How to Freeze Bananas

This is theBest Way to Freeze Bananas! Stock up while bananas are on sale and keep your stash in the freezer for smoothies.

How to Freeze Bananas

Frozen bananas will change your smoothie life and I’m here to show you how I do it.

When you freeze bananas and blend them, they almost have the consistency of homemade ice cream. Some kind of magic happens and they just get amazingly smooth and creamy. Frozen bananas are a great base for smoothies and for tossing intoHomemade Strawberry Milkshakes! They are very sweet, they are a pretty inexpensive fruit, and that texture just can’t be beat.

To start your frozen banana collection, I would buy 3-4 extra banana bunches for the week and let them rest on the counter until they get nice and ripe. Then freeze them all at the same time and you’ll have a nice stash for when you need them. I like to keep two bags in the freezer. One I am using, and one I am adding to. Once I have a stash built up, then I’ll just buy an extra bunch of bananas a week and put them in the freezer as they ripen. When I empty the “using” bag, I start using the bag I was adding to, and then that first bag becomes the bag that I add to. It’s a simple way to rotate through your supply.

My kids are also awful about getting a whole banana by themselves and then eating 3 bites and leaving the rest somewhere for me to find. So now instead of trying to save the banana and get them to eat it later (and in Southern Utah they end up dehydrating on the counter before they eat them), I just break off the top where they bit it and then throw the rest of the banana in my frozen banana bag in the freezer.

Sometimes I can get overripe bananas for free or on major discount and I always take advantage of that. I like to peel them all and break off any parts that are really black. I took this picture to show you what I do and don’t keep. If you can see, some of the bananas are a bit soft and bruised looking but the parts that I’m throwing out are definitely black and getting slimy. I’m sure you could use them I just don’t like to. I think that they start to have a rotten flavor to them that I can even taste in banana bread, so I give those pieces to the chickens.

Then I break all of the bananas into pieces. If you have a high power blender you could break them into 2 to 3 inch pieces. If you have a more traditional blender then I would recommend breaking them into smaller 1 inch pieces. This is a great job for your kitchen helpers.

We just stack them ona baking sheet, add a lid, and stick them in the freezer for at least 4 hours.

After they have started to freeze, we break the banana pieces apart and stick them in freezer bags.

I’ve skipped the baking sheet step before and just chucked a whole lot of ripe bananas in a freezer bag. They were quite hard to get apart because they were all frozen together. I had to chisel then apart to use them! That being said, it is ok to add a banana or two worth of pieces to the bag of already frozen bananas without pre-freezing them (this is how I keep my supply up, remember).

We have smoothies 5-6 days a weeks and so we use a whole lot of bananas!

My husband asked me if I could freeze bananas forBanana Breadand I have no idea. Do any of you freeze bananas for banana bread? Do you let them thaw first?! I’d love some more information on it if you do.

Now run out and stock up on some bananas, because I have a huge smoothie post and aBlendtec blendergiveaway planned for Friday (UPDATE… I’m a month off, check back at the end of April… oops)! You’ll want to be prepared.