There’s been a lot of chocolate around the house lately so it was good timing for something different. Lucky for me, I had bananas that were the perfect ripeness for baking moist, cake-like bars.
Even if you don’t have ripe bananas at the moment, you most likely know that you can freeze extra ripe bananas and thaw them when you are ready to bake. My preferred method is to peel them, smash them, and put the banana mush into freezer bags labeled with the number of bananas I used. Most recipes call for approximately one to one and a half cups of banana, which you can usually get out of 3-4 medium-sized bananas. It works best to freeze them in that portion size.
{Cinnamon Banana Bars with Vanilla Cream Frosting}
Bars:
2-1/4 cups all-purpose flour
2-1/2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp salt
1-1/2 cups brown sugar
3/4 cup butter softened (1 1/2 sticks)
1-1/2 tsp vanilla
2 large eggs
1-1/2 cups mashed, ripe bananas
Vanilla Cream Cheese Frosting:
6 ounces cream cheese, softened
2 Tablespoons butter, softened
2 cups powdered sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract (I like using Vanilla Bean Crush which adds the tiny flecks of vanilla.)
Preheat the oven to 350°. Grease a 15×10-inch jelly roll/bar pan. In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt. In large bowl beat brown sugar, butter and vanilla extract. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in bananas. Gradually beat in flour mixture. Spread into prepared pan. Bake for 20-25 minutes of until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool completely in pan.
For Vanilla Cream Cheese Frosting: beat cream cheese, butter and powdered sugar in a small mixer until smooth. Stir in vanilla. Spread on completely cooled bars. Store in the refrigerator and serve at room temperature.
