Sponge cake dessert shells with bananas and chocolate chips. Great for strawberry shortcake, ice cream sundae, and so much more!
I should have called
this post “Plan B” because it was supposed to have some sort of strawberry
shortcake title. My original thought was to do a twist on
strawberry shortcake. As you can see, that did not happen. I played around with
different ideas for the shortcake portion of the dessert. When I came up with
this banana-chocolate sponge cake version, I knew I had a winner. Then it
occurred to me that the dessert shell is too pretty to cover up with
strawberries and whipped cream. Don't get me wrong—strawberry shortcake on a banana chocolate shell is a fabulous thing (I had a few the last couple of weeks)! But why limit the possibilities? I decided to make the dessert shells the star of the show.
These shells could
be the base for so many other things. How about
topping them with ice cream sundaes? What about caramelized bananas, walnuts, and whipped cream? Try chocolate mousse. Now that I got the ball rolling, you can probably come up with some fantastic versions of
your own.
If you are not familiar with dessert shell pans, this is what they look like.
If you are not familiar with dessert shell pans, this is what they look like.
The one on the left is the top side and the one on the right is the underside. It is essentially a muffin pan with the bottom of each cavity pushed in creating dome. Once baked, you invert the pan and the bottom becomes the top. All you need to do is fill the bowl with a whole lot of goodness.
This recipe yields 6
shells. I like to keep my dessert recipes small, mainly to avoid a lot of
leftovers. My family of four is not a huge consumer of desserts (although ice
cream, chocolate chip cookies, and chocolate brownies do disappear at warp speed). Generally, we enjoy sweets
in small quantities and in a nonconsecutive fashion. So when we have leftover, it is a lose-lose situation for
me: I would have to deal with the guilt of throwing away good food or the guilt
of overconsumption to avoid the guilt of throwing away good food. To avoid this
dilemma, I like to create smaller portion desserts. If you need larger
quantities, this recipe can easily be doubled.
Enjoy!
BANANA-CHOCOLATE DESSERT SHELLS
INGREDIENTS:
3 eggs
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup mashed banana
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2/3 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
INSTRUCTIONS:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Beat eggs on high until pale yellow, thick, and creamy, about 3 minutes. Slowly add 1 tablespoon sugar at a time and continue beating for a total of 2 minutes. Add banana and vanilla extract. Blend well.
Whisk flour, baking powder, and salt in a small bowl. Stir into egg mixture, blending to incorporate without overmixing. Grease a 6-cavity dessert shell pan. Pour 1/3 cup batter in each cavity. Using only half of the chocolate chips, sprinkle some into each cavity. Pour the remaining batter over chocolate chips, filling the cavities no more than 3/4 full. Top off with a sprinkling of the remainder chocolate chips. Bake for 10–13 minutes, checking at the 10-minute mark. Done when an inserted toothpick with a few specks of crumbs. Store in an airtight container. Serves 6.
Note: Best eaten the same day. If kept refrigerated or dries out, microwave each for about 15 seconds or until barely warm to soften before eating.
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Hi I found your post on Tasty Kitchen and loved the idea of Banana Chocolate Dessert Shells…but I am interested in what are the pans that you baked these in. Can you give me a link where to buy them? Lovely post….
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for visiting! The brand I have is Wilton, but any will do. Here is their direct link to the dessert shells. I got mine at Michael's (and used their 40% off coupon which you can print online). Let me know if you need any more help.
ReplyDeleteI LOVE these!!!! I like how you can use them for so many things and I REALLY like that they make 6... I wouldn't need to make any more than that, (and people who do can just double the recipe)- the pics are great also, thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteThanks Stephanie. And they are pretty good all by themselves too! :)
DeleteWhat a great idea, I'd like to put caramelized banana's in the shells with a hot fudge sauce perhaps. Thanks for linking up to Sweet and Savoury Sunday, stop by and link up again. Have a great day!!
ReplyDeleteNow that sounds amazing! Skip dinner...I'll just have dessert!!
ReplyDeleteI am looking for one with no banana or chocolate. My pans are individual shell pans and I am having so much trouble finding recipes for just spongecake shells. Can I simply leave out the banana mash and chocolate chips?
ReplyDeleteYou can try leaving out both the banana and chocolate chips. However, the banana provides moisture as well as flavor. Removing it would result in dryer cakes. I suggest adding a some sour cream, buttermilk, or milk to add back some moisture. I would also increase the vanilla to 1 1/2 teaspoon to add back flavor. I hope that helps! Good Luck!
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