Ooh....you're getting me in the mood for banana bread again...! I was never a fan of it until I tried the one from America's Test Kitchen's Baking Book...theirs also uses very overripe bananas. They claimed they found the best formula, and I had to agree it was wonderful. I even used it to make banana muffins, their recipe made one 9" loaf, but it also easily made 12 standard muffins, I just lowered the baking time to about 25-30 minutes till a toothpick came out clean. I can't agree more to the need for OVERRIPE bananas in these breads! I admit, they look SO bad that you can't imagine doing anything but throwing them away, but it really makes the difference. I used about 4 small bananas when I made it, some SO ripe they were oozing liquid....yuck! :-D But the end result was delicious! You can really taste the banana. So...for those who can't wait....believe me...let 'em get ripe! You can always plan to make it the next week, buy some already ripening bananas and leave them out till then...it's worth the wait! For those "impatient" folks, ATK DID also say if you need to hurry things up a bit, you can put the unpeeled bananas on a sheet in the preheated oven for 15 minutes while you are gathering the rest of your ingredients. The skins will blacken, but the insides will have ripened. I haven't tried it myself, but it is supposed to speed up the process of starches turning to sugars, great if you're stuck with bananas that just aren't ready to be used. I think there will always be individual tastes as to what the "best" banana bread is, but who cares? They're ALL great!

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