100 bananas ripening at once
This post describes how to make dried bananas using a dehydrator at home. I have previously posted about my success (finally) growing lady finger bananas at home. Up until now the bananas have ripened gradually (sometimes with some help by putting some in a paper bag with an apple) but recently I was faced with the challenge of having literally a hundred bananas all ripening at once! My freezer wasn’t going to be able to cope with all these bananas, although I did freeze one big bag of bananas for smoothies, banana cakes etc and another couple of bags of slices for making banana icecream.
-
- Freeze slices
-
- Freeze whole
-
- Banana Daquiri
So I decided to try drying some bananas in my dehydrator as they would make nice healthy snacks. I’ve learnt that what we usually refer to as bunches are actually ‘hands’ – the whole lot together are the bunch.
Bananas – I used a couple of hands of lady finger bananas but you can adjust depending on what you have and also the capacity of your dehydrator
Lemon juice – I used 2 lemons. You need enough to coat the banana slices so they don’t brown.
Put the lemon juice in a bowl. Then peel and slice the bananas and toss them in lemon juice as you go. How you slice them is up to you but aim for about 0.5cm thickness. I experimented with long diagonal slices and rounds.
I didn’t really know quite what to expect because I had had banana chips that were hard and crispy and also banana slices that were chewy and leathery. When these ones are perfectly dehydrated, they are leathery and dry (slightly chewy) and don’t tear easily when you lift them from the tray. If they are still soft and ‘fleshy’ then dry them some more.
Once you are happy with them, transfer the slices to airtight containers. Enjoy as a healthy snack.
Reward yourself with a banana daquiri to use up more bananas!
-
- Lady Finger Bananas
-
- Slice bananas
-
- Toss in lemon juice
-
- Place on dehydrator trays
-
- Until dry and leathery
-
- Store in airtight containers
Leave a Reply