11 New Uses For Old Bananas

A cookie sheet with six breakfast cookies with oats, banana, figs, and peanut butter

Breakfast Cookies1/11

Think granola bars but in soft, crumbly cookie form. That's what you get with these sorta virtuous, sorta naughty little lovelies.

A loaf of chocolate-bourbon banana bread with several slices cut off one end.Chocolate Bourbon-Spiked Banana Bread

Chocolate-Bourbon Banana Bread2/11

This life-changer of a recipe isn't your mom's banana bread. It's better. And we've got no qualms saying that.

Big glass bowl of layers of vanilla wafer banana pudding topped with sliced bananas, Nilla wafers, and whipped cream

Vanilla Wafer Banana Pudding3/11

Not a lot has changed since you last had this after-school classic. It's still easy. It's still quick. And it's still gosh darned comforting as heck.

A broken slice of banana bread stacked on a white plate

Banana Bread by Cook’s Illustrated4/11

A superlative version of the classic American quick bread that everyone loves. And that everyone pretty much always has the ingredients for on hand.

A stack of four slices of banana bread French toast dripping with maple syrup and topped with whipped cream

Banana Bread French Toast5/11

That's right. A behemoth stack of French toast made from—believe it—thickly sliced banana bread. Sort of makes you believe in magic, doesn't it?

Seven scoops of vegan banana ice cream with some small spoons tucked underneath.

Vegan Banana “Ice Cream”6/11

This easy, cheap, weird, and truly magical one-ingredient vegan ice cream calls for nothing but bananas and your food processor. Oh, and a spoon.

A whole peanut butter pie in a white pie dish, topped with whipped cream and peanuts.

Peanut Butter Pie7/11

We can't help falling in love with the sweet, smoky, salty, nutty flavors of Elvis’s favorite sandwich—peanut butter, bacon, and banana—in a gooey, messy pie.

Two glasses of green smoothie, one of them tipped over and spilled with two spinach leaves beside it.

Green Smoothie8/11

Close your eyes and we swear you'd never guess this sweet, banana-y smoothie is suffused with good-for-you greens.

A three-layer hummingbird cake with a cake server beside it.

Hummingbird Cake9/11

This Southern classic is an oh so sweet and charming stack of pineapple, coconut, bananas, and pecans slathered with cream cheese frosting.

A white plate of pan-fried bananas with brandy that have been drizzle with coconut cream with a fork resting on either side.

Pan-Fried Bananas with Brandy10/11

Boozy bananas are lavished with a cheater's caramel sauce made with butter, brandy, and brown sugar in this outrageously simple riff on a Southern classic. No flames required.

A banana cream pie, topped with pillowy meringue in a glass pie dish with a vase of daffodils beside it.

Banana Cream Pie11/11

Behold, the pie that prompted Beth M. Howard's parents’ marriage proposal. One taste and we understood why. We think you will, too.