Creamy frozen chocolatey goodness on a stick. Chocolate covered bananas are a long time favorite reminiscent of the famous Walt Disney World frozen treat. A banana popsicle of sorts.
This version is a sweet frozen treat dipped in a dark & milk chocolate blend and topped off with crushed cashew nuts.
Easily made at home with just a few ingredients. Makes a delicious quick frozen banana goodie to cool you down on those approaching warm summer days and nights.
The particular bananas I used to make chocolate covered bananas were harvested from our banana tree. Five years in the making. Yep. Our very first harvest!
Actually a a banana is a plant not a tree. But dang if it sure doesn’t look like a tree.
We harvested these bananas mid February of this year (2021.) Did you know there are more than a 1,000 types of bananas worldwide?
Neither did I. I literally just googled it.
Our plant is a Cavendish, which is the most common variety of banana. They are sweet when ripened and the type you’re most likely to find at your local grocer.
Before I give you this quick recipe, which isn’t even really a recipe at all. I think it’s only fair to explain what a labor of love growing this tree was and what I learned the hard way from it.
Feel free to scroll down to the recipe if you’re not interested in my story. Hopefully, you won’t strain your fingers by having to scroll a little.
The story below is one taken from my Instagram feed in where I expressed the story of this tree from purchasing to its first ever fruit flower.
I know Iāve been posting a lot of banana plant photos to my stories lately. But for me, these bananas growing right now are everything. Not only do I love cooking, baking, food styling/photography, & pottery, but I also love growing plants. Especially plants that produce food to feed the soul in more ways than one.
We bought this plant 5 years ago and I planted it in a big pot on my patio & left it there. Sure, I watered it and hoped with every passing year it would grow.
It never did. One day, I was out watering the plants and noticed one of the stalks had fallen over.
My first reaction was to blame it on the neighborhood kids passing by in the back yard. But as I looked closer I noticed that a new stalk was growing in the pot.
I let it stay in that pot for another year while I recovered from a horse riding accident that deeply affected my mobility.
Last summer, I had Terry transplant our potted banana plant in the yard. Over the Fall, Winter, & Spring I watched it grow and sprout new stalks. It got so much bigger and taller in the ground. It was happy!
On my daily walks in the Spring, I noticed other peopleās banana plants had bloomed flowers and bananas. I was beyond jealous. Why wasnāt our plant giving us fruit?
Terry wanted to get rid of the plant and buy a new one. I emphatically protested because I had faith the plant was going to give us bananas.
I bargained with him, that if we didnāt get any bananas by next spring we could get rid of it and plant a new one from scratch.
I had watched enough YouTube videos and knew that when a smaller leaf bloomed (called a pre-flag leaf) that it was a sign the flag leaf and flower were next.
All summer I watered my tree and every time a new leaf bloomed I swore it was the pre-flag leaf. Terry would always laugh at me and roll his eyes.
About 10 days ago I noticed a considerably smaller leaf getting ready to bloom, and having been fooled so many times, I just waited for it open then grow taller and match its buddies.
But this one was different. After a couple of days of noticing the leaf wasnāt getting any taller, I went out and looked at it. I was like, yup, thatās the pre-flag leaf all right.
I was so focused on that leaf that I totally missed the flag leaf and flower right next to it. It took me a few minutes, then I realized that we were actually going to get real bananas.
I ran in the house excitedly and told Terry, āOh my God, we finally got a flag leaf!!!!ā Naturally, he had to walk outside and inspect it as well.Ā And there it was twinkling in the sunlight right before both our eyes.
Every morning for the past couple of weeks, Iāve watched this leaf open and the flower droop over and begin to open itās leaves and reveal the beautiful green fingerlings that are about to become bananas.
So yeah, Iāll admit, Iām giddy and excited. Who wouldnāt be?
Iām glad I didnāt give up on it and recognized it needed more room to grow and blossom into what it was meant to be.
This tree isnāt just going to nourish our bodies. It nourishes my soul knowing that I took care of it and grew it. If that makes me weird and strange, well guilty as charged.
So naturally the first I did with our harvested bananas was to make frozen chocolate covered bananas.
The rest we just sliced up and vacuum sealed and placed in the freezer for baked treats like banana bread, pancakes, and waffles!
How to make chocolate covered bananas:
Creamy Frozen Chocolate Covered Bananas
Ingredients
- Ripe Firm Bananas
- Dark Chocolate Chips
- Milk Chocolate Chips
- Crushed Cashews (or toppings of your choice)
- OTHER ITEMS:
- Sturdy popsicle sticks
- Large glass
Instructions
- Peel the bananas and place a popsicle stick in one end making sure to center it and guide it carefully in the banana about a quarter of the way in.
- Melt chocolate chips in the microwave in 15 second increments and stirring the chocolate each time until the chocolate melts and is shiny and smooth.
- Dip bananas in chocolate and cover in nuts
- Freeze at least 4-6 hours
- Enjoy
- Will keep for several weeks in the freezer well wrapped.
Follow me on Instagram.
Pingback: Homemade Fudge Pops: Creamy Chocolatey - The Kitchen Prescription
Pingback: Heavenly Banana Bread Pecan Chocolate Chip - The Kitchen Prescription