2010 Year of Pleasures #43

I hated babysitting when I was a teen, but there was one family I would watch and it was because the mom was really into food preservation and always had home dried bananas in the house.

Bananas dried in a food dehydrator are totally different than the dried bananas you buy at the store. Those are toothbreakers. Home dried bananas are like little pieces of fruit leather, and super sweet as all the sugars get concentrated when the water goes away.

Since she made hers in one of those dehydrators they sell on TV, I thought that until I had one I would be left dried bananaless. But I cracked it. I made them in my oven.

I have experimented with many things, and let me tell you right up front that you don’t want to try this with anything other than parchment paper. Many bananas have been wasted in this discovery, but anything else either cements the bananas in place, or cements itself to the banana.

If your oven goes to 200, cook the bananas for a few hours, checking on them every half hour or so until they’re sufficiently leathery. If it doesn’t, you can cook them like a meringue. Preheat your oven to 450, turn it off, and then let the bananas cook with the carry over heat.

You could use these as you would any dried fruit, cereals, granolas, etc. But personally I just take the parchment paper to the couch and pop them like button candy.

3 thoughts on “2010 Year of Pleasures #43

  1. Home dried bananas are one of my favorite things EVER. My mom used to make them when we were little and I've continued to do so.I've been waiting for a banana sale so I could dry a bunch. My dehydrator holds A LOT of bananas. 🙂

  2. so crazy, when I was reading this, I could totally smell the dried banana's that my mom used to make! dried is the only way I will eat them! (I can't stand the texture of a regular banana)

  3. Oh yum! I've always wondered about making these myself, but I had gadgets, so didn't want to get a dehydrator. YAY! I'll be making these this weekend!

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