Frozen Cranberry Banana Salads
(Originally posted July 10, 2008. Please see letter at bottom)
Tea rooms in the south are a far cry from formalized locales where you sit up straight, sip hot tea, and nibble on a scone. 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.
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. Practically 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. I used light cool whip and light sour cream but you can use whichever type you like.
Drain pineapple well and put in large mixing bowl. Add sugar.
And whipped topping….
Add whole berry cranberry sauce and sour cream.
Combine all and stir well.
If I have a lot of cranberry sauce clumps, I use my potato masher after I’ve stirred it a bit.
Line a muffin tin with papers. This will actually take several muffin tins so I use all of mine at once provided I have freezer space to use them at the same time.
Scoop into muffin papers and freeze until hard.
While you are waiting for them to freeze, just stick the bowl of salad in the refrigerator and it will be fine.
Pop them out of the muffin tins, leaving them in their papers until time to serve, and place all of the salads in ziploc bags. Freeze!
Ingredients
- 1 lg can (20 oz) well drained crushed pineapple
- 1 pint sour cream
- 1- 9 ounce cool whip
- 4 mashed bananas
- ½ cup sugar
- 1 cup nuts (optional)
- 2 cans whole cranberry sauce (make sure you get whole)
- (Optionally you can add 1 cup of chopped nuts if you like)
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.
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Hey Everyone!
Today we have a gaggle of Jordans coming in from Georgia to help us move. (that sounds like a tongue twister just waiting to happen). I’m kind of dreading tomorrow but I’ve decided that moving is a lot like childbirth. You know it is going to happen and prepare as best you can but at this point you start having second thoughts. Fortunately, you’re too far gone and just have to suck it up and get it over with. When all is said and done, you’ll be glad you did and reap the rewards of your efforts for the rest of your life.
Think relaxing thoughts for me tomorrow as its going to be a hectic day but tomorrow night we get to sleep in our new house! Thank you all so very much for your well wishes! I hope to have the name of my new house for you when I next post but it’s not coming as easy as I had hoped. I LOVED all of your suggestions and Southern Cabinet jumped out at me (so cute, Southern Cabinet, home of Southern Plate!) so I looked up translations of “cabinet” in different languages to see if I could come up with a fancier way of saying it but didn’t get anywhere there.
~watches as the cat dumps over an entire box of packing peanuts and sighs while she continues to type~
Now I am looking at Indian names that mean “beautiful” or “fruitful” or “Happiness” and such, but I still have your list of comments close at hand and I think once I get moved in one of those will jump out and take claim to the house (much like Bill Gent said it would).
Our internet is going to be turned on at the new house tomorrow as well so I shouldn’t have to do without (or go into withdrawal). The kids are thrilled and two of their cousins are also coming over from Georgia so this should be a grand christening to the new place – kids abound!
Hope you all have a wonderful weekend and I REALLY hope you get to try these salads soon! When my mother had her car accident (see impossible coconut pie post) she was bedridden for about six weeks. She ate two of these salads every day as a special treat. They were actually all she wanted to eat but she settled for two ~grins~.
They are so nice to have on hand in the summer time. Your guests will be impressed with such a delicious treat and you’ll love being able to present them with so little effort! I always make a double batch so I don’t run out too quickly! The husband has been known to make multiple trips to the freezer on a regular basis whenever they reside within!
Gratefully,
Christy
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Posted by Christy Jordan
on May 8 2009. Filed under Dessert, FEATURED Southern Favorites!, Freezes Well, Holiday Favorites!.
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My former mother in law made this for Christmas (without the bananas and in a loaf pan) when I was first married and thereafter I always requested that she make it for family occasions. I did get the recipe and have made it many times but my current family are not as enthused about it as I am, they prefer the caranberry jelly or sauce that I make instead.
[...] Frozen Cranberry Banana Salads (Cookbook p.188) [...]
My Mom used to make this but with dark sweet cherries (canned) instead of cranberry sauce. It was called paper cup frozen salad and we loved it.
This sounds so good, but I never buy canned crannberries..always make my own sauce. which is not as thick as canned…….can I substitute and if so how much? Thanks for your help……
I made this for Thanksgiving, and gave some to a friend of mine for her Thanksgiving table. It was DELICIOUS. She called me later & asked me what it was…she agreed, it is just DELICIOUS. Thank you for this recipe!!!