Fried Banana Tempura Dessert Recipe

Fried banana tempura bites are a crispy Asian dessert idea that is sweet and cheap. Use homemade tempura batter and fruit to dip. Bite size finger food treats that is family friendly.

Tempura Banana

This style of cooking is a popular Japanese method of coating food. Creating battered deep-fried seafood and vegetables, it has now gone beyond that with Tempura Chicken Nuggets and beyond. This time we are using it to make dessert though!!

It’s known for its light and crispy texture and is often served with a dipping sauce or eaten as a topping for udon or soba noodles. The great thing about this is that you can not only use it for your main dish, side dishes like tempura zucchini chips, but now something after the meal too.

Fried Bananas

There are a few methods to make the batter you can find. I do have a 3 ingredient tempura batter that is simple but not quite as light as if you used rice flour with all purpose. Most have these in their cupboards though so you wouldn’t have to buy anything. For that one you would need;

• 4 egg whites
• 2 c all purpose flour
• 1 1/3 c water ice cold

For the one below we used something a bit different, as well as rolling them in Panko when coated to get a really crispy crunchy outside. If you wanted to try both I would to see which is your favorite. In this case we used;

• 1/2 c rice flour
• 1/2 c all purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 c water cold

As far as the insides go, many different sweet produce items would work. In this case you want your nanners to be yellow and firm. This would not be a good overripe bananas recipe as it would fall apart and become mush.

Dessert Tempura

Start with choosing ripe bananas that have no brown spots this go around. Yes with baking banana bread you would want them very soft. In this case, deep fried bananas need to have the coating stick well and pick up with a fork without falling apart.

Other fruits you could coat and try this way might be others that start out firm like; strawberries, firm peach slices, pears, super fresh blueberries might be fun, and next time I am going to try a few blackberries!

• Peel the bananas and cut them into slices or strips.
• Mix all the dry ingredients in a bowl, add cold water and stir until the batter reaches a thick consistency.
• If the batter is too runny, add a little flour.
• Heat the oil to 350 F. Dip each piece of banana into the batter.
• Dredge the banana slices in the panko, poured on to a plate or bowl, until completely coated.
• Fry bananas in hot oil for 3-4 minutes until they turn golden or orange.
• After this, transfer the tempura bananas to napkins to absorb excess oil.
• Serve with powdered sugar, sweetened shredded coconut, a mixture of cinnamon and sugar is great or this is How to Make Caramel with Condensed Milk.

These make a fun ice cream topping too!! Adds a bit of texture with a squirt of sweetness when bit into. Drizzle with maple syrup if you like, or use caramel sundae topping as a dip for caramelized bananas instead. Printable recipe card is at the bottom for the basic step by step instructions but when done the combinations are endless.

Tempura Fruit

Let’s talk about storing leftovers when it has a crunchy outside like this. First off I will say that it won’t save fantastic and ideally you would enjoy fresh. Keeping on the counter for a bit later works, and warming up for 1 minute in the air fryer is effective same day.

If you just have to save beyond that time just realize that the texture will change and you can’t fix it well. For best results, store in an airtight container with parchment paper in between layers. Keep in the fridge for up to 1 day and preheat air fryer to 400 for 5 minutes to reheat. 1 minute will do it to just get the ick off.

Or you can use it as a topping once crisped that way to mask the change. Like make a batch of our Banana Pudding Cake next day, crisp those, crumble and serve that on top of this with some vanilla ice cream underneath. Think outside of the box when you are repurposing a recipe into something new. 😉 You never know what you’ll come up with that you now love.