Just a fairly simple recipe/idea from me today! I saw these banana split bites from Oh She Glows and I knew I had to try them, at least for the kids(although any excuse for dark chocolate, right? ). Although, I obviously didn’t think of making them for the kids when I made them with toothpicks. It actually didn’t work too badly but they were a bit hard to hold onto and younger kids might have a hard time with them.
These are also pretty large so if you’re serving them to smaller children, you can obviously cut the fruit smaller. Even my 2 year old took quite a while to eat one, so next time I’d make smaller ones for her and these size for my 4 year old and myself.
I did end up making them again with popsicle sticks and they were way better. Although I didn’t hardly get any good pictures with the popsicle sticks. I really don’t know what was so hard about getting these to stand up straight but apparently it was really difficult. So just imagine the toothpicks are popsicle sticks because I like those pictures better
To make these a little fancier you could dip the chocolate in coconut or chopped nuts while it’s still soft. It does harden especially quickly because of the coconut oil, but if you dip them right away the nuts/coconut would stick and that would taste delicious. I was all about reducing the mess with these ones though.
Makes about 24
24 – 1″ pieces from about 1/2 small pineapple
2 large bananas, sliced into 24 bite sized pieces
12 small to medium sized strawberries sliced in half
150g(5oz) good quality dark chocolate(I used 72%)(this is between 3/4 – 1C if using a cup measurement for chocolate chips)
2 tsp coconut oil
chopped nuts or coconut for rolling in(optional)
Chop fruit and assemble into stacks. Press a popsicle stick through the fruit and freeze until solid.
Prepare a baking sheet with parchment paper, wax paper or a silicone mat. Melt the chocolate along with the coconut oil either in a double boiler or in the microwave using short intervals and stirring frequently to prevent burning. Once completely melted, remove the frozen fruit from the freezer. Dip the fruit in the chocolate, let the excess drip off for a minute and then place on the sheet to harden. If desired, dip the chocolate covered side immediately in chopped nuts or coconut before placing on the sheet to harden. Once the chocolate is completely hardened(you may need to place in the freezer for it to harden completely), remove from the sheet and place in an airtight container to store in the freezer until ready to serve.
When ready to serve, remove them from the freezer and let sit at room temperature for a couple minutes before serving – if you can wait that long
I don’t recommend letting these sit for any length of time at room temperature though as they will thaw and the fruit – especially the banana – will not be pleasant. Please enjoy these within a few minutes of removing from the freezer.
Read more: http://fooddoodles.com/2012/06/11/chocolate-covered-banana-split-bites/#ixzz2YkKvabem
