Coconut Banana Fritters Recipe

These coconut banana fritters, as recipe developer Jessica Morone tells us, "are kind of like banana donuts or banana zeppole," and you could also compare them to banana beignets. Even if you're not a banana superfan, you may still enjoy them. "The banana flavor is not too intense," says Morone. "The coconut gives them a nice bit of added texture and flavor." In fact, she actually doubles down on the coconut flavor because the batter doesn't only include shredded coconut but is also made with coconut milk.

While Morone says that she "always thinks of fried foods as more of a summer at a fair kind of thing," these coconut banana fritters also "have some tropical flavors." It's so quick and easy to cook up a batch of these that you may wish to add them to your year-round repertoire. As Morone points out, what with all of the ingredients being readily available, "You can really make these anytime."

The two main ingredients for flavoring these fritters are those names in the title: coconut (the sweetened, shredded kind) and bananas (slightly overripe ones). Additional ingredients include flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, eggs, brown sugar, and coconut milk. You'll also need a fair amount of oil for deep frying the fritters. Morone says, "I used vegetable oil for frying, but any neutral oil that can withstand high heat — like vegetable, canola, or peanut oil — is good for frying."

Add 1–2 inches of oil to a Dutch oven or heavy-bottomed pot. Heat on medium-high until it reaches 360–375 F.

While the oil heats, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, ground cinnamon, and shredded coconut in a medium bowl until combined.

In a separate, large bowl, beat together the mashed bananas, eggs, brown sugar, and coconut milk until smooth.

Add the flour mixture to the bowl with the wet ingredients and mix until just combined.

Once the oil is hot enough, use a large cookie scoop to drop 4–5 scoops of batter into the hot oil.

Cook, turning as necessary, until the fritters are golden brown, about 3–4 minutes

Remove the fritters with a slotted spoon to a paper towel–lined plate. Continue in batches of 4–5 fritters until all the fritters are cooked.

Let fritters cool for about 5 minutes, then top with powdered sugar or cinnamon sugar, if desired. Serve warm.

When you see the term "overripe bananas" used in a recipe such as this one, you might be wondering, just how ripe is enough, and how much is too much? While the bananas in the photo here are mostly yellow with just a few spots, Morone does say that you can use bananas that "have brown spots all over them and [are] quite soft." She says, "Even completely brown bananas can still be used in this kind of recipe," adding the caveat that "you don't want them to be so old that they smell weird and have gone bad," since bananas that have passed this point are too ripe even for banana bread.

If your bananas are firm and yellow, however, Morone says that they can still be used, although they might be a tad less sweet than the riper ones. "If your bananas are a bit green still," she adds, "then those won't be ripe enough for this." Still, you can speed along the ripening process with a tip she's helpfully supplied: "Put them on a baking sheet in the oven at 300 degrees F for about 15 minutes until the skins are black," she says. "That will make them perfectly soft for this recipe."

As is the case with many types of deep-fried foods, Morone cautions that these coconut banana fritters "are best eaten the day they are fried." If you're unable to consume a full dozen of these fritters in just a single day, though, there's no need to go out in the street and start distributing the surplus to random passersby. Instead, the fritters can be refrigerated for two days and can also be frozen.

Should you choose to chill your uneaten coconut banana fritters, Morone's best advice is to wrap them in aluminum foil and then bake them in a 350 F oven for 10 minutes or so to warm them back up. She does point out, though, that, "You can also cut the recipe down to make less fritters if you don't think you'll be able to eat them all in a couple of days."