Boy do I love a good chocolate covered banana bite. I first made them a year or two ago and they’ve been a favourite warm-weather dessert ever since.
There’s just something about the firm layer of chocolate encasing a cold, pillow-y banana that gets me every time…
This week, I was craving chocolate banana bites, but I wanted to try something a bit different. My first idea was to just make the chocolate banana bites in mini cupcake liners (and mess-free to boot). Of course, other ingredients popped into my mind and a “banana split” was born.
I used these mini cupcake liners to contain the mess and it worked great. No more chocolate dripping everywhere!
Slice a couple strawberries.
Make sure you use the sweetest strawberries you can find. Mine weren’t very sweet and they tasted quite tart in the bites. I can’t wait until local strawberries are in season around here!
Melt the chocolate and set up a work station with coconut, finely chopped walnuts, etc:
Add 1/2 a teaspoon of melted chocolate…
Spread it out with the back of the spoon. Add a drizzle of drippy nut butter if you’d like.
and sprinkle on the walnuts and coconut.
Easy as 1, 2, 3….4.
Place ‘em in the freezer for about 15 minutes. Clean the bowl while you wait…
Pop it out of the liner and stuff in face. The only thing missing is some whipped coconut cream!
Serve on a tray for a party, make with your kids, or just keep a stash hidden away in your freezer like I did. No one ever has to know about them…they can be our little secret.
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Mess Free Banana Split Bites
Yield
20 bites
Prep time
Cook time
0 minutes
Chill time
15
Total time
At just 40 calories per bite, these banana splits are a healthy snack or dessert perfect for the warmer spring and summer months.
Ingredients
- 2 medium bananas, peeled & cut into 10 pieces each
- 2-3 strawberries, cut in half and sliced to make 20 pieces
- 6 tbsp dark chocolate chips
- 1 tbsp coconut oil (see tips below)
- drippy Nut butter, to drizzle on (optional)
- 1.5 tbsp shredded coconut
- 2 tbsp finely chopped walnuts
Directions
- Place 20 mini cupcake liners on a small baking sheet. Slice bananas and place 1 piece into each. Do the same for the strawberries.
- In a small pot on the stovetop or in a microwave, melt the chocolate and coconut oil on low. Remove from heat and stir well to melt the remaining chunks.
- Make a workstation with the bites, melted chocolate, coconut, walnuts, and optional nut butter. Spoon on 1/2 teaspoon of melted chocolate onto a bite and gently spread out. Drizzle on nut butter (optional). Quickly sprinkle with coconut and walnuts. Repeat for the remaining 19 bites.
- Freeze for a minimum of 15 minutes. If they are in the freezer for a long time and freeze solid, let them sit on the counter for about 15 minutes to soften up a bit. I put mine in a Tupperware container for storage.
Nutrition Information
(click to expand)Nutritional info: (per bite, makes 20, without nut butter): 40 cals, 3 grams fat (1 g sat), 5 grams carbs, 3 grams sugar, 1 gram protein.
Tips & Tricks:
- Yellow, just ripened bananas work best here. You don’t want to use really spotted, mushy bananas.
- The coconut oil serves two purposes in the melted chocolate: 1) It helps thin out the chocolate, making it easier to spread, and 2) it hardens the chocolate a bit faster, making that nice chocolate shell on top. You can get away with omitting it, but you will need to melt more chocolate chips so you have enough to spread on.
- Use the sweetest strawberries you can get your hands on for the best overall taste. Mine were quite tart and not the best in these bites.
- Feel free to use any toppings you wish! Get creative with it. You can also double the chocolate if you want a really chocolaty bite.
- Not surprisingly, these become SOLID when in the freezer for a long time. Leave them on the counter to soften for about 15 minutes before enjoying.
- Don’t want to use bananas? Try a small spoonful of dairy-free ice cream into each liner instead.
Well, I’m off to do some major updates to the online vegan shopping guide. Thanks for all your great suggestions yesterday! I will be adding them in soon.
This is genius!!! I am adding this to my freezer dessert rotation along with the No-Bake Oatmeal Cookies. Thanks Angela :)
how beautiful and tasty!
Such a decadent treat for such little mess. You can really impress people with this and they’ll think you slaved over cleaning the kitchen for hours! ;)
Very cute! so simple, but so yummy !!
These look delicious. I am totally pinning them for later!
These really will take over Pinterest! I’m helping host a baby shower this Sunday, even though I’m making a cake I think I HAVE to make these, too. Everyone will fall in love with them. Even though I prefer real chocolate I might have to make some with white chocolate tinted blue since it’s for a baby boy. Great idea all the way around. Especially with the mini liners! You are totally brilliant!!!
These are very cute and colorful!
You have the most wonderful ideas! These look amazing and I will definitely do these with my son who is allergic to dairy so he would enjoy these with some very dark chocolate. Genius :-)
Yummy! I love the idea of these so much more than just the plain bananas(not that those aren’t good, but when you can add strawberries too, why not?). Plus, I know my kids will love these. I might even try adding a piece of pineapple too, how yummy would that be? :D
Absolutely no reason we can’t eat healthy and feel like were missing out with great, simple, delicious treats like these,,,yummo
As soon as I saw this I kid you not, I ran to the kitchen and went to town! So yummy! I went overkill with the chocolate, but that’s my fault! So, for anyone thinking about “covering” the entire thing in chocolate, I do advise against it. Too strong in my opinion. Great recipe, though. I used to huge strawberries, one huge banana and whatever extras I had left that didn’t have anything to pair up with, I thought about putting them off to the side for later consumption. Scratch that, I topped those extras with chocolate too! I knew I made too much melted chocolate, so I grabbed some nuts (pecans, which I only have on hand at the moment) and drizzled them LIGHTLY with chocolate. So yummy!
Getting all fancy up in here!
These look super yummy..i love no-bake dessert and bite-sized treats! and thanks for the vegan shopping guide the other day…they were great!
How do you store yours in the freezer? In a Ziploc bag? And how long do they keep? I’ve found certain foods only last so long in the freezer before they really lose taste. Also, do you defrost before eating or eat straight out of the freezer?
And, thanks for the beautiful pics.
These are beautiful. They would be great for a party in the summer!
Mmm, delicious and mess free sounds pretty perfect to me. They look gorgeous too!
Those actually make me wish I didn’t hate bananas!! :-)
So simple and perfect!
Chocolate covered strawberries are the best and I can’t wait to try adding a banana. You make it look so simple! I hope mine turn out so pretty!
This is so cool! I wish you could cater my graduation party :)
when you freeze them did it stop the banana’s from turning brown once you removed them to serve?
I didn’t notice any browning, but I wasn’t exactly looking too closely.
These look so very delicious! Yum! :) cannot wait to make a batch. What a great idea for a sweet treat when I cannot shake a chocolate craving :)
Love your site!!! Just discovered it and I’m hooked! :)