The Deep Fried Treat That Puts Overripe Bananas To Good Use

Have you ever felt like all it took was a blink of an eye and your perfect bananas became overly ripe and no longer appetizing despite your best efforts to store them to keep them as fresh as possible for as long as possible? You can likely blame ethylene gas from the banana stems for how rapidly they ripened. Try storing bananas on the counter as a bunch, preferably hung from a banana tree, per Brooklyn Farm Girl, for longer-lasting bananas. Once bananas have become fully ripened, it's fine to keep them in the refrigerator, according to Taste of Home. 

Perhaps despite your best efforts, your bananas have developed brown spots on the peels. The first thought might be to transform the fruit into a classic loaf of banana bread — with or without chocolate chips or nuts. But perhaps you are ready to try something new that is just as easy to make as banana bread but battered and then deep fried to have a beignet-like texture, per Southern Living. 

With only a handful of ingredients and about four large overripe bananas, you can make a slightly sweet fritter that is good for any time of the day, according to Ayesha Curry, who shared a recipe for banana fritters with Food & Wine. Even if you don't have browning bananas, you can still make this recipe. Simply take your underripe or ripe bananas and put them in the oven at 350 degrees Fahrenheit with their peels on for 15 minutes to prep them for mashing with and mixing with milk, flour, brown sugar, baking soda, and baking powder. 

Taste of Home advises it's best to cut the bananas into pieces that are about 2 inches long, then batter them, and fry them in a pan of canola oil. It only takes about 30 minutes to transform the undesirable bananas into craveable fritters, says Southern Living. After being dried on a paper towel, the fritters can be dusted with confectioners' sugar. Or, with a chocolatey rum sauce as suggested by Curry. Made of rum, sugar, butter, and chocolate chips, the sauce can be drizzled over the puffy fritters before serving. For a sweet finishing touch, Precious Core recommends using jam or chocolate. But, for a savory pairing, try an African dipping sauce made with tomato, hot pepper, onions, ginger, garlic, and a Maggi cube. 

Whether eaten with ice cream for dessert or with fresh fruit for brunch, the banana fritters will give new life to old bananas.