Bananas Foster Blondies might be the new banana split base
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These bananas Foster blondies use my favorite brown butter blondies, then are chock full of chopped chocolate, walnuts, then topped with rum flamed buttery caramel Bananas Foster.
I’ve been trying to crack a banana bread blondies recipe, and I’ve been miserably disappointed after a few attempts. I’ll spare you the details of my testing process, but it finally occurred to me to top some blondies with Bananas Foster.
People, it’s awesome. After you make these bars, you almost have banana split right there. Just add some ice cream, and you are so good to go for a perfect blondie banana split sundae. Better yet, top it with some vegan caramel sauce and some toasted coconut. What can I say? I’m here to save your summer.
So find you some bananas and let’s make some banana blondies.
Affiliate disclosure
bakingwithtradition.com is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a way for websites to earn advertising revenues by advertising and linking to recommended products. Some of the links below are affiliate links. This means that, at zero cost to you, I will earn an affiliate commission if you click through the link and finalize a purchase.
Bananas Foster Blondies
What is Bananas Foster?
According to the Food Lover’s Companion, Bananas Foster was created in New Orleans at Brennan’s Restaurant in the 1950’s. Bananas cut in planks are sautéed in brown sugar, butter, then flambéed with rum and banana liqueur. At Brennan’s they then top it with vanilla ice cream (so smart).
It was named for a regular customer of the restaurant, Richard Foster.
Most Bananas Foster recipes I’ve ever seen omit the banana liqueur. I can only imagine that’s because most people don’t have it and probably wouldn’t. Not being much of a drinker, I certainly don’t. Rum on the other hand is always in my pantry for baking.
What makes this recipe so good
- Texture: the soft bananas against the chewy blondies is such a good contrast.
- Flavor: caramel bananas, with chocolate chunks and nuts in the butterscotchy blondies is such a happy combo.
- Time hacking: You can sauté the bananas while you’re waiting for the butter/eggs to cool, so it adds no time to this recipe.
- Rum: If you’ve never baked with rum before, let this be the recipe that changes that. It adds so many interesting flavors and brings out so many more. We’re cooking it off, so no worries if you’re a teetotaler (for all intents and purposes, I am myself), but what we’re left with is flavor that ties all the others together.
Bananas Foster Blondies components and ingredients
- Bananas Foster
- Bananas
- Brown sugar
- Butter
- Rum
- Brown butter blondies
- Butter
- powdered sugar
- Brown sugar
- Eggs
- Baking powder
- Salt
- Vanilla paste
- Flour: all-purpose
- Nuts: walnuts are best, but pecans and hazelnuts are also good
- Chocolate: dark, preferably chopped from a bar, but chips are good too.
Process for making Bananas Foster blondies
- Make the Bananas Foster: sauté the bananas in butter and brown sugar until they start to brown around the edges. Carefully pour over the rum and ignite it with a long match or BBQ lighter. Shake the pan gently until the flames subside.
- Prep the brown butter blondies batter.
- Mix in: nuts and chocolate to the cooled batter.
- Spread: the batter in a parchment lined 8″x8″ pan.
- Top: arrange the bananas in one layer on top the batter. Pour over the caramel from the pan.
- Bake: bake the blondies until the edges are lightly brown and the center is no longer jiggly.
- Cool: cool the blondies completely before cutting.
- Make that sundae!: eat the blondies on their own, or top one with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and a drizzle of vegan caramel sauce.
FAQ and safety in the kitchen for this recipe
How ripe should my bananas be?
For something like banana bread, you want to use the ripest bananas possible. That is NOT what we want here. That’s because overripe (black) bananas are too soft to handle being cooked twice as they will be here in these blondies. Overripe bananas will turn into an unappetizing mush when they are sautéed. Instead, choose yellow bananas. If they have just a few speckles of black, that’s okay. The ones I used were maybe a little too soft, but they held together for the most part. This way we’ll get pretty planks of perfect bananas on top the shiny topped blondies. Always endeavor to make your bakes beautiful!
Be careful with the rum
Because you must ignite the rum, exercise caution. Turn on your exhaust fan on your stove. Tip the pan so that the rum pools in the side of the pan, then use a long match or better a BBQ lighter to light up the alcohol. Do not perform this task around kids or pets and stand back yourself. Safety with fire in the kitchen is always something to pay attention to.
