We Tried the Viral TikTok Banana Bark and We’re Absolutely Making It Again

With 58 million views on TikTok alone, frozen bananas have been taking the internet by storm. There’s thousands of recipes for chocolate peanut butter banana bites, banana “nice cream,” and tons and tons of Diana’s Bananas copycats. This “banana bark” originally created by Chanel Eats GF felt a little bit less fussy, so it caught our attention — and that of 250,000 others.

Banana, peanut butter, and chocolate is one of our favorite combos and apparently the better-for-you treat only takes ten minutes to make. Given we already had those ingredients in our pantry, we figured this one was a must-make.

Eager to find out if the viral banana bark lives up to the hype? Read on for our honest review and our tips, now that we’re self-proclaimed banana bark pro’s.

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How to make TikTok banana bark

Samantha Schwab / Clean Plates

While Chanel Eats GF is attributed as the original creator, we more closely followed a recipe by Eating Bird Food since it includes measurements. The nice thing about the TikTok banana bark is that you probably have most of the ingredients on-hand. According to both recipes, here’s what you’ll need:

• Bananas
• Peanut butter
• Chocolate
• Coconut oil
• Flaky sea salt
• Peanuts (optional)

Samantha Schwab / Clean Plates

Line a sheet tray with parchment paper. Slice the bananas in rounds and lay them out in a rectangle. In the original video, the creator used a glass to press the bananas down but this particular recipe by Eating Bird Food didn’t call for that, so we skipped it.

Drizzle the peanut butter atop the banana slices and spread evenly with the back of a spoon. If adding peanuts, sprinkle on top of the peanut butter at this point. Pop the baking sheet into the freezer for 20 minutes until the bananas are frozen and the peanut butter is set.

Melt the chocolate and coconut oil in a microwave-safe bowl in 30 second increments, mixing until fully melted. Drizzle on top of the peanut butter layer and use the back of a spoon to spread over the bark. Lastly, sprinkle with a generous pinch of flaky sea salt. Return back to the freezer and it’s ready to enjoy after about 20 minutes, or so.

Our honest review and pro tips

Samantha Schwab / Clean Plates

We found Eating Bird Food’s recipe really helpful as a guideline, but there are a few things we would change or do differently next time.

Slice the bananas thinner

Neither recipe shared how exactly thin they cut the bananas. It looked like they were in ¼” rounds, but we think we would have preferred ⅛” slices. With the larger chunks, the bananas had somewhat of an icy texture to them and it was a bit difficult to break the banana bark cleanly.

Strategically arrange the bananas

In the original video, Chanel Eats GF recommends smashing the bananas with a glass to fill in any gaps. Instead, we placed the bananas like penny rounds or stacked bricks to minimize gaps (see photo) versus aligning them side by side. This helped make a more even layer without having to add an extra step and clean another utensil.

Use more peanut butter

We thought the recipe could have used more peanut butter, so we ended up using about ⅓ cups. With just ¼ cup, it was hard to coat all of the bananas, and we definitely wanted peanut butter in each bite!

Don’t skip the peanuts

In the viral TikTok video, Chanel Eats GF added whole peanuts to the banana bark. Since Eating Bird Food’s recipe didn’t call for them, we added the peanuts to only half of the batch to do a taste-test. We were actually quite surprised by how much we enjoyed the version with whole peanuts.

Overall, this recipe was a winner in our book. It was quick to throw together and is a relatively healthy snack that will help us stay on track in the new year. 

Read next: I Tried TikTok’s Viral Blended Baked Oats and I’m Never Making Oatmeal Any Other Way