Banana Bars

For some reason we never seem to finish all the bananas I buy before they get too ripe.  Which means I have a freezer full of frozen bananas.  I decided that since they’ve started falling out and nearly breaking familial toes, I needed to start using them up.  I love banana bread, but I wanted to try something a little different. Thus my foray into the world of Banana Bars.

The recipe originally came from Taste of Home, but I don’t know if it’s been modified since then or not.  I did change the icing recipe a little bit and it tasted a lot like glazed donut icing.  Yum!

Frosted Banana Bars

1/2 cup butter, softened
2 cups sugar
3 eggs
1-1/2 cups mashed ripe bananas (about 3 medium)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
Dash salt

In a large mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs, bananas and vanilla.  Combine the flour, baking soda and salt; stir into creamed mixture just until blended  Transfer toa  greased 15 x 10 x 1 baking pan.  Bake at 350 degrees for 10-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean.  Cool in pan on a wire rack.

While the bars are still hot, prepare the glaze.

Powdered Sugar Glaze:

1-1/4 cup powdered sugar
1 Tablespoon butter, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla
1-2 Tablespoons milk

In a small mixing bowl, combine all ingredients and beat until smooth.  Add milk until glaze is a nice drizzling consistency.  Pour glaze over hot banana bars and spread evenly.  Applying the glaze when the bars are still very warm allows it to sink into the bars a little bit and helps keep them moist.

You could also use a favorite cream cheese frosting on these (which is what I would normally do) and that would taste really good, too!

This is a big pan of bars and they were gone in about 3 days with basically 2 people eating them.    It’s a keeper!

Tags: banana, bars, dessert, recipe