Dehydrating Bananas

All totally normal.
To flip them, pull the grid off, hold it over another kind of angled over or upside down, and you can pop them off with a thumb or kind of curl the mesh, peeling the grid away from the banana instead of prying the banana away from the grid. I feel like they dry better with a flip.

I have to do mine at least half again the listed time, usually, to get them dry enough to store for a few months. I have to drop the temp down to the raw foods level and let it go all day and night and into the next to get leathers or plastic feeling that will store longer. (Humidity and warmth here, maybe; maybe somebody closer to you can weigh in.)

I don't always treat them, because I haven't noticed an appreciable difference in consistency, color, texture or drying time. When I do treat them, it's with a little diluted lemon juice, or it's a weakened honey or OJ and just for some mild flavor change (same with apples).

I have a hard time with them melting into the tray for real if they're too thin. They can be patiently peeled off, but I really was not blessed with much patience for food I'm not even going to eat and I hate having to scrub those trays. Thicker takes longer to dry good, but it's worth it for me.

We prefer bananas not as chips or rounds, but in lengthwise pieces. We cut each banana in half, then cut each half into 1/4's, or break them apart on their natural fracture lines into thirds. These are then dried for 10ish hours. This provides either 6 or 8 wedge shaped pieces half the length of a banana.

Make wonderfully chewy dried bananas that are by far the favorite treat of our kids, and the best dried bananas we have ever tasted. We provide no rinsing or treatment.

While we will often purchase 20lbs or more of overripe fruit when it comes available, we have also had excellent luck with bananas slightly on the green side. By the time they have spent a few hours cooking slowly and gently in the dehydrator they all taste wondeful. We could not imagine drying bananas any other way.

Ok this is my first attempt at using the dehydrator.

I have one tray of 3/8" thick and one tray of 1/4 " thick
so I can comare which I might like todo the rest of the bananas at.

I just rotated the trays back to front, and noticed the bananas are
turning quite brown, and also seem to be stuck to the trays.
The 3/8" ones seem to be "more" stuck to the trays.

I am using the new stainless steel trays.

I used a pretreatment of 1/4 teaspoon of citric acid in 1 quart of water
and soaked bananas for 10 minutes. Doesn't not seem to be helping them at all

Any comments on this ? Maybe this is all normal ?

I do mine on the 125F/52C setting. Put them in at nights and take out in the mornings.
As to the trays, I used window screening (new) as liners and don't have a problem getting them off as you just bend the screen a wee bit and off they come.
I started using them years ago for herbs so not to have them drop thru.
Just kept on using the screens, easy to wash, easy to get stuff off of and nothing falls thru.

As to how long they keep..well we will not go into that......
Let's just say I have to buy more bananas next time in town. 😉

Don't treat or presoak with anything. Yet they never have turned brown.

We prefer bananas not as chips or rounds, but in lengthwise pieces. We cut each banana in half, then cut each half into 1/4's, or break them apart on their natural fracture lines into thirds. These are then dried for 10ish hours. This provides either 6 or 8 wedge shaped pieces half the length of a banana.

Make wonderfully chewy dried bananas that are by far the favorite treat of our kids, and the best dried bananas we have ever tasted. We provide no rinsing or treatment.

While we will often purchase 20lbs or more of overripe fruit when it comes available, we have also had excellent luck with bananas slightly on the green side. By the time they have spent a few hours cooking slowly and gently in the dehydrator they all taste wonderful. We could not imagine drying bananas any other way.

Your saying they are better than store bought? I love the store bought because they taste like they cover them with honey or something! Might you know what it is?

Ok I fell asleep and the unit has finished , the machine is still some warm .

Anyway, the 1/4 " is probbly too thin for my liking, and I tried to get a few off and it is very hard.
The 1/4 " got 11 hours drying and they seem a bit crunchi and hardly any chewy , only a tad in the very center chewy

While 3/8" is more chewy and got 12 hours drying and maybe easier to get off the rack.
This first batch was done at 135'F

These are the newer STAINLESS STEEL MESH racks, so they don't bend . The plastic ones bend ?

OldTimeGardener wrote:
As to the trays, I used window screening (new) as liners and don't have a problem getting them off as you just bend the screen a wee bit and off they come.
I started using them years ago for herbs so not to have them drop thru.

Oldtimer what type of screen are these ? the metal type or some plastic ? If plastic is it food grade ?

