Some time ago, I puréed some over-ripe bananas and froze them. It's always a bit of a time-planning adventure to figure out when to acquire bananas so that they have long enough to over-ripen in time for the day I want to have banana bread. If you make the bread with bananas that aren't ripe enough, then the flavor is simply not strong enough. In fact, when made with bananas that are at peak freshness for eating, which also means no dark spots anywhere on peel or fruit, then the finished bread doesn't even taste "banana-y", in my opinion -- maybe a tiny bit, but that's all. So I got some bananas, let them ripen until the they were soft and mushy and darkening nicely, and then I peeled and puréed them, and then froze it all . Hmmm.....
Well, I never like to assume anything. Good cooking means planning and testing and tasting. So I did it. And you know what? It worked very well.
Freezing some things which are meant to be thawed later and mixed with other ingredients doesn't always work for every food. So for banana bread, one of my most favorite of all foods, I had to be really sure. And I have to say I was happy with the result.
I think that when I ate the loaves, the power of suggestion (knowing that this was from frozen banana purée) made me think that perhaps there was the tiniest of tiniest differences when made with fresh, but I can't really be sure.
However, all things considered, the banana bread was excellent. It's good to know that I can take this shortcut in the future. I like to be able to ripen those bananas a good long time, and then when I think they are ready, I still let them ripen one more day. Now I can do it and freeze it and always have this ingredient ready for spur-of-the-moment banana bread baking.
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