Correcting The World's Wrongs With Campfire Bananas
"What are you doing?" my husband asked. He was staring at me as if I had eighteen heads, each with 20 piercings and Mike Tyson-esque tattoos.
"Making Campfire Bananas," I said. In my head, his question was quite possibly the dumbest one I had ever heard him ask.
"What are those?" he asked.
::blink::blink::blink::
::blinkblinkblinkblinkblink::
"Are you serious?" I asked.
"Yeah, what are they?" he responded.
"You are a victim of child abuse," I told him in a bewildered tone.
I turned to Twitter to report this crime against humanity. AND OH MY GAWD. People. PEOPLE! How are so many people oblivious to wonder and majesty that is Campfire Bananas? I weep for the childhood memories you don't have. WEEP.
My memories of Campfire Bananas are wrapped in Girl Scout camp and fires by the lake and all sorts of . . . . hell, who really cares? We're talking about bananas, chocolate, and marshmallows here. The details are pointless.
Anyway, let me share with you how joy can be packaged in a banana peel.
Campfire Bananas
You'll need some bananas, chocolate chips, marshmallows, and I am a fan of throwing some peanut butter into the mix as well. Of course, Nutella could also be thrown in there, but only if you are awesome enough to understand the majesty of Nutella.
Peel one strip from the banana and then cut a groove in the banana, kind of like how the Sandwich Artists at Subway used to cut the bread "boat style."
Stuff that strip full of good stuff.
Put the peel back in place. (You can eat the little bit of banana that you cut out--I won't tell anyone.)
Wrap it in foil.
Throw the banana in your fire pit, fireplace, fire bowl, or whatever form of pyromania you participate in. Hot coals work better than actual flame-age.
Let it sit on the fire long enough for the chocolate chips to melt. How long it will take depends on how hot your fire is.
Once it's done, unwrap it, pull the peel all the way off, and eat.
A whole herd of neighborhood kids declared them, "Soooooooo nuuummmmmy!" Best part, now they won't grow up deprived like anyone who has never had a Campfire Banana.
Recipe
Reader Comments (111)
Sadly I was making them and my boyfriend had never heard of them before either.
At camp we always called these Banana Boats. If you called them Campfire Banana's to me I wouldn't know what you meant at first. But at least I do know what they are. Delicious.
banana boats!
We called these "banana boats: when I was a kid. Most awesome
I love those! Definitely learned that trick in Girl Scouts as well. And, my husband had never heard of them either (although, he doesn't like bananas, so I get them all to myself).
These look delicious! But for those of us who weren't in Girl Scouts and had no friends who were in Girl Scouts, it seems pretty natural that we would have never heard of them.
We always called these "Banana Boats" - delicious!
Banana Boats - a summer staple at girl scout camp - but my favorite was mock angel food cake - french bread, dipped in sweetened condensed milk and then dipped in coconut flakes, put it on a stick and toast it over the open flames -----delish!!!!!
Just a thought that I've not tried, but instead of the foil why not use the banana skin itself. A couple of wire twist ties might do.
Banana boats! Those are amazing and the best part of camping. Warm, gooey, chocolatey banana. Yummm.
We make them by just cutting a slit in the banana, end to end, it works the same and a lot less work. You have to kind of squish the ends towards eachother to widen the boat. Don't cut all the way to the bottom peel, but cut fairly far down. Mini marshmallows and Jersey Milk, Dairy Milk(plain) or Caramilk are the best.
Ok, I read a few paragraphs and then all of a sudden I was pretty annoyed by the implication that EVERYONE normal has done this. Quite frankly I've never heard of this, it looks gross, and FUCK you for insinuating that somehow people haven't LIVED if they haven't eaten your gross fattening bullshit snack. Go fuck yourself.
Geoff, I think your day would be much improved if you had a campfire banana. Maybe then you wouldn't be so angry.
These were called Banana Boats in my ancient day. Do you know what IOAPF is? I thought not...
Caramel would be an excellent addition to this!! NOM!
not only am I jealous of your delicious camp fire creations, but i REALLY wish i were able to instill such anger in people -- over bananas. teach me your ways oh wise one.
You weep for us who have not had those?!?! I'm sure there are dozens of such treats you have never heard of, so in this I say...I weep for you.
Did that at Scouts a few times. Very nice way to round off a burnt burger and a singed spud. NOTE: does not work with pineapples. Really, people, do not even attempt it with pineapple. What was I thinking?
