Recipe
🍰 DESSERT
Sonhos de Banana (Banana Fritters)
Mashed banana fritters fried until crisp and rolled in cinnamon sugar, a Portuguese-island sweet of São Tomé.
São Toméan · easy · serves 4
prep 10 min · cook 15 min
~333 cal · 7g protein · 73g carbs · 2g fat · 4g fiber · 35g sugars · 1g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Sonhos de banana, banana dreams, are the crisp little fritters that carry São Tomé and Príncipe's Portuguese inheritance into the tropics. Ripe island bananas are mashed into a simple batter of flour, egg and milk, dropped into hot oil, and fried until deeply golden and soft within, then tumbled while still hot in cinnamon sugar.
The islands' cuisine leans heavily on the Portuguese kitchen crossed with the abundance of the equatorial coast, and this sweet, cousin to fritters found in Brazil and Portugal, is that meeting point at its most delicious. The banana melts into the batter as it fries, giving the fritters a moist, fragrant centre against their crackly sugared shell.
Eaten warm, straight from the pan, they are a treat for a lazy afternoon or the end of a meal, best with coffee grown on the very same islands. The cinnamon sugar that clings to them while they are hot is the finishing touch nobody skips.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally vegetarian and nut- and pork-free. No swaps needed.
Toggle a diet and the ingredients rewrite themselves with regional substitutes.
🥕 Vegetarian
🌱 Vegan
🌾 Gluten-Free
🥛 Dairy-Free
🥜 Nut-Free
🥚 Egg-Free
🐖 Pork-Free
Dietary labels are a cooking guide, not allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish; we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, read the label on every product you use, and note that a kitchen can cross-contaminate in ways a recipe cannot control.
Ingredients
US
Metric
Serves 4
4 ripe bananas, mashed
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 tbsp sugar
1 egg
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup cinnamon sugar, for rolling
for the pan , for frying
Instructions
1
Mash the bananas smooth with the sugar, then beat in the egg and milk.
2
Stir in the flour to a thick, dropping batter, adding a splash more milk only if it is too stiff to spoon.
✎ Chef’s note
Keep the batter thick enough to hold on a spoon. Too loose and the fritters spread thin and soak up oil instead of puffing.
3
Heat a couple of inches of oil to 350F (175C) and drop in spoonfuls of batter, frying and turning for about 5 minutes until deep golden and cooked through.
4
Drain briefly, then roll the hot fritters in cinnamon sugar and serve warm.
São Toméan Portuguese-influenced sweet.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
São Tomé. These are two volcanic islands almost exactly on the equator, and the history behind the food is a plantation one: cocoa and coffee grown for export, breadfruit and cassava grown for eating, and the pepper the islands still sell. Calulu goes out with breadfruit or plantain rather than rice.
🗺️
São Tomé and Príncipe. The cocoa nickname is earned by history. In the early twentieth century these two small islands were among the world's leading cocoa exporters, worked on plantations under a labour system that drew international scandal, and the roças are still there, some of them derelict and some replanted for fine-flavour chocolate that is now made on the island rather than shipped raw.
🌍
Africa. Much of what reads as timeless African cooking is younger than the Atlantic crossings. Maize, cassava, groundnut, chilli and tomato all arrived from the Americas after 1500 and pushed older crops aside; millet, sorghum, teff, yam and fonio are the ones that were already here, and the map still shows the join.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from São Tomé and Príncipe
Calulu de PeixeA layered island stew of fish and leafy greens with okra and tomato in red palm oil.
Peixe GrelhadoWhole fish marinated in lime and garlic, grilled over charcoal and served with a fresh chili and herb molho de pimenta.
Arroz de FolhaSeasoned rice bloomed in red palm oil, parcelled in banana leaves and steamed until the leaf perfumes the grain, a festive Santomean dish.
Browse all São Tomé and Príncipe recipes →
Good to know
Storing it: Fried food is best eaten fresh while crisp. Re-crisp leftovers in a hot oven or air fryer; the microwave makes them soft.
Make it a São Tomé and Príncipe meal
Blá-Blá de PeixeDinner
Chocolate Quente de São ToméDrink
Similar dishes from around the world
Beignets de Banane (Banana Fritters)Central African Republic
Djiboutian Banana FrittersDjibouti
Bananes au Four Croustillantes (Crisp Baked Bananas)Gabon
ApfelchüechliLiechtenstein
KabalagalaUganda
Yovo Doko (Sweet Fritters)Benin
Cuisine
Diet
Frequently asked questions
What is Sonhos de Banana (Banana Fritters)?
Mashed banana fritters fried until crisp and rolled in cinnamon sugar, a Portuguese-island sweet of São Tomé.
Where does Sonhos de Banana (Banana Fritters) come from?
Sonhos de Banana (Banana Fritters) is a São Toméan dish from São Tomé, São Tomé and Príncipe.
Can Sonhos de Banana (Banana Fritters) be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Sonhos de Banana (Banana Fritters) recipe includes substitution suggestions for vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, egg-free, and pork-free versions, including several at once such as gluten-free and dairy-free together. Treat them as a starting guide rather than a guarantee, and see the allergen note below.
Is Sonhos de Banana (Banana Fritters) safe for people with food allergies?
Our dietary labels and substitutions are a cooking guide, not medical or allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish, but we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, always read the label on every product you use, and remember a home or commercial kitchen can cross-contaminate ingredients in ways a recipe cannot control.
How long does Sonhos de Banana (Banana Fritters) take to make?
About 25 minutes total (10 minutes prep, 15 minutes cooking), serving 4.
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