3 Tasty Things to Cook Using Frozen Bananas

Do you often end up with too many overripe bananas in your fruit bowl that you need to throw out? Luckily, freezing bananas is a great way to cut down on food wastage and save money.

Did you know Australians eat 5 million bananas every day? If you lined up all those bananas end-to-end it would stretch from Sydney to Melbourne. Crazy, right?!

Frozen bananas are excellent for smoothies and baking, which is why we’ve compiled a list of our favourite banana-related recipes, so you can use up all those extra bananas in your freezer.

How do you freeze bananas?

Bananas are an excellent fruit, but they spoil easily. Fortunately, bananas can be frozen and kept in the fridge until you want to use them. If you’d like to learn how to freeze bananas check out our guide to freezing bananas.

How do I cook with frozen bananas?

Take the bananas out of the freezer about an hour before you plan to use them so they are soft for mashing. If you forget to do this, you can speed up the process by putting them in the microwave for 1-2 minutes.

Banana Bread

There’s nothing better than a nice piece of warm banana bread when you’re after a delicious snack. Below is our recipe for banana bread.

What you need:

5 tablespoons unsalted butter

½ cup of honey

5 medium to large frozen bananas

2 eggs

½ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 cups of white wholemeal flour

Instructions:

1. Pre-heat oven to 180°C
2. Grease a bread tin with cooking oil or butter and set aside
3. In a bowl, mash the thawed bananas with a potato masher or fork until smooth
4. Add the baking soda, salt, cinnamon and vanilla extract to the bowl with the mashed bananas. Whisk until well combined
5. Stir in the eggs
6. Add the flour and mix with a rubber spatula until just combined
7. Pour batter into the bread tin and bake for 55 to 65 minutes. It’s ready when a toothpick comes out clean
8. Remove from the oven and invert on a wire rack
9. Allow to cool for half an hour before slicing.

Banana and chocolate chip muffins

Muffins make a great after-school snack for kids or to take into the office and share with colleagues. Below is our recipe for banana and chocolate chip muffins.

What you need:

3 frozen bananas

½ cup of chocolate chips

¼ cup of canola oil

1 large egg

1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

1 ½ cups of plain flour

1 teaspoon of baking soda

¼ teaspoon of salt

Instructions:

1. Preheat the oven to 200°C
2. Grease muffin tray with spray canola oil or butter
3. In a large bowl mash the thawed bananas until smooth
4. Add the oil, egg and vanilla extract and stir to combine
5. Add the flour, baking soda and salt and stir again
6. Divide the batter in the muffin tray and bake for 20 minutes, or until they are golden on the top

Frozen Banana Pop Sticks

Pop sticks make for a tasty treat on a hot summer’s day and the kids will love them.

Note: This recipe will require fresh ripe bananas that will get frozen. The riper the bananas are, the better for this recipe. Even if they are gooey in texture, it doesn’t matter as they’ll get frozen.

What you need:

–   6 ripe bananas

–   Paddle pop sticks

–   250 grams of vanilla yoghurt

–   ½ cup of cereal (granola works well)

–   Baking paper 

Instructions:

1. Peel each banana and cut it in half. If the banana is small enough to fit on the paddle pop stick, then leave it whole
2. Remove the strings from the bananas
3. Gently push each banana piece onto the paddle pop, making sure the stick goes through the centre of the banana. Make sure not to push the stick all the way through the banana as it may break when freezing
4. Use a knife to spread yoghurt on the sides of the banana.
5. Roll the banana in your cereal of choice
6. Line a baking tray with baking paper
7. Place the bananas on the baking paper and place the tray into the freezer
8. Freeze the bananas for about an hour or until firm