How to Freeze Bananas
on Mar 26, 2014, Updated Aug 13, 2022
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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
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.
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 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.
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:
- Workout Recovery Smoothie
- Orange Pineapple Banana Smoothie
- Healthy Strawberry Kiwi Smoothie
- How to make freezer smoothie bags (the easiest smoothies ever!)
- Healthy Tropical Smoothie
- Good, Better, and Best Smoothies
- Healthy Key Lime Pie Smoothie
- Workout Recovery Smoothie
- Healthy Pumpkin Protein Smoothie
- Cold Killer Smoothie
- Healthy Chocolate Peanut Butter Protein Smoothie (no weird powder needed)
I hope you enjoyed learning about the Best Way to Freeze Bananas!
Frozen bananas are great for making banana bread.
Do the bananas turn brown in the freezer?
Mine don’t with the peel gone! Weird huh, if you let them thaw on the counter though they turn brown as they do, but they come out of the freezer just the way you put them in.
We peel our bananas once they are ripened, break them in half and put one and a half bananas in a sandwich bag and freeze them, we add chocolate or vanilla Slim Fast, coconut almond milk, and ice to fill a blender. This makes enough to fill two tumblers, and we drink it on our way to work. The bananas have never turned brown.
I freeze banannas for my bananna bread in slow cooker. I think my bananna bread is 10 times better using banannas that have been frozen. I let them thaw out first and the mash and mix them. I understand when you say they turn into a creamy like texture.
im glad to hear you do this…I thought I was going a bit over the top lol but after reading this piece it def makes sense.
I am branching out to smoothies. 🙂
I use frozen bananas but I let them thaw all the way and then I squeeze them out of the skins into the bowl. Perfect every time and the bread only lasts a day in our house!
I do freeze bananas for banana bread. I now will freeze them your way for smoothies. I just put a very ripe banana in the freezer. I don’t wrap them. I just lay them on a rack. When I want to use them, I peel them and they are very easily smashed for the banana bread.
Easy Shmeezy!
YUMMMYY! I followed the recipe exactly. It turned out wonderfully moist. One of my boys did’nt care for the frosting but, I loved it and so did everyone else. I had never heard of banana cake but, this is one great cake and flavorful. The best part is how moist it is. I will make this for sure again. Thanks for posting. As my kids would say ” this rocks”.
The taste of this was great, and it was very easy to make. I didn’t cook it long enough and so there was a somewhat soggy, floury area in the center, but that’s my fault! LOL Made another one today and cooked it longer; it got VERY brown. I sent it home with gf, but she’ll let me know how it was. Great,I’me sure! Thanks for the easy tasty recipe.
I use the frozen bananas for smoothies and ice cream. Yes. I make delicious ice cream with bananas without any dairy. It is so delicious.
I freeze bananas often precisely for use in banana bread. I freeze them in their skins and just take a couple out when needed. Slit the skin and the mushy banana slides right out.
HI, just a little information for you. I bake banana bread quite often, my husband and mother love my banana bread. When I buy bananas to eat, my husband started leaving 1 or 2 on purpose and tell me, “oops, I guess you will have to make banana bread with those”. Little did he know, I need at least 5 bananas to make one bread. I started putting them in freezer bags, smashing them up, and when I had enough to make bread, I will pull some out, thaw it, and make bread. Comes out great!