salted banana peanut butter chocolate treats OMG

i wish i had a more condensed name for these, but unfortunately i was too hopped up on SUGAR and JOY to come up with one when i wrote this post. these, my friends, are heaven on earth…in your mouth. sweet, salty, chocolatey OMGoodness. they’re more work than my average recipe, and especially challenging because you can’t have a craving and whip them up all impulsive-like. you have to crave them, start making them on night one, and then MAYBE, if you’re lucky and your freezer works well, be able to enjoy them the next day at lunch.  but i promise you, you will be so SO happy when you do.

be forewarned: i made these once using the amounts from this recipe…. then realized that’s WAY too much (especially for one family of two, neither of which have even the slightest bit of self control around sugar). as much as i would have loved re-making this recipe for the sake of blogging it, i didn’t {if i had you can be assured that my 1st chin would be resting comfortably on a newfound second}. SO, these measurements are based on my first over-excited go ’round and are only approximations- you may end up with extra peanut butter filling or chocolate (in which case you could throw together a few of these! recipe below

the what:

6 bananas

3/4 cup vegan chocolate chips

1/2 cup almond milk

1/2 cup earth balance vegan butter

1/4 cup +2 tablespoons cup crunchy peanut butter (organic, unsalted, no added sugar)

1/4 cup (heaping) cup graham cracker crumbs (i found an organic, naturally sweetened kind at whole foods that did the trick)

1/2 cup turbinado raw sugar or other granulated sweetener

sea salt or maldon salt flakes- i tried both and loved them equally

the how:

the night before: prepare peanut butter filling by mixing earth balance vegan butter, sugar, graham cracker crumbs and peanut butter in a pan and melting together.  Once thoroughly mixed, let cool and then place in a bowl in the fridge to harden for the next day’s banana sculpting extravaganza.

- cover a cookie sheet (must fit in your fridge or freezer) with wax paper

- cut bananas into 1/2-3/4″ slices (if you have a shortage of freezer or fridge room, you may want to do these in batches (i did!)

- using a knife and your fingers, make little caps for the bananas with peanut butter filling (see photo above for a tasty ratio)

- combine vegan chocolate chips and almond milk and heat over low until melted (stirring all the while)

- i set up a production line for this next part at our dining room table with all my peanut buttered bananas on my left, the pot of melted chocolate directly in front of me (DANGER!) and the wax paper covered cookie sheet to my right. 

- place a banana slice on your fork and then dip into chocolate (do not spear the banana). use a spoon to pour melted chocolate over top until all of the banana and peanut butter are covered.  

- once all of your banana slice have been coated, sprinkle each one with sea salt and pop them into the freezer.  once they’ve hardened you can transfer them to any freezer safe container.  eat them freely!