Best Bananas for Banana Bread

Jun 29

June 2023 - Emily Austin

What are the best bananas for banana bread?

Bananas are one of my favorite fruits. When they are fully yellow, they make a delicious snack, and are great in any smoothie. As the bananas continue to ripen and get extra sweet, they are perfect for baking! Bananas are especially great for gluten free and vegan banana bread because they are sweet, sticky, and contain fiber, making them great for binding together all the ingredients and creating a moist, flavorful baked good.

The best bananas for baking have brown spots across the whole banana peel. This indicates that the bananas have had more time to ripen and are extra sweet, making them great for baked goods. Some people wait until the whole banana peel is brown, and that’s great too! If you buy slightly green bananas, they will take about 2 weeks on the counter to reach this point. If your bananas are fully yellow, they will take about 1 week. Once they reach this point, you should use them within 1 week or freeze them to use for later (see the next section).

These bananas are ready for baking! Use them now, or wait 3-6 more days for extra soft and sweet bananas.

Can you use frozen bananas for banana bread?

ABSOLUTELY! Using frozen bananas is convenient and leads to delicious banana bread. Simply wait until the banana peels are covered in brown spots, peel, and freeze.

I use frozen bananas to make my banana bread all the time. Since I bake so much, it’s hard to make sure I have bananas ready on the counter at all times. Instead, I like to buy bananas in bulk, wait for them all to ripen and brown, and then I peel them and freeze them. When I’m ready to bake banana bread, I pull out the bananas I need (3 bananas for our Chelsea Approved Banana Bread Mix) and thaw them in the microwave for a minute or two. Once they are thawed, I mash them, mix them with the rest of the ingredients, and bake!

Along with the convenience of having frozen bananas ready to bake with at all times, I find that frozen bananas make better banana bread than fresh ones. Frozen bananas will release a lot of sweet juice, which makes them easy to mash and incorporate with the mix.

Instructions

Purchase a large quantity of bananas at the grocery store. Depending on how much you bake, this can be any where from 1 dozen to 3 dozen bananas.
Let the bananas sit out at room temperature for 1-2 weeks, until all the bananas have lots of brown spots across their peels.
Peel all the bananas and put into containers or freezer bags. I like to stack the bananas into large glass containers to save on plastic, and then I pull them apart when I need them.
When you are going to bake, pull the bananas out of the freezer, and place the bananas you need into a microwave-safe container (most recipes call for 2-4 bananas).
Microwave the bananas for 1-2 minutes, until they are fully thawed. As they thaw, they will release a lot of juice and become soft - that’s exactly what should happen.
After the bananas have thawed, mash them in their bowl (make sure to keep all the juice as well).
Add the bananas to your favorite banana bread mix (mine is the Chelsea Approved Banana Bread Mix), bake, and enjoy!

Should you put bananas in the fridge to ripen?

If your goal is to make delicious banana bread, you should not store bananas in the fridge because you want to let the bananas ripen and sweeten. Storing bananas in the fridge will slow the ripening process (see this Real Simple article), making it harder to get your bananas ready to bake with.

However, the fridge does come in handy if you’ve let your bananas ripen too long but aren’t ready to bake with them. At that point, you can put them in the fridge for a few days to slow the ripening process so they are ready for you to bake with later.

How to ripen bananas faster for banana bread?

One of the best ways to ripen bananas faster is using the oven! Baking your bananas at low temp in the oven can help release the sugars faster and ripen the bananas so they make delicious banana bread days earlier.

While on vacation this past summer, I desperately wanted to make a banana bread loaf to bring to the beach. I knew my gluten free and vegan baking mix would be so easy to make and share with everyone. The only thing holding me back from making a delicious loaf was my yellow bananas.

After some experimenting, I finally found success when I got the oven involved! Baking my bananas on a baking sheet at low heat gave me the best results. Baking @300F for ~20 minutes ripens the bananas to the perfect consistency. Once the bananas have cooled, mash them up and add your Chelsea Approved Banana Bread Mix!

Instructions

Line a baking sheet with tinfoil or parchment paper.
Pre-heat your oven to 300F.
Rinse your bananas, pat them dry, and then place the bananas on the baking sheet (with the peel on) and bake for ~20 minutes.
Once the bananas are fully black on the outside, remove them from the oven.
Let the bananas cool to room temperature, mash them, and add them to your banana bread mix!

What is the best Gluten Free Banana Bread Mix?

Chelsea Approved Banana Bread Mix is one of best available today! The dry mix has only 5 simple ingredients, made with Buckwheat Flour, Sugar, Baking Soda, Citric Acid, and Salt. To make the batter, you add 3 bananas, vegetable oil, and water. Thats it! The texture is amazing, and the flavor from the ripe bananas is perfect. This mix creates a delicious gluten free and vegan banana bread every time!