Banana popsicles are the best – think ‘nice cream’ in popsicle form! With a good hit of creamy peanut butter, dates to sweeten, and a crackly chocolate coating, they’re the best summer treat. Maybe tied with coconut milk chocolate ice cream.
Although banana and fruit blended ice cream is pretty accessible to anyone with a food processor or high speed blender, it’s really only good right when it’s made. Popsicles can be made in advance, kept in the freezer, and pulled out whenever you need a treat.
This is an older recipe, something I’ve been making for about five years, but it’s one that I come back to time and time again. A real favourite – you can’t say no to healthy popsicles.
Ingredients
- Bananas: the riper, the better. The more ripe the bananas, the sweeter they are and with the most banana flavour.
- Dates: these should be soft, but it doesn’t matter what type. Soak if needed.
- Peanut Butter: natural, unsweetened peanut butter. The ingredients should be peanuts and possibly salt.
- Sea Salt: omit if the peanut butter is salted.
- Vanilla: extract, powder, or paste, it doesn’t matter.
- Dark Chocolate: this is for the coating. You can use chocolate chips but note that it’ll be a little harder in that case.
- Coconut Oil: this adds a bit of shine and a better crack to the chocolate coating.
Step by Step
Recipe Notes
If your dates are a bit dry, soak them in hot water for at least half an hour before blending. I usually use deglet noor dates.
I recommend only adding the salt in the recipe if your peanut butter is unsalted. And make sure you’re using plain peanut butter, with no sugar or oils added – it’ll ruin the texture otherwise (and be way too sweet).
If you don’t have popsicle moulds, you can freeze this in small cups instead, and use spoons instead of popsicle sticks. Some people use little paper cups or reused yogurt cups, any smaller container like that.
Adding coconut oil to the chocolate during melting isn’t completely necessary, but it creates a kind of magic shell. The chocolate coating will be snappier and set more quickly, better all around for popsicles!
Substitutions
If your bananas aren’t quite ripe enough, you can either up the dates a little bit or add one or two tablespoons of liquid sweetener like maple syrup. I find these popsicles plenty sweet but go by your taste.
Any kind of chocolate can be used in place of dark chocolate, including melted chocolate chips (though I find the texture a bit waxy when frozen when using chips). The dark chocolate provides a nice counterbalance to the sweet fruit, but if you have a real sweet tooth, you may like a lighter chocolate.
Try adding some extra spices or flavours to the mix – cinnamon, cardamom, a little cocoa, whatever you like. You could also fold chopped nuts into the banana mixture before placing it into the moulds.
More Frozen Treats
Vegan Toasted Coconut Ice Cream
Lemon Elderflower Popsicles
Vegan Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream
Blueberry Swirl Coconut Milk Popsicles
Instant Vegan Mango Ice Cream
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Dreamy Peanut Butter Banana Popsicles
Ingredients
- 3 large ripe bananas
- 120 grams soft dates
- 150 grams natural peanut butter
- ¼ teaspoon sea salt*
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ½ cup dark chocolate
- 1 tablespoon coconut oil
Instructions
- Place the bananas, dates, peanut butter, salt, and vanilla into a food processor or blender. Blend until very smooth, a couple of minutes depending on how powerful your blender is.
- Spoon the mixture into your popsicle moulds. Add the sticks and freeze for at least 4-6 hours, or until solid.
- Melt the dark chocolate and coconut oil in a bowl set over a small saucepan of simmering water.
- Coat the popsicles by dipping in one side and then turning them and dipping the other. Place the chocolate covered popsicles onto parchment paper (the chocolate will freeze quickly). Drizzle with additional chocolate if desired.
- Store the coated popsicles back in the freezer in a sealed container until you’re ready to eat them. They will keep well for at least a week in the freezer.
Notes
* For American cup measurements, please click the pink link text above the ingredient list that says ‘American’.
Nutrition
Nutrition is provided as a courtesy and is an estimate. If this information is important to you, please have it verified independently.
Newsletter
This recipe was originally published in June 2016. It has been updated most recently as of June 2022.
traci | Vanilla And Bean says
I'm going to give you my advice on the wedding. Go small then take a trip.. just the two of you. You'll have fabulous memories and less stress!! My sis had big, Rob and I had small. I liked the small better – less stress.. and my sis (and mom) had stress :/ Banana Ice Cream! OMGeee, right? So simple, yet soooo incredibly delicious. Medjool dates are natures candy and I'm so grateful for them (I use them copiously in my ebook thats almost done.. yeee hawww!). And that magic shell.. you've hit all the flavor notes with this one Alexandra! I just made a coconut cherry pop dipped in magic shell.. and the dang things stuck to the mold.. I couldn't get them to release despite all my popsicle tricks : / SO it's back to the drawing board. I think I just need to make these and call it a day! Thank you for this!
Leslie-Anne says
This is heaven on a stick. Really excited to get some of these in the freezer this weekend!
Samantha @mykitchenlove says
Love the chocolate dip!!! These would be perfect on a hot Summer's day.
Dawn says
Oh my stars, these popsicles sound soooo good!
janet @ the taste space says
Oh yum, this looks great. I was just telling my mom how I don't have any popsicle moulds and with this summer heat and your recipe, I may need to change that sooner rather than later. Thanks for the tip to look at Winners.
I hear your plight about a small wedding. I loved our no frills wedding. We didn't have more than 20 people. It was great. Good luck with your preparations. 🙂