How does that work? Very well! Every time you see a banana in the fruit bowl teetering between just right and Fruit Fly Central, stick it in the freezer. If you’re a spur-of-the-moment baker, it pays to keep a stash of ripe bananas on hand at all times - in your freezer. Obviously, this is a pain if you don’t tend to plan your baking projects well ahead, and you want to make banana bread immediately. And again, the darker the better: there’s no such thing as a too-ripe banana when you’re making banana bread. Or they're at least streaked with black/brown, with just the barest hint of green at the stem. The best bananas for banana bread aren't yellow they're black. Depending on the weather, this could take a few days, or up to a week.

Let the bananas ripen (and overripen) at room temperature.

These bananas may be a bit too ripe for your cereal, but they're just beginning to come into their own for banana bread. Buy some bananas - which in most supermarkets are typically yellowish-green, or yellow tinged with green at the stem end. If you can’t find overripe bananas, you’ll need to create your own. A banana that’s way too squishy and soft for your cereal is just perfect for banana bread: the blacker the banana, the sweeter and more assertive its flavor. Look beyond the “perfect” bananas, and see if you can find a rolling cart with reduced-price produce: bruised apples, soft lemons, wilted lettuce - and “overripe” bananas. Organic bananas, and cute little bunches of mini-bananas. You’re standing in the produce section at your grocery store, looking at the bananas. So if you want to make out-of-this-world banana bread, it’s important that you use the “right” bananas. But the most critical flavor in banana bread, the one that’ll make or break your loaf, is (no surprise) - banana. What makes banana bread so flavorful? Is it the touch of vanilla? A hint of cinnamon? Just the right balance of salt and sweet?Īll of the above.

Skin emperor banana bread