How you can Freeze Bananas for Baking

Use this web page to learn to freeze and thaw bananas to make use of in your baking recipes.

Can I Use Frozen Bananas in Banana Bread?

Sure, in fact! You may freeze your whole ripe bananas to make use of in baking recipes like banana bread, banana muffins, banana cake, and (my favourite) chocolate banana muffins. In case you have spotty, practically black, closely ripened bananas on the counter, however don’t have the possibility to bake with them proper now, go forward and freeze them to make use of on your baked items at a later time.

Time is in your aspect this manner! You’ll at all times have bananas prepared for banana bread in case your freezer is stocked. Go forward and construct up a frozen stash. 😉

Freeze Bananas Complete (If Utilizing for Baking)

If I’m freezing bananas to make use of in smoothies, I often minimize them into chunks first, as a result of my blender can’t actually deal with complete frozen bananas. You often wouldn’t have to thaw bananas if utilizing them in smoothies.

You may freeze bananas in a big zipped-top freezer bag or any lined container. I like to make use of these glass freezer containers, that are unbelievable for freezer meals & snacks, too.

Freeze As much as 3–6 Months

Freeze bananas for as much as 3–6 months. Freezing bananas past 6 months could also be tremendous, however the peeled bananas do start to darken over time, after which they thaw into an excessively mushy mess. I’ve discovered as much as 6 months is ok, and underneath 3 months is even higher.

How you can Defrost Bananas for Baking

You should utilize both of those defrosting strategies:

1. Take away the frozen bananas from the freezer and thaw at room temperature for two hours, or within the fridge in a single day.
2. Defrost in your microwave at 50% energy. The time varies relying in your microwave, however for 4–5 bananas, this most likely takes round 3 minutes.

After thawing, bananas are slippery, mushy, and sitting in a pool of brown liquid.

#1 Success Tip: Pressure the Brown Liquid

When thawing your frozen bananas, they launch a pool of brown liquid. Just about any tutorial I’ve seen tells you to depart the brown liquid and mash the bananas and liquid collectively. Right here is all of the liquid that 5 frozen bananas launched when thawing:

I really pressure all of this liquid out and discard it. (Tip: In case your banana baked good recipe requires a liquid (like milk), you may use this brown banana liquid as an alternative.)

Mashing up your thawed bananas with this liquid may work for some recipes, however I’ve discovered it makes most baked items overly dense and heavy. That’s as a result of your mashed banana combination is thinner, virtually liquid-y as an alternative of being chunky. On this banana bread, for instance, you’re now including 2 cups of a skinny liquid as an alternative of two cups of a chunky add-in. And there’s not sufficient dry components within the batter to help that additional moisture.

The next photograph reveals 2 slices of banana bread:

1. The left slice is from a loaf made with frozen, thawed, and mashed bananas with practically all the extra liquid strained off. This loaf rose properly and was mushy, moist, and tender as meant.
2. The precise slice is from a loaf made with frozen, thawed, and mashed bananas with the defrosted brown liquid. Although that is the pure moisture from the thawed bananas, it produced an excessively skinny mashed banana combination and subsequently weighed down the banana bread. This loaf took for much longer to bake, had a chewier exterior, tasted overly dense, and was fairly squat.

You’ll discover a distinction in case you mash your thawed bananas with the surplus liquid and that distinction is probably not fascinating. Once more, in case your recipe requires a liquid similar to milk, you possibly can exchange a few of it with the banana liquid. This banana cake, for instance, makes use of 1 and 1/2 cups (360ml) buttermilk. You could get 1/4 cup (60ml) brown liquid out of your 3 frozen and thawed bananas, so go forward and exchange 1/4 cup (60ml) of buttermilk with the banana liquid.

Listed below are 3 frozen, thawed, and mashed bananas with just about all the brown banana liquid strained off. The combination is chunky and fairly thick, which is the way it seems to be if utilizing common ripe bananas that haven’t been frozen. (Which is what we’re making an attempt to duplicate.)

Use Frozen, Thawed Bananas in These Recipes:

This isn’t actually a “recipe” however I figured placing all of it in a printable recipe card could be most useful. Do you freeze bananas to make use of in baking?

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