Chocolate Banana Boats

It’s really absurd how conventional “fruit” desserts make every effort to hide the actual fruit behind a blanket of whipped cream, sugar, or pastry dough, as if the fruit was only good as a delivery system for candy. Eat real food for long enough, and all the Cool Whip will start to taste disgustingly artificial – but you’ll still appreciate the natural sweetness of the fruit, and that’s what this recipe delivers. Instead of hiding the banana under a mountain of coconut fudge, it uses chocolate as a condiment to bring out the flavor of the fruit itself.

Bananas are an especially good choice for a Paleo dessert because, unlike most other fruits, they contain mostly glucose, rather than fructose. So people with IBS or FODMAPs malabsorption issues can usually enjoy bananas even if they react poorly to other kinds of fruit. Some people look down on bananas for this reason, and even consider them unhealthy because they have a high glycemic index, but this is completely silly: there’s no comparison between a natural whole food like a banana and an industrially processed food like Wonderbread just because they both contain more glucose than fructose. Just think of bananas as another “safe starch,” and include them in your diet accordingly.

As always when you’re using chocolate, make sure to get a good quality kind. Don’t be afraid to go very dark; the less added sugar the better, and the natural sweetness of the banana will reduce the need for sweetness in the chocolate. The same also goes for the coconut flakes, although these are usually easier to find in their unsweetened form. For an occasional treat, you can afford to go all-out on the best ingredients, and enjoy your dessert secure in the knowledge that it won’t derail your health goals.

Chocolate Banana Boats Recipe

SERVES: 4 PREP: 5 min. COOK: 20 min.

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Ingredients

• 4 bananas;
• 100g (3.5 ounces) dark chocolate;
• 4 tbsp. shredded coconut;

Preparation

1. Preheat your oven to 300 F.
2. Without peeling the bananas, cut a slit lengthwise into each fruit through the peel, but don’t cut all the way through the peel on the far side. Fill each banana with chocolate and 1 tbsp. of shredded coconut.
3. Roll each banana in aluminum foil and place on a baking sheet.
4. Cook the bananas in the oven for 20 to 25 minutes, or until the skin turns black, and serve hot.