Trying to use up: over-ripe bananas

Confession: I don't like bananas. I know, what the hell is wrong with me? It's just that I have to be in the right mood for a banana, and then when I am, I like ripe bananas, so ripe they're peppered with spots. But markets don't sell them like this. So sometimes I'll buy under-ripe bananas, hoping that I'll be ready to eat them when they are perfectly ripe.


This was the case recently, and I managed to eat two bananas before I got sick of them. I still had three bananas left. I could see them getting more and more brown, beyond ripe-ness, bordering on rotten. Suddenly it was trash day and I thought, I can throw these out (but what about the starving children?!) or do something with them.



Luckily, bananas are very hearty and in fact better in baked goods once the skin has turned completely black. I pulled out the recipe for banana nut muffins from the Joy of Cooking, which I had bookmarked for its simplicity. Very basic ingredients like flour, eggs, sugar, just a little vegetable oil and bananas.

As I usually do with baked goods, I took them out of the oven a couple of minutes earlier than the recipe says. I think they could have been more banana-y, which is ironic, considering I don't like bananas (I guess I don't like bananas by themselves, I'd prefer to eat them with something, like oatmeal, yogurt, chocolate, ice cream...). I probably didn't use as many bananas as I was supposed to, or maybe the bananas should have been even more ripe. Nonetheless, I shared these with my officemates and they were very complimentary (but of course they were, would you admit to a co-worker you didn't like what she'd baked??). Anyways, I liked them. I would even buy more bananas just to make them again.