- Storing bananas in cold causes them to soften and ripen quickly.
- If you like to make banana bread, consider storing a few bananas in a Ziploc bag and popping them in the freezer.
- That way, when you feel the urge to bake, you'll have overripe bananas at your disposal.
Banana bread is the ideal baked good.
It's made with fruit so it makes you feel like you're baking something that's somewhat healthy, it's easy to make, and it lends itself well to chocolate chips.
But I rarely make it thanks to the fact that the recipe calls for overripe bananas, an ingredient that I almost never have just sitting in my kitchen at the exact time I want to make banana bread.
Then I came across a genius hack in an article about how to store food to make it last longer, and I realized I had finally found the solution to my banana bread conundrum.
The article advises people to store tomatoes and other fruits — like bananas — on the counter since extreme cold can discolor bananas and cause them to soften. While this is bad for a banana you were planning on eating for breakfast, it's ideal for a banana you were planning on using to make banana bread.
That means you can just grab a few bananas, pop them into a Ziploc, throw them in the freezer, and keep them there until you feel the urge to bake some banana bread, at which point you'll have a ready batch of overripe fruits at your disposal.
I'm not sure why I hadn't thought of this on my own, but I know what I'll be grabbing at the grocery store tonight — and what I'll be baking this weekend.
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