Kitchen Tip Tuesday--Freezing Mashed Bananas

You can tell that fall is here because the weather in my neck of the woods can not make up its mind as to whether we are going to have 80 degree days or if we are going to have 60 degree days!!

With the "yo-yo weather" and us in our 4th week of school it has been hard to plan my baking days. So this past weekend instead of letting 9 bananas go bad on my counter, I took the time to mash them and stick them in the freezer for making banana bread when the weather is a bit cooler.
Here is how I prepared them...

I mashed 6 bananas and stirred in about 2 TBSP. lemon juice to the bananas to help them not to brown in the freezer. Then I put them in a freezer bag and labeled the bag with "bananas 6" that way I know it is a bag ready for a double batch of my banana bread. I did the same with the last 3 bananas...mashed and bagged them but a "3" as part of the label...this will make a single batch!
Oh and notice how I stuck the bag in a container and folded the top down. I did it that way so that I didn't have to try to hold the bag, dish and get the bananas in the bag without making a huge mess. Folding the top down on the bag helps to not get banana mush in zipper part of the bag!

Here is the bag after the bananas have been frozen for two days! See how yellow they still look!
I like doing up the bananas this way rather than some of the other ways I have read that bananas can be frozen, because they are a flat rather than odd shape like throwing them in the freezer as a bunch. Think....space saving!!

As for thawing the bananas, I set them in a dish on the counter for a couple of hours and they are thawed enough to use in the banana bread batter.

Oh and just in case your wondering if they end up being too watery for using in banana bread...not for my recipe which calls for whole wheat flour. The batter ends up being just the right consistency.

This is how I freeze mashed bananas! For more great kitchen tips and recipes from others; head over to Tammy's Recipes!!