Orchard Training Cookery Club - Alternatives to Banana!

We are still considering the concept of food miles, and this week we examined the food miles associated with bananas. Bananas from the West Indies travel roughly 4,770 miles to reach us. Following a successful week of baking banana bread often with chocolate chips, (I had a great time trying quite a lot of different banana breads - thank you!) We explored alternatives to bananas.

We discovered that the alternatives available for replacing bananas varied depending on the reason for the substitution. For texture, plantains were suggested, but they have similar food miles to bananas. Avocado was considered for a creamier texture but was surprisingly rejected due to the "yuck" factor, and it was further dismissed because its food miles are 4,800. Sweet potatoes can be grown in the UK, significantly reducing food miles. However, apple puree, which is abundantly available in our Cookery Club freezer, was also an option.

We started with our Y8 healthy banana bread recipe and replaced the banana with the apple puree. We removed the vanilla extract as that had food miles of approximately 5,400. The recipe is below:

Butter for greasing the tin, plus a little extra to serve

250g self-raising flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

300g apple puree

4 tablespoons caster sugar

3 large eggs, beaten with a fork

150ml pot low-fat natural yogurt

25g almonds (for the topping)

Method

1.     Heat oven to 160C/140C fan/gas 3.

2.     Grease and line a 1kg loaf tin with baking parchment (allow it to come 2cm

above top of tin).

3.     Mix the flour, baking powder and the sugar in a large bowl.

4.     Mix the apple puree, eggs and yogurt.

5.     Quickly stir into dry ingredients, then gently scrape into the tin and scatter

with nuts.

6.     Bake for 1 hr 10 mins-1 hr 15 mins or until a skewer comes out clean.

7.     Cool in tin on a wire rack.

8. Eat warm or at room temperature, with a very little bit of butter.

We made additional modifications by substituting 200g of the apple puree with 200g of dried apple that we dehydrated last year, and adding 50g of chopped roasted cobnuts from the garden. We opted for nuts instead of chocolate chips, as we felt apple and chocolate wouldn't complement each other well.

Our tasting outcomes were consistent—the initial batch was flavourless and lacked any distinct taste. The apple flavor was absent, and it definitely lacked the vanilla extract. The second batch, however, had a much more pronounced apple flavour, and we appreciated the texture of the nuts and dried apple.

Next time we gather, we'll experiment with sweet potatoes. We'll attempt to enhance the bland apple recipe by incorporating herbs such as mint, lemon balm, lemon verbena, and lavender to see if it makes a difference.