Chocolate Covered Banana Pops Recipe

When it's hot out and you want a treat that at least feels marginally healthy, what do you reach for? If you love the simple flavors of fruit and chocolate together, then a frozen chocolate-covered banana might be right up your alley.

It's a sweet yet relatively healthy dessert you can make yourself with all of about 10 minutes of hands-on work "and then keep in a plastic zip airtight bag in the fridge for up to two months," says chef, recipe developer, and registered dietician Kristen Carli. But honestly, we don't think they're going to last that long. If you don't eat them all up yourself, your family and friends who try them will be happy to help. And not only are they delicious, but they're also super easy to make.

Ready to give this recipe a try for yourself? Let's take a closer look at how to make these chocolate-covered banana pops.

At its most basic level, this recipe calls for just two ingredients, and they are both in the name of the recipe itself: chocolate and bananas. If you're keeping it super basic, stick with milk chocolate because it melts so well. You can also blend in some dark chocolate chips or use white chocolate or even butterscotch bits.

Want to go a bit farther? You totally can. Carli says: "These are perfect as is, but if you want you can easily dip them in sprinkles, chopped peanuts, or other toppings for a fun spin."

You need to prepare these frozen treats at the right point in the bananas ripeness cycle, and while you might think it best to wait until they're quite ripe, thus quite sweet, it's actually not. "It's important that these bananas are not too ripe that they get mushy and will not hold a stick," says Carli, adding: "I like ones that have a yellow peel with a hint of green still."

First, peel the bananas, and then cut each in half crosswise. Now insert a popsicle stick (or craft stick) into each banana half, then place the bananas on a small baking sheet and freeze them for at least three hours.

Once the freezing time has passed, it's time to melt the chocolate. Place all of the chocolate chips in a large bowl, then microwave the chocolate for 30 seconds. Retrieve the bowl, and then stir to combine the partially melted chocolate chips, and repeat the microwaving in 30-second increments until all of the chocolate has melted.

You can also melt the chocolate on the stove if need be — just make sure you keep the heat very low unless you are using a double boiler, as otherwise, the chocolate may burn on the bottom of the pan.

While the chocolate is good and melted, retrieve the frozen bananas and dip each of the bananas into the chocolate, turning them until they are fully coated. Place the dipped bananas onto wax paper and allow them to cool for about five minutes. Now you can enjoy them, or you can store them frozen in a large plastic bag. 

Just make sure you keep these coated bananas frozen until very shortly before you will eat them, as once they melt, they lose the consistency that makes them enjoyable, and they can't be refrozen after being thawed.