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
would you happen to know the carb. count on one? being diabetic I have to watch fruit and such…but it sounds so good and refreshing on a HOT summer day!
I don’t Rita but you can google a nutritional analysis chart, there are a lot of sites out there that will break a recipe down for you.
Thanks for sharing this special recipe with us. With the temperature rising outside I’m thinking I want to make it! I’ve tried a couple of versions of this in the past. One used cherry pie filling instead of cranberry and it was good. One had nuts in it and I wasn’t crazy about that. I’m excited to try this one!!!
i hope you get the chance to try it soon Chrissy!!
Love any kind of dessert like this. Some even that are not frozen. But love the idea of having a bag of these in the freezer for a drop in guest. Christy, you rock girl, your tractor cranks on the first try. Thank you for posting such great recipes, and ideas. You are the bright light in our days. Will be making a bag full of this for sure.
Thank you so much Trixie, you are too sweet!! I hope you enjoy them, can’t wait to hear what you think!!
Wish I had seen this sooner. I made a frozen salad for my bible Study Class tomorrow. It is sitting in freezer “chillin”. I had to look everywhere for recipe and found a few online so I just combined them. Ended up using sour cherries, mandarin oranges, pineapple, Cool Whip, sweetened condensed milk, cream cheese, a few nuts, and who knows what else. Just combined the few recipes I found and put in muffin tins. Who knows if it will freeze, how it will taste, or even if it will be worth eating. But I tried. Yours is so simple and you know it works. Wonder why frozen salad disappeared from summer tables???
I have wondered the same thing Dianne! I hope yours turns out ok!!
What is the dollop on top for serving? Looks good.
Hi Mary, it is just whipped topping.
Christy, I can’t wait to try this recipe. I’ve never had anything like this. It sounds like a perfect cool, refreshing treat on a summer’s day made even better cause I can store in the freezer.
I hope you will give them a try Patty, they are the perfect summer treat!!
Oh Christie! These sound DIVINE! The only problem is that I am terribly allergic to pineapple! Is there something else I can use instead? I DEARLY want to make these! But I just don’t know what to do about the pineapple. Can you possibly find the time at some point to give me an idea? Darlin’ I know you’re busy as a cat in a catnip patch but I would appreciate it OH SO MUCH! Thank you for all you do. Your stories delight me and brighten up my whole day. You are a delight in yourself and sweeter than any recipe you ever set down for us.
Hey! You could just leave the pineapple out and they’ll be fine. I hope you get to make them soon and that you so much for being so good to me!! OH my, you have just made my heart feel so good.