What to do with those brown bananas — cinnamon swirl banana bread, chocolate chip banana bread, banana bread cookies, overnight oats — for busy weeks.
★ snack
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Open in Pepper →Nobody buys bananas planning to make bread. They go spotty on the counter, and by Thursday you've got three of them soft enough to mash with a fork — which is exactly when the best loaf happens.
Cooks on Pepper pull this collection up on a Sunday afternoon when the kitchen is quiet, or on a weeknight when they want the house to smell like something while dinner finishes.
Every recipe here starts with ripe bananas and goes somewhere different: Cinnamon swirl banana bread, Best Chocolate Chip Banana Bread, Grandma's Banana Bread, Banana Bread Cookies, and a blueberry banana bread smoothie for mornings you can't turn the oven on.
Use the ugliest bananas
Wait for peels that are more brown than yellow — those mash smooth and carry most of the sweetness in the loaf.
Stop stirring early
Mix just until the flour disappears, about 10 to 12 strokes. Overmixing makes the bread tough and rubbery.
Tent with foil
If the top is dark at 35 minutes but the middle is still wet, lay foil loosely over the pan for the last 15 to 20 minutes.
Cool before slicing
Let the loaf sit in the pan 10 minutes, then finish cooling on a rack at least 30 minutes so the slices hold together.