Everyone knows you need ripe bananas to make banana bread – the browner the better.
But rules were meant to be broken, and ours Newest Banana Bread Recipe it does just that. She calls for yellow instead of bananas. A secret shortcut makes those unripe bananas just as delicious as their soft counterparts in minutes, not days. It's such good advice that one commenter called it “revolutionary.”
Cheating? Coat the bananas in brown sugar, then bake until the oven is preheated, about 20 to 25 minutes. As they cook, the bananas begin to caramelize and break down, turning into a super smooth, aromatic concoction of concentrated flavor as the fruit's starches turn into sugars.
The idea originally came from recipe developer Jason Hudson, who wanted to create a banana bread that could be made anytime – even if you can't wait for bananas to ripen on the counter all week or find those convenient coffees at the supermarket . “Sometimes you have an impromptu visit or a last-minute sale that banana bread would be perfect for, but you don't have any of those 'perfect' bananas on the counter,” says Jason. That's where this bread comes in.
Photography by Rick Holbrook; food styling by Kaitlin Wayne
Developing the recipe was not easy. The challenge of making banana bread with yellow bananas was replicating the taste and texture of ripe bananas. They should be soft enough to blend smoothly into the quick bread dough, leaving little pockets instead of large chunks of banana. And then there's the taste.
Jason first tried the recipe with raw, yellow bananas. “While the bread was good, there weren't enough bananas,” he recalls. For the sweet, tropical banana flavor to come through in the final loaf, he had to concentrate their flavor, which happens when bananas naturally ripen over time and become soft and brown. By adding sugar and heat to break them down and caramelize them, you can disrupt this natural process, creating a banana blend that mimics naturally ripened fruit in both texture and flavor. And bonus: It happens while you're already waiting for the oven to preheat, so it barely takes any extra time out of the recipe.
The result is a classic banana bread: soft, fluffy and flavorful, with a subtle but distinct banana flavor enhanced by brown sugar and vanilla. Test Kitchen Director Sarah Jampel describes it as “equal more tastier than your average banana bread.” There is also a crunchy, cracker crust, thanks to the addition of aerated sugar spread over the surface of the bread before baking.
So the next time you're craving banana bread but can't wait to wait days for the bananas to ripen in your fruit bowl? Take a bunch of yolks and turn on the oven. You are only two hours from the banana bread of your dreams.
Cover photo by Rick Holbrook; food styling by Kaitlin Wayne.
