12 Desserts That Are 10x Better When You Add Bananas

Bananas can bring out such passion, both from those who find their unique flavor delicious and from those who see them with contempt. These long yellow fruits can trace their origins back to Southeast Asia, and went from a local food source to an internationally traded commodity by the end of the 14th century. Some may be familiar with the strange history of this fruit and the fact they've had to be recreated through human intervention after the fruit was wiped out by disease in the first half of the 20th century. 

Despite their complicated history, lovers of the vibrant golden fruit will agree they can add an amazing twist of flavor to many different foods, are great for adding body to a smoothie, are delicious cooked and raw, and can even enhance savory flavors. However, where they really shine is dessert. The sweet and floral banana flavor has a way of standing strong along other potent flavors without trying to fully steal the show. 

One of the most common complaints you may hear about bananas is how quickly they begin to overripen. As they grow brown they get sweeter and more flavorful, but they also become less appealing visually. For most home cooks, this becomes a sign that it's time to bake up some banana bread, but there are so many other ways to add this amazing fruit — whether pristine and yellow or aging and brown — to your desserts to give them a fresh take and amazing flavor.

Peanut butter and chocolate are both amazing flavors to go along with banana. This copycat recipe, intended to mimic the Baskin-Robbins Polar Pizza, combines a cookie base with ice cream and toppings to create a pizza-like dessert that can be sliced and shared easily.

Whether topping with fresh banana slices mimicking pepperoni on a pizza, or blending frozen bananas with peanut butter and cream to create a rich and flavorful ice cream replacement, adding banana really adds some freshness to this incredibly rich dessert.

Recipe: Copycat Baskin-Robbins Peanut Butter 'N Chocolate Polar Pizza

With many people focused on adding more protein to their diets, it's no wonder even ice cream has become another way to ingest more of the muscle-building nutrient. Too often, getting your daily protein requires chalky shakes made of powder and water, dense bland meal bars, or large portions of meat, beans, or eggs. 

One of the more common protein-packed ingredients that's become popular lately is cottage cheese. Thankfully, with a little frozen banana and a some time, even cottage cheese can become an amazing dessert that still fulfills your protein goals.

Recipe: Chocolate Peanut Butter Cottage Cheese Ice Cream

Summer is the perfect time of year to switch out that hot coffee with something iced. There's something about a foamy frozen McDonald's frappe that fills that niche perfectly. This homemade knockoff is a great way to cool down and caffeinate without leaving home.

Adding some frozen banana slices when blending, however, really kicks it up a notch. Reminiscent of bananas Foster, the addition of bananas helps thicken the frappe and add extra creaminess while providing a depth of flavor you won't get from the plain caramel version.

Recipe: At-Home McDonald's Caramel Frappe

Rugelach is a classic Hanukkah dessert that combines light flaky pastry and cinnamon into something reminiscent of cinnamon buns, but with a character all its own. While cinnamon may be the go-to flavor, this PB&J version is a great spin on that classic. Of course, peanut butter goes well with more than just jelly.

By mashing up a ripe banana into your peanut butter and skipping the jelly, you can create a wonderfully spreadable filling that is delicious and surprising. Add a touch of cinnamon if you want to pay a bit more homage to the classic while still trying something new.

Recipe: Peanut Butter And Jelly Rugelach

You may not have heard of a snowball, at least not like the ones you will find in Baltimore, Maryland. This local summer classic is similar to "Italian ice" or snow cones, but those who have tried it swear it's different. One thing that may make them unique is the local tradition of topping the shaved ice with an egg-custard-flavored syrup.

This recipe replaces that syrup with fresh buttermilk custard and strawberries, but mashing some ripe banana into your custard as it cooks and then straining the custard before using will really make it shine.

Recipe: Strawberry Buttermilk Snowballs

Denny's pancake puppies were a great twist on a classic breakfast staple. Instead of a sticky pancake begging to drip all over you, the simple bite-sized treats were dippable and easy. Adding chocolate only added to the excitement. But what about chocolate and banana?

One of banana's most versatile qualities is its ability to replace the egg in many baked goods. Simply swapping the 1 egg in this recipe with a well mashed ripe banana adds flavor while keeping the pancake bites light and fluffy.

Recipe: Denny's Double Chocolate Pancake Puppies-Inspired Pancake Bites

The Costco bakery has been known to wow, and copycat recipes have become popular as home bakers seek to recreate their favorite treats. This recipe is great, but you know what would make it better? Bananas.

Layering your peanut butter filling with fresh banana slices or blending banana directly into the peanut butter and cream cheese mixture are both great ways to add a fruit-forward note to a rich pie like this. Give it a try if you want to take a great recipe and make it stand out even more.

Recipe: Copycat Costco Peanut Butter Pie

No-bake desserts are a great way to save time and energy without ignoring your sweet tooth. If you like a brownie with a decadent and densely fudgy texture, then these won't be difficult to enjoy. Adding another dimension of flavor by mixing in some banana also plays beautifully with the walnuts.

In any recipe, whether it goes in the oven or not, tracking moisture can be key. Since bananas can add a lot of moisture, try skipping 2 tablespoons of the evaporated milk when made with mashed banana so the brownies don't get too soft.

Recipe: No-Bake Brownies

When chocolate and bacon are paired together (even though it sounds strange at first) they work amazingly well. Surprisingly, especially when combined, both flavors make for a nuanced match with banana. Salty, sweet, rich, smoky, and fruity somehow come together to create a cookie worth remembering.

Depending on how ripe your banana is, you can mash a soft one and replace the egg, or dice a firmer banana and fold it into your dough. Either will work to create a whole new cookie that banana lovers will enjoy.

Recipe: Brown-Butter Bacon Chocolate Chip Cookies

Roasting fruit is far from a new thing, and even unripe bananas can be baked to speed up the ripening process. Heat and time help to break down starches into sugars and remove moisture. This means sweeter strawberries and more nuanced flavor.

You only need to roast the banana if it's not ripe, otherwise simply make the recipe as normal, but blend the bananas into the ice cream base fully before adding in the strawberries so you can keep chunks of strawberry together while mixing the banana flavor throughout.

Recipe: Roasted Strawberry Crème Fraîche Ice Cream

Blancmange, originally a savory dish of meat, rice, and almond milk, has since evolved into a sweet molded gelatin-based dessert. This specific recipe is for a raspberry blancmange, but we think that a raspberry banana version sounds pretty amazing. Especially when adding the banana is beyond easy.

Containing less moisture than a similar weight of raspberry, it's easy to swap out an equal weight of berries for the banana without worrying about your dessert not setting. The result will be a perfectly molded dessert reminiscent of a summer day.

Recipe: Raspberry Blancmange

An iconic staple of the American South, the MoonPie is a simple dessert of marshmallow sandwiched between two soft cookies before being sealed in a chocolate, banana, vanilla, or coconut coating. These homemade chocolate ones are a step above store-bought, and the only thing they're missing is banana.

Adding the banana into the filling will help to stiffen it, while adding a whole new layer of flavor. The filling can already be thin, so we suggest leaving out the milk and adding in your mashed ripe banana to stop it from becoming runny.

Recipe: Homemade Chocolate MoonPies