Sure Jell still has the Strawberry Banana Jam recipe.

Banana bread freezes well. And there are lots of different Banana Jam recipes out there that have some acid added to them - bottled lemon juice or an acidic fruit (pineapple, peaches, berries are good) - but they are untested, do-at-your-own-risk recipes.

And it is possible to home-dry crispy banana chips if you use honey or a sulfite dip.

Dave

Freeze what you can. You can crispy dehydrate too.

Decided to make banana butter and freeze it. I did see the strawberry banana recipe, but it only uses like one banana. They have removed the banana jam, and from reading a MAP site I understood it is no longer considered safe. So honey makes the dehydrated slices crisp?! I will try that, thanks.

I've made the strawberry banana jam on the surejell site, and I've made a similar jam with other berries I had leftover in the freezer. It is a jam worth making. I think I also had a pineapple-banana recipe. But like you said, it does not include a large proportion of banana.

Our banana plants produced a bumper crop in 2013, and I sliced or mashed bananas and froze them in wide-mouth pint canning jars. I may have added some ascorbic acid or lemon juice to prevent darkening, don't recall at the moment. I was cleaning out the freezer a few weeks ago and realized I hadn't used any of the frozen bananas. I just couldn't imagine they'd be any good and was about to toss them when I decided to at least try making some banana bread. The top half-inch had darkened despite using lemon juice or ascorbic acid (if I used it) and I scraped that off and discarded. I drained off the liquid as the bananas thawed out. Made banana bread, and it was absolutely delicious. I ended up making about 10 loaves of banana bread and kept the rest of the frozen bananas to make more later. The quality, smell, taste, texture was good. I was quite surprised.

On the other hand, I never liked any of the banana chips I tried making in the dehydrator. When the bananas were fresh, I tried all sorts of ways and degrees of dryness. We just didn't like them that way, but other people may have different tastes and opinions.

Jill

p.s. You bought 40 lbs of bananas...our two plants produced about 400 lbs of bananas! We gave away a LOT of bananas that year. haven't had another crop since...our first and only season were they produced early enough to mature before the weather got too cold!

Hmmm, my home dehydrated banana chips are very crunchy. Sounds like you just need to dehydrate them longer!

Have any of you found a way to get crispy dehydrated chips that don't get a bit of a bitter taste? Mine taste almost caramelized. I don't want to use any sweetener, so honey is not a good option for me, but if it will make a big difference, I will consider it - how would I use it?

Much of your success is going to depend on the quality of your dehydrator and the temperature you use to dry them. All dehydrators are not the same quality.

In talking with others I think too many try to rush the process. Too little time and/or too high a temp. A high temp can caramelize them, turn them dark and can dry the outside while leaving the inside soft and prone to spoilage. Like the tortoise, slow and steady wins the race. :)

If you don't want sweetness added then use food-grade sulfites - that is what commercially dried chip makers use. Either way be sure to pre-treat soak for 10 min or so in ascorbic acid, lemon juice, or citric acid.

Also, try thinner slices than you may have been using. We find 1/8" slices work best.

Dave

Thanks Dave - I have a new Excalibur dehydrator, so I don't think that's my issue. May be the pretreat. What is a food-grade sulfite? Is that the things you list?

I have the Nesco American Harvest dehydrator. After 24 hours at 135 degrees the banana chips still aren't crunchy, not the ones soaked in ascorbic acid or the ones soaked in the honey, sugar & water mix. Happily tho they taste yummy warm off the dehydrator trays, and the house smells divine! Jill living in Iowa I can't imagine the joy of having a banana tree, let alone 400 pounds of bananas! They do freeze really well don't they?! We like them in so many things...pancakes, breads, bars, cakes, cookies, milkshakes, smoothies, yogurt, jam, ice cream, etc. I think my real problem is not enough room in the deep freeze :)

I haven't done them in a while, but I sliced them, soaked them for a minute in diluted lemon or orange juice, very lightly oiled the dehydrator sheets with unrefined coconut oil and dried them. They didn't stick to the sheets and the coconut oil gave them a really subtle, but really good (IMO) flavor boost.

Mine were not crispy, more chewy.

Glad I made some banana jam and enjoyed it before it was deemed "unsafe." Better safe than sorry! I thought it seemed a little wonky but I think I got it off one of the jam manufacturers sites like Sure Jell or Ball or something like that. But this was maybe five years ago.

next time you get a glut of bananas, know you can make this One ingredient ice cream! It works beautifully, especially if you have an immersion blender or food processor. A potato masher works too. It is absolutely lovely, especially if you add some cinnamon, or peanut butter.