28+ Best Overripe Banana Recipes

Here are lots of great overripe banana recipes, 28 of them! A great way to use brown bananas and make something delicious with them, from cake mix banana bread to smoothies, cakes and beyond. Here are our favorites.

Easy Ripe Banana Recipes

Using frozen bananas thawed out, or ripe bananas that have browned too much to just eat them, you’ll love all of these possibilities. Baking banana nut bread or any of these other breakfast recipe ideas just makes my mouth water.

• Banana bread pudding is probably one of my greatest creations ever. It is a bit like one of our pudding cake recipes because it is just so very moist all the way to the outside edges. I like using semi ripe pieces for this and yellow slices again covering the top.
• The best banana pudding cake you will ever make is here, and on that list above. If you want to add chocolate though you should give our banana nutella muffins a whirl.
• These sour cream blueberry banana muffins are great, or you can make them into mini banana muffins

Recipes using Brown Bananas

Adding in another fruit is a great idea too though. There are many that work well but coconut or pineapple are our favorites I would say. I guess they meld together because of their tropical nature. Coming from Hawaii they are my go to favorite flavors so you will see a lot of them integrated. Here are a few other choices.

• Like our Banana pineapple bread is great. You can make in a loaf pan or as banana bread bundt cake too. If you are in need of a dairy free variation you can do that easily. I have to do this for my husband and my daughters never know the difference.
• You can do the same with our Pressure cooker banana bread too. Either versions are great if you have an Instant Pot or Crock Pot Express. You can find lactose free plant butters at the store pretty regularly now.
• And for the Fall…..this pumpkin banana bread recipe is amazing.

You can make air fryer banana bread now too. If you have never baked in this hot air machine, stuff comes out surprisingly well. Using your oven I would try pumpkin banana muffins with your brown nanners.

• Try this banana pudding cheesecake from Serena Bakes Simply from Scratch!
• Add into cake mix to make more moist like we did with our Banana Cake Made with Cake Mix
• Homemade ginger banana bread is great during the holidays.

If you haven’t used a box of Jello pudding in a cake mix it is to die for I’ll tell you. It brings a bought of moisture you can’t get any other way.

Frozen Brown Banana Recipes

If you are not ready to bake but your fruit is pretty brown you can save them for later!! Just throw them into a freezer bag and store until later. When set, put that bag into the fridge overnight and the next day you will be ready to use and make banana and nuts cake, bread or pancakes with them!

If you need dairy free options I have those too like our Banana Bread Recipe No Butter that list 3 options. Now of course you can use them in other ways beyond baked goods too. Drink them too!

• After the holidays you can add some chopped berries you may have left over, like in our banana cranberry bread.
• Use your overripe bananas and make this banana blueberry smoothie from My Mommy Style.
• Here’s a peanut butter and banana smoothie too from Like Mother Like Daughter that looks amazing.

Looking for a quick easy dessert with just 4 ingredients? Make one of our fabulously easy boxed cake mix recipes some night. One of the most popular to make are these easy banana bread muffins for breakfast.

• They also have a cinnamon sugar crusted banana bread that I have to try next.
• Try our quick 4 ingredient banana bread recipe some night, talk about easy!! I use spice variety most often but occasionally I can find coconut and that is to die for. You don’t follow the box ingredients, use mashed naners, egg and 2 others to make a loaf or muffins this way.

Simpler is always better if you ask me. I have 3 kids and work full time so semi-homemade is my style a lot of times. You just need one bowl to fold all the things together. No finding the baking powder, measure the flour or any measuring really this way. You just dump and go, throw it into a pan and bake.

Easy Overripe Banana Recipes few Ingredients

Several of these are kinda’ cheater methods and start with cake mix. That is great if you have little time and want something sweet. I you want to start from scratch though I would highly recommend our banana upside down cake here.

• OOhhhhh here’s greek yogurt strawberry banana bread that sounds delish from Domestic Superhero!
• For breakfast try this recipe for banana bread french toast from Scattered Thoughts of a Crafty Mom.
• Add just a bit of caffeine with our banana coffee cake recipe!

We make coconut banana bread muffins drizzled with cream cheese frosting and it’s so yummy! If you love fresh baked goods these are awesome. You can even substitute a bit of pineapple juice instead of a bit of the liquid to give it more of a tropical flavor overall. It creates a really moist cake / bread using coconut milk!

Instead of mini bundt cakes you could use the same mixture to make a loaf instead. I kinda’ like hand held individually portioned out though. Makes things easier once they are done with no slicing required, and I think they stay moist longer if you have leftovers too.

Recipes Using Lots of Bananas

Life Currents has a bourbon banana walnut bread recipe…..uh yum! Have you heard of banana bread hummus….well Make The Best of Everything will show you how to make it here. If you have never had a sweet version of this creamed dish or garbanzo beans it is pretty darn yummy. Serve it with Nilla wafers for a fun treat with your kids.

Like I said, we continue adding to this list every single month, like Banana Cornbread today. Literally every time I have 3-5 browned it is time to think of something new to make. If I am going to try something for my family I will take pictures along the way in case it turns out. Yes there have been times where what I thought would be good didn’t work.

BUT more times than not I am surprised at what a hit it was and have to share it all wit y’all. 😉 Did you know you can make Instant Pot banana bread too Yes, you can in fact bake in your pressure cooker. I know, sounds crazy but totally works great.

Quick Banana Recipes

And we have a few more from our other blogger friends too. Yes there is a large community of us (women mostly) who love creating yummy things in the kitchen. There are so many possibilities with this ingredient that I couldn’t possibly make them all myself. That is when I decide to include some from friends who I know create lots of great recipes too.

• Look at these banana cream pie cookies from Butter with a Side of Bread. Super moist by themselves or make into sandwiches with some cream in the middle too.

A cheater way to do this is just buy a tub of frosting already made. Use the back of a spoon to fill the top, lay a 2nd over that and roll the edges in some sprinkles to make them pretty. If you love zucchini too, try our chocolate banana muffins that are oh so moist! You really can’t go wrong with any of these overripe banana recipes!!

For best results read on How to Tell if Banana Bread is Done so it is as tender as possible!

Don’t let those sweet fruits go to waste because man they make the most delicious cakes, breads, smoothies and more if you just have a little bit of time to bake. Even if you don’t have a lot of time and doctor up a cake mix with your overripe bananas like in my banana pudding cake, it brings such a wonderful sweetness and taste to it that you just cannot replicate.

How to Store Your Overripe Bananas

Ok so I don’t always have the energy or time to bake when I find our fruit browned. You can easily slow down the process and buy yourself a few days by putting them in the fridge. I would highly recommend putting them into a bowl or freezer bag first because they can start to leak. If you think you’ll take longer to get to them you can freeze too.

For this method you should separate them at the top, ideally, and put into a gallon Ziploc baggie. Zip closed void of air and store for up to a few months. If you plan on using them in smoothies I would peel them first. Then you can throw them into a blender and go for it with some milk and/or ice cream or yogurt.

Planning on baking with them later? Leave them as is in a bag and take them out a day before you want to make something. Defrost bag full in the fridge and they will soften overnight. Note that they will be very soft and literally slide out of the skin once you open the top so little mashing is necessary but they will work great just the same this way.