Award Winning Banana Bread Bars

Well here it is the first of the week and I have another tasty recipe for you.

I made these bars for two reasons. One is because I had 3 over ripe bananas to use. Two, I finally had a chance to make my sister's award winning Banana Bread Bars with Brown Butter Frosting.Why are they award winning? Personally I think it's because of the frosting, however, my sister entered these into the Algonquin Founders Day Bake-Off this past July and won first place with them.

They're fairly simple to make and they give you another option in using up your ripe bananas over making the standard banana bread.

Banana Bread Bars with Brown Butter Frosting

Ingredients:

Banana Bread Bars:

• 1-1/2 c. sugar
• 1 c. sour cream
• 1/2 c. butter, softened
• 2 eggs
• 1-3/4 (3 or 4) ripe bananas, mashed
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 2 c. all purpose flour
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 3/4 tsp. salt
• 1/2 c. chopped walnuts (optional)

Brown Butter Frosting:

• 1/2 c. butter
• 4 c. powdered sugar
• 1-1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 3 tbsp. milk

Directions:

Heat oven to 375F. Grease and flour 15×10-inch jelly roll pan. For the bars, in a large bowl, beat together sugar, sour cream, butter, and eggs until creamy. Blend in bananas and vanilla extract. Add flour, baking soda, salt, and blend for 1 minute. Stir in walnuts.

Spread batter evenly into pan. Bake 20 to 25 minutes or until golden brown.

Meanwhile, for frosting, heat butter in a large saucepan over medium heat until boiling. Let the butter turn a delicate brown and remove from heat immediately.

Please note the butter can burn really easily and spoil the taste DO NOT over cook for the sake of your baking guys… it will taste like burnt hair… haha slight exaggeration but you catch my drift…

Add powdered sugar, vanilla extract and milk. Whisk together until smooth (it should be thicker than a glaze but thinner than frosting). Using a spatula, spread the brown butter frosting over the warm bars (the frosting will be easier to spread while the bars are still warm).

Yield: 2 dozen large bars

I took these to my parents yesterday for Sunday dinner and they were a big hit.

See if it doesn't do the same for you.