We call them banana boats : ) They are the most delicious thing!!
I grew up in Camp Fire, and we called these Banana Boats. Still a favorite back at camp. :)
Methinks that Geoff and Sara must be related...
Oh, bringing back such memories of Girl Scouts! I never knew they had a name ^_~
But I cannot wait to make these again. Amazingly good, and I have pity for those who have spent their lives till now without the joy of Campfire Bananas.
Hey, I live in Iceland and we have these here :)
But we don't cut anything out, we just make a cut, deep enough to go through half the banana and then push everything in the groove, wrap it up in foil and volá!
I'm glad you posted this on the interwebs so more people can enjoy this sinful goodness :)
This idea is amazing, I gotta try this on the weekends with my kids. And I think im going to add chocolate syrup in it to give it more flavor.
We used to make them in Girl Guides as kids! We called them Banana Boats!
we call them banana boats. They are so good.
I was a Girl Scout and I remember eating these when we went on camping trips! These are soo good! We didn't call them campfire bananas we called them banana boats, i assume from scooping out the bananas and them looking like boats. Thank you for posting this! I don't know many people who know what these are!
Sometime I missed these so much I would just load up the toppings on a banana and put it in the toasted oven until all melty delicious.
these are the BEST! they remind me of summer camp :)
I'll be laughing when you non-vegans are getting what you deserve.
Our family always called them "banana boats." Yum!
Oh, Banana Boats! I LOVE these things. Amazes me how many people don't know about them P:
Theres a grown up version of these for people who don't like things so sticky sweet.
Cut the banana in half lengthways. Drizzle half a teaspoon of honey over the open banana, then a teaspoon of white rum. Place on the grill, or direct on the coals, skin side down. When the skin turns brown and comes away from the flesh of the banana, they are ready to eat. This is also good with nutella instead of honey.
Girls Scouts are great! I made these as a camp counselor for the first time a few years ago, and since then they have been put on my list of favorite camp desserts. I believe we called them banana boats... yum
You just made my weekend. Seriously, you did. I used to make these at Girl Guide camp and had forgotten all about them... and now, this coming weekend at the cottage, these are gonna replace any fancy (and expensive..) desserts I had planned. Fabulous! I seem to remember those Skor bar bit things working really well in them, as did squishing a chunk of the delicious melted banana-chocolate-marshmallow goodness between two graham crackers. A Banana S'More if you will.
Also, we used to like to put the "lids" (the parts we cut out) all together into one wrapper and sprinkle them with more chocolate, marshmallows etc. That way there was always an extra one!
These were the greatest part of camping as a girl scout. I remember doing my Silver Award teaching camping skills to Daisies...and these were top of the list to pass on to them! So easy, delicious, and nutritious (sort of...)!
We called these "banana boats" :)
I was never a girl scout, but I had plenty of these around campfires growing up... I hadn't thought about them in forever!
PS - We used to fill the empty banana peels with more of the goodies and just have the gooey melted goodies after the banana was gone!
BANANA BOATS. we made these at camp. LOVE.
rick--- you eat it. what else would you do? haha
Looks delish! The kids will love it and so will the adults too!!! I will use on next campout for sure, thanks Kathy.
you can do the same thing kind of with an apple, they are great will cinnamon brown sugar and butter. deliciouso
I've had them, but we always called them "Banana Boats" because of the boat-style cut and because they look very boat-like when wrapped in the foil. SO GOOD~
I'm 24 and was in GS for 6 years. They never did these.
I have had them though because my Great Grandma was a wondrous woman who knew everything. She never named them though.
Question. When were the people who had these as GSs scouts? Maybe a small group of leaders dropped the ball one year so that everyone after that was deprived?
BTW, Grandma liked to use M&Ms or PB M&Ms. If I was really lucky she let me use a mix of those and the almond ones. That way you get little blisters of candy coated melted goodness that pop.
oh my lanta BEST IDEA EVERRRRR. I cannot wait until our labor day camping trip when these puppies are getting made!
i remember these but we uuse to call them banana boats
Genius! They're the smores your can have for breakfast!!
BANANA BOATS!!!! After spending years putting them on the fire for girls, I finally tried them this summer - an amazing experience. Just make sure not to leave them on too long, they're best when the banana isn't completely mush :-)
what??!!!! how have i never heard of this??!!!!!!! travesty, i say!!!!!
YAY BANANA BOATS
at camp, we call them banana boats lol