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I often make sunflower butter in my food processor by pureeing raw sunflower seeds. Today I decided (after the seeds became creamy) to blend a banana into the mixture. The result was horrible:

disgusting leathery banana-sunflower butter

Almost instantaneously the creamy substance turned dark and leathery, and it did not taste banana-y or sunflower-y at all. Why did this happen? I have mashed up bananas into my sunflower butter before and this did not happen.

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  • Completely unrelated to your question, but that stuff makes me want to add a bit of milk to it. I kind of get the feeling it would taste pretty good, though this is completely baseless speculation.
    – Anpan
    Mar 23, 2014 at 1:17
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    I have tried adding bananas to other things. Except for fruit salads and my morning oatmeal, the rest were complete regrets.
    – Cynthia
    Mar 23, 2014 at 5:44

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I suspect the textural change you experienced is analogous to the seizing of chocolate (which is also a ground, fatty seed--in that aspect similar to a sunflower seed).

Sunflower seeds are fairly dry. The consist mostly of fat, and starches, and protein. When you add a small amount of water (from the mashed up banana), the starches in the sunflower hydrate and absorb the water, making it thick and giving the textural transformation you experienced.

If this hypothesis is correct, adding enough additional water to fully dissolve and suspend the starches will give you a smooth fluid, or paste again.

As to the taste perception, that I cannot comment on.

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