I’ve tried making dried fruit/fruit chips a few times now. I started with apples (link here), then made strawberries and kiwis (link here). And now, I wanted to make dried bananas as part of banana week. I’ll be honest though, it wasn’t as easy as I thought it would be.

I found this recipe online that was super easy to prepare. I just had to brush the slices with lemon juice then sprinkle with a bit of salt. I popped the bananas in the oven (250°F) and they baked for almost 2 hours, flipping halfway. They got dried out (I’m guessing the salt helped with that) but never got crispy like they were supposed to. They did firm up as they cooled but they were really dark brown and tasted like burnt sugar. There were some pieces that didn’t get as dark, and they weren’t too bad to eat – they were super sweet and chewy. But, I wasn’t happy overall so I tried again.

For my second attempt, I skipped the lemon juice and salt, and just baked the plain slices at the same temperature as before. I flipped them after just over an hour then let them bake for 30 minutes more after that. They got brown (less than before) and some got crispy as they cooled. I liked the chewier ones more than the crispy ones because again, the crispy ones tasted like burnt sugar. Although this batch was better than the first, this was still not a success in my books. I was not going to try for a third time though because I had already spent around 4 hours with these batches.

The chewy ones were a good snack but they were not worth all the time spent making them. I’m thinking that maybe my bananas were too ripe for this. I guess all the extra sugar in them was caramelizing and burning. That’s the only thing I could think of for why they didn’t work out. If you’re a dehydrating savvy, let me know if you have any tips 🙂

Also, happy august! I’ve been at this challenge for a little while now so please let me know ingredients you want me to use! 🙂