When the chips are down
I was in Kroger today picking up a few things — I hope you’re satisfied, Deb; I couldn’t resist buying a flat iron steak.
Anyway, they had a grocery cart full of a discontinued line of trail mix and related snacks, four bags for a dollar, and I bought some banana chips.
It has been too long since I’ve made banana chips myself in the dehydrator. Homemade banana chips are a healthy snack. The ones I bought today aren’t.
You see, most of your store-bought apple chips and banana chips are coated in oil. I’m not sure why. I knew these chips would likely have oil in them but I didn’t look at the nutrition facts until after I’d left the store. Coconut oil is listed as the second ingredient. One half-cup serving of these bad boys gives you 51 percent of your daily value of saturated fat.
If you have a dehydrator, and want to make some healthy banana chips, here are some things to keep in mind, based on my personal experience.
- Somewhat green bananas work best.
- Only use a dehydrator with a temperature control. Sometimes, you will see cheapo dehydrators sold for Christmas gifts that don’t have a temperature control. My first dehydrator was one of those. It was great for jerky, but I couldn’t figure out why my banana chips and apple chips came out poorly. You need to use a lower temperature for bananas than for jerky; the instructions will tell you, and it may even say “fruits and vegetables” on that dial setting.
- A hard-boiled egg slicer is great for slicing the bananas because it gives you equal thickness, which is always important when dehydrating something. Just break the banana up into egg-sized pieces and slice the way you would an egg.
- Dip the slices in a solution of Fruit Fresh (which is basically Vitamin C) before you place them in the dehydrator to keep them from turning as brown. They will still turn a little brown.
- When testing for doneness, let the sample piece cool completely. A perfectly-done banana chip may still be soft and flexible when it’s warm from the dehydrator, but once it cools it will harden up and you’ll be able to snap it in two.
All of this got me to thinking about my dehydrator. I bought a bag of onions a while back and still had two or three of them I hadn’t used yet which I was afraid were going to go bad on me. When I got home from the grocery store, I diced them up and threw them into the dehydrator.
The apartment smells woooonderful right about now.
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Art Ruch
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deb
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