Frozen Chocolate Bananas

Oh hello delicious chocolate covered bananas…thank you for looking so yummy. Now I will eat you, all of you. Thank you, bye.

I remember going to california and stopping at a little shop on the beach that sold frozen chocolate bananas and thinking, “oh, gross, that does NOT even sound good.” Well, luckily I have a smart husband who quickly convinced me to try it. They pulled one out from the freezer, dipped it in the chocolate then quickly rolled it in a TON of chopped almonds. They handed it to me, I took a bite and the rest was history. Oh my goodness, I thought I was eating ice cream! These are such a yummy and healthy treat! Let me share with you some secrets!

You see those bananas right there? There are only a few things you can do with those yellow crescents.

#1. Freeze them for smoothies.

#2. Mash them up for baby food.

#3. Let them ripen even more for banana bread.

#4. Pretend like they aren’t overly ripe, and eat them.

#5. Find a monkey and give a charitable donation.

#6. Cut them in half, freeze them, dip them in chocolate and create a healthy treat you’ll go back to a million times. YES PLEASE!!

Here’s the How To if you will.

Before I start with the “How To” I should say this. You don’t want your bananas to be TOO ripe or else even when frozen they won’t get very hard. I might have let them ripen a bit too much. The banana on the far right is the best. I guess it all depends on how much “bite” you want in your banana. The more ripe they are, the softer they will be, even when frozen. The less ripe, the harder they will be.

Ok, back to business.

First thing you’re going to want to do is peel them! You’d think that was common sense, but ya never know. 😉 Now cut them in half and stick a short kabob stick (or if you’re like me and just ran out, bundle up some toothpicks and make it work.) through the bottom/sliced part of the banana. Grab a cookie sheet and cover it with a sheet of parchment or wax paper. This will make clean up 100 times easier and the bananas won’t stick to the paper. Place bananas on the paper, being sure they aren’t touching, and place in the freezer. I usually do this the night before so I know FOR SURE that they are frozen  by the time I’m ready to make my chocolate. BUT if you don’t have an overnight timeframe, I’d give them about 3 hours at least to freeze. 

Now that they are frozen we can prepare our toppings and make our chocolate! I always try and have my toppings ready to go before I make the chocolate so I’m ready to dip and roll once the chocolate comes off the stove. Here are some of our favorite toppings:

Sliced, Slivered or Crushed Almonds

Unsweetened Coconut

Chopped Cashews

Chopped up Candy Bars

Sprinkles for the littles

Combination of all of them.

Now, for the chocolate! I love this recipe and it’s super easy to make. In a small pot on the stove over medium heat combine 1/3 C Coconut Oil, 1/4 C Cacao Powder, 1/8 C Honey, 1 tsp. Vanilla, and a pinch of Salt. Stir continually to prevent burning. Once it’s all melted (about 3-4 minutes on the stove), pour it into a tall glass so you can dip the bananas straight in.
  Dip your banana, make sure it’s coated well then quickly transfer it to the parchment paper and put on your toppings. I found it easier to put the toppings down on the paper FIRST then lay the banana down on top, roll it around and sometimes I even need to use my hands to stick the toppings on. The Chocolate will harden really fast so you’ll need to be quick! 🙂 
  

And that’s it! Now give one to your kids, your neighbor, and your garage door repairman because well…these are good enough to share with the world (and I felt bad that he had been there all day and was driving far away to go back home. He loved it.). Tell them it’s ice cream and they’ll eat the entire thing wanting a second immediately following. 😉