…but not for long because then he ate it 😉 .
In case you haven’t managed to guess by the title, this post is somewhat Elvis based. I will freely admit that these delicious bites required a couple of incarnations both with their own merits, so I’ll give you both possibilities below since they’re both equally as easy to make. So many choices! I attempted the “more complicated” version of these first and Kevin and I had both initially thought that they were ok, but a bit of a fail, which was the whole reason that I dreamed up an attempt #2.
Let me start at the beginning however and tell you a tale the likes of which you have never seen (*Amber makes mystical hand gestures while saying “ooooohhhh”* Just imagine it, it’ll make the story more fun and interactive-seeming).
I was musing the other day about the whole chocolate-dipped potato chips things. It’s funny because I’ve had some that were good, and some that weren’t. It seems to me that the secret to a good chocolate dipped potato chip is achieving the appropriate ratio of chocolate to chips (not to be confused with just straight up chocolate chips, that’s clearly not what we’re discussing here 😉 ). Way too many places that make these put way too much chocolate coating to the point where you can’t taste the saltiness of the chip at all, so you basically just feel like you’re eating chocolate with a little bit of crunch in it. That’s all fine and good I guess, but not what I’m looking for if I’m expecting to actually taste the chip in question. But I digress. Mere moments after I was thinking about this, I also started thinking about petit fours (which are basically small, often bite-sized, confections). Then an Elvis song got stuck in my head. What did all things have to do with each other you ask? Nothing, until I started thinking that they should be combined together.
Chips? Check. Bananas? Check. Bacon flavour via liquid smoke? Check and double check (I love liquid smoke in case you can’t tell 🙂 ). Now I’ll be the first to admit that these are most definitely not the prettiest dessert I’ve ever made. Martha Stewart would punch me in the face if I tried serving these at high tea (although then she’d end up back in prison, you’d think she’d learned her lesson by now, but apparently I still have the skills to induce excessive amounts of rage in the hoity-toity world of the baking industry whereby she would consider my black eye completely worth an additional prison sentence. Who’s really learning a lesson in that situation? 😉 ). But that’s what everybody said about the ugly duckling too and we all know how that story ended up right? Ummm…or maybe I actually just made them ugly on purpose so that other people wouldn’t be tempted to eat them thus leaving more for me? Yes…that’s what happened here. Ugly on purpose, much like these dolls (you say ugly…actually they also say ugly seeing as they’re called ugly dolls, but I say adorable! Freakish and terrifying if they were living creatures walking around and staring me in the face in the middle of the night à la Chucky doll, but amazingly awesome in plush format).
Now doesn’t the interior of that at least look fancy? Somewhat? Also, please ignore my complete lazyness via chocolate smear on plate. A real fancy food blogger would’ve taken the time to cut this in half on a cutting board…or at at least wipe the plate before continuing with their photographs. Not this lady, that’s way too good and time consuming for me. That’s like, an extra two seconds of my life that I would never get back (although since I’m now spending even longer explaining it than it would’ve taken me to just do it properly, that’s a bit of a moot point, but I digress).
Back to the topic at hand, here’s how it went down:
Attempt #1 – Take three roundish rippled chips. On twoof the four chips, spread a thin layer of peanut butter, add a small dollop of jam and a small dollop of smoky banana frosting. Stack chips on top of each other. Freeze. Dip in chocolate. Consume.
This attempt was goodish when we first tried it, but we both thought that the smoke flavour was a bit too overpowering which, as I said, is what started me thinking about attempt #2. In reality though, I think I ended up liking this one the best (i.e. better than attempt #2) after it had a chance for the flavours to meld for a day. The smokyness mellowed perfectly and became a deliciously balanced mix with the banana. My lack of patience made me have a snap judgement on these ugly babies, so don’t make my same mistake if you make these!
Even once I realized they got better with age (much like the real Elvis perhaps? Although unlike the real Elvis, they unfortunately don’t expand in size over time 😉 ), I had already planned out doing the second version of these, so I decided to still make a second batch.
Attempt #2 saw me replacing the smoky banana frosting with a small slice of banana and a few coconut bacon chips. This was also quite tasty, and had a bit more texture too it which was nice. The banana flavour in this one is quite a bit stronger and the smoky flavour almost non-existant. So if that sounds more like your bag, then this option might be the way to go for you.
If these were outside, they would definitely be worth leaving the building for 😉 .
Yield: 2 dozen petit fours
Ingredients
- 1 bag of rippled plain potato chips (you’ll need about 75 roundish similar sized chips)
- 1/4 cup peanut butter
- 1/4 cup jam
Option 1:
- 1 banana, mashed
- liquid smoke (to taste)
- 1 cup icing sugar
- 1/4 cup vegan cream cheese
Option 2:
- 1 banana, very thinly sliced
- 1 package of coconut bacon (I used this brand, but you can use whatever you can find, or even make your own, there’s a million recipes out there)
Chocolate Coating:
- 2 cups chocolate chips
- 1 tablespoon coconut oil
Directions
- Line a baking sheet with wax paper.
- Remove 75 chips from your bag and group as similar sized ones as possible into stacks of 3.
- Option 1: Mash the banana with the bag of a fork  and combine in a small bowl with the liquid smoke, icing sugar and cream cheese. Blend until you have a smoky banana icing. On 1 chip, spread a layer of peanut butter, then put a dollop of jam, then a layer of smoky banana icing. Put another chip on top and repeat the process. Top with your third chip and place on baking sheet.
- Option 2: On 1 chip, spread a layer of peanut butter, then put a dollop of jam, lay on a few pieces of coconut bacon, then 1 banana slice. Put another chip on top and repeat the process. Top with your third chip and place on baking sheet.
- Continue until you’ve used up all your chips.
- Place baking sheet in the freezer for at least an hour.
- In a smallish microwave safe bowl, place chocolate chips and coconut oil and microwave for 1-2 minutes, or until smoothly melted.
- Remove potato chip stacks from the freezer and dip each in melted chocolate before placing back on your baking sheet.
- Return to fridge or freezer until chocolate has firmed up.
- Store in the refrigerator.
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