So as I dehydrate more and more bananas, I’m learning a few things that I thought might help you out. Particularly if you’re just getting started with dehydrating. I hope you will find these tips on dehydrating bananas helpful. I’ll add more as I come across them!
- Buy bananas in small amounts. It only takes about 4 large bananas to fill a 5 tray dehydrator.
- If you want very thin chips, choose bananas that have just completed turning yellow. You don’t want ANY brown spots. Buy them green if you have to and keep an eye on them while they ripen. The reason being that the older they get, the harder they are to slice. They also do not become as crispy when they are older. They end up being a bit more chewy and stick to the dehydrator shelf much more. Probably because the sugar intensifies as they get more ripe.
- If you want sweeter banana chips, use them when they have a few brown spots. But don’t use a cheese slicer as you’ll end up with mush. Use a mandolin or some other slicing tool. But above all, the slices MUST be uniform! You’ll need to cut these a bit thicker as well. About a 1/4 inch. They will also need longer to dehydrate.
- If you use a cheese grater to slice the bananas the way I do in my video, the ends will always get very mushy. Simply mash them a bit between your fingers and flatten them a little with the flat end of the cheese slicer.
- Keep your hands and cheese slicer clean. It’s easy to get “banana slime” all over your hands and slicer. But all you have to do is rinse both with some water, shake off the excess water (you don’t even need a towel), and keep slicing. It makes a world of difference.
- Use the cheese slicer or a spatula to help move the very thin slices around your dehydrator shelves. If you try to use your fingers, you’ll only end up breaking your slices or mushing them up between your fingers.
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