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Uses for overripe bananas?

linnea56 (zone 5b Chicago)

11 years ago

DH brought home a lot that someone at work was giving away. I tend to like my bananas on the green side. I'm not baking during the summer, otherwise these would go into banana bread.

I do not mind the overripe taste in a smoothie, but I've already had enough of those for now. I thought of mashing them and freezing in smoothie quantity, but I don't know if the freezing will affect the taste. That seems to work for banana bread, but what about something that is eaten raw?

Can they be used in any kind of a sauce?

Thanks!

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Comments (6)

lette_04
11 years ago
linnea56
I make banana ice cream...two frozen (very ripe bananas) and I qt of half and half, about 1/2 to 1 cup sugar...depending on your sugar preference and a little vanilla extract. So Good! Freezing does not affect the flavor.

Paulette
cloudy_christine
11 years ago
Almost every day, my lunch is a smoothie made with a banana, often frozen, a cup of yogurt, and pineapple juice. What works best for me is to peel the ripe bananas and wrap each in plastic, then put the collection into a zip-lock freezer bag. After a few minutes at room temperature, the frozen banana can be sliced. I like bananas ripe, with no hint of green at the stem, and few brown speckles. In summer this state lasts only a day, so I freeze them before they get overripe.
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Hey everybody, thanks for the recipes and advice. The bananas aren't good enough for a food bank. 2 charities did call after my freecycle posting, one oddly enough wanted only green bananas, although I specifically said they were aged ripe to over ripe bananas. The very best ones are so ripe that most people wouldn't like to eat them straight up. A large percentage go right into the compost. When I got grapes in this quantity last year I did give over 200 pounds to food banks, but most of the produce I get free isn't of suitable quality for that. Like I got 3 pineapples yesterday, each with various sized bad sections. My task is to 1) keep it out of the landfill, and 2) get as much of it eaten as possible. Of the recipes offered, the decadent banana chocolate split things sounds the best! Mmm. And banana cheesecake, I have been wondering how to make cheesecake lately. I did a box thing and it was pretty wimpy. Will try those for sure. I invented my own banana jam last year, it has about 1 part sugar to 3 parts bananas, it was great. Ripe bananas are so sweet anyway. Will also try a banana sauce for ice cream (recipe was called butter but I think that is confusing.) I forgot about banana fritters, too, we like those. I used to make banana fritters on my boat when they all got ripe at the same time. When you buy green bananas it is a gamble how they will turn out, but in the islands green bananas cost significantly less than yellow ones, so I bought them. About dehydrating, maybe in the oven. They came with so many fruit flies and I have such a large population of bugs (bees, yellow jackets, etc.) that I definitely couldn't put them outside, they would be swarming in minutes. I have half a freezer full of bananas already and there are still about 7 cases in the truck. I feel brave just getting them out of the truck with all the wasps and things crawling around. But the boxes drip so I am not bringing them all in the house at the same time. Actually I have a great scheme for turning the final boxes of bananas directly into lasagna garden beds. Marcia
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The recipe I use does have lemon juice as well as sour cream, so that helps with the problem of lack of acidity in very ripe bananas, which seems to be all I ever have. I do agree that King Arthur AP flour is high protein and it takes some adjusting when using it for something like quick breads. Right now I have King Arthur AP and Whole Wheat, some Bob's Red Mill Rye, some Swansdown cake flour, some White Lily and plain old Gold Medal. I also have cornmeal, both white and yellow and THREE kinds of oats, LOL, the "quick", the regular 5 minute oats and some steel cut. I also have wheat berries that I've been grinding for flour for bread. My pantry looks like I could open a bulk food store. I use the King Arthur for bread, the cake flour was a leftover from the last wedding cake I baked, I get picky about those. The White Lily is for biscuits, the Gold Medal for everything else. Two kinds of cornmeal because Elery is from Tennessee and his sister says it isn't cornbread if it's yellow, although I don't particularly care which color it is. In short, I'm also going to blame it on your flour, or on overbaking. If you are using new pans and they are glass ones, I'd be watching the bread carefully to be certain it is not overbaking, and probably be using a thermometer a couple of times until I get used to the new pans. Oh, and Christine, I also have the smaller Danish Dough Whisk, it gets used regularly. Annie
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ruthanna_gw
11 years ago
This is one of the old-time "icebox desserts" from the 1930's.

BANANA MARLOW

18 large marshmallows
1/2 cup boiling water
3/4 cup mashed bananas
2 tsp. lemon juice
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 cup whipping cream, whipped (wait to whip)

Combine marshmallows and boiling water in top of a double boiler. Cook over boiling water, stirring frequently, until marshmallows melt. Stir in banana and lemon juice. Cook an additional 2 minutes or until mixture is smooth and creamy. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla extract. Chill until slightly thickened.

Fold whipped cream into chilled mixture. Spoon into 8" square pan. Freeze until firm. Let stand 5 minutes before serving. Slice into bars or squares. Can be drizzled with chocolate sauce. 8 servings.
anoriginal
11 years ago
If ya wanna plan for some cool/cold weather baking... pretty sure you can just stash them in freezer... IN peels in zip bag or vac seal. When thawed, you'll think you've made a terrible mistake, but if you cut one end off, the insides will just squeeze out... ready for banana bread. I had a bunch of very ripe bananas one time... zizzed them up in food processor and froze in containers... measured out for banana bread recipe. Frankly, looked less than appealing when thawed, but the bread was tasty.
Jasdip
11 years ago
I would mash and freeze in quantities for your banana bread/muffins. It takes up much less room than freezing them whole.
Lars
11 years ago
Do not peel them before freezing - the peeling comes off easily enough after freezing and helps protect against freezer burn. They also slice easily when frozen.

Lars

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