Ingredients:

2 or 3 ripe bananas

2 dark chocolate Toblerones

1 tbsp vegetable oil

wax paper or nonstick tinfoil

double boiler or large stock pot and mixing bowl

*not totally necessary, but a silicon spatula is the business here

So nobody hears BOGO and doesn’t think the circus is coming to town. I was in the grocery store a few months ago and took an unusual turn down the frozen aisle where I found quite a spectacular treat: Diana’s Bananas Frozen Chocolate Covered Bananas were one big BOGO, milk or dark chocolate, oh and I went for it. (Also, amusingly, I had misread the box and thought, up until recently, they were called “Dairy Bananas” which honestly is funnier and more fun to say. But I digress). ANYWAY, I had never eaten a frozen chocolate dipped nanner. Despite being American and all, and the number one fan of all circuses, carnivals, and fairs, I had never had one. Once I tried them, my first thought was, “This is magnificent.” Then my second thought was, of course, “but I think I can do this better/cheaper/faster.”

Speaking of BOGO, which is also super fun to say, the store had a Toblerone sale, any flavor, two for one. I always opt for strong, bitter, dark chocolate and was over the moon to see that they finally had a dark chocolate option, as Toblerone has long been a favorite treat but milk chocolate is just too sweet for me. Point is, at the end of the day, I had two candy bars.

I also had two swiftly ripening bananas. Turns out, the day I made these was the exact perfect day. The ripeness of the bananas after frozen resulted in the most velvety freezy ice cream consistency I’ve ever tasted. More ice creamy than ice cream, you could even say. The banana jackets, at time of freezing, looked like this:

So! We have a couple bananas we’re looking to get rid of (but again, I abhor throwing away food), seven ounces of dark chocolate, and a few minutes to burn. It’s late summer. Frozen banana time!

I don’t have a double boiler but it’s important that the chocolate melts evenly so I boiled a couple inches of water in the bottom of a large stock pot and popped in a thin aluminum 3 quart mixing bowl, floated it on top of the water, and stirred often:

I added just shy of a tablespoon of vegetable oil and mixed it in until the chocolate was all shiny and uniformly melted. It’s ready when it glimmers a bit. You’ll know.

I peeled and halved the bananas and put them on some wax paper. I was too excited to make these and didn’t want to take the time or money to slog over to the store to get popsicle sticks, but I’m sure they would be a festive addition. ANYWAY, here are the bananas, once plain and then after I poured over the chocolate mixture:

After the chocolate is melted and poured over, roll the bananas and coat them as uniformly as possible. Just covered will do, if you make it too thick it’ll just be a gloppy mess. I’m not going to post a picture of the chocolate covered pre-frozen banana halves, because, honestly, as you might imagine, they don’t look great. They’re not photogenic.

Put them, uncovered, in the freezer for about 45 minutes to an hour. They’re ready to eat after that, and I’d store them in a tupperware container for no more than a week, but it’s doubtful they’ll last past the day. These things are unbelievable. The dark chocolate is deep and rich and the little pieces of nougat still maintain a bit of their crunch. The ripe, freezy bananas, as I said earlier, are more ice creamy than ice cream. This is a win on all accounts. Easy, amazing, healthy, and cheap. Cheaper than a BOGO. You’ll want to tell all your friends.