Chocolate Peanut Butter Banana Bits

Winter Break Bananarama Continues...

The bananas are browning quick so I had to figure something out. I hate to waste! I've seen that Dole has begun selling Chocolate Covered Banana Slices in the freezer section of stores. The bummer is they're still really expensive even with coupons! So I decided to try and make them on my own.

I wanted to make some with peanut butter and some without so I started with only chocolate and added the peanut butter half way through.

A while back I got a Wilton Chocolate Melter Deluxe and a giant 2lb bag of Wilton Chocolate Pro Fountain & Fondue Chocolate for a party and forgot to get it out. ADD strikes again! They have been sitting in my pantry for some time and this happened to be the perfect use for them!

This was also fun because my duaghter, SaeLeigh, got to help. Yay.

Ingredients:

2 cups chocolate 

(doesn't have to be Wilton chocolate, chocolate chips would work fine) 

5 ripe bananas

3-5 tbs peanut butter (optional)

 

 Supplies:

baking sheet

parchment paper

fork

knife

chocolate melter or double boiler

freezer

Tupperware or freezer baggie

Set the melter to melt or start double boiler.

Add 2 cups of chocolate to the melter.

 

  

 Stir occasionally until melted.

 

 If you're using peanut butter in your recipe you can add it now. I wanted to make half of them with plain chocolate so I waited until I got half way through my chocolate to add the peanut butter. You can add the peanut butter whenever you'd like just keep in mind the more chocolate you have the more peanut butter you'll probably want. Tasting it never hurts! ;) 

Parchment your baking sheet.

Begin cutting bananas. 

I scored notches every .5" or so in the bananas and let Sae cut them. 

Then I had her break the banana slices at their natural lines. Each banana slice usually breaks into 3 bits. This way they'll be bite size and poppable!

  

Add banana bits one by one to chocolate. Turn banana with fork until coated on all sides.

Lift banana slice from chocolate with the fork.

 Place the chocolate covered banana bits on the parchment paper.

Repeat this until you have no more space on your pan or you run out of bananas!

 Place baking sheet into the freezer on a level surface for 1 hour.

 This is what they'll look like after they start to firm up.

Place into a container (a freezer bag would be fine). Store in the freezer. 

I want to say thanks again to Harvest STL for the awesome bananas! Excellent wholesaler in Saint Louis. Check them out!

Dense Banana Bread

As you can see in my last post the Banana Fairy visited us and it's left me looking for all sorts of ways to use Bananas this week.

Decided to try this recipe for Banana bread. I like really dense, moist breads like the pumpkin loaf at Starbucks. Mmmm! I squish it into little condensed bits and eat it like that. Strange I know but to me it's better smashed. lol This recipe definitely came out moist and dense. I didn't even have to smash it! haha Delicious!

Let round II of Bananrama begin! 

Ingredients:

3 ripe bananas
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 stick butter softened
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1 1/4 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cups flour

1-1 1/2 cups of mix ins - chocolate chips, nuts, etc (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. 

Mash the bananas with a fork, spoon, (or magic bullet) ;).  

Add the baking soda to the bananas, set aside (let this set for 10 or so minutes).

Add the butter and sugar to mixer, cream together.  

Add egg and vanilla, continue mixing.  

Alternate adding the banana mixture and the flour. (don't worry about over beating)  

Fold in extra ingredients like nuts, mini chocolate chips, craisins, white chocolate, or whatever your crazy heart desires.

Grease and flour pans. 

I grabbed the first pan I had available which turned out to be a square 8x8. I had a bit of batter left so I mixed chocolate chips into it and tossed it into an 8" round. The round one came out a bit thin but still very yummy. 

ADD Baker's Tip: 

Truthfully when I bake I NEVER set the timer for longer than 10 minutes. Seems ADD mom needs a reminder (even if the recipe calls for much longer) to get back in the game and start paying close attention. Once I hear my 10 minute timer I can reset it to 5 minutes or so which keeps me pretty tethered to the oven. Nothing like walking out of the kitchen for a restroom break, noticing the carpets need cleaned, and finding yourself in the basement searching for the carpet steamer (as your masterpiece bakes itself to death). The smell of your hard work burning sure can snap you out of ADD land fast (just me?)!! lol 

Once I've made something a million times with all the same tools (oven being the most important) I can get a pretty exact time down but I do the 10 minute timer with most things. Especially new recipes!

8" round baked for about 25 minutes. 

8" square one probably closer to 32 minutes (had more batter). 

 

Baking time is going to vary depending on the depth of your batter. I caught the square batch just before the top browned and I liked that one of the two better. I think it's a personal preference. In any case testing the center for a dry toothpick is always reliable!

You can also use a skinny loaf pan (13″x4″) and bake at 350^o for 40 to 45 mins per the original poster Fran. Thanks Fran, it's now one of my favorites too!

Peanut Butter Banana Dog Treats

I recently came up on a huge stash of bananas from Harvest STL and since I'm on vacation from school for a bit I figured I'd find any use for them I could.  

  

 First stop... Dog treats!

(Test Dooogs Sonni & River Await)

After searching the good ol' Pinterest for a while I finally found a recipe that didn't require anything out of the ordinary in it. I don't keep wheat flour or flax seed in my kitchen on a regular basis. (I can feel the glare from health ridden faces burning into my soul even over the internet. Judge away- I do what I can.) 

Found a great recipe thanks to Sophie in the Kitchen and they turned out GREAT!

Ingredients:

1 Egg

1/3 cup peanut butter (I used creamy)

2 ripe bananas

1 tbsp honey

1 1/2 cups flour

1 cup oats

1/2 tsp cinnamon (optional)

 Supplies:

stand or hand mixer

parchment paper (or something to grease pan) 

 baking sheet

cooling rack

Preheat Oven 300 degrees F. 

Parchment paper your baking sheet.

Add egg, peanut butter, honey, & bananas to stand mixer & mix. 

Continue mixing:

Slowly add flour (until mixed well) then add oats and cinnamon.

I rolled them into cylinders and flattened them with my fingers. I pushed the ends in to make them into bone shapes! This recipe yielded just under a dozen 2" wide 1/4" thick bones.

 It's perfectly fine to spoon them onto the pan or make smaller bones if you wanted more out of the batch.

Bake at 300 degrees F for 20-30 minutes until the bottom is starting to brown just a bit. They will firm up but the tops wont change color much.

Cool on rack. 

The dogs LOVED them. I want to make another batch right away but I only had honey sticks (which I killed off) to create this batch. I'll have to run to the store for more because I can't wait to share treats with friends and family!

In case I missed something, here's a link to the original posting.

Thanks again Sophia.