UPDATE:
When I said I turned them , I meant the the whole rack not flipping each piece. I took the rack out and just turned it so that
what was the front of the rack was now at the rear of the machine. The manual suggested doing that at 1/2 way time.

These stainless steel racks do not bend to be able to push from the back and pop off. However, I turned them upside down and was
able to push them with the tines of a fork and they came off. About 5 of them broke, as I learned where to push on the banana.
If you push from the center they break more.

I then washed those 2 racks I had used, so I can finish all the bananas and use all 5 racks this time. I think if you don't wash racks between uses,
the residue is going to get baked on and become a nightmare. These stainless steel racks are WOVEN mesh so there is alot
of little areas for food to stick. I was glad I had a regular scrub brush, plus at the end I looked and there was a couple spots
the regular scrub brush would not get out, so I had to use the stiff scrub brush and it took the pieces out. I bought that stiff
brush and never found a use for it, as it was too stiff for carrots or potatoes.

I have been meaning to buy a new sink, I have a double sink, but have been wanting a double with the left side much bigger , and
I think these racks will be easier to wash if I hurry up and get the bigger sink so the racks can lay flat . I had to keep turning the rack
over and over as I scrubbed. Yes not the most fun part. Also my sprayer on the kitchen no longer works, so getting a new sink means
I could rinse much quicker and easier

Has anyone got an easy way to cut the bananas evenly ? I got the 1/4 " evenly sliced, but I want to do thicker. I was looking for
my butter cutter but can not find it to see if it is 3/8" . I am going to re-try the pasty blender the one with the stiff head not the whip head,
I had used it yesterday and did not get good results as one side of banana was thicker and other thinner as the bananas are curved.

Has anyone been doing 1/2" banana pieces in the deydrator ?

I have the rest of the bananas in the dehydrator . This time using 3/8" , I scored the bananas first with the pastry blender and then cut
and I used 1/2 teaspoon of citric in 3 cups of water acid instead of 1/4 teaspoon in 4 cups water ( 1 quart ) . And only soaked for 5 minutes.
And I am trying at one setting lower than fruit, doing them on the vegie setting this time,
which is 125'F like oldtimegardener uses ( not the fruit setting at 135 which I did last night )
I got about 4 bananas per tray.

I think when choosing bananas, besides being yellow and not under or over ripe, one should choose " straighter " bananas so they
cut more evenly, and choose large bananas so they are not tiny pieces when cut.

The commercial dried bananas have been soaked in a super heavy syrup before drying. I guess you could call them candied! They are good, but to me, bananas are sweet enough the way they are. We get enough sugar in our diet without adding more. I will take mine natural, thank you.

Those dried bananas you commercially buy , have usually also been deep fried . That type totally give me indigestion.

You are quite right, Goldie, they have been deep fried.....I forgot that part,sorry.

I've just finished getting all those bananas off the trays, my fingers are raw even though I used a fork to
push them off from the other side. There has got to be some trick when using stainless racks. The place
I bought it said you don't need any mesh or liners unless you are doing those liquid type rollups. I will need
to inquire further. Or perhaps I am trying to take them off the racks too soon ?

One problem with this new stainless racks is there are no special directions that come with it. All the directions
are for the other style racks.

I notice that the test bunch I did yesterday are lighter in colour and I did them at 135'F
while these ones took alot longer and were done at 125'F

I will also have to get some ascorbic acid powder and compare the difference between using citric acid.

Nobody ever answered about whether they are cutting the bananas at 1/2" thick ?

There is a yellow banana cutter they try to sell you when you buy a dehydrator where I got it , and
it makes 1/2" thick. But I see no reference anywhere to dehyrate bananas at 1/2" thick

Currently I have the aroma of more raspberries and bananas dehyrdating.

I always sliced bananas about 1/3" thick. IMHO anything thicker never really dries properly, all the way through. Anything thinner will stick to your trays real bad, and it will be ugly to get off.

I do them about a 1/4 inch thick for both ways that I dry them.
for baking - no dipping -- I have not had an issue with them sticking to the trays but I dry mine to "brittle".
for snacking -- I use pineapple juice as a dip before drying, then the time is longer and no "brittle".

The main reason for doing a thinner slice is drying time, colour and texture. The thicker the cut, the longer the drying time. Plus you may have an almost black colouring at the edges while the middle with me closer to white. If you are looking for a faster way to slice them for drying, try a mandoline.