How to Make Chocolate Banana Pops

  They’re easy, fun, and really good. 

 They’re frozen bananas on a stick, dipped in chocolate, and rolled in sprinkles.

You can use white chocolate or dark.  For sprinkles, you can use jimmies, decorating sugar, mini chips, barks,  (white chocolate and candy pieces chopped into piece for decorating cookies and cakes.)   The ones in the picture are rolled in jimmies and some in decorating sugar.  Decorating bark is not just pretty; it adds a lot of flavor.  Consider strawberry bark or blueberry bark.

Choose a good melting chocolate.  Chocolate wafers  are much better than chocolate chips.  Wafers have a finer grind and are smoother.  Wafers are made for candy makers and they’re just better than chips.

These won’t take much of your time. Just freeze the bananas a couple hours ahead. You can also freeze, coat, and decorate strawberries.

You can melt the chocolate in the microwave or use a chocolate melting pot. It’s easier with a melting pot—it will hold the chocolate at the perfect temperature without sticking it back in the microwave.  If you use a microwave, be careful not to cook the chocolate.

1. Peel and cut bananas into thirds or halves. Insert popcicle sticks (you can buy them on our site) into the banana pieces for handles. Freeze them for two hours.
2. Prepare a place to stand your frozen banana pops. We took a used folding carton and cut half-inch knife slits in which to poke the pop cycle sticks and hold the treats upright.
3. Melt good quality chocolate.
4. Either dip the banana pieces in the chocolate or spoon the chocolate over the banana pieces while holding onto the handle. Be sure and cover the entire banana piece, even down by the handle. Because the chocolate is going on cold bananas, the coating sets up in a hurry and tends to be thick. (No one should complain about that.) You can make the coating even thicker by spooning extra chocolate onto the banana piece or redipping. If you are using the microwave instead of a chocolate melting pot, you may need to rewarm the chocolate several times.
5. Sprinkle candy or sugar decorations over the warm chocolate. For adults, sprinkle the bananas with chopped nuts or decorating bark. Coat and add sprinkles to the bananas one at a time. Once the chocolate is on the bananas, you will need to work quickly; the chocolate sets up rapidly on frozen bananas. As you complete the bananas, set them upright in your cardboard stand.
6. Let the kids eat the chocolate covered bananas immediately or return them to the freezer. Serve them frozen.  Because the chocolate sets up right away on the frozen bananas, the kids can eat them right away—perfect for short attention spans.