Chocolate-Dipped Banana Bread Truffles

Using a bread knife, cut off the outer edges of the banana bread and discard. Just cut thin slivers off the sides that baked against the loaf pan. Do this since the dark crust is difficult to break apart.

Using your fingers or a fork, crumble the banana bread into very small pieces in a medium mixing bowl. Add cream cheese to the bowl and, using a fork, mash the banana bread crumbs and cream cheese into a creamy, uniform consistency.

Using your hands, roll the banana bread/cream cheese mixture into even balls that are 1-2 inches in diameter. This should produce about 60 balls, but there is no need to be precise here. Feel free to make them larger or smaller if you prefer. Place the balls on a wax-paper-lined baking sheet and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes, but as long as overnight.

Melt 7 ounces of the chocolate in a double-boiler or in the microwave (stopping every 10 seconds to stir the chocolate so that it does not overheat and dry out). Roughly chop 2 ounces of the remaining chocolate into small pieces. Add the chopped chocolate to the melted chocolate and stir well to combine. The chopped chocolate should melt and it should all become shiny and smooth. (If it doesn’t all melt, heat it just a bit longer until it does.)

Dip each of the chilled banana bread balls in the melted chocolate and gently lift the ball between two forks to allow excess chocolate to drip back into the bowl. Return the chocolate-dipped ball to the wax paper. Repeat until all of the balls are coated.

Using the 1 ounce of reserved chocolate gently grate a few shavings over each truffle before the chocolate hardens. Allow the truffles to cool at room temperature until firm. Refrigerate up to 3 days.