A soft, starchy-to-sweet fruit that converts its starch to sugar as it ripens. One medium banana mashes down to about 1/2 cup.
What it does in a recipe: In baking, a source of moisture, sugar, and enough pectin and pulp to act as a partial binder and fat replacer. Pick the swap that covers that job — the ratios below are written so you can act on them without doing any arithmetic.
Also called: Ripe banana
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Unsweetened applesauce
1 medium ripe banana (about 1/2 cup mashed) = 1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
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4 ways to replace banana
Unsweetened applesauce
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1 medium ripe banana (about 1/2 cup mashed) = 1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
Similar moisture and pectin content, so it holds a batter together and keeps a crumb tender in much the same way.
MethodBecause applesauce is less sweet than a ripe banana, add about 1 tbsp of sugar per half cup if the recipe was leaning on the banana for sweetness.
Trade-offNeutral in flavour, so the finished bake tastes of the spices rather than of banana. Slightly less rich and a touch springier.
For banana bread, the black-skinned bananas everyone tells you to use are not sentiment — starch converts to sugar as they ripen, so an underripe banana gives a bread that is both less sweet and drier.
Cooking around an allergy? Diet tags here describe the ingredient itself, not any particular brand. Processed products change formulation without notice and shared production lines are common, so read the label on everything you use. A severe allergy is a medical matter — confirm with the manufacturer or your clinician rather than relying on a substitution chart.