Bananas Foster Banana Chips

While the first thing we ever made in our new dehydrator was a fruit snack - Maple Cinnamon Apple Chips - we soon got almost completely away from fruit, ending up with our current jerky obsession.

Eventually, my husband suggested that we play around with different ways of making fruit snacks. After all, as much as we love our jerkies.. We each have a killer sweet tooth.

He suggested starting with homemade banana chips, as we generally had extra bananas on hand.

Because I can’t do anything the easy way, I decided to not start with traditional banana chips. No, when I think “Banana”, I tend to think “Bananas Foster”.

I already have a handful of recipes inspired by the iconic New Orleans dessert - Bananas Foster Upside Down Cake, Bananas Foster Pralines, Bananas Foster Pavlova, Bananas Foster Caramel Popcorn - so I decided to come up with a way to bring those flavours - banana, rum, cinnamon, pecans - to homemade banana chips.

Oh, they ended up FANTASTIC. Just a really great flavour and texture, nothing at all like store-bought banana chips.

Just be advised...

... it’s not necessarily a quick and easy snack - there are a few steps to this, it’s a bit of a fussy recipe.

Slices of bananas are soaked in lemon juice, then dehydrated for a few hours. The partially dehydrated bananas then soak in rum for half an hour, before the banana pieces are coated in a spicy, sweet mixture, then dried some more.

Yes, it’s a bit of work, but these sweet banana chips might just be my favourite snack yet!

I do have a much easier recipe - Bananas Foster Fruit Leather for those looking for the flavor of the banana foster treat, without all the labour.

Anyway, let’s get to that recipe...

h2>Ingredients

This Bananas Foster Banana Chips recipe uses only a few, really simple ingredients. Anything you don’t have on hand, you’re likely going to be able to find in any major grocery store.

A few notes for you:

Raw Bananas

Usually, I’m telling people to use super ripe bananas, but that’s not really the case for this recipe!

The banana slices get handled a fair amount while making these chips, so you want them to be relatively sturdy... and really ripe bananas turn to mush pretty easily.

You’ll want ripe bananas, but basically just to the point of them being yellow, ideally. Green bananas won’t have enough sweetness and banana flavour to really support the other flavours in the recipe.

So, use em when they’re yellow, but before they start to go spotty.

1 Lemon

This recipe uses lemon juice and water as a quick pre-soak, to prevent the bananas from browning during the first round of dehydration. It also gives it a little acid, which boosts the flavour.

You can use Citric Acid instead, if you like - about ½ teaspoon in ½ cup of water is your best bet.

Dark Rum

So, a few things here.

The rum is for flavour, not booziness. Don’t be expecting to get a buzz from these banana chips - the whole point of dehydrating is to use heat to evaporate the liquid from whatever you’re drying.

Alcohol evaporates faster than water, so by the time your bananas are dry... there really isn’t any ABV to report.

Dark rum will give you the best flavor, but you can use amber rum if it’s what you have on hand.

Personally, I use Screech - a Jamaican Dark rum. Love the stuff!

Everything Else

Rounding out this recipe, you will need:

Brown Sugar
Chopped Pecans
Ground Cinnamon
Salt

... I just don’t have anything else to say about these last few ingredients.

Equipment

You’ll also need a few basic pieces of equipment to make these Bananas Foster Banana Chips:

A Food Dehydrator

While you can apparently make banana chips in a regular home oven, I’m not a fan of running one for hours on end.

I’ve had food dehydrators before - the basic kinds with no time or temperature controls, but I’ve since upgraded to a Cosori 6 Tray Food Dehydrator, and will never go back!

It was only like $200 Canadian, and it’s paid for itself MANY times over, between all the Maple Cinnamon Apple Chips and jerkies I’ve been making!

Having the control over temperature, being able to set a time... it’s given us a lot more options, and it’s great to not really have to babysit a dehydrator like we used to.

Anyway, we’re using a dehydrator a LOT more, now that we have a nice one!

Mini Food Processor

I recommend having a mini food processor for making your pecan and sugar mixture.

A spice / coffee grinder could also work.

Parchment Paper or Silicone Dehydrator Trays

While optional, parchment paper is an easy way to ensure that you’re not dealing with a mess at the end.

I like to allow the banana slices to start trying on a nonstick surface - parchment, or Silicone Dehydrator Trays.

Once the fruit has dried a bit, I flip them over to continue drying. This way, they’re not drying to the metal racks - which is especially important for this recipe, as the pieces arecoated in sugar and are pretty fragile!

If you’re using silicone trays, the ones you’ll buy will depend on the size of your dehydrator. For our dehydrator, we use these Silicone Dehydrator Mats Compatible with Cosori CP267-FD.

How to Make Bananas Foster Banana Chips

The full recipe is in the printable recipe card at the bottom of this post, here is a visual walk through:

Prep & First Drying

Juice the lemon and measure the volume of juice you get. Add the same amount of water to it - we tend to get about ⅓ cup of juice, so we add ⅓ cup water to it.

Pour the water and juice into a medium plastic or glass bowl, set aside - but in reach.

One at a time, peel and slice the bananas, aiming for 3/16" - ¼" thick.

As you slice each, gently place the slices in the lemon mixture, and gently stir to coat.

After every few bananas, transfer the soaked banana slices onto drying racks or silicone dehydrator trays. Be sure to let any excess liquid drip back into the bowl, as you go. The banana slices should be a single layer on each tray, with space between each.

Marination & Coating

After the 3 hours are up, transfer the dehydrated banana chips to a large Ziplock freezer baggie, along with the rum.

Gently shake to coat, set aside for 30 minutes, shaking gently every 10 minutes or so.

Once the 30 minutes are up, drain the banana slices (save the rum for personal consumption - it’ll be banana flavoured!).

Measure the brown sugar, pecans, cinnamon, and salt into a mini food processor. Blitz until the nuts are finely ground and blended in.

Gently dip each banana slice in the pecan mixture, lightly coating both sides. I like to dump the pecan mixture out on a tray, and very gently toss the banana slices to coat. They are very fragile at this point, so GENTLE is key!

Arrange the coated banana slices on your dehydrator trays. While you CAN do this directly on a wire rack, it works much better to start out on silicone trays, or to line your dehydrator racks with parchment paper.

Final Drying

Return the trays to the food dehydrator, dry for another 2 hours at 135 F.

After 2 hours, flip the slices over. You can put them back on the dehydrator tray, or onto the rack directly at this point.

Try for another 2-3 hours, then check your banana slices. They should be dried though - and dry to the touch - but still somewhat soft.

Depending on how thick you cut them, you may need to dry them longer - just keep an eye on them, and take them out when they're done.

Condition the Banana Slices

Allow the banana slices to fully cool to room temperature, then store in an airtight container.

Keep an eye on them for the next 3 days or so, shaking the bag once or twice a day. (This is to allow any moisture to redistribute itself, safely.)

If you see any evidence of residual moisture in that time frame - banana slices sticking to each other (more than will break up with a shake of the bag), droplets on the bag, etc - return the banana slices to the dehydrator and let them dry a bit more.

If at any point you see any evidence of mold, throw the batch out.

Once you’re sure the bananas foster banana slices are dry and moisture isn’t coming out, transfer them to an airtight container for longer term storage.

Other Dried Fruit Recipes

Looking for fruit leather and other dried fruit recipes? Here are a few to get started:

Bananas Foster Fruit Leather
Caramel Apple Fruit Leather
Cardamom Pear Chips
Mango Fruit Leather
Maple Cinnamon Apple Chips
Pumpkin Spice Chicken Jerky
Strawberry Banana Fruit Leather