Oven Baked Chocolate Banana Boats!

Well, there's only a breath of summer left! Late summer and early autumn always bring back memories of one thing for me...

CAMPING.

When I was younger, my family used to gather throughout the summer to have campouts. This lil' pic is of my cousins and I playing in a lake. (It's a funny story, but I use this picture all the freaking time and tell that story all the time, so I imagine you've all already heard it. If not, let me know and I'll by all means tell you again.)

I also would go to camp and on retreats with my youth group. And, I was a girl scout from kindergarten to senior year. We went camping all year round and I have a ton of fond memories with them, as well.

So anyway, the point is... camping.

I love camping. But also I hate it. It's outdoors and usually hot. There are bugs in the showers and toilets, or, even worse, there are no showers or toilets at all. Fires are fun, but the smoke constantly blowing into your face is less so. You get eaten by mosquitos and someone gets poison ivy and if it rains there's a 98% you, your sleeping bag, and all your clothes are getting soaked tent be damned. So, at two in the morning, when rain is beating down and cold water is seeping through the walls, and the campsite cats have crawled between your tent and the rain fly and they're screeching because they are so displeased, and you start to wonder: is this really worth it? I just wanted to hang out with some friends and eat melted chocolate.

So, I like to do a lot of "campy" things in the comfort of my own home. Earlier, I provided you with a fabulous oven baked s'mores recipe, and today, I'm going to show you how to make another campfire dessert in an oven. This time... banana boats.

Banana Boats are a delicious campfire food. Usually, you slice a banana down the middle, stuff it with chocolate and marshmallows, wrap it aluminum foil, and toss it on the fire for a bit. My recipe is going to differ a bit, in ingredients as well as in cooking mechanisms.

This recipe calls for three simple ingredients: bananas, dark chocolate chips, and creamy peanut butter. You'll also need an oven (Or a fire if you're actually camping/if you're a pyromaniac. Whatever I don't judge. Just kidding! Don't play with fire, kids), a knife, and aluminum foil. 

Start with the aluminum foil shiny side down, and put the banana on top of it. Make one slice down the length of the banana, and then several shorter slices cutting across the long line. You want the perpendicular cuts to be shorter than the width of the banana, and shallower than the first slice.

Spread peanut butter inside the banana, completely coating the insides of the banana.

Stuff the banana with dark chocolate chips. As many as you can fit. Melty chocolate for the win!

Now, wrap up the banana (shiny side out) and set it in the oven. You can just straight up sit in the oven, you don't need a pan or anything. I set my oven at 350* Fahrenheit. If you're using a campfire, you can totally just set the thing in the fire, but you want it to be kind of to the side. Like, don't just throw it in the thralls of the fire. That's just common sense, yo.

The amount of time you want to leave your banana boat in the oven totally depends on your oven, but I think somewhere in the 5-10 minute range is probably your best bet. I went with seven minutes. 

Then, take your delicious mess out of the oven and enjoy. Seriously. It's super good but super messy. Enjoy!