One of my favorite uses for overripe bananas is to make a simple jam from them. I combine the bananas with a bit of water in a large pot, adding a splash of molasses, salt, nutmeg and cinnamon. Cooking it down until thick and caramelized, the resulting jam is surprisingly sweet and much more flavorful than you'd expect.
The problem is that the color. It is, shall we say, a bit too biological. This problem is only made worse if one adds other mild-tasting fruits, like apples or green figs.
It's easy enough to fix this by dramatically changing the taste–by adding berries, say, or lots more molasses. But without actually turning this food into something else, is there a way that I can make it much darker or much lighter without adding artificial chemicals to my jam?
Best Answer
A splash of lemon juice mixed in the banana right off the bat can fix that colour at the beginning, but the molasses will turn it brown afterwards...
So if you want it lighter in colour, you'll need to substitute the molasses... Can you use white sugar and throw in a bit of rum in the end ?
If you must keep the molasses then just go for the darker route... Perhaps let the banana oxidize as much as possible before mixing ?