Recipe: Chocolate Covered Frozen Banana Pieces

My roommate Jenna and I both like these things from Trader Joe’s called ‘Gone Bananas!’, which are essentially banana slices coated in chocolate and frozen. They are surprisingly addictive  and while the banana part is delicious, the chocolate is choc-ice, chocolate, and therefore not particularly great. We were discussing this chocolate failure while I was eating a box after dinner one evening, and I realised how easy it would be to just make my own in the freezer with a couple of bananas, a bar of chocolate and some baking parchment!

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I used Cadbury’s Dairy Milk, the American version, which tastes like Cadbury’s but with a little something missing, but they are still delicious, so I’d recommend using Dairy Milk wherever you are. On the other hand, if you like something a bit richer rather than sweet, I would try using dark chocolate.  The bowl is just a serving suggestion if there are several of you, I just eat them a couple at a time out of the ziplock I freeze them in.

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You will need roughly one slab of chocolate for one big banana. I use three bars of chocolate and three big bananas at a time. First, cut a piece of greaseproof paper, baking parchment or wax paper to cover a large baking or cookie tray. Then you’ll need to melt your chocolate. You should never really melt chocolate in the microwave  unless you’re either stupidly skilled or very very lucky it will end badly for you and your chocolate will go lumpy. The best way to melt chocolate is in a glass bowl over steam, and this is really easy to do. Put the kettle onto boil, and while the water is heating break your chocolate into a heatproof glass bowl. Put a large saucepan over heat the add the boiling water. Only fill the pan halfway, so that you can sit the glass bowl of chocolate over the pan without water touching the bottom of the glass bowl. Leave the chocolate to melt, only stirring occasionally to make sure all the lumps are melting away. 

Remove the glass bowl from the heat. Do not leave it sitting over the water, as the chocolate will continue to cook, separate and go lumpy and grainy. Slice your bananas into medium thickness pieces, and dip into the chocolate one by one, until each piece is coated. You can use either a spoon or your fingers for this, whatever is easier. When you remove each piece from the chocolate transfer it to the sheet of baking parchment.

When all of your pieces are coated put the tray into the fridge for about two hours, or until the chocolate  had hardened. Remove from the fridge and transfer the chocolate banana pieces to a ziplock or freezer proof box or bag. Put them into freeze for at least 12 hours, to make sure that the banana pieces have frozen solid for best results. 

I recommend you snack on these while watching weekend television, and not to share them as they will vanish too quickly – and if you are feeling too guilty about the chocolate, remind yourself there is banana too! 

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