This is one of those recipes…
One of those recipes that’s impossible to stop eating until every last chocolate bite has disappeared. Rich dark chocolate, complemented by creamy banana filling…
I made two batches (for five of us who were watching the Olympics last night). One batch was just banana and a second batch was peanut butter banana, where I blended a big spoonful of crunchy peanut butter into the filling.
There were no leftovers.
Monkey See Monkey… Eat
The summer after I finished third grade, my family took a trip to Vermont and stopped at the Ben & Jerry’s factory to see how ice cream is made. (I think that same summer, we visited a brewery and got to see how beer is made. It was a very educational summer for me!)
After touring the factory came the best part: sampling ice cream. We tried chocolate, we tried Cherry Garcia, and finally we tried their #1 seller, Chunky Monkey. I decided this flavor was my favorite, mostly because I thought the name was funny. The tour guide then informed us that this particular product had a different name in Japan; it was simply called Banana Nut. Apparently, if you try to translate the name to Japanese, you get “Chunks of Monkey.”
Ever since that trip, whenever I see anything chocolate-and-banana flavored, my mind automatically thinks of chunks of monkey.
So… who’s hungry now? 
Chocolate Monkey Bites
- 1/4 cup plus 1 tbsp cocoa powder
- 1/4 cup virgin coconut oil, melted
- 20-30 nunaturals vanilla stevia drops (or 3-4 tbsp liquid sweetener, such as agave)
- 1/2 a banana (see “nutrition info” link below for all substitution notes in this recipe)
- tiny pinch salt
- optional: 1-2 tbsp peanut butter (or pb2, or another nut butter)
Combine first three ingredients in a bowl and stir until it makes a chocolate sauce. Pour a little of the sauce (saving the rest for later) into the bottoms of cupcake liners, mini cupcake liners, or candy molds. Then freeze 8-10 minutes. Meanwhile, blend (or mash and stir with a fork) the banana, salt, and optional ingredients. Take liners out of the freezer and top each with banana mixture. Now evenly distribute the rest of the chocolate and re-freeze until solid. This recipe makes 9-10 mini cups (as shown in the photos).
View Monkey Bites Nutrition Facts
Link of the Day:
Oohhh, Nutella Peanut Butter Cups!!
I also vote for this one ^!!! Nutella+peanut butter= my life
Me too! Would be so amazingly awesome
Well great…I’m trying to go through all of my recipes on Pinterest and actually make some of them now I have to add another one! But this one I’m making right now! This will definitely be a family favorite! Thanks. Seriously, thank you!!!
Chunks of monkeys!?! Hilarious and nauseating all at the same time!
These look so good and so easy to make!
The “chunks of monkey” translation made me laugh out loud! So funny. Thank you for sharing that antidote!
Also, I wish I had a friend who made homemade snacks like these for Olympic watching friend time! So fun!
Cookie dough cups, hands down winner. Vanilla cupcake cups come in close second, with lemon creme cups finishing at third(;
How was NY, what was the best café there?
I couldn’t pick one “best.”
Although Lula’s was definitely the best place I visited ;).
I second all of your suggestions!!!!! cookie dough, vanilla cupcakes, lemon creme? YUM!!
dying to try these! just a heads up, the nutrition link is broken!
Fixed! 🙂
Maybe something totally different like Mango? or Pineapple?
I make your chocolate bars at least once a week and I just love it, so I know I will love this recipe too!
Oh yeah I could seriously jump on board this bandwagon. Even better when I have all the ingredients on hand!
I’d love a chocolate covered strawberry cup. There’s no peanut butter so I don’t know if that counts, but a chocolate cup with flavorful strawberry oozing out when you bite into it sounds like the epitome of fantastic!
Please make a caramel filled one !!!!!
How about, a cookie dough cup? Or a pb cookie dough cup? 😀
Or, ooohh, make a mint one! Walmart used to have these mint cups that were sooo good and soooo addictive. But all of a sudden they disappeared. We joked that they had drugs in them. 😛 So yeah, if you could recreate them in a vegan/healthier version, I would be your best friend for life.
I second the vote of mint!
Ooh, how did I forget about mint?? Best flavor combo ever. I found this when I was looking for a different recipe — should also work here as a mint filling!
https://lett-trim.today/2012/04/30/cosmic-chocolate-peppermint-patties/%3C/a%3E%3C/p%3E