Frozen Cranberry Banana Salads
Today I’m sharing a recipe that is the darling of Southern Tea Rooms… Frozen Cranberry Salad with Banana. It’s Creamy, fruity, light tasting and just the right size for serving.
In the south, our tea rooms have a relaxed and bright atmosphere. They are filled with smiling ladies gathered together for a special treat of girl time – away from kids, husbands and demands of home. Plates are filled with an assortment of salads: potato, vegetable, pea, macaroni, and chicken or ham usually served inside a fresh buttery croissant. Tea is still drank over ice, served in special stemmed “iced tea” glasses. *Note: We don’t say “drunk” but “drank”. Both are grammatically acceptable but where I’m from the latter denotes being a little loopy with liquor.
While the salads vary by tearoom, I have personally never been to one which did not serve a frozen cranberry salad such as this. Creamy, fruity, light tasting and just the right size when prepared in a little muffin paper, this is the quintessential tearoom must have and a very special treat to enjoy at home.
This recipe came from my husband’s grandmother, Granny Jordan. She was the embodiment of everything a southern lady should be. Anytime guests happened by, she was always prepared with a warm welcome and plenty of southern hospitality thanks to these little delights.
Once you make them, simply remove the muffin papers from your tins, pop them into Ziploc freezer bags and have an instant company worthy dessert or special treat for yourself anytime!
As always, the entire recipe is at the bottom of the page. You will need sour cream, sugar, whipped topping, crushed pineapple, two cans of whole berry cranberry sauce, and four bananas. *You can use light cool whip, light sour cream, and even a different sweetener if you prefer.
Drain pineapple and mash bananas with a fork. Place all ingredients in a large mixing bowl and stir until fully combined and incorporated. (Hint: I use my potato masher or a fork to help break up the cranberry sauce.)
Line a muffin tin with muffin papers.
Divide the mixture evenly among the muffin papers and freeze, uncovered, until fully frozen.
Remove frozen salads from muffin tin and place in zipper seal bag and return to the freezer. This recipe usually makes about two dozen but it depends on how much you put into each muffin paper.
Enjoy having this wonderful little treat on hand whenever the your taste buds want one!
Ingredients
- 1 lg can 20 oz well drained crushed pineapple
- 16 ounces sour cream
- 1- 9 ounce cool whip
- 4 mashed bananas
- ½ cup sugar
- 1 cup nuts optional, I don't use them
- 2 cans whole cranberry sauce make sure you get whole
Instructions
- Mix all ingredients well and spoon into cupcake papers placed in a muffin pan. Freeze. When frozen, remove from muffin pan and place in Ziploc bag.
Nutrition
Grandmothers always have time to talk and make you feel special.
~ Catherine Pulsifer
Opps! left out the sugar — it wasn’t missed. – delishous and refeshing.
Christy – do you think you could use cherries (like cherry pie filling)?
Thank you – Judy
You spoke about Tea Rooms in the South. If you want to go to a first class one visit Laura’s Tea Room in Ridgeway, SC. Ridgeway is just north of Columbia. I cute little town with some nice small locally owned shops.
Sounds yummy…and refreshing. Can’t wait to try this. Thank you for sharing.
I prepared this for Thanksgiving and it is delish. We are big eaters and I usually have to double the recipe. Not with this – it makes a bunch! I froze it in a large dish instead of muffin papers & packed it in a cooler for transporting. It worked great and the leftovers are wonderful with a turkey sandwich!
Christy, is there a worry about the banans turning black when frozen? Every time I use bananas for anything like this, they turn black. I put lemon juice on them before hand, but I hate the bananas tasting like lemon. Any suggestions concerning bananas turning black???
I’m eating one I made two weeks ago right now and the bananas are still their original color and gooood!
Do you think instead of putting them in muffin papers maybe you could put it in a 9×13 pan and just freeze like that ?