Today we were given a case of peeled frozen bananas from someone who needed the space in their freezer. With my handy dandy dehydrator, I can now deal pretty efficiently with what in the past would have been way too much produce for me to deal with, short of feeding it to my kids nonstop!
My ds15 is the one who usually makes the fruit leather, so I asked him before I accepted the bananas if I should say yes or not. I didn’t want him to feel overwhelmed by the sudden onslaught of ripe bananas needing to be processed, especially this week, since I want to get the kitchen cleaned and all cooking that isn’t necessary out of the way. He willingly agreed, so off we went to pick them up.
He’s found that the most efficient way to make fruit leather is to throw the fruit into the food processor or blender. So he started blending the first batch, and then added a little bit of fruit juice concentrate. Before he even tasted it, he told me it looked like ice cream – it was light and fluffy. He let everyone taste it, and the response of two of my kids showed me that: a) it was really good and b) they needed to take an immediate nap (because they liked it so much they started complaining and being sad when they had to wait for more.)
The first batch was finished off within minutes of him making it – it never made it anywhere near the dehydrator trays. 🙂 And we decided to keep the bananas in the freezer to use for shakes and ice cream instead of dehydrating it. It’s a quick and healthy treat that everyone enjoyed and I know that they’ll continue to enjoy. And it’s always good to have yet another way to deal with ripe bananas.
So here’s the very unofficial recipe – take a bunch of frozen bananas (they have to be frozen – fresh bananas will have a different consistency), and blend them up. Add concentrate – he estimated that the ratio of bananas to concentrate was 10:1 (about ten bananas and half a can of concentrate). But the easiest thing is probably to taste it and add a little more or a little less, according to your preferences. Serve immediately. (If you make this in advance and freeze it, let me know how it works to do that.)
Avivah
When I saw that someone was giving away bananas, my first thought was you would love them! 🙂
That is so funny, that you know what I’m referring to and thought of me! But you know, we didn’t call about them for three days after I saw the posting – I guess there aren’t many people around who want to deal with them. And being the small world it is, the person giving them away ended up being someone we knew – ds15 was just at their house yesterday (before we called them about the bananas).