How to properly dry bananas at home

Selection and preparation of bananas for drying

Only ripe bananas are suitable for drying. There may be black spots on the peel, but the flesh of the fruit should remain light and firm.

Before drying, bananas must be washed in running water and peeled.

Next, you need to decide what result you want to get in the end - dried bananas or completely dried banana chips. The method of cutting fruit will depend on this.

For a dried product, it is better to cut bananas into large pieces. Large fruits can be cut in half first, and then each half in two. Small mini bananas (Baby Banana) can be dried whole.

For chips, fruits are cut into wheels 5 to 10 millimeters thick.

To prevent the fruits from darkening during drying, they must be kept for some time in acidified water.To do this, pour 200 milliliters of cool water and squeezed juice of one lemon into a bowl. Lemon juice can be replaced with 1 teaspoon of citric acid. Place banana slices in the acidified solution for 20–30 seconds.

After this procedure, the fruits are placed in a colander and waited until the excess liquid has drained as much as possible.

Methods for drying bananas

In the sun

At first glance, the simplest drying method is to use solar heat, but in practice it turns out to be the most labor-intensive.

• Firstly, changeable weather conditions may not always contribute to high-quality drying.
• Secondly, you need to take the tray with bananas home at night and take it out into the fresh air again only after the morning dew has disappeared, otherwise the products will become soggy.
• Thirdly, bananas laid out on a pallet must be reliably protected from insects that can transfer pathogens to them.

Drying time in the open sun ranges from 2 to 4 days. This mainly depends on the weather conditions and the size of the fruit cut.

In the oven

Bananas prepared in the manner described above are laid out on a tray covered with parchment. To improve air exchange, the paper can be pierced in several places with a knife.

Preheat the oven to a temperature of 60 - 70 degrees and place a baking sheet with slices in it. It is important to leave the oven door open to allow air to circulate. Small banana slices will be completely ready in 3 hours, but large pieces will take much longer. Remember to periodically turn the fruit slices so that drying occurs more evenly.

Watch the video from the Kitchen Show channel - Banana Chips - Dried Bananas with Cinnamon. How to dry bananas in the oven.

In an electric dryer

Using an electric dryer is considered the most convenient, since the surrounding air heats up much less during its operation.

Pieces of fruit are laid out on trays in one layer, leaving a small distance between them to avoid sticking together. Bananas are dried at a temperature of 60 - 70ºС for 10 - 12 hours. During this time, the pallets must be periodically swapped. This should be done approximately once every 2 hours.

The readiness of the fruit is determined individually. Some people prefer jerky, while others prefer completely dry banana chips.

The main thing after drying is to equalize the moisture in the product. To do this, dried fruits are placed from the dehydrator into one container and allowed to stand for several hours. During this time, the moisture remaining in the bananas will be evenly distributed in the bananas.

Watch the video from the channel “Ezidri Master” - How to make dried bananas at home?

How to store dried bananas

Dried bananas should be stored in the main compartment of the refrigerator in a tightly sealed container. Under such conditions, dried fruits can be stored for up to 1 year.

The completely dried product can be stored at room temperature in a container or plastic bag. If the room humidity is normal, then you can store dry banana slices in paper bags.