Yeah, I totally just added “breakfast” as one of the categories for this treat… and why not? Peanut butter? Bananas?? Sounds like 2/3 of a complete breakfast to me!
This is a similar concept to the chocolate-dipped frozen bananas concept I posted yesterday, but smaller, cuter, and stuffed with peanut butter! I also made my own “magic shell” this time with chocolate chips and a little bit of coconut oil. Overall, it’s a little more work, but it makes a much prettier result, don’t you think?
Slice bananas and pipe some PB onto half of them. I find a piping bag quicker, cleaner, and easier than spreading peanut butter on with a butter knife. Of course, a butter knife totally works!
Top with another banana slice and poke in a popsicle stick (or a pretzel stick, if you have those handy!). I used coffee stirrers that I cut in half, cuz that’s what I had. Just be sure to support the top banana slice while poking so you don’t squish it too hard and squeeze peanut butter out the sides. It’s not hard to do. Freeze for 30+ minutes.
Pour melted chocolate into a small drinking glass and dunk in a frozen banana pop, tapping off the excess and then immediately sprinkling with toasted nuts. Don’t be like me and forget to sprinkle the nuts until the last seven…
I ended up using a hair dryer and heating the tops so I could quickly sprinkle on some nuts. They still didn’t adhere that well (and I kept blowing chopped nuts everywhere!), but… at least it made for a nice picture?
Yeah no. Probably not worth the effort.
But still. Lovely, isn’t it?
For this batch, I actually did a homemade chocolate shell using chocolate chips and coconut oil. I had an inkling that this would work back when I made nut butter chocolate, but didn’t really think of it again until I came across this post, where I got the recipe for these PB treats. As Joy says, coconut oil is solid at room temperature, so it works great for making your melted chocolate set more quickly, which is basically what magic shell is! If you wanna keep it simple, you can still use the magic shell, but if you happen to have a jar of coconut oil in your pantry, why not?
These are fun little treats that I look forward to sharing with friends this week!
——————-
Chocolate-Dipped Frozen Peanut Butter and Banana Pops!
recipe slightly tweaked from http://joythebaker.com/
Ingredients
- 3 ripe and large bananas
- about 1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
- 10 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chips
- 2 tablespoons coconut oil
- 1/3 cup finely chopped peanuts, toasted and sprinkled with a few dashes of sea salt
- small popsicle sticks (or pretzel sticks)
Instructions
- Peel bananas and slice into medium-thick round slices, about 1/3-inch thick.
- Pipe or spread about 1 teaspoon of peanut butter onto half of the banana slices. Top with the other halves to make a mini banana and pb sandwich.
- Insert the popsicle sticks (or pretzel sticks) into the banana sandwich, holding the top banana slice steady as you press the stick through (to prevent squeezing the peanut butter out the sides).
- Place peanut butter pops on a parchment lined baking sheet. Place in the freezer to harden for at least 30 minutes.
- While the pops harden, melt the chocolate with the coconut oil.
- Transfer melted chocolate mixture to a glass with a mouth wide enough to dunk the banana sandwiches. I used a small drinking glass. A shallow bowl will make the banana sandwiches hard to completely immerse.
- Dip the slightly hardened banana sandwiches completely in chocolate, tapping off the excess. Return them to the parchment paper and immediately sprinkle with peanuts. After dipping all of the bananas, return to the freezer for at least 2 hours before serving. Bananas will last for a week or two in the freezer. You can also wrap them individually for storage in the freezer.
Enjoy!
2 responses to “Chocolate-Dipped Frozen Peanut Butter and Banana Pops!”
Meet JoEllen
Subscribe via Email
Top Posts & Pages
Categories
YUM. I will probably make the other version of this (but with the coconut version of magic shell you describe here) because chasing two kids doesn’t leave a lot of time, but what a fun summer treat!
The coconut magic shell is neat! I want to try it on other things, too… like just drizzling it on top of ice cream :). Yum! Thanks for trying it! =D