17 Recipes That Demonstrate Why Bananas Make the Best Desserts

This Sunday, I am told by Ariel, our keeper of all food holidays large and small, is National Banana Cream Pie Day. Will you be taking this excuse to dig into a cloud of banana pudding and whipped cream? Maybe banana cream pie isn’t your thing, but you are up for some Nutella banana bread, a caramel banana cake, or chocolate-covered frozen bananas.

From unexpectedly light treats to decadent cakes, bananas make some of the best desserts. Here are 17 recipes that prove it.

• Magic One-Ingredient Ice Cream 5 Ways — Peanut Butter, Nutella, and More – Turn bananas (just bananas!) into creamy soft-serve ice cream. A classic trick of a treat, and once you’ve mastered the basics you can tart it up with other goodies too.
• 3-Ingredient Banana Pudding from Stupid Easy Paleo. Another short and sweet ingredient list for a fun treat.
• Bananas: The New Buttercream – We show you how to turn bananas into a lighter, fresher frosting for any cupcake or cake.
• Double-Dipped Chocolate-Covered Frozen Bananas at Keepin’ It Kind. – Bananas, dipped in chocolate. Frozen. With nuts (or sprinkles). Sign us up!
• 3-Ingredient Chocolate Banana Pops by Alice Currah for PBS Kitchen Explorers – Just a great easy treat. Coconut milk, cocoa, bananas.

• Caramel Banana Cake – When we want to really go bananas, this is where we go. (My dad’s favorite birthday cake!)
• Honey-Roasted Peanut Butter Banana Cream Pie (No Bake!) at Love & Olive Oil – Now this is the kind of banana cream pie we can get behind.
• Bananas Foster Cookie Pizza at Simply Gloria – Cookies AND bananas. Yes.
• No-Bake Banana Cheesecakes at How Sweet Eats – Sensing a no-bake theme? Bananas’ creaminess seems especially well-suited to puddings and cheesecakes, like this scrumptious recipe.
• Tropical Banana Pudding at DesignSponge – A recipe I wrote for a guest column at DesignSponge. Coconut and banana in a classic Southern no-bake banana pudding. So good!
• Banana Monkey Bread at Pinch of Yum – We really love our monkey bread around here. Why not work a little bit of banana into your brunch?
• Banana Pudding Ice Cream Pie – Go one step further with your banana pie and combine it with ice cream.

• Nutella Swirl Banana Bread at Roxana’s Home Baking – Why settle for plain banana bread when you can add NUTELLA?
• S’mores Banana Bread at Sally’s Baking Addiction – All right, now we’re getting really crazy. Marshmallows on banana bread!
• Banana Bread French Toast with Strawberry Sauce & Honey Whipped Cream at Bakers Royale – And once you’ve had your banana bread, turn into into French toast, like with this awesome breakfast treat.

All right. Is that too much banana goodness to handle? Did we leave any of your favorite banana desserts off the list?