The frosting isn't truly evil, but everyone seems to be craving it since they first got a taste of it. I don't remember where I first ran across the idea for banana bread bars, but I used to get something very similar fairly often off of a cart in downtown LA where I used to work eons ago. The thing I remember most about those delicious treats I had with the baker who confirmed my identification of the secret ingredient: cinnamon. I'm a cinnamon addict, it ends up in most of what I bake.
When I ran across post in Facebook showing something similar I had to go take a look, but everything I was finding used greek yogurt or sour cream. I don't use those in my baking. I have nothing against greek yogurt, I simply don't have it on hand most of the time. I'm no fan of sour cream so that's only in the house if I'm making something specific that only tastes right with sour cream.
Bake to my own recipes I went comparing what I use for banana bread against the ratios in the recipes I was finding. In my rooting around the web I ran across a post describing banana bread bars with brown butter frosting. I'd never heard about brown butter frosting before and I had to learn how to make it. YouTube to the rescue! The frosting is simple enough and I tweaked the recipes I found to get the familiar taste I was looking for.
I currently do not have pictures of these to load - they are gone too fast. I will add picture soon though.
With no further ado, here's the recipes. The frosting is easier than it seems on paper, the one caveat is to make sure you have a good whisk (one covered in silicone is even better) and be prepared to get a good arm workout.
Equipment needed
- Medium mixing bowls (at least 2)
- Medium or large saucepan - it needs to be big enough to handle 4 cups of powered sugar
- 13"x9" baking pan
- Parchment paper
- Potato masher
- Whisk
- Wooden spoon
- Spatula (for spreading the frosting)
Groceries Needed
For the banana bread bars:
- 1.5 cups sugar (granulated)
- 1/2 cup butter, melted
- 3/4 cup buttermilk or whole milk
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2 eggs, large/extra large
- 1.75 cups mashed bananas
- 2 cups flour
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tablespoon cinnamon
For the frosting:
- 1/2 cup butter
- 4 cups powdered sugar (sifted or fluffed with a fork)
- 1.5 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 teaspoons cinnamon
- 3 tablespons milk
Directions
Banana Bread Bars
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees
- In one medium mixing bowl, mash the bananas, they should be somewhat "chunky"
- Melt the butter (I use my microwave)
- In the other medium mixing bowl, add the sugar, butter, buttermilk, vanilla, baking soda and cinnamon. Whisk or stir together using a wooden spoon. Make sure the eggs are well mixed and the yolks have broken. You can use a mixer for this step, I find it easier to use the whisk,
- Add the flour and stir in with a wooden spoon.
- Add the mashed bananas and fold or stir in with the spoon.
- Line the baking pan with parchment paper, at least line the bottom of the pan. This makes cleanup and getting the bars out of the pan much easier.
- Pour batter into baking pan, use the wooden spoon to evenly spread the batter across the pan.
- Bake for 25-30 minutes, test with a fork to ensure dough is cooked in the middle.
- Let cool completely before frosting. I usually make these the night before and the frosting the day of delivery or eating.
Brown Butter Frosting
- Measure the vanilla and milk into a cup, and set aside but near your stove.
- Measure out the powered sugar and cinnamon into another bowl and stir together to fluff it up a bit. Sift it if it is lumpy as this will help with getting the frosting smooth.
- Heat the butter in a saucepan until it is boiling. Use medium or high heat depending on your stove. Let the butter turn light brown before removing it from the heat. It will foam, the foam will actually turn a brown/beige color when it is ready. This is easier than you think. Don't disturb the butter while it is melting and reaching a boil or it will disrupt the process and never get brown.
- Once the butter is done and removed from heat, add the powered sugar mixture and begin whisking, it will get difficult quickly, at this point add the vanilla and milk mixture and it will get a lot easier.
- Keep whisking until the frosting is smooth. Once it's smooth, pour onto the cooled banana bread bar. Spread the frosting across the pan, it firms up quickly.
