Remember a few weeks ago when I was a Valentine’s Day grump and entirely dismissed the holiday? I talked about how I thought the holiday was cliche and that I wasn’t interested in roses and teddy bears. Then I mentioned that last year for Valentine’s Day Marc got me roses, which kinda-sorta-maybe may have come off that I thought Marc didn’t put a lot of thought into it. Which is NOT true! I mean, what girl doesn’t like getting flowers? I was just saying I didn’t expect them or necessarily want them every Valentine’s Day. Getting a bouquet of daisies on random Tuesday is more my style.
On top of feeling bad about the post, Marc got me a really unique and thoughtful gift this year. He took one of my favorite pictures from Seattle of Pike Place Market on a beautiful sunny day that he took and had it professional enlarged and put on a big canvas. Now I can hang it up and enjoy the beautiful view anytime I want. What a sweetheart, eh?? What did I get for him? Some new underwear and a stupid card.
I wanted to make it up with a treat I knew he would love. We had these banana bars at my dads a couple of months ago and we both fell in love with them. So when I went home last weekend to 3 black bananas sitting on the counter and free reign to do whatever I wanted with them, I knew exactly what to make. Not only would my family be thrilled, so would Marc.
The banana flavor is just amazing and I can’t stress enough how important it is to use super duper ripe bananas when making these (or any banana baked good!). When you think your bananas are ripe enough, wait a couple of more days and then they’ll be ready! The bars end up super moist and, topped with cream cheese, they are irresistible! After bringing some home for Marc, he completely forgot about my crappy Valentine Day present.
Banana Bars with Cream Cheese Frosting
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
2 large eggs
3 very ripe bananas, mashed
3/4 cup sour cream
2 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
1/8 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
6 oz cream cheese, at room temperature
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
2-3 tsp milk or cream
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
3 cups powdered sugar
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease 9×13″ baking dish with butter or cooking spray. Set aside.
In large bowl with electric mixer, cream butter with sugar. Add the eggs, one at a time. Next, add the mashed bananas, then the sour cream.
In separate bowl, mix the flour, salt, and baking soda then fold into dry ingredients. Pour batter into prepared baking dish and bake in preheated oven 35-40 minutes, until toothpick comes clean out of center.
To make cream cheese frosting, cream together cream cheese and butter. Add milk, vanilla, and powdered sugar. Beat well. Frost over cooled banana bars.
Banana bars are probably one of my favorite desserts…I even had banana cake with cream cheese frosting as one of the cakes at my wedding!
These look sooo good! I have a small obsession with banana related baked good – probably because I always have dead bananas on my counter. These will definitely be my next banana baking project!
Sounds like Marc is a sweetie and very thoughtful. What a great gift and this bar is the perfect way to say thank you. Excellent idea, I am going to make some of these next time I need to thank my husband!
Oh goodness I LOVE anything with bananas and this looks heavenly…my boyfriend would love that cream cheese frosting too. This is going on my to-make list! I hope you get to try out the pumpkin carrot muffins, they are super moist and so tasty.
These look insanely moist and delicious!!
oooh love that they have sour cream in them!
These look great – love that thick frosting.
Loved your story too – you and your hubby crack me up!
Susan http://www.ugogrrl.com
mmmm, i love cream cheese frosting. i’ll have to try this version.
ps please, check out my latest post
I loooove bananas in baked goods and these bars look amazing!
Banana Bread will make most guys happy. It’s my boyfriend’s favorite treat, too.
I 100% agree that you have to use REALLY REALLY RIPE bananas within baked goods. Great tip! I love your cake, particularly the thick frosting..
yum… banana bars are my fav!
i am so impressed- you have been cooking sooo much more than me!
Glad to know that these have a lot of banana flavor. Usually, things are never banana-y enough for me, but these sound really good. I hope you’ll come by and link them up to Sweets for a Saturday #6 (it’ll stay open till tomorrow night). http://sweet-as-sugar-cookies.blogspot.com/2011/02/sweets-for-saturday-6.html
Thanks for linking this up to Sweets for a Saturday.