Braai Life

Recipes / Dessert

Banana boats on the coals

Bananas split in the skin, stuffed with chocolate and marshmallows, wrapped in foil and warmed in the dying fire after the meat comes off.

Coals
Medium coals
Prep
5 min
On the fire
12 min
Plan ahead
1 minute cooling before unwrapping
Serves
4 (1 banana each)

Ingredients

  • 4 firm, ripe bananas, unpeeled
  • 100 g (3.5 oz) milk chocolate, chopped, or chocolate chips
  • 32 mini marshmallows, or 8 regular marshmallows cut in half
  • 4 sheets of foil, lightly greased

Optional toppings

  • Crushed biscuits (Tennis biscuits, digestives or graham crackers)
  • Peanut butter, caramel or dulce de leche
  • Toasted coconut
  • Chocolate hazelnut spread and sliced strawberries

Method

  1. Lay a banana on its back with the inside curve facing up. Cut a slit along its length through the peel and flesh, stopping short of the ends and not cutting through the far side.
  2. Open the slit gently with your thumbs so the banana forms a boat.
  3. Push in alternating pieces of chocolate and marshmallow, about 25 g (2 tablespoons) chocolate and 8 mini marshmallows per banana. Press the marshmallows down so nothing sticks out above the peel.
  4. Wrap each banana in foil with the seam folded closed on top, so the filling cannot run out.
  5. Set the parcels on the grid over medium coals, at the edge of the fire, or in a kettle with the lid on and the coals to the sides. Cook for 10 to 14 minutes.
  6. Lift the parcels off and let them stand for 1 minute. Open the foil, scatter crushed biscuit over the top, and eat from the peel with a spoon.

Done when: the chocolate has melted completely, the marshmallows are soft and starting to brown, and the banana is warm and soft all the way through.

Tips

  • Straight into hot coals they burn on the bottom in under 5 minutes. Use the grid, or embers that have died down.
  • Over-ripe bananas collapse into mush. Firm but ripe is right.
  • The filling is molten when it comes off. Make the children wait the full minute.
  • Assemble them before the meat goes on and cook them in the fading fire once everything else is off the grid.

Banana boats are a campfire pudding shared with the American scouting tradition. In South Africa they became a family-braai regular for a plain reason: there is already a fire going, and the oven can stay off. They need almost no work and the fire does not need to be hot, which makes them the right dessert for the end of a long braai.

For how to judge the coals, see reading your coals.