Have Some Bananas Past Their Prime? Bake Them; Make Bread
The softer the banana, the stronger its appeal for me.
This is not a shared view in my household. The minute the skins of the bananas on our kitchen counter start to turn brown, our kids abandon the fruit. They prefer their bananas bright yellow, firm and boring.
Youth rarely appreciates noble rot. But that is what is happening under the skin. As a banana gets softer, it gets sweeter. Its sugar content rises from about 2 percent in the green stage of its life to 20 percent when it gets old and mushy.
When the bananas in our house start to go downhill, I’m there to take advantage of their slide. For example, a peanut butter and banana sandwich, by itself a pretty toothsome morsel, takes on deeper flavor and more decadent texture when the banana in it has “gone bad.”
Bananas with a little mush in them give a bowl of ice cream a certain sugary decomposition, which is much more appealing to the veteran dessert eater than the pulpy, puppy-love flavor delivered by younger bananas. And, of course, to make memorable banana ice cream or banana bread, you have to allow the main ingredient time to decay.
I bring the bananas home from the supermarket, put them on the kitchen counter and watch the kids forage. They feed until they find a flaw. They drop a soft banana like a hot potato.
That is when I take the fallen fruit into my clutches. Sometimes I will allow the older banana to influence some of the younger, greener ones by putting them together in a brown paper bag. Nature takes its course. The ethylene gas given off by the decaying banana will ripen the callow youths, making them softer and infinitely more appealing.
Here are two recipes for banana dishes. Most people who bake bananas, including the folks who drew up the first recipe, prefer using firm bananas. I prefer mushy. The second recipe, for Banana Bread, requires bananas that are past their visual prime.
Caramel Baked Bananas
From “The Kitchen Survival Guide,” by Lora Brody (William Morrow, 1992).
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into pieces
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Dash salt
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
4 ripe bananas, peeled
2 tablespoons evaporated milk
Combine butter, lemon juice, vanilla, cinnamon, salt and 1/4 cup brown sugar in 8-inch square cake pan or 9-inch round pie pan. Heat in oven at 350 degrees until butter melts, about 3 minutes. Remove from oven and stir with fork to blend.
Place bananas in baking pan and turn them to coat evenly with butter mixture. Sprinkle bananas with remaining 1/4 cup brown sugar. Bake, uncovered, until sauce is bubbling and bananas are tender when pierced, about 15 minutes.
Using spatula, carefully transfer bananas to platter or individual plates. Add evaporated milk to pan and stir briskly with fork or whisk until mixture is creamy and smooth. Pour over bananas.
Yield: 4 servings.
Nutrition information per serving: 123 calories, 6.1 grams fat (45 percent fat calories), 18 grams carbohydrate, no protein, 16 milligrams cholesterol, 8 milligrams sodium.
Banana Bread
From “Williams-Sonoma Healthy Cooking” (Time-Life Books, 1997).
Butter and flour for pan
3 very ripe bananas
2 eggs
2 cups flour
3/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 cup chopped walnuts or pecans
Butter and flour 6-cup loaf pan and set aside.
Mash bananas with fork in large bowl. Add eggs and mix well.
Sift flour, sugar, salt and baking soda over bananas and stir well. Mix in nuts. Spoon batter into prepared loaf pan. Bake at 350 degrees on center rack 1 hour or until wood pick inserted in center comes out clean. Turn cake out onto wire rack to cool.
Yield: 4 servings.
Nutrition information per serving: 490 calories, 6.2 grams fat (11 percent fat calories), 11 grams protein, 99 grams carbohydrate, 90 milligrams cholesterol, 877 milligrams sodium.