How to Freeze Bananas

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

How to Freeze Bananas stock up while they are on sale and keep them 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. 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.

How to Freeze Bananas stock up while they are on sale and keep them in the freezer for smoothies!

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.

How to Freeze Bananas stock up while they are on sale and keep them in the freezer for smoothies!

We just stack them on a 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.

How to Freeze Bananas stock up while they are on sale and keep them in the freezer for smoothies!

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 for Banana Bread and 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 a Blendtec blender giveaway planned for Friday (UPDATE… I’m a month off, check back at the end of April… oops)! You’ll want to be prepared.

For your eating pleasure, here’s a few smoothie recipes you’ll love:

I hope you enjoyed learning about the Best Way to Freeze Bananas!

About Melissa

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66 Comments

  1. Yes I freeze with or with out skin if you cut off the top and bottom when they slightly thaw they will slip out of the skin. Great for banana bread or even cookies

  2. Like I do all fruit I use in smoothies, or my every other day “green drink”, I lay a piece of waxed paper on a baking pan and put the fruit ( fresh pineapple chunks, blueberries, strawberries, blackberries, banana pieces, raspberries, mango chunks, etc.) on the waxed paper separated……no touching. Freeze it and then place the frozen morsels into Ziploks that go back into the freezer quickly. The pieces don’t stick together. Kinda like the commercial stuff except I don’t have a blast freezer like they do.

  3. I always thaw frozen bananas for banana bread, because I never seem to have any on hand when the family requests banana bread
    I don’t put lemon juice on them. No need to, as they don’t discolor in the freezer.

  4. You wanted to know if you could freeze
    Bananas for banana bread.yes you can
    I have done it for years. Get ripe
    Bananas 4 or 5 of them mashed them
    With potato masher.put a teaspoon
    Lemon juice and mashed them.

  5. When they start getting black i freeze banana in the peel tomake b bread i let them thaw a little peel them let them finish thawing ang make the bread

  6. I always freeze my old bananas skin n all. I think they r much tastier when they get old in the freezer. They then thaw out n slide right outta the skin. However I do keep them longer than 6 months in there with no issues at all. They create some liquid which adds more flavor to breads. I was reading, up to 6 months in freezer but I have no problem keeping them longer. GREAT turn out!??