Did you know you can freeze bananas?

My family loves bananas, but it never fails that we always seem to have one or 2 left that have gotten a little too ripe for my picky banana eaters to eat and so it sits.  I hated throwing that last one away. Have you ever wasted money by having to throw away extra bananas because they got too ripe? Did you know you can freeze bananas?

After a little desperate experimentation in how to preserve those leftover singles, I discovered how to freeze bananas. And once thawed, the bananas work great in lots of banana recipes, except for the ones that call for sliced bananas, because when these thaw, they get kind of mushy.  Great for incorporating into batter, but not so good when the recipe called for sliced bananas.

How to freeze bananas.

Just throw them in the freezer, still in the peel.  They will look horrible because the peel turns black, but they are perfectly fine.

How to thaw frozen bananas.

When your recipe calls for bananas, just grab what you need out of the freezer and let them thaw on the counter for about 15-20 minutes.  Note: they will get very mushy.

How to prepare thawed frozen bananas for use in recipes.

Once thawed, just cut the bottom off and squeeze the banana out, kind of like squeezing toothpaste out of the tube.

Yes, it looks really gross (queue the 10-year-old-boy potty humor jokes. Go ahead, I’ll wait…), but it tastes fine.  And you don’t get messy hands because you are only touching the peel.

I find these thawed bananas really easy to use in my recipes for banana pancakes and banana bread, because you don’t get lumps.

But, the best part about learning how to freeze bananas is you won’t have to feel guilty about throwing away perfectly good bananas when they are too ripe for the banana aficionados at your house.

So, next time you have an extra banana or two, toss in them in the freezer instead of the trash!

By the way, click the image below for my favorite banana bread recipe.  It’s so easy because you mix it up in the blender! And using frozen bananas works great in this recipe.

Happy freezing!

~ Pam

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