Whether it’s to serve atop ice cream or as a healthy snack for a baby, batch preparing banana puree can be a huge timesaver… But can you pop banana puree in the freezer?
Can You Freeze Banana Puree?
Yes, you can freeze banana puree for up to 3 months. Portion banana puree into the slots of an ice cube tray, wrap the tray in cling film and then freeze.
Do Does Banana Puree freeze well? Sometimes
Can you refreeze Banana Puree? No
How To Freeze Banana Puree
To freeze your banana puree, you’ll need just one thing: A trusty ice cube tray!
- Portion Into Ice Cubes: Take your ice cube tray and spoon in your banana puree. Don’t fill each slot. You’re looking to fill each space in your tray around 80% of the way up.
- Wrap the Tray: Wrap the tray in a layer of clingfilm to avoid spillages whilst also protecting the puree from other odours.
- Freeze: Place the tray in the freezer and allow your banana puree to freeze solid for a few hours.
- Bag Up and Refreeze: Remove the tray and pop the cubes out into a freezer bag before returning to the freezer.
3 Tips for Freezing Banana Puree
Now you know how to freeze it, we’ve got our 3 top tips which we strongly recommend following when freezing banana puree to have the best results:
Add Acid
Your banana puree will turn brown pretty quickly. A quick squeeze of lemon or lime will instantly prevent this from happening. It’ll taste no different whether it has browned or not, but the look can be somewhat off-putting.
Loosen with Milk
Often, you’ll find your banana puree is a little thick, so can be quite hard to portion out for freezing. We would recommend loosening your banana puree a little with a splash of milk. You can even use almond milk here.
Pimp it Up
There’s nothing to stop you pimping your banana puree up a little (depending on who it is for). Try adding a pinch of nutmeg or cinnamon as one example.
How Long Can You Freeze Banana Puree?
The longer you keep your banana puree in the freezer, the greater the risk of it turning brown and getting impacted by oxidation as air makes its way in.
We, therefore, recommend keeping your banana puree frozen for a maximum of 3 months.
As always, do what you can to keep your banana puree away from the air, which can speed up the browning.
How Do You Defrost Banana Puree?
This comes down to how you plan on using it. If you’re going to use your banana puree in a smoothie, then you can actually use it straight from the freezer.
You can toss a cube or two into the blender with your usual ingredients, and the frozen puree will keep your smoothie nice and cold.
If, however, you’re serving the banana puree to your baby, then, as you can imagine, you will want to thaw it out. The best approach is to place a cube or two into a bowl and in the fridge overnight, giving it plenty of time to slowly thaw out.
Can You Refreeze Banana Puree?
You should not refreeze banana puree. You will ruin the texture, unfortunately. If you refreeze banana puree, you’ll find that the puree goes from being silky smooth to having a grainy texture, making it far less palatable.
Does Banana Puree Freeze Well?
We’ve already mentioned the visual issues you may have, so banana puree doesn’t freeze that well in that respect.
However, if you’re looking to freeze banana puree solely for the health benefits and flavour, it’s safe to say that banana puree does freeze well.
Related FAQs
If you’ve still got questions about freezing banana puree or purees in general, then these may help:
Much like bananas, avocado does tend to go quite brown when it is frozen, so visually, it won’t be the most appealing. Having said that, it’s still perfectly possible to freeze avocado and banana puree.
Mashed bananas can also be frozen. Mash the banana with a fork, add a squeeze of lemon juice to prevent the banana from turning brown and then place it into bags. Try to place one portion into each bag that you use.
