Day 175: Banana Peanut Butter Chocolate Sandwiches

Ok, this was a recipe just BEGGING for a 3 and 4 year old to tackle!  It was absolutely perfect for them.   One of my friends posted this "recipe" on FB today, and I decided, then and there, that we HAD to try them IMMEDIATELY.  This could have also been an ad for Pampered Chef too haha!

We opened 3 bananas, grabbed a cookie sheet, some parchment paper, my favorite PC nylon knife and my big PC cutting board.  We started by lining a cookie sheet with parchment paper, then Iris cut the bananas into about 1/2 inch slices- give or take- with the nylon knife... and as an added bonus, no worry of her cutting a finger off!

Once the bananas were sliced, I smeared a small amount of Chocolate PB (I bought crunchy pb by accident and the only smooth we had was dark chocolate- but really, am i going to complain??? haha) and Iris topped them with the another banana slice.  Once all the sandwiches were made, then Penny helped us put a tooth pick in the center of each sandwich so that once they were frozen for an hour, we could easily dip them in melted chocolate.

A note on melting chocolate:
Something has changed with Toll House recently.  I have used Toll House my ENTIRE life, i love the way it tastes, and that is what I was raised on.  Store Brand pieces just don't cut it here (i am really really picky about what chocolate I like anyway).  I mention this only because I have used Toll House for making buckeyes for YEARS.  I have NEVER had a problem with it turning into a brick as soon as it melts, however, the last two times i have melted chocolate (2 separate bags too) I have had a problem with it turning into a brick, sort of like this:

Today, as I was annoyed and getting ready to throw it out, I saw on the bag that it says "add 1T shortening for each C of chips" well, i figured, it was shot anyway, what harm could it do at that point?  I added the shortening and it melted PERFECTLY!  it was smooth and covered well.  About 2/3 of the way through the process, i had to add about 1t shortening more, it started clumping up on me.  I don't know if Toll House has always recommended this, but I have never had to do this before and I have never had a problem with it turning into a clumped up brick of semi-melted chocolate before the last 2 bags of chocolate chips.

After we got them dipped in the chocolate, we put them back in the freezer again for about an hour.  I am just storing them in a Glad container in the freezer.  I don't think they are going to last TOO long.  Next time, i'm going to make them with dark chocolate chips, i think they would be better that way!

Well, here is the finished product... and I can tell you from experience, DELICIOUS!!!!

(the toothpicks didn't want to come out of a few of them)