Melt-in-Your-Mouth Banana Fingers: An Easy Baby Puffs Recipe for Babies and Toddlers
The perfect homemade baby puffs
Looking for an easy baby puffs recipe that your little one will love? These super easy melt-in-your-mouth banana baby puffs are the perfect first finger foods for baby—soft, flavorful, and full of wholesome goodness. They’re ideal for babies just starting solids and toddlers who need a healthy, quick snack.
These homemade baby puffs are quick to make with simple ingredients you probably already have on hand. They are also sugar free, making them great for a quick no sugar baby snack. Even picky eaters tend to love these naturally sweet banana treats!
Now, lets get honest for a second. I just have to say how I love how all the other recipes I have seen online for baby puffs state in their opening lines that “these baby puffs are mess-free” or ” it’s a great mess- free snack”. Now, I don’t know how your babies eat, but mine can make a mess out of anything! Including these banana baby puffs; theres just mushed puffs everywhere on the carpet, her face, the dog, the car keys, my pants.
So I just want to put it out there that no snack, even if you where to give a baby a solid piece of concrete, is mess proof, and neither are these baby puffs. So while these banana baby puffs are incredibly soft and dissolve easily, mess-free they are not. But what baby snack really is?
Now that I got that out of the way, let me tell you how quick and easy these banana baby puffs are to make!
Table of Contents
When Are Babies Ready For Baby Puffs ?
The great thing about puffs are that no teeth are required to enjoy them! Babies are generally ready to start snacking on baby puffs as soon as eating solids are well established and babies can bring food up to their own mouths. Most babies are ready for baby puffs once they’re confidently eating solids and can bring food to their mouths—typically around 8 to 10 months.
These baby snacks melt easily in the mouth, making them a low-choking-risk option that helps introduce new textures. Always supervise and go slow when offering new foods, but rest assured—this is one of the safest and easiest first finger foods for baby.
When introducing baby puffs, offer one at a time and resist the urge to feed it to your baby. Let them practice picking it up themselves, as this is a great way to help exercise and strengthen that pincher grasp!
Homemade baby puffs are also a great way to help introduce new textures and flavors to baby, helping them to develop a more adventurous palate. So experiment away with all the different flavor combinations you can imagine with these easy and healthy homemade puffs!
Create your own healthy Baby puff flavors
Unlike other puff recipes online, you cant just add any pureed fruits or veggies to this recipe as you like. In order to truly get that almost-like-storebought melt in your mouth puffy texture you need to minimize your moisture content as much as possible, otherwise you are going to lose most of the aeration created by the whipped egg whites.
One of the best parts of making your own baby puffs at home is that you can get creative with flavors. While this banana baby puffs recipe is one of my go-to favorite, it’s easy to modify (within limits) to suit your baby’s taste preferences.
In order to keep the puffed up texture you will have to substitute the banana with other similarly textured fruits or vegetables. Here is a list of some of the possible substitutions that you could use to create your own baby puff flavor combinations.
Cooked Sweet Potato
- Cooked sweet potato is very similar in texture to banana and will also add a rich creamy sweetness to your baby puffs. Sweet potato is a ‘good carb’ that is loaded with vitamins A, C , B6 and they are also a good source of potassium and fiber to help keep those little bellies regular.
- Cooked and mashed carrots work great in this puff recipe, as it has a very similar texture to bananas and is packed with healthy vitamins and nutrients. A half a cup of carrots is enough to give you 73% of your daily vitamin A requirements! The high fiber content in carrots also help to prevent baby from getting constipated, and high levels of B6 is an essential nutrient to power the growth and development of baby’s bodies!
Cooked Peas
- cooked and mash peas is another one of my favorite veggies to turn into healthy baby puffs. Simply cook or steam the peas and then puree in a food processor or a stick blender and ad them to this puff recipe. If you are looking for a fun puff recipe with peas, check out my Summertime Pea and Mint Baby Puffs Recipe!
Guava
- Guava is a delicious pink or white fleshed tropical fruit with a yellow to greenish soft outer skin. Although guavas are not very commonly found in the United States, they are very popular in south America, Asia and Hawaii and commonly used in cooking and sauces. Guavas can be found in grocery stores when they are in season, typically from November to April. So keep and eye out at your local and speciality grocery stores for these tasty tropical fruits! Guava paste is commonly found in the international food section of grocery stores, but as these contain added sugars, I don’t recommend using these to make baby or toddler food with.
Cooked Butternut, Pumpkin & Squash
- These vegetables all have the same dense texture that makes it a perfect addition to this recipe. This group of vegetables are also all high in fiber, helping to keep baby regular and is an excellent source of beta carotene -an essential part in keeping eyes bright and healthy! Besides being rich in numerous nutrients and vitamins, most squash and pumpkin varieties are also loaded with more potassium than bananas.
Freeze Dried Fruits
- Freeze dried fruits are readily available at most grocery stores and are a great way of adding extra flavor and nutrients to these banana finger puffs. As the key to this recipe is to keep the moisture content low in order to achieve that store bought like melt in your mouth texture, adding freeze dried fruits just makes sense! Simply place the freeze dried fruits of your choice into a food processor or blender and whizz it up until you have a fine powder. Add 2 Tbs of the fruit powder to this recipe to easily mix up the flavors.
