Spoon & Shutter

Another photo by me - Ted's return next week!

From Susan: You have a bunch of bananas going bad. You could make banana bread – again. Or, you could do better, because isn’t everything better with frosting? These yummy bars are almost as mindlessly easy to make as banana bread, because that’s essentially what they are – with a bonus peanut butter-cream cheese layer on top. This recipe makes a whole jelly-roll pan, so it’s ideal for bake sales or any other situations where you need to whip up something sweet for a crowd. You could get crazy and add a cup of chocolate chips to the batter – I’d recommend the minis because they’ll be distributed more evenly – the bars are thin. Thanks to my friend Karyl Bannister of Cook & Tell for this wonderful recipe.

Frosted Banana Bars

1 stick butter, softened

2 cups sugar

3 eggs

1 1/2 cup mashed ripe bananas (about 3)

1 tsp. vanilla

2 cups flour

1 tsp. baking soda

pinch of salt

Preheat the oven to 350. Grease a 15 x 10 jelly roll pan. Cream the butter and sugar. Beat in the eggs, bananas and vanilla. Combine and add the flour, baking soda and salt; mix well. Spread in the pan and bake for 20 minutes or until a tester comes out clean. Frost when completely cool.

Peanut Butter Frosting

1/2 stick butter

4 oz. cream cheese, softened

1/3 cup peanut butter

3 to 3 1/2 cups confectioners sugar

2 tsp. vanilla

Cream the butter, cream cheese and peanut butter until well blended. Add sugar and mix well. Beat in the vanilla. Frost and cut into squares or bars. Now, here’s an important tip: the bars are soft and can squish easily as you frost them, so don’t dump all the frosting down in the middle of the pan and try to spread it out. Instead, place it on in 8-12 dollops, then spread those gently and evenly to cover the whole pan.