I Can’t Believe We Used This Many Bananas In Our New Banana Bread Recipe (2024)

FAQs

Can you put too much banana in banana bread? ›

Fight the urge to use more banana than called for in your recipe. Using too much banana could make your bread heavy and damp in the center, causing it to appear undercooked and unappealing. If you have bananas leftover, you can always freeze them for later use.

If they smell off, that's another good indicator that they are no longer okay to use. Rotten bananas will often have a fermented or alcohol-like smell. While it's okay if the banana peel is dark brown or even black, if the inside is too, then the fruit is beyond ripe and now on its way to rotten.

If your banana bread doesn't taste like bananas, it could be that you didn't use bananas that were ripe enough. The flavour of a ripe banana is quite different than a green banana. Choose the ripest bananas possible. Some bakers recommend using bananas that are on the verge of over-ripe with completely black peels.

But for a healthy person, "it would be impossible to overdose on bananas," says Collins. "You would probably need around 400 bananas a day to build up the kind of potassium levels that would cause your heart to stop beating... Bananas are not dangerous - and in fact they are, and always have been, very good for you."

Using too much flour makes for an extra crumbly bread.

If you're tapping your measuring cup to level out flour as you measure, or you're pushing down the piled-up powder, you'll end up using too much of it. I packed my flour for this loaf, and what I got was a crumbly cake with a dry crust all around.

Let the bananas ripen (and overripen) at room temperature. Depending on the weather, this could take a few days, or up to a week. The best bananas for banana bread aren't yellow; they're black. Or they're at least streaked with black/brown, with just the barest hint of green at the stem.

Bananas can go from yellow with brown spots to totally black and still be okay to eat and use for baking. In fact, black bananas are some of the best for making banana bread because they have developed more sugar as they sit around and therefore taste sweeter. They may also be moister, which is perfect for baked goods.

If you want to use them for baking banana bread or banana chocolate chip muffins, just defrost them overnight in the fridge. Then they're good to go. So don't throw even THINK about throwing away your overripe bananas.

The Takeaway. Completely black bananas are likely safe to consume as long as there is no visible mold, a rotten smell, or the fruit inside is black. If none of these are true and your bananas are simply black, your best bet is to cook with them rather than eat them raw.

Is it safe to eat the bruised part of a banana? ›

But if you can't be bothered to trim your bruised banana or bake it into bread, there's little risk to your health in just eating it. There is a caveat: Bruising makes a piece of fruit more susceptible to infection.

Can brown bananas make you sick? A banana that has turned brown because it is overripe likely won't make you sick. However, if a banana has begun to grow mold, is releasing liquid, or has an unpleasant smell, it has likely begun to rot and is no longer safe to eat.

Ayurvedic expert BN Sinha explains, "Banana falls under the cold food category, which may lead to frequent bouts of flu, cough, and fever. However, this phenomenon is typically observed when you consume an excessive amount of cold food (in this case, bananas)."

You also may experience stomach discomfort if you have a fructose intolerance or a rare banana allergy. Bananas contain sorbitol, which can sometimes lead to gas, bloating, and diarrhea, too.

Using a lot of bananas adds excess moisture, and there are two ways to get rid of it. You could either add more flour or increase the baking time. Add a tablespoon of extra flour at a time into the batter and give it a good whisk until its consistency starts to look right: thick but runny enough to fall off a spoon.

Too much baking powder can cause the batter to be bitter tasting. It can also cause the batter to rise rapidly and then collapse. (i.e. The air bubbles in the batter grow too large and break causing the batter to fall.)

You may find banana bread delicious, but conventional banana breads tend to be high in added sugar, refined carbs, and calories. Thus, it's best to enjoy banana bread occasionally as part of a balanced, nutrient-dense diet.

Old or expired baking soda/powder can lead to banana bread rising problems. Always use relatively fresh baking soda/powder when making banana breads & quick breads (such as pumpkin bread).