Let’s be honest…If you have to freeze a banana, you probably want to make it as easy as possible. There’s one way to freeze bananas that’s the easiest way to go, but there’s a downside to it, so you might want to use my other easiest way. There’s no reason to make this difficult!
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What to use frozen bananas for.
I freeze bananas that are past the eating stage but would still be fine for baking. If they’re too brown people probably don’t want to use them in anything that you need a white banana for, but for baking, a brown and mushy banana is perfect.
The problem with freezing bananas is that they can get freezer burnt if they stay in the freezer too long and are exposed to the air. They can also get dried out if they’re in for excessively long times, so even if you freeze them you should try to use them relatively soon.
But no matter how they look when they come out of the freezer, they’ll probably be fine for baking purposes.
Freezing in a container.
For bananas that you’ll be baking with, you can freeze them in an airtight container or a ziplock bag after peeling them.
There’s no reason to cut them into slices and pre-freeze them, because when you’re baking with them later you’re going to mash them up anyway.
Just peel them and throw them into the container or ziplock bag, then seal it up and stick it in the freezer.
You can add more bananas to the container later if you’re gathering them up over time.
If you want to avoid having ice crystals form on the bananas, try to get as much air out of the container or bag as you can, but if you’re using these for baking it’s not a big deal. Like I said, you’ll be mushing them all up anyway, so they don’t need to be perfect when they thaw out.
For these bananas, I used these containers that I got from Amazon (See them here with my affiliate link) that have lids that seal, and they did form some ice on them, which wasn’t a big deal. They were in the fridge for about a month or maybe a little more.
When I made the banana bread with them, I opened the container up and let it sit on the counter for a while, then I added them to the batter. They hadn’t changed color too much, so they were still pretty firm compared to the bananas that I used to freeze, which was the basic “throw them in the freezer” method.
Freezing them in their peels.
When I did wedding cakes, one of the things I made was a banana cake. I would freeze old bananas that hadn’t been eaten in time, and when I needed a banana for a cake I would get them out of the freezer and thaw them out in a bowl, then squeeze them out of the peels.
Yes, I said “squeeze them out.” Because when you freeze a banana in the peel it will freeze just fine, but when you go to use them and they warm up, they can be pretty soft and pulpy.
The longer they’re frozen, the softer they’ll be, so plan on using them up once a month or so.
They can also weep moisture out of them as they warmed up, which is why I would put them in a bowl.
The basic method of using a banana that’s been frozen in the peel, or at least the one that I used, was to thaw them out, then I would take a pair of scissors and cut the end off, then I would squeeze the banana out of the peel into a measuring cup.
When I got enough for the recipe, that was that. They were guaranteed to be mushy, brown, and something that nobody would want to eat on their own, but for baking they were fine.
The benefit of freezing them in their peels is that there’s no extra work involved. Seriously, who has time to slice bananas and freeze them on a tray then transfer to a baggie… If you’re only going to be baking with them there’s no reason to treat them so nicely,
Just throw them into the freezer (mine lived on the freezer door in that little rack there) and grab them when you need them.
That’s all for this “technique.” No need to make it more complicated than it has to be!
