The DQ Kid

{ Frozen Bananas Covered in Chocolate }

My playpen was in the back of my parents' Dairy Queen, so I grew up regularly consuming their frozen confections. This was pre-Blizzard days, and pre-pre-packaged goods. Now everything comes to the stores pre-made, wrapped, and labeled. What's the fun in that?

I remember watching my mom hand-make Dilly Bars. Drawing out just the perfect amount of soft-serve ice cream onto a flat surface so that it made a neat circle with a perfect curl on top, the shape of a squatty Hershey's Kiss. Insert popsicle stick, freeze again. Then the magic happened, the dipping of the treat into the super fabulous chocolate "dip", drip off the excess, and then back to the freezer before being wrapped. We also made the other "ready-made" ice cream treats like DQ Sandwiches, and Buster Bars. And writing this now is making me ABSOLUTELY want to try my hand at a homemade Buster Bar (peanuts, hot fudge, layered with ice cream, all covered in a chocolate shell). Mmmmm.

This week I made frozen bananas covered in chocolate. I think back in my DQ days we might have actually sold these, too, along with the other noted goodies. Why no more? I wonder. I guess a banana just doesn't sound as appealing as the 3000 other variations of frozen treats. So how about it DQ? How about chocolate-covered frozen bananas on a stick? Non-dairy fans would still be able to join in the craving for something sweet, creamy, and cold. Gets my vote!

Here's how I made mine. I used a bunch of gorgeous and small organic bananas purchased at HEB.

Unpeel 6 small bananas (if large, cut in half). Didn't have sticks so used long wooden skewers driven long way through each banana. Place on parchment on a cookie sheet and put in freezer for 15 minutes or so. While these are chilling, melt your chocolate. I chose a large bar of Green and Black's 70% in my stash labeled "cooking chocolate". Chop and melt 3/4 of it using a double boiler, or you can do what you like, even microwave, just be sure to melt over very low heat. Throw in about 2 tablespoons of salted butter. When evenly mixed and melted, take off the heat.

I used a ladle to spoon chocolate all over one side of the bananas while holding them over the pot to catch excess chocolate. You can twist and turn the bananas to coat (adding more butter would've made it more viscous). Since the chocolate is cooling rapidly as it coats the banana, you can continue to add layers of chocolate. Chocolate lover I am, but even two layers with this intensity of chocolate was thick enough.

Place bananas back on parchment/cookie sheet and back into the freezer. Done!

So yummy, so easy, so quick. Enjoy the summer.

note: DQ Kid, Dilly Bar, DQ Sandwich, DQ Blizzard and Buster Bar are all registered trademarks of Dairy Queen Corp.