This page reviews how to freeze banana bread for long-term storage. Depending on the heat & humidity in your home, banana bread can spoil quickly. Moreover, high heat & humidity will cause banana bread to spoil even faster. Therefore, a freezer is the best way to safely store freshly made banana bread for long-term use. You can freeze banana breads are entire loaves or as individual slices.
If you need banana bread recipes, please visit Bread Dad’s main banana bread section.
Banana Breads Stored in my Messy Freezer!
Step-By-Step – How To Freeze Banana Bread
- Make sure your banana bread is completely cooled before freezing.
- Decide if you want to freeze the entire loaf or freeze it as individual slices. A frozen loaf is great if you need an entire banana bread at one time (i.e. to feed a large family or party). Frozen slices are easier to manage if you only need the occasional banana bread slice for breakfast, etc.
- Wrap the loaf (or each slice) in aluminum foil or plastic wrap. I like to use aluminum foil because I do not want the possibility of any chemicals leaching onto my food. Make sure the aluminum foil or plastic wrap completely encloses the banana bread. You need to make sure the banana bread is tightly wrapped with no exposed parts in order to reduce the potential for freezer burn. This is especially true for slices because more of the interior is exposed.
- Optional (but recommended) – Wrap the banana bread in a second layer of aluminum foil or plastic wrap. This is an added precaution against freezer burn. FYI – Some people like to wrap the banana bread first in aluminum foil and then wrap it again in plastic wrap (as plastic wrap provides a greater seal against potential freezer burn). Others like to do the reverse – first plastic wrap and then aluminum foil (because aluminum foil retains its shape better and helps to prevent the plastic wrap from becoming loose).
- Place the wrapped banana bread in a resealable plastic bag or airtight container. I tend to use resealable plastic bags because they are cheaper & less bulky than airtight containers. However, airtight containers are probably better for long-term storage because resealable bags are not airtight. If you are using a resealable plastic bag, try to squeeze out any air from the bag before sealing.
- Optional (but recommended) – Make sure each bag or container is labeled with the name of the banana bread (i.e. chocolate banana nut bread) and the date when it was placed in the freezer. Many resealable bags have a white section on the bag where you can write in the name & date. For airtight containers, I like to add white athletic tape to the lid (and write the banana bread name & date on the tape). Otherwise, without the name & date, it is just a random block in the freezer when you check back in a month or two!
- Place the wrapped banana bread in your freezer.
- Depending on the temperature in your freezer, frozen banana bread generally stays good for 2-3 months. After that time, the banana bread quality may start to decline.
- The main key to successfully freezing banana bread – Make sure the banana bread is wrapped tightly and nothing is exposed to the air.
- In case you are wondering what freezer burn is caused by – According to Wikipedia, “Freezer burn is a condition that occurs when frozen food has been damaged by dehydration and oxidation due to air reaching the food. It is generally caused by food not being securely wrapped in air-tight packaging”.
Visitors – If you have any great banana bread freezing or thawing tips, please leave them in the comment section below.
FYI – This “how to freeze banana bread” information works equally well with banana bread made with oil and banana bread made with butter. This information also works for other sweet “quick breads” such as pumpkin pie bread, cranberry bread, etc.
How to Thaw Frozen Banana Bread
- Place the frozen banana bread loaf or slices on the counter in order to slowly thaw out at room temperature. You can thaw the banana bread wrapped or unwrapped. FYI – I find that thawing out wrapped banana bread (versus unwrapped) works better because the banana bread loses less moisture as it thaws out. However, it takes a little longer compared to thawing unwrapped banana bread.
- Depending on the temperature of your house, it generally takes 2-3 hours for a banana bread loaf to thaw out at room temperature and 30-60 minutes for individual slices. Do not leave banana bread out overnight to thaw out because you are increasing the risk of your banana bread spoiling (i.e. growing mold).
- For faster “thawing”, I like to warm up my frozen banana bread slices in the microwave or toaster. Of course, you should remove the plastic wrap and/or aluminum foil from the banana bread before using the microwave/toaster. Other people like to use their oven to warm up their banana bread slices (but this takes too long for me).
- Do not microwave an entire frozen banana bread. It does not work as well as microwaving individual slices. For entire frozen loaves, I generally try to defrost the banana bread at room temperature. Other people like to warm it up in the oven.
Related Banana Bread Recipes
- Banana Nut Bread – Walnuts or pecans
- Bread Machine Banana Bread
- No Butter Banana Bread
- 2 Banana Bread
- 4 Banana Bread
- Vegan Banana Bread
- More Banana Bread Recipes – Chocolate chip banana bread, cranberry banana bread, almond banana bread, etc.
Reference Sources
- Wikipedia, Banana Bread
- Wikipedia, Freezer Burn
- Wikipedia, Frozen Food
Please leave your banana bread freezing & thawing tips below in the comment box. Thanks!