No-Bake Banana Split Dessert

16 Servings
Prep Time 10 minutes
Freeze 4 hours
Total Time 4 hours 10 minutes

No-Bake Banana Split Dessert is the perfect sundae for a crowd. Easy cracker crust topped with ice cream, banana, chocolate, and Cool Whip.

This Dessert Recipe is the ultimate crowd-pleaser! Instead of putting together each ice cream sundae in individual bowls, you just make one big sundae in a casserole dish for people to serve up themselves. It’s an easy recipe to prep ahead of time and keep in the freezer until you serve it. You can make the delicious Banana Split recipe with store bought ice cream, or take a little extra time to make delicious Homemade Vanilla Ice Cream for it. Either way, it’s sure to taste amazing!

No-Bake Banana Split Dessert slice from pan showing layers

NO-BAKE BANANA SPLIT DESSERT

This shareable treat is the perfect summer dessert! It takes all the fabulous flavors from a classic banana split and makes them easy to serve to lots of people. It’s a no-bake dessert that’s sure to become your all-time favorite banana split!

This simple Banana Split is packed with all kinds of flavor. Along with the three flavors of ice cream—chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry—you get lots of unbelievably delicious toppings. There’s Chocolate Sauce, Whipped Topping, banana slices, maraschino cherries, Strawberry Topping, Crushed Pineapple Sauce, and crunchy peanuts. The combination of tart fruit, rich chocolate, and creamy ice cream gives you a little bit of everything in each bite. 

No-Bake Banana Split Dessert collage of assembly steps

This is also a wonderfully quick dessert to prep. Even though it takes several hours before you can actually eat the Banana Split Dessert, most of that is just time in the freezer. Creating the no-bake recipe is a simple matter of making the crumb base, and then layering the ice cream and toppings over that. It’s ready for the freezer in no time. This is a great party dessert to make in advance.

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TIPS FOR THE PERFECT BANANA SPLIT

  • Prep: A little before starting the recipe take your ice cream out of the freezer. Giving it time to soften will make it easier to spread it over the casserole dish.
  • Crumb base: Start by breaking the graham crackers into crumbs. You can put them in a food processor and pulse until they are well broken. Then mix the cracker crumbs with sugar and melted butter. Once the crumb mixture is well-combined, press it down into a 9×13 casserole dish. Make sure it’s spread out evenly so that it coats the bottom of the pan. 
  • Ice cream: Scoop the chocolate ice cream evenly over the dish. Use a knife or offset spatula to smooth over the ice cream scoops. Repeat with vanilla ice cream. Lay banana slices over vanilla ice cream, and cover with a layer of strawberry ice cream.
  • Layers: Next, you’ll start layering on the Banana Split Sundae toppings. Spread the chocolate ganache over the ice cream. Then add the pineapple topping, strawberry topping, and cool whip. Spread the whipped topping evenly over the top. Put the dish in the freezer for 4 hours. This will get all the ingredients nicely chilled and set. 
  • Toppings: After the 4 hours are up and just before serving, you’ll want to add the cherries and nut toppings. Place a maraschino cherry on each serving, and sprinkle the peanuts over the dish. 

No-Bake Banana Split Dessert side view of pan showing layers

VARIATIONS ON NO-BAKE BANANA SPLIT DESSERT

  • Hot Fudge: The great thing about sundaes is that you can layer any of your favorite toppings to get all kinds of fabulous flavors. For even more chocolatey flavor, drizzle Hot Fudge over the top before serving. You could also use simple chocolate syrup instead of chocolate fudge. 
  • Nuts: You could also replace the peanuts with a cup of walnuts. Use chopped walnuts to replace the peanuts, or put peanuts on top along with walnuts. 
  • Fresh Fruit: Along with the fruit sauce layered into the dessert, you could also top the ice cream off with fresh fruit. Try out pineapple chunks, fresh strawberries, blueberries, and peaches. 
  • Banana Split Toppings: For even more toppings try colorful sprinkles, marshmallows, mini chocolate chips, Caramel Sauce, peanut butter, or M&Ms. 

