how to ripen bananas in 10 minutes {video}

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February 29, 2016

Just when you think you’ve baked the best banana bread of your life, you stumble upon another recipe that makes you go “whoa”. Or in my case, it means I start out baking one of my recipes, then tweak it for one reason or another, and fall in love with an old classic all over again. Banana bread used to be one of those baked goods I made only because I had overripe bananas that needed to be used up. It was a default, a way to rescue otherwise edible food from the trash bin (stop gasping, I’m at least being honest here).

My approach to banana bread is totally different now, so it was with absolute pleasure that I learned something new (to me) last week. You can alter nature’s natural course, and take banana bread matters into your own hands. Rather than have banana bread be a default recipe, it could be something you make with intent, for the simple, delightful pleasure of enjoying a slice with a cup of tea (or in little slivers just small enough that the kids won’t notice you nibbled on it while they were sleeping).

So, what do you do if the craving hits for banana bread, and your bananas aren’t quite there yet? Last week, I learned a tip from Gaby on Snapchat. Then a little more research led me to a second tip for speeding up the ripening process. Gaby’s tip is awesome, and a good long term sort of storage tip for bananas. I’d already been doing that for years. I just had no idea it could also speed up the ripening process. The second tip, the one that ripens bananas in just 10 minutes—well, that one made me do a happy dance (sorry, no video of that…). I know, you want to know what the tips are, right? You’ll have to watch the video below to find out. And when you’re done, you can click on one of the links below to make one of the many favorite banana bread recipes I’ve developed over the years.