For the Impatient Banana Bread Baker
November 2022 - Chelsea Austin, RD, CD
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 banana situation. We had just gone grocery shopping to stock up for the week, and the only bananas we had were bright yellow that were far from ripe!
My options were simple:
I could wait until the last day of vacation to make my loaf, because by then the bananas would have naturally ripened…
OR
I could do some experimenting in the kitchen…
Of course I chose #2, otherwise this post wouldn’t exist (HA!).
So, to make my bananas ripen faster, I tried putting them in paper bags, plastic bags, frozen bananas, ripe bananas, and keeping them in a warm place (like on top of the fridge). I put them in the fridge in a variety of different bags, keeping them close to each other in a bunch, placing other ripening fruits next to them….but nothing seemed to work!
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!
Happy Baking!! <3
Chelsea
