Frozen Bananas

One can only eat so much ice cream.  Well, sort of.  Our family can eat an unlimited amount of ice cream, but then we’d all have serious health issues. 

I had been brainstorming some healthier frozen options when I was inspired at Disneyland.  The ice cream guy only had one Mickey-ice-cream-on-a-stick left.  So I  did the mature thing and let the kids have the Mickey ice cream and ordered a frozen chocolate covered banana.  I have to say, I really enjoyed it!  And I didn’t have to feel guilty after eating it. After all, its really fruit!

I enjoyed it so much I decided we needed to re-create it at home… (This recipe is so easy the kids had a great time doing much of it themselves.)

Here’s the recipe:

1.  Peel 4 ripe, but still firm, bananas.   Cut them in half width-wise and insert a craft stick into each banana.  Lay them out in a dish to freeze. Cover and freeze for about at least 4 hours. 

 

You want your bananas nice and frozen.  (We did overnight.)

(It would be helpful to line your dish with wax or parchment paper.  We didn’t do that and had a little trouble lifting the bananas out after they were frozen.)

2.   Melt your choice of dark chocolate over a double boiler with hot (not boiling) water.  We used 2 bars of Hershey’s Dark Chocolate.)

3.  Dip your frozen bananas into the chocolate, then roll it in whatever topping you’d like.  We used rainbow sprinkles and walnuts, just because we had them in the house. 

One website suggested that you transfer the chocolate into a glass and then dunk your banana into the chocolate.  We tried that, but in the end, I found it easier to just spoon the chocolate onto the banana. I was able to use all the chocolate, as well as cover the banana better that way. 

I had the toppings in pie pans to make it easier to roll the bananas. But again, I discovered it was easier to just spoon the toppings right onto the chocolate. 

4.  Set your covered bananas onto wax or parchment paper and freeze for an hour. 

Actually, our bananas were so frozen that the chocolate hardened almost immediately.  But, putting the chocolate covered bananas back into the freezer ensures a nice hard chocolate shell.  Also, I realized I didn’t have wax paper, so used aluminum foil instead.  It worked out fine. 

5. Store frozen bananas in the freezer.  (I just put ours in a big Ziploc bag.)

 

 

Who knew fruit could be so yummy ?