Super easy, with just 10 minutes of prep for these mouthwatering, healthy Dark Chocolate Banana Popsicles that your toddler will love (and you too).
With the hot summer days, I wanted to make a healthy yet delicious frozen snack. And also one that doesn't require that much work. Because I also want to nap. 🙂
This Dark Chocolate Banana Popsicle recipe is super easy and one that your toddlers will love. Just make sure you make extras for the adults in the house.
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Ingredients
Banana: this is a big feature in many of our recipes (like a ton of them... we really like to sweeten food with banana). The older the banana, the sweeter the taste. With one banana here we make 2 popsicles.
Dark Chocolate: you could use milk chocolate of course but my general opinion is to try and give kids a taste of healthier types of food as much as possible so their palette gets used to better (nutritionally speaking) ingredients. Here we used 70% dark chocolate. But, you can use one with more or less.
Hazelnuts: I love hazelnuts, mostly because they remind me of Nutella (we often make this version of a healthy Nutella at home). You can use a different kind of nut but hazelnuts have this distinctive taste that just goes with everything.
Nutrition
Banana: high in potassium that helps a healthy cardiovascular system. Also packed with fiber and vitamin A.
Dark Chocolate: the benefit of dark chocolate in comparison with milk chocolate is the high cocoa content and comparatively lower sugar content.
Cocoa powder contains antioxidants such as polyphenols that are believed to decrease inflammation, decrease blood pressure and possibly improve brain function and blood flow.
When buying dark chocolate you want to buy one with low sugar content and as few additives as possible, ideally processed at a low temperature so it retained its nutritional benefits.
Hazelnuts: one of my favorite superfoods. They contain protein, healthful fat. Rich in antioxidants, and contain vitamin E and fiber.
Read more about the importance of vitamins in children's diets here.
How to Make Dark Chocolate Banana Popsicles
Peel and Cut 2 bananas in half. Place the popsicle stick in the cut-up end. If you can, use a compostable or reusable stick. We use reusable ones that we got with these silicone popsicle molds. We also used them for the Vegan Banana Nice Cream.
Freeze the banana halves for about 3 hours. I just place them as they are on a plate and put them in a freezer. Some recipes would say to wrap in plastic foil but I haven't found that necessary and I try to limit my use of plastic.
Chop up hazelnuts into tiny pieces and spread them out on a cutting board.
Melt your chocolate. Fill a pot of water halfway. Take a bowl and put 8 oz dark chocolate in it. Place the bowl on top of the pot of water and bring the pot to boil and then reduce to medium heat. The chocolate should start melting. Don't melt your chocolate directly in a pot on the stove or it will almost certainly burn and ruin your chocolate!
Once the chocolate has melted take your bananas and one by one, quickly roll them into the chocolate and then quickly over to the hazelnuts so both the chocolate and the hazelnuts cover half of each popsicle.
Melted chocolate will firm up fast on a frozen banana so it is important to do each one quickly so you get the hazelnuts stuck on their too.
And then they are basically ready! Yay!!!
Enjoy!
Possible Dark Chocolate Banana Popsicles Recipe Variations
Use milk chocolate – this will make the popsicle also very delicious but because of a higher sugar content I would make sure I give this to a child at least 3 hours before bedtime just to be sure you avoid any sugar rushes that may result in an eventful bedtime.
Different nuts some roasted/salted peanuts would probably be delicious here. And possibly almonds. I haven't tried it yet but definitely will.
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Recipe
Dark Chocolate Banana Popsicle
Ingredients
- 2 bananas
- 2 oz dark chocolate
- ½ cup chopped hazelnuts
Instructions
- Peel and cut the bananas in half. Place the popsicle stick in the cut-up end.
- Freeze the banana halves for about 3 hours. I just place them as they are on a plate and put them in a freezer.
- After 3 hours chop up hazelnuts into tiny pieces and spread them out on a cutting board.
- Fill a pot of water half way. Take a bowl and put your dark chocolate in it (broken into pieces). Place the bowl on top of the pot of water and bring the pot to boil and then reduce to medium heat. The chocolate should start melting.
- Once the chocolate has melted take your bananas and one by one roll them in chocolate and then the nuts.
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