Banana Bread Bars
These banana bread bars are so incredibly delicious. Comforting, delicious, luxurious. Make with or without the frosting, they're great either way!
Servings: 12 squares
Ingredients
For the bars:
- 115 g unsalted butter 1/2 cup
- 105 g light brown sugar, packed 1/2 cup
- 200 g granulated sugar 1 cup
- 2 large eggs
- 385 g ripe banana, mashed (4-ish bananas) 1 1/2 cups
- 250 g thick Greek yoghurt 1 cup
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 265 g plain flour 2 cups
- 1 tsp bicarbonate soda
- 1/2 tsp Maldon salt
Burnt Honey Cream:
- 115 g honey 4 ounces
- 950 ml double cream 1 quart
- 400 g white chocolate 14 ounces
- 4 silver leaf gelatin sheets
- ¼ teaspoon salt
Topping:
- Sliced banana
- Caramel sauce for drizzling
Instructions
For the banana bread bars:
- Preheat the oven to 170c fan/190c convetional and grease an 11×15 inch swiss roll tin (a longer, rectangular pan).
- Add the butter to a saucepan over medium heat.
- Bubble it gently as we want to brown the butter. If you haven't done it before, it's very simple you just need to be patient and watch it and make sure the temperature isn't too high. The butter will melt and then get very bubbly and noisy, and then that stops and it goes foamy and frothy. Keep stirring until it turns a light amber colour. This is easiest to see if you're using a light coloured pan but either way, just swirl the butter and tip it to one side so you can see the colour. Brown butter is delicious, scorched butter is not, and there is a fine line - you want it to be a lovely chestnut brown.
- Once you're happy, pour the brown butter into a bowl and whisk in the sugars.
- Next add the eggs, followed by the yoghurt, mashed banana, and vanilla. Mix together.
- Whisk in the flour, baking soda and salt.
- Pour the batter into the greased pan and spread it out evenly.
- Bake for 25-30 minutes or until golden and risen, and a skwerer inserted into the middle comes out clean, aisde from maybe a moist crumb or two.
For the Burnt Honey Cream:
- In a small saucepan, bring honey to a boil. Let it bubble and then reduce heat and add half of the cream. Cook until honey is fully dissolved. Remove from the heat and stir in white chocolate and salt.
- Place the gelatin sheets into bowl of water and leave for a few minutes until they are completely soft, squeeze out excess water. Add the softened gelatine to the cream mixture and whisk until it's completely dissolved. Do not boil this mixture, but you might want a gentle heat to get the gelatine to dissolve. Pour through a sieve into a bowl. Add the remaining cream and blend until smooth, using an immersion blender or blender.
- Transfer to an airtight container and refrigerate until cold.
- Once completely cool, pop into a bowl and use a whisk to whip Burnt Honey Cream until soft peaks form.
- Spread over the banana bread and top with banana slices, some grated chocolate and perhaps a drizzle of caramel sauce. Cut into squares and enjoy!
- The video below will help with this recipe.
Video
Notes
Scroll up for a step by step guide on how to make banana bread bars.
To store: store in the fridge for up to 3 days. If you didn't make the burnt honey cream topping, I like to store at room temperature for 5 days.
Make ahead: the banana bread can be made a day ahead and well wrapped. Make the burnt honey cream 1-2 days in advance, up to when you place in the fridge to cool. Then whip it up when ready to decorate and serve same day.
Pan size: An 11×15 inch swiss roll tin is also 38 x 28cm sheet tray. You want something flat and thin with short edges.
Nutrition
Calories: 781kcal | Carbohydrates: 80g | Protein: 9g | Fat: 49g | Saturated Fat: 30g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 2g | Monounsaturated Fat: 13g | Trans Fat: 0.3g | Cholesterol: 148mg | Sodium: 217mg | Potassium: 372mg | Fiber: 2g | Sugar: 60g | Vitamin A: 1501IU | Vitamin C: 4mg | Calcium: 164mg | Iron: 2mg