Thursday, July 2, 2009

Frozen Banana Pops

Continuing on my adventure into the land of frozen desserts, I came across a recipe for Frozen Banana Pops in Taste of Home. This intrigued me. My kids love popsicles, so much so that I have started to worry about sugar as their only nourishment.

This just seemed like the perfect snack.

Melt 1/2 cup of chocolate chips with 3 tablespoons of honey on LOW heat. Do not get impatient here.
Once that is melted, stir in 1/4 cup peanut butter.
This is going to be a pretty thick mixture, so add in 2 tablespoons of milk.
Did you know? Most measuring cup sets come with a 1/8 cup measurement. This is 2 tablespoons. I teach high school, so I am no longer surprised be the number of people who do not know this.
My family is messy. Apparently it's genetic. Watching The Boy eat is eerily similar to watching Jeff eat. There will never be any doubt that child belongs to him. The original recipe called for a half a banana to be dipped in the chocolate mixture and put on a stick. I knew that a good portion of that half of a chocolate covered banana would end up on my couch. To head this off before it got out of hand, I chopped the banana into about half inch slices. About this time The Boy noticed I had bananas and started eating. I have to cook REALLY fast with him around.
To distract him from his ever raging hunger, I convinced him to help me. He threw (his word) the bananas into the chocolate.
Now if you have ever tried to coat a banana with anything, you know that they resist this sort of thing. It takes a little patience and a willingness to not worry about perfection to get this job done.

Toss the bananas around a bit and lay them out on to wax paper. If you so desire, you can sprinkle on some sprinkles or chopped nuts at this point.
Put in the freezer for a few hours until the chocolate has set up.
I am going to state the obvious here. The bananas were cold. Really, really cold. My sensitive teeth had a hard time with these.

But not everyone was slowed down by this. This is The Boy with a half inch slice of banana. I am so glad I didn't do the half banana.
Although these went really fast (I can't tell you the number of times the freezer alarm went off), they were a bit too chocolaty for me. I couldn't really tell there was peanut butter in the mix. I think next time I will cut back on the chocolate chips and add a bit more peanut butter.

Click here for Printable Recipe

Frozen Banana Pops
1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips
3 tablespoons honey
1/4 cup peanut butter
2 tablespoons milk
4 medium firm bananas, sliced
In a small heavy saucepan, melt chocolate chips and honey over low heat, stirring constantly. Add peanut butter; stir until smooth. Remove from the heat and stir in milk.
Peel bananas and insert wooden sticks into one end. Spoon chocolate mixture over bananas to coat. Place on a waxed paper-lined baking sheet. Freeze for at least 1 hour. Serve frozen.

2 comments:

Carrie said...

These look so good!!! I love the messy face, adorable!

Tracie said...

Be warned...there is not avoiding the mess!!!