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:
Made these, they are fantastic! I added some crumbled walnuts to some of them. The picky boyfriend loved them! Can’t wait to try other flavors.
I will fess up right now that I am obsessed with your blog. I want to make everything on here. Your whole blog is an inspiration and has been the source of many wonderful gluten-free and vegan foods for me! (Spaghetti squash as pasta replacement? Brilliant!) Thank you so much, and please keep it up. And thank you for this adorable and delicious monkey treat. I used 1 tablespoon of maple syrup instead of agave. They were very tasty! I keep them in the freezer, and the banana, when frozen, is the best. Mmm! Very fast, easy recipe.
My favorite part of blogging is when someone actually makes one of the things I’ve posted. Thank YOU! 🙂
These sound amazing; it’s no surprise there were no leftovers. What could be better than Banana Reese’s?
I made these (double batch) for my community choir and they were a bit hit. I had 4 people ask me for the recipe and I’ve sent them to your blog. I made them in the mini cupcake pans but I’m actually going to make them even smaller, more bite size, so there will be more of them and for easier mass consumption! haha. Thanks so much. I plan to make a bunch of your other candies too!
I have a batch of these in the freezer right now. Thank you for this recipe. It was super-easy. I know they are going to taste great because I licked the bowl clean that contained the filling (I used cashew butter with the banana) and the chocolate sauce was awesome, too. Great web site!
I do not recommend making these with canola oil as a substitute for the coconut oil.
I made them last night using olive oil because I didn’t have coconut oil. The result wasn’t terrrible, and it did harden, but I definitely wouldn’t recommend it. It tasted olivey and very oily. Stick to Katie’s coconut oil, people!
I made these with a sweet peanut butter filling for Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, but I used canola oil. They turned out fine, but more like peanut butter pies cuz they didn’t harden. The chocolate, I mean.
I want to make these the traditional way but with icecream and peanuts too, like the comment higher up. Those would be awesome!!
These are delicious! I just made my first batch, and immediately ate three of them! I have a feeling these are going to be in my freezer constantly for easy sweet tooth fixes. I love how simple they are to make, and that I always have all the ingredients to make them. Thanks for yet another delicious recipe!
What is 1cup plus?..
My favorite sandwich bread is sourdough…would you be able to come up with a recipe like you did for the pb bread?
Ok, just made these- half filled with peanut butter and half just plain chocolate with a bit of peppermint extract. Before I added the PB, I “taste-tested” a plain cup- oh my gosh. This makes the most silky, rich, decadent chocolate EVER. And I mean, EVER. Thinking of making some with sea salt and roasted almonds, or a Mayan version with cinnamon and cayenne pepper. Thank you Katie for introducing me to the best chocolate this chocoholic’s ever tasted!!!
I just made them today in the morning to have some healthy sweets at work … and OH MY GOSH they are great… My compliments to you Katie!!!
I also just mixed the filling with the chocolate and put in into a chocolate-bar form and freezed it – to have a whole chocolate bar of this delicious sweets. 😀
Greetz from germany
Love it! I love adding cacao paste and cacao butter to dessert..for healthy richness and texture. Pic makes me hungry!
Katie i love your ideas, but I’ve got a question. Does the chocolate has to stay in the freezer or can it be outside without melting???
Coconut oil melts at room temp, so unless it is very cold where you are, it’s best to keep chilled.
Salty caramel filling surrounded by dark chocolate and little flecks of sea salt on top!