Bomb Pop Banana Fudge Recipe

The Banana Fudge Bomb Pop is a frozen dairy pop in three bands: chocolate fudge at the tip, banana in the middle, fudge again at the base. To make eight at home, cook a cocoa fudge mixture from milk, sugar, cocoa and cornstarch, blend two ripe bananas with milk, and freeze them in the moulds one layer at a time.

What the Banana Fudge Bomb Pop is

Bomb Pop's product page shows the pop in the brand's ridged rocket shape, with a brown band at the tip, a yellow band in the middle and a brown band at the base. It is listed as a single 4.5-ounce pop and in a 12-count box. Three of the small pops from the box, 131 grams, have 190 calories by the nutrition panel on that page.

The ingredient list starts with skim milk, sugar, whey, milk and corn syrup and includes cocoa but no banana: the banana is a flavouring, coloured with turmeric and annatto. The maker is Wells Enterprises in Le Mars, Iowa. The Bomb Pop itself dates from 1955, when it was invented in Kansas City, Missouri, as an ice pop in cherry, lime and blue raspberry.

This recipe uses real bananas, so its middle band is cream-coloured, not yellow. One pop comes to about 115 calories by USDA figures. MakeFoodLovely is not connected with Bomb Pop or Wells Enterprises.

Recipe

Banana Fudge Pops

A homemade version of the Banana Fudge Bomb Pop — a cooked cocoa fudge layer and a fresh banana layer, frozen in three bands. Eight 3-ounce pops.

5.0 (1)Print

Prep

20 min

Cook

5 min

Total

5 hr 55 min

Serves

8

Cuisine

American

Ingredients

• For the fudge layers:
• 1 1/4 cups whole milk
• 1/3 cup granulated sugar
• 3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 tablespoon cornstarch
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• For the banana layer:
• 2 medium ripe bananas (about 8 ounces peeled)
• 2/3 cup whole milk
• 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice

Instructions

1. Whisk the 1/3 cup of sugar, the cocoa, the cornstarch and the salt in a small saucepan. Whisk in the 1 1/4 cups of milk a little at a time, until smooth.
2. Bring to a boil over medium heat, whisking all the time, and boil for 1 minute, until the mixture coats a spoon. Take it off the heat, stir in the vanilla and let it cool for 15 minutes, stirring now and then.
3. Spoon a scant 1 1/2 tablespoons of the fudge mixture into each of eight 3-ounce ice pop moulds. Freeze for 45 minutes, until firm on top. Keep the rest of the fudge at room temperature.
4. Blend the bananas, the 2/3 cup of milk, the 2 tablespoons of sugar and the lemon juice until completely smooth. Pour about 3 tablespoons into each mould, insert the sticks and freeze for 45 minutes.
5. Stir the remaining fudge, spoon it over the banana layer to fill the moulds and freeze for at least 4 hours, until solid.
6. Dip each mould in warm water for 10 seconds and pull the pop out.

Nutrition

Calories:

115

Calculated from the ingredient quantities above using the USDA FoodData Central database, then divided by the number of servings. It is an estimate and will vary with the exact products you use.

Why the fudge is cooked

Cornstarch thickens the fudge mixture when it boils, and a thickened mixture freezes smooth and a little chewy, where plain chocolate milk freezes into hard ice. The minute of boiling also dissolves the cocoa and the sugar completely.

Three clean bands

• Each layer firm before the next. After 45 minutes the surface carries the next layer. Poured onto a soft layer, the two mixtures run into each other.
• The fudge waits at room temperature. In the refrigerator it sets like pudding and has to be whisked loose.
• Sticks go in with the banana layer. The purée is thick enough to hold a stick upright, and the frozen fudge below stops it at the right depth.

Ripe bananas, and a yellow band

Bananas with brown spots are sweet enough that two tablespoons of sugar are all the layer needs. Green-tipped bananas taste starchy when frozen. The lemon juice keeps the purée from turning grey in the freezer.

For a yellow band like the one on the box, stir a pinch of ground turmeric into the banana mixture. Turmeric is one of the two colours the label names.

Without moulds

Small paper cups work: fill them the same way, cover each with foil after the banana layer and push the stick through the foil. In a closed bag, the pops keep a month in the freezer.

The same two flavours as a scoopable ice cream are in the Blue Bell banana fudge copy. For a banana drink, see the banana smoothie.

Other frozen treats on this site are the Cookie Monster ice cream and the Crunchin' Cookie dipped cone.