Print
Bananas Foster Blondies
- Total Time: 1 hour 20 minutes
- Yield: 16 blondies
Description
All the taste of caramel boozy bananas foster with a chewy chocolate studded blondie underneath.
Ingredients
- Cooking spray for the pan
Bananas Foster
- 1 and 1/2 bananas, barely speckled
- 2 Tablespoons butter
- 2 Tablespoons brown sugar
- 2 Tablespoons spiced rum or brandy
Brown Butter Blondies
- 1 stick butter (113 g)
- 1/3 cup powdered sugar (40 g)
- 1/3 cup light brown sugar (66 g)
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 large whole egg plus 1 egg yolk
- 1 tsp vanilla paste
- 1 cup all-purpose flour (130 g)
- 1 bar dark chocolate, cut into chunks (85 g) or 1/2 cup dark chocolate chips
- 1/2 cup chopped walnuts or pecans (60 g)
Instructions
For the bananas:
- Melt the 2 tablespoons of butter in a nonstick pan over medium low heat.
- While the butter melts, peel the bananas and cut each into thirds. Cut each third lengthwise into 3 planks.
- Place the banana planks into the butter carefully, then sprinkle over the 2 tablespoons of brown sugar.
- Cook the bananas until they just begin to color, about 2 minutes. Turn the bananas over, then cook on the other side for another 2 minutes.
- Turn your stove’s fan on, then pour over the rum.
- Carefully tilt the pan so that the liquid pools at the side of the pan, then use a long match or BBQ lighter to ignite the alcohol.
- Set the pan flat, then gently swirl the bananas and sugar in the pan together until the flames burn off.
- Set aside the bananas to cool while you prepare the blondie batter.
For the blondies:
- Preheat the oven to 350F (180 C).
- Lightly spray an 8″x8″ pan with cooking spray, then cut a piece of parchment to line the bottom and sides of one side. Spray over the top of this piece of parchment, then cut another one to go across the remaining 2 sides of the pan.
- Melt the butter over low heat in a small pan until the foam starts to subside and there are brown flecks in the bottom of the pan. On low heat, this will take about 10 minutes.
- While the butter is browning, fill the bottom of a double boiler with about 1″ of water, then bring it to a boil.
- Use a whisk to mix the sugars, baking powder, salt, whole egg and the egg yolk in the top of a double boiler.
- Lower the water to simmer, then set the top pot over the water, stirring constantly for about 4 minutes. In this time, the mixture will get thinner, paler, and all of the sugar will dissolve.
- Once the butter has browned, set it in a bowl to cool slightly.
- Whisk the egg/sugar mix into the butter. If it splits, keep whisking. As it cools, it will come back together.
- Allow the butter mix to cool until it’s thick and no longer warm to the touch. It will be noticeably thicker and glossy.
- Fold in the flour, chocolate chunks and nuts with a baking spatula until the flour disappears.
- Smooth the mixture in the pan.
- Transfer the bananas to the top of the batter, laying slices in one layer. Pour over all the caramel in the pan.
- Bake for 25-27 minutes until the edges are browning and the middle is just barely no longer jiggling.
- Allow the blondies to cool completely before cutting.
- Bars are best the day they are made, but you can store leftovers in the fridge for up to 3 days.
Notes
- How ripe should my bananas be?: Because you’re cooking these bananas a bit before they go into the oven, don’t use overripe (black) bananas. If the bananas are too ripe, they will break down into mush which won’t make for a pretty top. Bananas that are still yellow and just barely starting to speckle are perfect here.
- Change up the nuts: I used hazelnuts and Brazil nuts when I photographed these and they are particularly nice, even though my first choice would be walnuts. Use the nuts that you like!
- Prep Time: 25 minutes
- Additional Time: 30 minutes
- Cook Time: 25 minutes
- Category: Bar cookies
- Cuisine: American
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1
- Calories: 252
- Sugar: 15
- Sodium: 155
- Fat: 15
- Saturated Fat: 8
- Unsaturated Fat: 6
- Trans Fat: 0
- Carbohydrates: 24
- Fiber: 2
- Protein: 3
- Cholesterol: 43
Have you ever tried Bananas Foster? What did you like about it?
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