Banana and Chocolate Puff Pastry

As a loyal fan of banana ice cream and banana bread, I’m a stalwart believer that banana deserves a place in many desserts. This banana and chocolate puff pastry lets the fruit stay in the spotlight while adding a puff pastry’s fluffiness and an indulgent drizzle of melted chocolate. The result looks far fancier than the effort required; upgrade your easy weeknight desserts or the final course at your next dinner party.

Banana and Chocolate Puff Pastry Ingredients

• Butter: The butter mixes with the brown sugar to coat the bananas.
• Brown sugar: Brown sugar lends its deep, molasses-like flavor to the bananas.
• Bananas: Use ripe bananas for the right amount of sweetness and softness.
• Frozen puff pastry: This will serve as the shell for the banana. Prep is that much easier because the pastry is premade. If you love it, try out other puff pastry recipes.
• Semisweet chocolate: Melted, this will be drizzled over the final product.
• Vanilla ice cream: We say it’s optional, but is it really? You can drizzle some of your chocolate sauce over the ice cream too.

Directions

Step 1: Coat the bananas

TASTE OF HOME

Preheat the oven to 400°F. In a large cast-iron or other heavy skillet, melt the butter over medium heat. Stir in the brown sugar until it’s combined.

TASTE OF HOME

Add the bananas and stir to coat them in the butter-sugar mixture. Remove them from the heat and set aside.

Step 2: Fill the pastries

TASTE OF HOME

Unfold the puff pastry and cut it into four rectangles. Place a banana half in the center of each rectangle. Overlap two opposite corners of the pastry over the banana and pinch tightly to seal. Place the pastries on parchment-lined baking sheets.

Step 3: Bake the pastries

TASTE OF HOME

Bake the banana pastries until they’re golden brown, for about 20 to 25 minutes. Drizzle them with the melted chocolate and serve them warm with ice cream if desired.

ELLIE CROWLEY FOR TASTE OF HOME

Banana and Chocolate Puff Pastry Variations

• Get nutty: Sprinkle some crushed nuts over the top. We’re fans of almonds, pecans and hazelnuts.
• Go a la mode: Rather than vanilla, you can get creative with your ice cream of choice. Chocolate, coffee or strawberry are classic; you really can’t go wrong with most flavors.
• Switch your sauce: Instead of drizzling melted chocolate, you could use salted caramel sauce or butterscotch sauce.
• Top them off: Try sprinkling these with a cinnamon-sugar mixture or with a dash of sea salt (if you haven’t tried sea salt with a dessert before, prepare to be excited).

How to Store Banana and Chocolate Puff Pastry

You can store the banana chocolate puff pastry in the fridge for up to three days. However, we will say that we enjoy them best fresh!

How do you reheat banana and chocolate puff pastry?

We recommend reheating the pastry in the oven to preserve the texture.

Banana and Chocolate Puff Pastry Tips

ELLIE CROWLEY FOR TASTE OF HOME

Why aren’t my brown sugar and butter combining?

Sugar is water soluble but not fat soluble, so there are several factors as to why your butter and sugar may not be combining. Different types of butter have different fat contents or your sugar could have dried out in your pantry. Try adding a tiny amount of water.

How can I get my bananas to ripen faster?

Bananas a little too green for this recipe? The easiest way to ripen them is to put them in a paper bag. They’ll release gas inside the bag, helping them ripen faster. To speed up the process even more, put a fruit like an apple, pear or orange inside the bag too. The other fruit will also release the gas that encourages ripening. Learn our other tricks to ripen bananas.

How do I melt chocolate?

There are lots of ways to melt chocolate. You can put it in the microwave at 30-second intervals, stirring after each time to keep it smooth and evenly heated. You could also add chopped chocolate to the top of a double boiler, over simmering water. Just make sure the water and chocolate don’t touch.