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hubie (1068)
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Been around from the beginning, but only recently volunteered as an editor.
from the science you can sink your teeth into dept.
Incorporating banana peel flour into sugar cookie batter makes the treats more healthful:
Banana peels aren’t always destined for the trash or compost anymore. They’re making their way onto people’s plates, replacing pork in “pulled peel” sandwiches and getting fried up into “bacon.” And now, researchers reporting in ACS Food Science & Technology show that incorporating banana peel flour into sugar cookie batter makes the treats more healthful. In taste tests, cookies enriched with some banana peel flour were more satisfying than those baked with wheat flour alone.
Interest in plant-based diets and reducing food waste is increasing, and people want creative ways to use every part of their vegetables and fruits. Banana peels are one such waste that chefs and home cooks have been experimenting with, but these skins are extremely fibrous, making them unpleasant to eat raw. Recently, scientists found that they can grind the peels into a flour that’s rich in fiber, magnesium, potassium and antioxidant compounds. And when small amounts of wheat flour in breads and cakes were replaced with the new flour, the baked goods were more nutritious and had acceptable flavors. However, similar experiments haven’t been widely done with cookies. So, Faizan Ahmad and colleagues wanted to substitute some of the wheat flour in sugar cookies with banana peel flour, assessing the cookies’ nutritional quality, shelf-stability and consumer acceptance.
To make banana peel flour, the researchers peeled ripe, undamaged bananas and then blanched, dried and ground the skins into a fine powder. They mixed together different amounts of the powder with butter, skimmed milk powder, powdered sugar, vegetable oil and wheat flour, creating five batches of sugar cookies, and baked them.
Increasing the amount of the banana peel flour from 0 to 15% in the batches produced browner and harder products, which could be a result of the increased fiber content from the peels. In addition, cookies with banana peel flour were more healthful, having less fat and protein, higher amounts of phenols and better antioxidant activities than the conventional ones. A trained panel determined that cookies with the smallest substitution of banana peel flour (7.5%) had the best texture and highest overall acceptability compared to the other batches. This batch also kept well for three months at room temperature — it tasted the same as the wheat-only versions after the lengthy storage period. Because cookies can be enriched with some banana peel flour without impacting their consumer acceptance, the researchers say this addition could make these baked goods more nutritious.
So, anyone have a good recipe for banana flour?
Journal Reference:
Asima Shafi, Faizan Ahmad, and Zahra H. Mohammad, Effect of the Addition of Banana Peel Flour on the Shelf Life and Antioxidant Properties of Cookies, CS Food Sci. Technol. 2022, 2, 8, 1355–1363. DOI: 10.1021/acsfoodscitech.2c00159
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 10 2022, @05:40PM (5 children)
I love bananas, but not the peel. Even those little strands/threads that sometimes stick in grooves in the fruit taste terrible to me. The peel goes in the compost, and after few days in the kitchen holding container they rot enough to make the peels smell bad too--off to the outside composter asap.
Guess I'll be reading labels and avoiding things that contain banana peel flower...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 10 2022, @05:41PM
s/flower/flour
(Score: 4, Interesting) by hubie on Saturday September 10 2022, @07:45PM (2 children)
I've never eaten the peel, but I do pick those filaments off as well. They don't have much of a taste to me, though. My dog will eat the bananas whole. When he was younger, we came home and he got the bunch off of the counter. We didn't even know about it except that we found just the stems on the carpet; he ate everything else. He did that to us several times over the years (you think "these surely are far enough back that he can't get them . . . ").
I've made banana wine before and the recipe specifically instructed one to cut up the bananas and to leave the peels on for better flavor and color.
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Monday September 12 2022, @02:42PM
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Monday September 12 2022, @03:52PM
According to the AKC bananas are good for dogs.
However, they warn that the peel has so much fiber in it it can cause blockages so you should not be feeding your dog the peel if possible.
My dog goes batshit nutty for bananas!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 11 2022, @01:04AM
Then there are electric bananas, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bananadine [wikipedia.org] (yes, it was a hoax)
(Score: 2, Interesting) by shrewdsheep on Sunday September 11 2022, @10:04AM (1 child)
Seems good to me, however, I'm wary of the pesticides used having soaked the peel.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by hubie on Sunday September 11 2022, @02:24PM
Not the most compelling argument made here [spoonuniversity.com], but the levels are apparently not any worse than any other fruit on the market.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 11 2022, @03:49PM
I'm OK with the inner parts of the banana fruit but the peel and the parts of the fruit close to the peel make my stomach uncomfortable.
Similarly there are people who can't eat bell peppers, some who can't eat the skin of bell peppers.
That said, the processing might make the stuff more digestible.