Salted Banana Date Popsicles – Dairy Free!

These salted banana date popsicles are a delightful warm weather treat, made without dairy and naturally sweetened. 

I love popsicles of the fruity variety, but this particular recipe is a spin off of a salted banana date shake that my sweetie and I have been in love with for at least the past year, and I had a feeling it would make just as good (if not better) of a popsicle.

I was right (I love it when that happens!)

These popsicles are:

• Delightfully creamy without any dairy! Coconut milk FTW
• Ever-so-slightly salty. Think of all the reasons you love salted caramel ice cream
• Naturally sweetened with dates and bananas
• Drizzled in dark chocolate and sprinkled with flaky sea salt and cacao nibs for some amazing texture and flavor additions
• SUPER EASY TO MAKE! Hip hip hooray for that one

But before I could share the amazing flavors and textures of this recipe with you I had to get the formula right.

After tweaking my recipe twice, and still encountering the same melty mess, I realized that the main issue when making these was the temperature of my freezer. So my first little bit of advice for making the perfect pop is to…

Check your freezer temp!

Such a simple fix and it will save you lots of time and popsicle heartache.

what is the right freezer temperature for making popsicles?

After researching this topic, there seems to be a bit of deviation on the correct answer to the over-arching question of freezer temperatures.

Most say that a freezer can be safely kept at around 5 degrees Fahrenheit (the temperature that my freezer was for my first two popsicle attempts), and that this is actually the best temperature for scooping ice creams, freezing fruit, and storing short term items in the freezer.

But the more long term food storage approach is to keep your freezer within the range of -10 – 0 degrees Fahrenheit.

So which advice should you take?

I think the correct answer depends on what it is you’re trying to freeze…

• -10 – 0 degrees Fahrenheit: This would be a great temperature range for a garage freezer, and would work best for freezing popsicles or anything that you want to freeze fast, and on the harder side. This is also an appropriate temperature range for anything that you plan to freeze for an extended period of time, as the lower temperature will help maintain the integrity of your frozen goods.
• 0 – 5 degrees Fahrenheit: This would be a great temperature range for the freezer in your refrigerator unit and probably better for your everyday freezing needs. Leaves you with scoop-able ice cream, frozen fruit that will blend more easily for smoothies, and food that will defrost a little faster when you’re dinner prepping. However if you don’t have two separate freezers, you may want to keep your kitchen freezer closer to the 0 degree Fahrenheit mark. You can also usually turn down your freezer temporarily if you know you’re going to be using it for a project where it needs to be colder, such as making popsicles.

I ended up freezing these popsicles at -8, which may be a little lower than you would need to freeze them at, but since I knew I would be photographing and handling them quite a bit I wanted to insure that they would stay intact for as long as possible.

After finishing this popsicle project I turned my freezer up to about -2 degrees Fahrenheit, for a more manageable ice cream situation (per my husbands request)

I would plan to have your freezer at 0 degrees or below for this recipe, otherwise you may not end up with a solid enough pop.

how to make these creamy homemade banana popsicles

THEY SO EASY! All it takes is a blender and these simple ingredients:

• Coconut cream
• Bananas
• Dates
• Vanilla extract
• Maple syrup
• Sea salt
• Water
• Dark chocolate for drizzling
• Cacao nibs (these are totally optional, but add a nice little extra crunch)

Once you have all of your ingredients collected, the process of making the salted banana date popsicle batter is quite simple.

It goes a little something like this:

1. Everything but the chocolate and half of the banana goes into the blender and is puréed until smooth and creamy.
2. The remaining banana slices are slipped into the popsicle molds, using a popsicle stick to press them into the sides of each mold.
3. The batter is poured into the molds and moved to the freezer (at 0 degrees or below!) for at least 5 hours but preferably overnight.
4. When the popsicles are ready, the chocolate is melted and held at the ready along with some flaky sea salt and cacao nibs.
5. The popsicles are removed from the molds and placed on a parchment lined cookie sheet that has been chilled in the freezer – they’re drizzled with chocolate, sprinkled with salt and cacao nibs.
6. Return to the freezer on a cookie sheet to let re-harden for about 10 minutes.
7. Ready to serve! Can be stored in a tupperware in the freezer until ready to eat.

Boo. Ya.

Easy-peasy, creamy salted banana date popsicles made like a BOSS.

Happy popsicle season, friends! May they keep you cool and content throughout the warmer months.

Did you make this recipe? I would love to know how it turned out for you! when you rate my recipes and leave feedback it helps me continue to improve. you can leave me a comment below, or snap a picture and post it to instagram with the tag @nyssaskitchen or hashtag #nyssaskitchen! xo

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