Chocolate Covered Banana Split Skewers

Birthdays in the office = treats! Needing to make a gluten free friendly recipe, I settled on banana split skewers.

(Recipe adapted from Food Doodles. Original recipe here.)

Ingredients:

• 1/2 small pineapple, cut into 24 chunks
• 2 large bananas, sliced into 24 pieces
• 1 pound strawberries, sliced in 24 halves
• 1 cup (or about 3/4 of a regular size bag) good quality chocolate chips (I used Ghiradelli)
• 2 tsp oil
• 12 medium sized skewers or popsicle sticks or 24 durable toothpicks

(If making as shown, you'll ultimately need 2 pieces of each fruit per skewer. You can decrease or increase the size of each fruit slice to accommodate, or you can buy more or less fruit to make more or less skewers.)

Directions:

• Melt chocolate with oil in a double boiler (may take a while)
• Cut fruit into bite-sized pieces
• Skewer alternating fruit - strawberry, banana, pineapple, strawberry, banana, pineapple
• Place fruit in freezer until solid or cold to the touch
• Line baking sheet with parchment or wax paper or a silicone mat
• Dip fruit skewers into melted chocolate, let excess drip off, place on baking sheet for chocolate to harden
• Place in freezer for a short while to let chocolate completely harden
• Serve promptly after

(Note: leaving the fruit in the freezer overnight or for a long period of time is doable; however, you'll need to let the fruit thaw a bit before serving as the frozen fruit can be tough on the teeth to eat.)

Here's an actual rundown of my efforts:

Melt chocolate first. I set up a make-shift double boiler (glass bowl set on top of a pot of boiling water) and tossed in my chocolate chips with a little olive oil (worked just fine as a coconut oil substitute). Historically for me, melting chocolate until it's smooth and creamy has taken time, so I let the chocolate melt the entire time I was making the skewers.

Cut up fruit. I used best judgement on sizes. The clunkier pieces of pineapple were a little harder to skewer.

Next, skewering. The recipe I referenced tried two different types of skewers - popsicle sticks and toothpicks. She preferred popsicle sticks because they were more sturdy and easier to work with. I actually already had the pictured skewers from World Market, and they were perfect to use - sturdy,  small, but not too small, and aesthetically pleasing.

Skewer the fruit. The recipe I referenced only put one banana, one strawberry and one piece of pineapple. I chose to double up since my skewers were longer. Doing less would definitely had made it more of a bite-sized treat (and possibly a little easier to eat). After skewered, place the skewers in the freezer until they are cold to the touch.

Dip skewers in chocolate. This became a little difficult to do in a bowl (curved-base dish) because my skewers were getting stuck and couldn't dip. However, I managed. I rolled my skewers just a little to cover about half of the fruit in chocolate, but it's also ok to literally dip and go. Just let the extra chocolate drip off before laying them on a covered cookie sheet.

Melting extra chocolate is better. I ran low on chocolate and could no longer easily dip my skewers. However, I was determined to get chocolate on them with what I had left. Great tasting. Sad looking.

Pop 'em in the freezer. The chocolate hardens almost immediately. Ideally, the skewers would be popped in the freezer for a short time to let the chocolate harden and then would be served before the fruit freezes. I had to leave the skewers in the freezer overnight to take them to work the next day. Eating rock solid fruit on a skewer was quite difficult. We had to let them thaw a bit before we could eat them. So, they're best tasting when served right away.

These banana split skewers make for a great (healthier alternative?) party treat and leave you with no guilt. The original chocolate covered banana split bites recipe came from Food Doodles

XOXO

Kendra

Don't forget to visit my shop, Kitsy Co!