When we had a very late holiday party in the beginning of February I decided that my dessert contribution needed to be something that I wasn’t completely sick of eating from the long holiday season. It was an easy decision on what to make when I spotted the abundance of overripe bananas sitting on our counter and I was glad to be reminded of how much my entire family love these Banana Bars with Chocolate Buttercream Frosting!
Banana Bars
Ingredients ::
1 stick butter – softened
2 cups sugar
3 eggs
1 1/2 cups mashed bananas
1 tsp. vanilla
2 cups flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/8 tsp. salt
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Lightly grease and flour a 10×15 inch pan.
3. Cream the butter and sugar together. If the butter is not quite softened to room temperature, cut in to smaller pieces to make this process easier.
4. Beat in eggs, mashed bananas, and vanilla.
5. Slowly mix in flour, baking soda, and salt.
6. Pour mixture into pan and bake for 20 minutes or until they test done (toothpick comes out clean when inserted in to banana bars)
7. Cool and frost
Chocolate Buttercream Frosting
Ingredients ::
1/4 cup butter – softened
4 oz. cream cheese – softened
2 cups powdered sugar
1/3 cup baking cocoa
1 tsp. vanilla
Pinch of salt
1. Blend softened butter and cream cheese together until completely mixed.
2. Add vanilla and salt.
3. Slowly add in powdered sugar and mix well.
4. Slowly add in baking cocoa. If the mixture starts to seize up or thicken too much STOP – or you will be trying to frost the bars with fudge.
5. Frost bars and Enjoy!
TIP :: If you double the recipe and use a 17x11x1 inch pan you will end up with bars about as thick as cake. It’s delicious!
These bars are so well liked by my kids that I even made them instead of birthday cake when my youngest turned 1 and he LOVED IT!
