Banana bread has become the stay-at-home MVP, and here’s why

You’ve probably seen friends or social media influencers showing off their results on Instagram or Facebook: a fresh-baked, homemade banana bread. Usually there’s a long slice of banana or two caramelized into the crust on top. It’s almost like they’ve gotten a promotional deal with the Chiquita banana brand or something.

But really, it’s just the latest viral trend, and it’s producing sweet, delicious baked results.

As Kitchn explains in a recent story, the stay-at-home requirements have everyone getting creative in the kitchen to avoid food waste. And fortunately, banana bread is pretty easy even for those of us who don’t really bake.

With bananas, there’s a threshold of overripeness that’s different for everybody. Some of us like the peel to be fully yellow, with a hint of green left on the ends to give it a tart flavor. Some of us prefer a few brown spots, indicating the flesh inside will have that quintessential sweet banana flavor.

Others hold out till it’s nearly entirely brown on the outside, and sickly sweet on the inside. Those people are probably few and far between. And for the rest of us, that’s when the bananas hit the trash.

But the beauty of banana bread is you can throw those overripe bananas into the freezer until you have enough to make a delicious banana bread that gives you warm, comforting, baked goodness without all the gooey, slimy fruit texture.

As the Kitchn story says, “Making banana bread as a means of avoiding food waste isn’t a new idea. Although Americans first started eating bananas in the late 19th century, the first banana bread recipe was published by Pillsbury in 1933 in the midst of the Great Depression, another period of historic belt-tightening, as a means of stretching a week’s groceries.”

We’ve all been learning a little ingenuity in the kitchen lately, and if you haven’t had a chance yet to improve your baking skills, banana bread might be the way to start. And if Google Trends’ search results are any indication, you wouldn’t be the first to go hunting for recipes online during coronavirus.

Read on for the full story from Kitchn. And tell us in the comments below about your favorite banana bread recipe!