love of cooking versus for the love of food – I am 100% cooking for the food. Put differently, I want to spend as little time and effort (shopping, prep, cooking, cleaning, dishes) on the act of cooking as possible, and the outcome needs to be excellent. Otherwise, why spend time in the kitchen at all?
To that end, here are my favorite easy recipes with overripe banana recipes.
3 Easy Recipes with Overripe Bananas
Over the years, I have tried many overripe banana recipes, and these are the best easy recipes with ripe bananas. I have rated each of these 5 stars in my recipe rating system.
I’ve listed these in banana order based on the number of bananas you need for the recipe.
Banana Pancakes I from Allrecipes.com: This is an excellent pancake recipe. I would probably choose this over standard pancakes. They’re that good.
In this one-bowl banana bread, yogurt maintains moisture and Nutella adds nuttiness and decadence. There's a layer of Nutella in the center that functions as a built-in schmear, and a layer on top that forms a brownie-like topping. Adjust the amount of Nutella in either layer accordingly. Is it breakfast? Is it dessert? Who says you have to decide? Enjoy!
Banana Walnut Muffins from cooksillustrated.com (aka America’s Test Kitchen): I’ve tried countless banana muffin recipes over the years, this is the one. (It’s in this cookbook if you can’t access the online recipe.) Feel free to sub the walnuts out for pecans, peanuts, etc. or leave them out altogether. There’s a slight variation available for Peanut Butter Banana Muffins, and it’s excellent, too, when you want a non-traditional, less sweet banana muffin.
Final Thoughts
I hope you try these easy banana recipes! Each one pairs beautifully with an iced latte. Enjoy!
