We know: it is possible to cook the skin of certain fruits and vegetables, in both salty and sweet versions. Thus, apple skins can be dehydrated to make crisps, orange skins can be candied to prepare chocolate orangettes, while pineapple skins are used to make beer in some African countries.
But did you know that it is also possible to cook banana skins? Researchers from the American Chemical Society had fun making cookies using flour made from banana peels.
Biscuits rich in fibre, magnesium and potassium
To prepare this flour, the American researchers peeled bananas whose skins were not damaged, then they blanched them (in short: they briefly immersed the skins in boiling water before putting them in water frozen for a few seconds), dehydrated them in the oven and finally reduced them to powder using a blender.
The researchers then took a “classic” cookie recipe (butter, milk, sugar, oil, flour) and replaced 15% of the wheat flour with banana peel flour. Result: they obtained cookies rich in fiber and nutrients (magnesium, potassium and antioxidants) but low in fat. These biscuits (whose taste is no different from “classic” biscuits according to the researchers) can be kept for 3 months away from light and humidity. To test !
This work has been published in the specialized journal ACS Food Science & Technology.
