Summer Treats: Frozen Chocolate Covered Bananas

I recently took on the exciting job of Kitchen Coordinator for a summer camp. One of the things I love about this kind of work is that I get to do a lot of problem solving. For some reason, I find it thrilling and fun to work under time constraints and stress. Something about having to deal with difficultly staring me in the face, makes me rise to the occasion and somehow accomplish what I did not think was possible. I also love learning and figuring out how to be creative to accomplish the tasks at hand.

One of the most recent challenges that came up was bananas! Literally. We had a HUGE amount of leftover bananas and they were very, very ripe. One more day and they would have been a mushy mess. A few people mentioned that we should make banana bread/cake. Something with chocolate swirled into it and sprinkles baked into the batter. This SOUNDS fun, but in reality, I was not fond of the idea of making a large amount of bread using non-organic, conventional ingredients; white sugar, flour eggs, etc. And I also did not want to spend so much time with a hot oven in the summer. Those of you who know me know how I feel about baked flour products...

So we came up with another idea...

Frozen Chocolate Covered Bananas on a Stick.

Now we're talkin'!!! What a great idea. So I had the staff peel and cut in half, like, a million bananas. By the end, they never wanted to see another banana again, but, we saved the bananas and took care of our snack prep for a day. We are feeding over 700 people each day in camp, so that's a whole lot of chocolate covered bananas.

Here is the recipe. Of course, you can make yours at home, for friends and family to enjoy. If you get organic bananas and vegan chocolate, you will be in pretty good shape! I like to use really ripe bananas, because they taste sweeter and creamier when frozen. You can dip the bananas (once covered in chocolate) in anything you like - crushed roasted peanuts, granola, shredded coconut or any other kind of fun topping you can think of.

Happy Summer!

Frozen Chocolate Covered Bananas on a Stick
4 bananas
2 bars vegan chocolate - I used this:
http://chocolatebar.com/products.php?product=3oz.-All%252dNatural-Supreme-Dark-Chocolate
2 Tablespoons sunflower oil
a pinch of salt
popsicle sticks

1. Peel the bananas and cut them in half.
2. Stick a popsicle stick into the cut side of each half and place the bananas onto a parchment lined cookie sheet. 
3. Put the bananas into the freezer for 30 minutes.
4. Melt the chocolate in a double boiler. Mix in the sunflower oil and salt.
5. Take the bananas out of the freezer and dip them in the chocolate to cover them completely. If you want to make it easy to coat the banana, transfer the chocolate into a cup and then dip the banana into the chocolate for an even coating.
6. Sprinkle the chocolate covered banana in whatever topping you like.
7. Place the bananas back on the parchment lined cookie sheet and freeze them until the chocolate sets and the bananas are fully frozen, about 3 hours.