Saturday, August 20, 2011

Monkey Business

Just the other day as I was scraping corn from the cob and fixing to dehydrate it, Pig Pen informed me that he had an entire case of bananas.  Really?  A case?  He wasn't kidding.
So the corn got put on the back burner and the bananas were sliced and dehydrated instead.  19 trays went on the dehydrator and another 48 bananas went into the freezer for later use in breads etc.  Peel and all...frozen in time.

From the 19 trays, we got 1 gallon of bananas put up. 

Several were mashed and frozen too.  And then there were 6.  Hmm.  What to do with those?

Banana Liqueur
from Cooksrecipes.com

1 1/2 C. Sugar
3/4 C. Water
1 t. Vanilla Extract
2 Ripe Bananas, mashed
3 C. Vodka

Make a simple syrup by bringing sugar and water to a boil on medium heat.  Stir constantly.  When clear, remove from heat and add vanilla.  Let it stand till warm.

Place mashed bananas in a 1 Qt. jar.  Add syrup and vodka.

Cover and let stand in a cool dark place for 3 to 4 days.  Shake daily to avoid clumping of fruit.

Using a fine mesh strainer, strain out solids and discard.  The mixture will still be cloudy.  Cover and let stand until it clears.

Rack into clean container.  Cover and age for 1 month.  Rack again as necessary before serving.
I made a gallon.  It should be good to go by the end of September and then I will let you know how it turns out.  At least I don't have to wait 6 months for this one. 

Let the monkey business commence!

18 comments:

  1. That's one thing I would never have thought of. I bet it will be great served warm over a huge hunk of pound cake and whip cream, yum.

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  2. Monkey business, indeed! What do you plan to serve that with? Gosh - I'm glad I'm only...what...seven hours from you? ;)

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  3. I dont think I have ever had a banana liqueur. Be sure to let us know what it taste like. That sure is a lot of bananas!

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  4. posting at 6am please get some sleep!

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  5. Lorie, that does sound wonderful! Especially on a cold night. Great idea!

    MamaTea, um...pound cake? ;) If all else fails, coffee. Can never go wrong there!

    Jane, will do! Anything tropical and I'm in!

    Pops, normally I am up, but today this was scheduled to post. Sometimes sleep wins!

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  6. I'm in a rush,on my way out the door to the farmers market and its gonna be one busy weekend but I have to ask what you meant when you say some bananas are going into the freezer for later .you mean the dehydrated ones,I'm a little confused, thanks ,wish me luck at the F.M.

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  7. Judy, I put the whole bananas -peel and all- directly into the freezer. So if I want to make bread, cookies, smoothies, more liqueur etc later, all I have to do is take out the number of bananas that I need, peel them (the peels will be black but the banana will be intact), mash them up and use them. They will only be good for mashing, not eating. The dehydrated bananas are in jars in my pantry. Those are for eating, granolas/cereals etc. Good luck at the Market! Hope you get lots of goodies!

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  8. YUM!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We are so busting into that stuff at your birthday party!!

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  9. Hey, I make a really, really good pound cake. We could all have a party at your house! I'll go pack my pillow and jammies now. Ummm, where do you live??? :)

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  10. Jen, and the good news is...plenty of bananas to make more! So long as it's good stuff that is!

    Lori, well...you should share that recipe! Now I love a girl who's idea of a good time is a pillow and jammies!!!

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  11. What better way could there be than this to enjoy bananas?

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  12. Ah, leave it to you to make booze!
    :D
    Creative. Hope hubby knows how lucky he is!

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  13. LOL, this must be going around! I have 2 bunches of bananas that started browning the second I brought them home of course, now the kids won't touch them and I have to make mass quantities of little loaves for the freezer!

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  14. Really? Banana Liquer? I MUST TRY!

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  15. Sue, he probably wont even touch the stuff. More for me!!

    Erin, what?! Make booze instead!

    Allison, it really was so simple, who knew? Welcome and thanks for stopping!

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  16. Bannana liquer? What a great way to use up a couple of bananas! I bet it would good in a some sort of banana vodka martini! I will be waiting to see how it turns out and how you drink it.

    I popped over after reading comments from Sue in Michigan. I figured anybody reading Sue's blog would be someone I would like. I was not disappointed :)

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  17. Zoey, well Hello! And thank you very much! Sue certainly is very good company! I will come see you too!!

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