These Frozen Chocolate Covered Banana Bites are an easy, healthy dessert that your whole family will love. Just like Trader Joe's Gone Bananas, yet made vegan and gluten-free so everyone can enjoy them. These little banana bites are frozen and then dipped into a velvety smooth chocolate coating that melts in your mouth.
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❤️ Why you'll love this recipe
- It's easy to make.
- It's dairy-free, gluten-free, and nut-free.
- These have the perfect balance of crispy and soft.
- They're simply delicious.
🍫 Chocolate coating
The secret to making perfect chocolate-covered bananas is in the chocolate coating. Many recipes call for melted chocolate chips to coat the bananas. I find this coating to be too hard once it's frozen. I find that coconut oil mixed with cocoa powder and sugar makes the best chocolate coating for frozen fruit.
🧾 Ingredients and substitutions
- Ripe Bananas - the bananas should be yellow with some brown spots on them. The riper the banana, the sweeter it will be. However, very brown overripe bananas will be too soft and hard to work with.
- Refined Coconut Oil - for the base of the chocolate coating. This will harden quickly once it gets cold, yet it won't get so hard that it's difficult to eat. (You can use unrefined coconut oil as well, but it will have a coconut flavor).
- Cocoa Powder - for the chocolate flavor.
- Sugar - to sweeten the chocolate coating. Powdered sugar makes a smooth creamy coating with evenly distributed sweetness. Granulated sugar will also work, but it tends to remain grainy. I actually love a mix of half powdered sugar, and half granulated sugar to give them a little crunch!
- Salt - for flavor. You can add a pinch to the chocolate coating or you can sprinkle a small amount of Kosher salt on your freshly dipped bananas.
🔪 Helpful Tools
- Cookie Sheets - to put the banana slices on in the freezer. (You can also use a freezer-safe large plate).
- Parchment Paper - (optional, but recommended) to keep the chocolate from sticking to the cookie sheet.
🥄 How to make frozen chocolate covered bananas
- Peel and slice ripe bananas into 1/4-inch rounds and place them on a cookie sheet.
- Freeze the banana slices on the cookie sheet for at least 1 hour.
- Melt the coconut oil, and mix in the cocoa powder, sugar, and salt until it's combined well.
- Place a piece of parchment paper on another cookie sheet next to your prepared chocolate-coating mixture.
- Take the frozen bananas out of the freezer.
- Quickly pick them up one piece at a time with a fork and dip them in the chocolate and place them on the prepared parchment paper.
- Repeat this with each slice until they have all been dipped.
- Put them back in the freezer for at least 1/2 hour to refreeze them. (At this point you can put them into a bag or container).
👩🏻🍳 Pro Tips
- You must freeze the bananas before dipping or the chocolate coating will not stick to them as well. This will also cause the coating to harden quickly and make them less messy.
- If you want thicker chocolate, you can double-dip the bananas.
- If you want nuts, sprinkles, kosher salt, or anything else to stick to your chocolate-dipped bananas, sprinkle it on immediately after dipping. The chocolate will harden fast.
- Don't overheat the coconut oil when you melt it. It just needs to be warm enough to stay in the liquid form, you don't want it so hot that it melts the bananas.
🥡 Storage
Refreeze the banana bites after dipping them in chocolate until they become very solid. (About 1/2 hour). Then quickly transfer them to a freezer bag or a container with an airtight seal.
📖 Variations
- Banana Pops - follow the directions the same way except cut the bananas in half and put a popsicle stick in the center of it before freezing. Then dip the banana pop in the chocolate coating.
- Banana Bite Sandwiches - put a layer of peanut butter vegan salted caramel, or vegan butterscotch in between two banana slices then cover the double banana bite in chocolate.
🌟 Toppings
- Crushed nuts - like peanuts or cashews, because nuts are just delicious with chocolate and bananas!
- Vegan White Chocolate Drizzle - for some color and flavor. Simply melt a vegan white chocolate bar and drizzle it on top of your frozen chocolate-covered bananas.
- Vegan Sprinkles - for some fun festive colors! Make sure to use sprinkles without confectioners glaze if you want it to be vegan.
- Peanut Butter - to drizzle on top.
- Kosher Salt - for a little bit of saltiness and texture.
- Sugar in the Raw - for some extra texture.
If you love frozen chocolate treats, you have to try my healthy freezer fudge!
Love bananas? Make sure to bake up the best vegan banana bread recipe ever or try my banana muffins, spinach muffins, or double chocolate chip muffins -all made with bananas!
🌟 More no-bake vegan desserts
- Vegan Ice Cream Cake
- Vegan Grasshopper Pie
- Dairy-Free Cheesecake
- Vegan Creme Brulee
- Vegan Rice Krispie Treats
📌 Be sure to follow me on Pinterest for new vegan recipes!
📋 Chocolate banana bites recipe
Frozen Chocolate Covered Banana Bites
Equipment
- 2 Cookie Sheets
Ingredients
- 2 medium ripe bananas
- 1/3 cup refined coconut oil melted
- 3 tbsp cocoa powder
- 3 tbsp powdered sugar or 1/2 powdered and 1/2 granulated sugar
- 1/8 tsp salt
Instructions
- Peel and slice ripe bananas into 1/4 inch rounds and place them on a cookie sheet.
- Freeze the banana slices on the cookie sheet for at least 1 hour.
- Melt the coconut oil, and mix in the cocoa powder, sugar, and salt until it's well combined.
- Place a piece of parchment paper on another cookie sheet next to your prepared chocolate coating mixture.
- Take the frozen bananas out of the freezer.
- Quickly pick them up one piece at a time with a fork and dip them in the chocolate. Place them on the prepared parchment paper.
- Repeat this with each slice until they have all been dipped.
- Put them back in the freezer for at least 1/2 hour to refreeze them.
Notes
- You must freeze the bananas before dipping or the chocolate coating will not stick to them as well. The chocolate will harden faster on the frozen bananas, making them look less messy.
- If you want thicker chocolate, you can double-dip the bananas.
- If you want nuts, sprinkles, kosher salt, etc. to stick to your chocolate-dipped bananas, sprinkle them on immediately after dipping. The chocolate will harden fast.
- Don't overheat the coconut oil when you melt it. It just needs to be warm enough to stay in liquid form, you don't want it so hot that it melts the bananas.
- Refreeze before bagging or stacking them in a container.
Nutrition
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Click the stars above or leave a comment! I'd love to hear from you!
This chocolate sets beautifully!
My coconut oil still lukewarm while completely liquified, so the bananas were still icy by the time I was done. I did quartered bananas, and this enough to dip 14 of the 16 pieces. I’ll probably double the recipe next time and double-dip a dozen (3 bananas quartered).
I'm happy that you enjoyed the recipe, Michelle!
Can't wait to try these! I find that when I make frozen banana pops using melted chocolate chips, the chocolate comes out way too thick on the banana. This recipe sounds exactly what I was looking for!!
I think that you will love them! I never understood the recipes that use melted chocolate chips for these, they are too hard and you can't bite it when frozen. Enjoy! 🙂
Looks delicious! How long does it last?
They will keep well for about a month in the freezer in an airtight container. However, my family usually eats them all the first day that I make them. 🙂
Delicious! These are such a great treat to have in the freezer!
Thanks Melissa! I love having them in my freezer too, but they don't last long in my house! 🙂
OMG! These were amazing and so easy to make! I will be making these a lot from now on! Thanks so much for the easy recipe!
So happy that you like them Liz! They are so easy! 🙂