I am completely obsessed with cooking banana's at the moment and recently made my first batch of homemade banana flour. Since than, I have made another two batches and can't seem to get enough of it. Although I don't mind coconut flour, I find the taste very strong and it is quite dry. I have also recently introduced nut flours back into my diet but still have to avoid almond meal and be careful not to over do them. So when it comes to grain free cooking, banana flour is a dream come true. To make banana flour you will need to source some green cooking banana's or plantains as these are a starchier variety taste more like potato than banana when cooked. The flavour is very mild and much like spelt flour and you can use it as regular flour but just use 3/4 of a cup to every 1 cup of wheat flour.

Quite a few Asian and Vietnamese stores stock them or you can pick them up at farmers markets in most cities. Some stores have a huge mark up on them so be careful and if you have a few stockists in your area, shop around for the best price. I picked mine up at the PCYC markets in Toowoomba for $2.50/kg and I've heard they're a little cheaper at the Brisbane Markets. 

Homemade Banana Flour 
Green cooking banana's or plantains (3 kg of banana's makes about 1 kg of flour)

Peel banana's.  (to assist in the peeling, you can boil or steam your unpeeled banana's on the stove to loosen the skin or you can use a knife to cut off the skin). Cut banana's into thin slices and place on baking trays and dry in a low oven for 2-3 hours. You can also dry them in a dehydrator or sun dry them in the sun. The banana's will be quite light in colour when they're ready. Place banana in a high speed blender or thermomix and grind into a fine flour. If you find your banana's are still sticky and aren't grinding,  remove from blender, spread on tray and leave to dry for longer. Mill again, sift and store in a dry, airtight container.

Homemade Banana Flour Apple Tea Cake
1 1/3 cup of homemade banana flour
3/4 cup Rapadura Sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 tablespoon cinnamon
1 cup of macadamia, light olive or any other neutral flavoured oil
3 eggs
1 cup milk
2 Large pink lady apples cut into thin slices

Preheat oven to 160 degrees Celcius and grease a round cake tin with oil or butter. Sift dry ingredients into a bowl. Whisk oil,eggs and milk together and pour into the dry ingredients. Mix well until combined. Pour half of the mixture into the cake tin, top with apple slices and pour the other half of the mixture over the top. Spread mixture evenly over the apple until smooth and all apples are covered. Cook in the oven for 45 minutes, turn of heat and leave in the oven for another 5-10 minutes. Remove from oven and leave to cool for 20 minutes before turning onto a rack.

This morning we were at the local PCYC markets and I was filled with excitement to see a big pile of green cooking bananas at one of the stalls.  As I was filling bag after bag with green banana's, I was getting some pretty strange looks and overheard a few people saying 'they're very green, they'll never ripen'. Cooking banana's aren't something you regularly find in your local supermarket and are quite often confused for unripe cavendish banana's. Whilst they look very similar, they're completely different.  This very versatile fruit can be made into all sorts of savoury dishes and tastes a lot like potato but shouldn't be eaten raw.  They can be sliced and put into stews, used  as mashed potato, made into crackers, made into a gluten and grain free flour and loads more. The other wonderful thing about cooking banana's is that they're grainfree, low GI and can be used in a nightshade free, autoimmune paleo or regular paleo diet.

This is my favourite cracker/chip recipe. The first time I made these, I was blown away by the flavour. Like most people, I was expecting a banana and coconut flavoured cracker but I was completely wrong. This crackers taste just like a crispy potato chip and never last long in our house. Unfortunately these crackers won't work with regular banana's  but be sure to keep an eye out for some cooking banana's next time you're at the markets.  This recipe was inspired by this recipe.

Crispy Green Banana (cooking banana) crackers
3 large green cooking banana's (approx 2 cups pureed)
1/3 cup coconut oil
1-2 teaspoons of herbamare salt

Fill a sink with hot water and place unpeeled banana's in it to soak for about 5 minutes. This will help with peeling but you may still need to use a knife to peel back the skin. Cut banana's into chunks and place them in a food processor or thermomix and blend until quite smooth (like hummus). I find this takes  about 1-2 minutes in the thermomix or a high speed blender but may take up to 5 minutes in a regular blender. Add coconut oil and a few pinches of herbamare and continue to blend until well combined. Line a large tray with baking paper and preheat the oven to 180 Degrees Celsius. Spoon mixture into the middle of a baking tray and carefully spread the mixture evenly using a knife or spatula until it covers the whole tray. Place in the oven and cook for 20 minutes. Remove from oven and using a knife or pizza cutter,make cuts in dough. Return to oven and cook for a further 60 minutes.  At this stage, your crackers may be crispy and ready but I often find that I need to flip mine over and cook for another 10 minutes.