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Uni Practicals: Desserts & a Banana Fritter recipe

Nov 14, 2015 | Nutrition, Recipe, Recipes for Runners | 6 comments

We’ve started our practicals at Uni which is really fun, every other week we spend 2 hours in the kitchen making a dish to present to the rest of our class. This week the theme was desserts! We were split into pairs and given a recipe to cost and work out the nutritional content.

Here’s our group in our attractive lab coats and hats;

London Met Kitchen practicals

London Met kitchen practicals

My partner, Hannah, and I were given the ‘healthified’ banana fritter recipe which they had modified using a Skinny Taste recipe (love that blog!).  Another group were making normal banana fritters, whilst other pairs made rice pudding, bread and butter puddings, and muffins.

Our recipe used sweetener instead of sugar, and butter flavoured spray to fry the fritters. Neither Hannah or I held out much hope that they would taste nice, and were pleasantly surprised with the result. The hardest part was frying the fritters using the spray as it was not very non-stick!

London Met kitchen practicals

London Met Kitchen practical

After presenting the nutritional and cost information to the group, we tasted and compared the normal version and the healthy version.

In almost every case, the normal version came out on top – no surprises. However, it might have had more to do with the modifications, like using sweetener in everything, swapping white bread for brown, or using wholemeal flour in a vanilla muffin recipe that meant that they didn’t taste good. I’ve had plenty of healthified desserts that taste amazing, it’s all about making the right switches. Also I hate sweetener but that’s a different story!

In most cases the healthier versions actually came out more expensive, as processed sweeteners and fat sprays are more expensive than sugar and butter. I wish we’d chatted and learned more about the importance of fat and sugar in baked goods, as well as discussing other, more natural substitutes. But that can be something I play around with in the kitchen at home!

Here’s my re-modified recipe for Healthier Banana Fritters, and there’s no sweetener in sight!

Serves 3-4 people for pudding or brunch!

(Photo from Skinny Taste)

banana-fritters2

Healthy Banana Fritters 

  • 2 very ripe bananas
  • 1.5 tbsp sugar
  • 1 large egg, beaten
  • 2 tbsp flour
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1/2 tsp cinnamon
  • knob of butter
  • icing sugar, to decorate
  • Greek yogurt, to serve

Preheat oven to low. In a large bowl, mash together the bananas thoroughly. Stir in the sugar, egg, flour, vanilla and cinnamon.

Heat a little of the butter in a non-stick pan over medium heat, and spoon 3 or 4 tablespoons of the mixture into individual blobs around the pan. Fry for 1 min before flipping over and cooking for another 45 seconds on the other side.

Transfer to a warm plate or baking tray in a low oven to keep warm. Repeat with remaining mixture.

Dust with icing sugar or a drizzle of maple syrup and served with Greek yogurt .

6 Comments

  1. Cara

    I have two very ripe bananas in my fruit bowl so this could be the perfect way to use them up! Thanks Charlie!

    Reply
  2. Elspeth

    Your course sounds great Charlie! Please can you explain more about ‘the importance of fat and butter in baked goods’ i feel moderation is the way and we never hear about the benefits of a little bit of natural butter etc. Thanks x

    Reply
  3. fionajarrett

    Your course looks it’s really enjoyable and it’s interesting to cook and compare food like this, even if not for college, just to see how different the nutritional content is, the costs, the eating experience, etc. I think this makes me a nerd that I would find that fun 🙂 Thanks too for the recipe, always looking for new ways to use bananas!

    Reply
    • Bibi

      I thought the same! #foodnerd

      Reply
  4. James @ HalfMarathonJames

    I’m a big believer of staying away from sweeteners and just using plain old sugar, which is all natural. It’s still not good for you though, but I think it’s the lesser evil of the two..

    Reply
  5. Bibi

    This is really interesting find out what you do in a nutrition degree! I love peeking behind the scenes at academic courses (because I am very sad like that…)

    Reply

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