Banana Chips

I’ve bought banana chips many times when living in North America, but have never tried drying them out myself. Since I had such a huge volume of excellent bananas, I decided to give it a try.

I read somewhere that the banana pieces should be dipped in lemon juice to prevent browning, and I had luckily just picked up a giant lemon that had fallen out of the tree that hovers over my back door. I squeezed the juice from a couple of segments into a small bowl, and proceeded to dip, turn and dip each piece of banana.

Then, I turned on the dehydrator and started drying ….

After about 24 hours, it seemed like they were about half as dry as they should be, so I turned them over and continuted drying …

and drying …

and drying ….

Altogether, they were there for 4 days … although I turned the dehydrator off for the last night, then in the morning thought they were still too moistly rubbery, so turned it back on again for several more hours.

Verdict: Once dried, the dozen bananas that I started out with nicely fit into a small container that I keep in the refrigerator. Even after all those hours of drying, they still seemed a little rubbery-moist to me, and I didn’t want to take the chance that they would rot on these hot moist days.

The flavor is incredibly great … a bit of a lemony tang to the compacted sweetness of a great banana! I’m still not sure how I will use them … maybe to add to my cooked cereal … I’ll let you know.