Doce de Banana, Brazilian Banana and Cinnamon Paste
Doce de banana is the humblest of Brazilian sweets, a way of rescuing bananas that have gone too soft to eat out of hand. Across Brazil the same idea takes many names and shapes, from a loose jam to a firm sliceable bananada, but the method never changes: cook ripe banana down slowly until its own sugars concentrate and the fruit turns dark and jammy. The classic pot leans on heaps of sugar and sometimes cachaca, neither of which the fruit needs. A handful of blended dates deepens the caramel, cinnamon and clove give it the warmth Brazilians expect, and lemon keeps it from tasting flat. The riper your bananas, the better this works, so save the ones with freckled black skins. It keeps for a week in the fridge and only improves after a day, as the spices settle in.
Ingredients
- 5 Bananas, very ripe, sliced
- 5 Medjool dates, pitted
- 1 stick cassia cinnamon
- 3 wholes Cloves
- 1 tbsp Lemon juice
- 1 Lemon, zested
Method
- Blend the pitted dates with 0.25 cup (60 ml) hot water into a smooth paste. Dates are the entire sweetener here, and blending them first means the sweetness spreads evenly instead of sitting in chewy pockets.
- Combine the sliced banana, date paste, cinnamon stick, cloves, and lemon juice in a heavy pot. The lemon juice keeps the bananas from browning to mud and gives the finished paste a needed edge of tartness.
- Cook over low heat, stirring often, for 25 to 30 minutes. The bananas will collapse, then slowly darken to a deep amber as their sugars concentrate. Low and slow is the whole method, since high heat scorches the sugars before the water cooks off.
- Mash any remaining lumps with the back of the spoon as it thickens. It is ready when a spoon dragged across the bottom leaves a clean trail that holds for a second before closing.
- Pull out the cinnamon stick and cloves, then stir in the lemon zest off the heat. The zest lifts the whole pot with fresh citrus oil that cooking would have driven off.
- Cool and chill. It firms as it cools into a spreadable paste. Serve it cold on toast, spooned over plant yogurt, or straight from the jar with fruit.
Nutrition
Estimated per serving: 130 calories, 1 g protein, 3 g fiber, 3 mg sodium. Computed from USDA FoodData Central reference values for the main ingredients. This is an approximation, not a laboratory measurement. How these are computed.
Cost per serving is estimated from US national-average retail prices for cheap staple forms, using BLS dried-bean prices and USDA produce prices. Prices vary by store and season, so treat it as a guide, not a receipt. How this is computed.
