Whenever I buy a bunch of bananas, it never fails that I have at least 2 or 3 left at the end of the week that have turned completely black and are no longer very appealing for topping cereal or sliced on peanut butter toast. I realized this past weekend that I’ve probably been doing it on purpose…because you can’t make banana bread without over-ripe, almost rotten, bananas. 

I absolutely love banana bread, but as with any recipe, I don’t love waiting a week for one of the main ingredients to be ripe enough to bake with. And bananas aren’t like most produce that is available at the store at an appropriate level of ripeness. You generally don’t find blackened bananas at the market (if you have please let me know and I will make it a point to bake more banana recipes!). Despite banana bread being insanely easy to make, the annoyance of baking it, at least for me, is waiting about a week for my bananas to turn from sunshine yellow to midnight black. Seriously, why don’t they sell blackened bananas at the grocery store?

So I’m forced to subconsciously plan ahead, buying yellow bananas, and then waiting, watching, until they turn black. But at the end of the day, when I had that piece of warm banana bread, moist and sweet, the week of anticipation was absolutely worth it.

This recipe is incredibly simple to make, and very versatile. While the baking time is a bit longer, the actual prep work is less than ten minutes. The bread turns out super moist, and I really enjoy eating it toasted with a little bit of butter, or if I’m feeling naughty, a spoonful of Nutella. It can be eaten for both breakfast, or served with a scoop of your favorite ice cream and a drizzle of chocolate sauce for dessert. The possibilities are endless and always delicious.