Desserts from overripe bananas

Cooking Discussions Cooking, Cookbooks, Ingredients
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There are always very ripe bananas in this house. They get peeled, bagged and stuck in the freezer. Mrs H makes a lovely banana bread but supply is starting to outstrip demand for it.

So, I need your help to come up with desserts, as alternatives (a pre-Christmas freezer clearout is planned). Texture is a factor - the freezing process means you’ve pretty much got a puree when they’re defrosted. I’ve seen an idea for a cheat’s icecream where you just blitz the frozen fruit in a blender, along with a pinch of salt and splash of vanilla - apparently it turns into a “soft scoop” icecream. I’m certainly trying that but are there any other ideas that you’ve tried.

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I love to hear ideas as well. My elderly parents end up having an overabundance of very ripe bananas and their freezer is getting overloaded as well. Two 1 gallon ziplock bags are full. I’m a bit fed up with making banana bread and looking for some easy, tasty, recipes.

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Our favorite thing to do with frozen bananas is to pack the Vitamix with them with very little liquid and turn them into a kinda banana sorbet.

I have several banana plants in the yard. They produce small ~ 4+ inch fruit

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Banana cream pie, although that only uses one or two. But easy to throw together nonetheless, especially if you use a crumb crust and packaged pudding mix.

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I watched Mind of the Chef (Netflix), Season 1 the fermentation episode a few days ago. The chef from Momofuku Milk Bar showed a banana cream pie recipe that used very ripe bananas and this pie has very strong banana taste that there was difficult to produce in a banana dessert. The bananas need to have spots on it, she put it the freezer for 3 days, so they turned all black.

Here’s the recipe:

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That isnt a product that readily translates into British English.

I vaguely recalled an old Chowhound thread (to which I see I contributed) where folk reckoned that Birds Custard Powder or Angel Delight (something I havent eaten in 25+ years and am gob-smacked is still on sale) would be possible substitutes. But it seems no-one (me included) ever tried it.

What would you do with the pudding mix? Make it up as the packet directions (which presumably adds a liquid) and then blend in the mashed banana?

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Ice cream milkshakes come to mind along with pudding, frosting, ice cream, cookie recipes.

My wife mashes the bananas and cubes them in the freezer rather than whole.

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I don’t use instant for this recipe, I use the type you cook with milk for five minutes or so. MyTFine is the preferred brand I would say, at least here.

First you slice the bananas, and just put them in the bottom, on top of the bottom crust, then cook the pudding adding milk til it thickens, and pour that over all. When it sets, you top with whipped cream. Something I grew up with in the 1960s, comfort food if you will.

I just tried to research, and I guess you can do it from scratch too…it’s just that my Mom, and my MIL, always made it with MyTFine, so I wasn’t thinking outside the box. https://www.marthastewart.com/331723/banana-cream-pie

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This cake is the bomb!

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Here’s something my mom would make with stale bread and over ripe bananas. Re-purposing two things in one recipe.

Here is a freshly made steamed version, also Vietnamese:

These only work if you like also like coconut.

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Thanks Coll. I’ll have a try with the custard powder route

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It’s a very flexible recipe, traditional comfort food :wink:

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I like to blend frozen bananas with a little milk and either kahlua or rum. Cocktail dessert variations abound!

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We take it that buying fewer bananas less frequently hasn’t prevented this situation.

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A few popular uses are mixing the defrosted and then mashed banana into oatmeal, or pancake batter. Most commonly they’re added into smoothies to create a creamy texture.
for the banana “ice cream” you will need a tiny splash of liquid (milk works) to help it blend, and then you have to let it go until the color changes a lighter shade and it becomes “fluffy”. You can totally add in some nut butter, or chocolate chips, nuts, whatever sounds good.
Oh, and there’s this three ingredient banana pancake that somehow became very popular… haven’t tried it myself (bananas aren’t my favorite thing and i don’t like eggs much) but it’s worth a shot with excess bananas on hand-and totally dessert worthy with some syrup or whipped cream

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The easiest thing is to change the shape. Baking banana bread in a mini-bundt or madeleine pan can make it feel different enough.

Staying in the banana bread realm, I’ve made these twists quite a few times: Nutella Swirled Banana Bread and Banana Chocolate Espresso Muffins (read the comments on the muffin for a typo).

Recently, I’ve been experimenting with yeasted banana breads. I’m still not sure how I feel about those.

Then, there’s cakes. I make two regularly with bananas. One is Hummingbird Cake. The other is Banana Cake with Mocha Icing. I couldn’t find a recipe online for the latter. However, you can search Google for “nancy baggett banana cake mocha icing” and click the Google Books link and take screenshots of the recipe.

Switching gears, you can always try banana ketchup.

My favorite banana recipe, however, is Chocolate-Crusted Banana Blondies. You will see comments about how it is too sweet. You can dial back the sugar to 400g for the top layer, but any less and it won’t come out right. (If you don’t have brown sugar, just use white sugar plus some molasses until you match the same weight.) Also, I make my own crust and that cuts down the sweetness as well.

Crust recipe using food processor: (adapted from prettysimplesweet.com)
Process 190g AP flour, 3 TBSP cocoa powder, 55g sugar, 1/2 tsp salt.
Add 150g cubed cold butter. Process.
Add slightly beaten egg. Process.
Press into greased 9x13 pan and bake 10 mins in 375F oven.

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Oh I’m slow today… I just realized “pudding” has a little bit of a difference from what it means here…How can you have any pudding if you don’t eat your meat? :wink:

Yes, custard! Vanilla to be exact.

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In the UK, “pudding” can be used instead of “dessert” (as can “sweet”). But it’s also a type of dessert - most often a steamed sponge or suet affair.

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Thank you for that! The day has just begun and I learned something new already.

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I have seen recipes for banana jam. That would go well on a but butter sandwich or as a sauce for pound cake. I can’t remember what Brits call the latter.