Will you go bananas for this flour?

A husband gets asked ‘What’s your wife’s favourite flower?’, and the husband thinks for a second and replies ‘I am sure it’s self-raising’.

I know the joke is old, but I was reading the other day about banana flour and remembered it. Banana flour you ask? Yes, I was surprised too as I never heard of it before now. This type of flour (or more accurate powder) is made from green bananas in Africa and South America as a more accessible alternative to the more expensive wheat flour. As I’ve never seen, smelled or tasted it, I have to trust reviews I’ve read which say that the flour in its raw state tastes of bananas while cooked/baked it is a more earthy aroma.

It is not sweet but can be used for sweet baking. It’s also lighter than wheat flour which means you don’t need as much of it for bakes. Banana flour is produced by drying green bananas either in the sun or in ovens before it is ground into a fine powder.

For 1 kilo of flour, you need about 8 to 10 times the weight in bananas and in recent years, the flour is being produced more commercially in Africa – people who look for wheat alternatives might give it a try.

I haven’t seen it in the shops yet but you can order it easily online. But when it comes to flours, what type is used for what type of baking? The most common flour is of course our good old plain flour – a good all-rounder for people with no issues of wheat.

The next most common used flour is self-raising flour – not my favourite flour (in case Mr T gets the question) as I like to decide myself how much raising agent I am adding (in general one teaspoon baking powder is in 100g of self-raising flour).

I like strong flour, which is perfect for breads, especially yeast based breads. Then we are coming to the more specialised flours like gram flour which is made from chickpeas and widely used in Indian cooking, is high in protein and is mostly used in savoury dishes.

Rice flour is great for pastry and cakes. It’s higher in fibre and gluten free. Almond flour might be the most expensive one, but it makes excellent cakes – check some authentic Italian baking books and you will see quite a few recipes for tasty cakes that use almond flour. Buckwheat is one I haven’t used much. I used it when making blinis (mini pancakes that are served with sour cream and smoked salmon) but there’s nothing to stop you to try our more recipes – although it says wheat in the name, it is gluten-free. It has a mild nutty flavour that goes best with savoury recipes. Cassava flour is another flour I haven’t used yet as I was told it is not the best for baking, but a friend used it for gnocchi a few years back and it turned out rather dense although it is said that cassava flour can replace plain flour one to one. There are so many different type of flour out there that it can be difficult to find your ‘favourite’.

Pay a visit Quay Coop in Sullivan’s Quay (also in Ballincollig and Carrigaline as well as online) and ask about the different flours on offer.