Lee in Richmond

I has trying to make frozen bananas, like I got on Balboa Island in high school. Selected firm bananas, cut in half, stuck a stick up the butt, froze on a sheet, wrapped in a bag.

Took out a double boiler, heated water and then melted 'chocolate' wafers, to coat the frozen bananas.

All went well for a while. Then the chocolate seemed to crystallize (firm up), and nothing I tried changed that.

The bag says do not let water near it (thinking to thin it out). I only got 3 banana halves done before this happened. Does anyone know what will work better? Should I just eat the 'chocolate' and go to bed? But that does not have the outcome I really want.

osewme

What about using the Smucker's Magic Shell topping? It's suppose to turn hard when it is poured on cold ice cream. I would think it would do the same if a cold banana was dipped into it.

https://www.smuckers.com/products/ic...-fudge-topping

Lee in Richmond

That might work. Looking at my original post, it did not 'crystallize' (I know cause I've done that), it firmed up like making fudge. Too late to fix this tonight (alas, poor company coming). The only other recipe I saw was to use choc chips and lard, which I chose not to do. I wonder how the soft serve ice cream place does it?

cjsews

Did you get your water too hot? This will cause the chocolate to get hard. Rather than add shrug. You can melt some wax before putting the chocolate in the pan. It takes a bit longer than the chocolate to melt. Can buy the wax where you get canning supplies

cannyquilter

The chocolate has scorched. I melt chocolate in the microwave. Easy to control.

barbaraodle47

Try chocolate almond bark and melt it in the microwave.

rjwilder

Water will sieze up the chocolate making it hard and lumpy. So if your frozen bananas started to thaw even a tiny bit and moisture got into the chocolate it would get hard. The only way to prevent this is to add oil, Canola oil, vegetable oil or lard to it. It thins the chocolate out and makes it smooth. That's how I make mine and chocolate covered strawberries.

farmquilter

A thought about the bananas being frozen, the moisture could have come from there. I would use some melted wax and maybe spoon the warm chocolate over the bananas so the chocolate runs into a small bowl and no moisture gets into the main chocolate.
Can also put the melted chocolate in a drinking glass, so the banana will fit with a limited amount of chocolate to dip each one, add more chocolate as needed for each banana.

toverly

The double boiler is the culprit. Steam collected. I think the little chocolate discs heat better in the microwave. No water present. I did see a show recently that wrapped the bananas in plastic wrap to keep them from freezing solid like ice. It supposedly kept them soft enough to bite.

Pat M.

Melt Hershey Bars. They are the best.