Banana blueberry muffins with streusel topping

There are many varieties of bananas to choose from at most supermarkets, each delicious and sweet in their own ways. An award-winning food writer and cookbook author, Molly Watson has created more than 1,000 recipes focused on local, seasonal ingredients. If you’re lucky enough to live in a banana-growing climate, your farmers market or local banana blueberry muffins with streusel topping may well sell a variety of bananas.

What all bananas have in common is a fairly starchy texture, a mildly sweet flavor as compared to other tropical fruits, and the wonderful ability to keep ripening after they’ve been plucked from their trees. As tropical fruits, bananas don’t care for the chill of the fridge, so it’s best to store them at room temperature, where they’ll continue to ripen gradually. Have too many bananas to handle? Throw them in the freezer — still in the peel, if you want. Apple bananas are exceptionally sweet, hence their other name, Candy Apple Banana.

They are grown in the rainy tropical forests in Hawaii. Their flesh is firm and has a slight pinkish tone. Cavendish bananas are the most common variety. They are the long yellow, slightly sweet bananas at supermarkets around the U. They go from under-ripe green to perfectly ripe and still firm mellow yellow, to riper deep yellow with a brown spot or two, to super soft and browning. The perfect ripeness depends on personal taste.

Williams bananas are the same as Giant Cavendish. They are large, mild, and sweet. Where they’re grown, they’re often sold green and underripe. Like all bananas, they continue to ripen after being picked. To hasten ripening, store them in a paper bag at room temperature.

Lady’s Finger bananas are smaller and sweeter than the ubiquitous longer, milder Cavendish. They can be used in the same way, but make particularly portion-controlled snacks, especially for kids. Pisang Raja bananas are popular in Indonesia, where they are often used to make banana fritters. They are also known as Musa Belle bananas. There are many types of red bananas, but they share two key things in common: they look super cool, and they tend to be on the sweeter side of the banana flavor family. Eat them out of hand or add them to dishes, but when they’re red, they’re ready to eat! Cooking bananas, like plantains, are better thought of as potatoes than as bananas.