Step-by-Step: Easy Banana Baby Puffs Recipe
This easy baby puffs recipe comes together in under 10 minutes of prep time and bakes low and slow to create that perfect, dissolvable texture.With just 4 ingredients and endless variations these melt in your mouth baby banana finger puffs could not be quicker or easier to whip up for a always ready snack on the go!
INGREDIENTS:
½ ripe banana, pureed
¼ cup milk powder OR dry baby formula
4 tsp cornstarch
1 egg white
(Optional) 2 tbsp freeze-dried fruit powder
Step 1
- Puree about half of a banana in a blender or food processor until smooth and creamy. The riper the banana the richer the banana flavor in the end result will be. In the same bowl add in the 1/4 cup milk powder OR dry baby formula, depending on what you are using. Milk powder will add a malt like flavor to these puffs that toddlers will love, whereas baby formula is a great addition for babies, as it contains more nutrients. If using freeze dried fruits, add 2 Tbs of the fruit powder to the bananas now and mix until well combined and let stand.
Step 2
- Whisk up your egg whites in a stand mixer or with an electric beater until soft peaks start forming. Once your egg whites reaches this stage add in the 4tsp cornstarch and keep beating until stiff peaks start forming and you can hold the bowl upside down without the egg whites moving.
Step 3
- The hardest part of this recipe is literally just combing the banana mixture with the egg whites without knocking out too much air. Simply slowly fold in the stiff egg whites into the banana mixture until just combined. In a piping bag with a piping nozzle, or a food saver bag with the tip cut off or a nozzle placed inside, gently spoon in the mixture. On a baking sheet lined with parchment paper pipe 4 inch fingers or little dots, depending on your preference.
Step 4
- Bake! Place your puffs into a preheated oven at 215F for about 2- 21/2 hours for 4 inch fingers or about 1 hour for little dots. Once your puffs are slightly brow, crispy and easily lift from the parchment paper they are done! Art this point you can either take them out of the oven to cool down and pass around to snack on immediately, or turn off the oven and simply leave them in there to cool down and crisp up even more.
When giving these to young babies, remember to first do a taste test yourself to make sure that the texture is correct and does melt in your mouth and will not pose a chocking hazard. Happy Snacking!
Baby Snacks That Fit Your Lifestyle
These no sugar baby snacks are perfect for:
On-the-go snacks
Daycare lunchboxes
Baby puffs for 6 month old beginners
Toddlers needing easy finger food
Parents looking for real, simple ingredients
You can store these homemade baby puffs in an airtight container for 4–5 days or freeze for later use.
How did your homemade puffs turn out?
Let us know if you have made these homemade puffs and how they turned out! We would love to know your favorite flavor combinations or any tips, tricks or cheats that you used by accident or on purpose!
Leave us a comment below or connect with us on Instagram @TheLonelyMothersClub!
Melt In Your Mouth Banana Baby Puffs
Description
These easy 4 ingredient melt in your mouth banana fingers are the perfect healthy snack for toddlers and babies! Super quick and easy to make with ingredients you probably already have on hand, these make for the perfect on-the-go snack that even picky eaters enjoy!
The melt in your mouth texture of these puffs are as close as you can get to the store bought ones and will stay fresh for about a week in a airtight container at room temperature.
Looking for more easy and healthy baby puff recipe inspiration? Try my Summertime Pea and mint Puffs, or these super yum No-Cheese Nutritional Yeast Cheezy Baby Puffs!
Ingredients
1/4 cup Banana Puree
1/4 cup Powdered Milk OR Dry Baby Formula
4 tsp Cornstarch
2 Egg Whites
2 Tbs Powdered Freeze Dried Fruits – OPTIONAL
Instructions
- Heat oven to 215F.
- In a blender or food processor mash up about half of a banana to make 1/4cup puree. Mix in 1/4 cup milk powder or formula until smooth. If using freeze dried fruit, like mango, strawberry, blueberry, etc. add a handful to a food processor and blend until powdered. Add 2 Tbs of powdered freeze dried fruit to your banana mixture.
- In a separate bowl with an electric whisk, or in a stand mixer, whisk together two egg whites until soft peaks form. Once soft peaks form add in 4tsp cornstarch and beat until stiff peaks form.
- Slowly fold egg whites into banana mixture, making sure not to knock out too much air.
- Once fully combined, spoon mixture into a piping bag or plastic food bag -with or without a piping nozzle attached.
- On a parchment paper lined baking sheet gently pipe 4 inch fingers or little dots depending on what your baby or toddler prefers.
- If piping fingers place in the oven for about 2 -2 1/2 hours. Little dots will take about 1 -1 1/2 hours. Check your banana puffs during baking to make sure they aren’t browning or burning at the bottom. Once your puffs are crispy and easily lifts off the parchment paper they are done. You can turn the oven off and leave them in there to crisp up even more as the oven cools.
- Once completely cooled, store in an airtight container at room temperature for about a week.
Notes
DO NOT substitute powdered milk or dry baby formula with a wet ingredient like milk. Cornstarch or flour can be used instead, but personally I like the milk powder or baby formula as it has more nutrients.
DO NOT substitute the banana puree with wet or frozen fruits and veggies, like berries, pineapple, apples, etc. If you want to mix it up with different flavors, substitute the banana puree with similar textured fruits and veggies like cooked sweet potato, carrots or fresh guava. its all about texture and minimal water content to get that melt-in-your-mouth texture.