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HOW TO STORE BANANA SPLIT DESSERT

  • Serve: Make sure to give the Banana Split Sundae at least 4 hours in the freezer to set before you serve it. Once it’s set, you still don’t want to leave the ice cream out for too long or it will melt. 
  • Store: To store leftovers, cover the ice cream dish and keep it in the freezer for up to 3 months. 

No-Bake Banana Split Dessert whipped topping, cherries and nuts on completed dish

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No-Bake Banana Split Dessert

No-Bake Banana Split Dessert is the perfect sundae for a crowd. Easy cracker crust topped with ice cream, banana, chocolate, and Cool Whip.
Yield 16 Servings
Prep Time 10 minutes
Total Time 4 hours 10 minutes
Course Dessert
Cuisine American
Author Sabrina Snyder

Ingredients
 

Graham Cracker Crust:

  • 2 cups graham cracker crumbs
  • 1/3 cup sugar
  • 1/2 cup unsalted butter , melted

Filling:

Instructions

  • Stir together graham cracker crumbs, sugar, and butter until well mixed.
  • Add crust mixture to a 9x13 baking dish and press down evenly.
  • Scoop the chocolate ice cream all over the baking pan so there's a good even distribution around the baking dish.
  • Spread with a knife or offset spatula to smooth over. Repeat with vanilla ice cream.
  • Lay banana slices in an even layer on top of vanilla ice cream.
  • Spread strawberry ice cream over bananas.
  • Spread the chocolate ganache evenly over the ice cream.
  • Add spoonfuls of pineapple topping evenly over the baking dish.
  • Add spoonfuls of strawberry topping evenly over the baking dish.
  • Spread Cool Whip evenly and freeze for a minimum of 4 hours.
  • Top with chopped cherries and peanuts before serving.

Nutrition

Calories: 418kcal | Carbohydrates: 63g | Protein: 5g | Fat: 17g | Saturated Fat: 9g | Cholesterol: 44mg | Sodium: 138mg | Potassium: 295mg | Fiber: 2g | Sugar: 41g | Vitamin A: 501IU | Vitamin C: 5mg | Calcium: 127mg | Iron: 1mg
Keyword: No-Bake Banana Split Dessert

No-Bake Banana Split Dessert Collage

About the Author: Sabrina Snyder

Sabrina is a professionally trained Private Chef of over 10 years with ServSafe Manager certification in food safety. She creates all the recipes here on Dinner, then Dessert, fueled in no small part by her love for bacon.

Sabrina Snyder is a professionally trained personal and private chef of over 10 years who is the creator and developer of all the recipes on Dinner, then Dessert.

She is also the author of the cookbook Dinner, then Dessert – Satisfying Meals Using Only 3, 5 or 7 Ingredients, published by Harper Collins.

She started Dinner, then Dessert as a business in her office as a lunch service for her coworkers who admired her lunches before going to culinary school and becoming a full time personal chef and private chef.

As a personal chef Sabrina would cook for families one day a week and cook their entire week of dinners. All grocery shopping, cooking and cleaning was done along with instructions on reheating. As a private chef she cooked for private parties and cooked in family homes in the evenings for families on a nightly basis after working as a personal chef during the day.

Sabrina has been certified as a ServSafe Manager since 2007 and was a longstanding member of the USPCA Personal Chef Association including being on the board of the Washington DC Chapter of Chefs in the US Personal Chef Association when they won Chapter of the year.

As a member of the community of food website creators Sabrina Snyder has spoken at many conferences regarding her experiences as a food writer including the Indulge Food Conference, Everything Food Conference, Haven Food Conference and IACP Annual Food Professionals Conference.

Sabrina lives with her family in sunny California.

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