Banana Blondies

Banana Blondies are a cross between banana nut bread and a blondie. They have a brownie like texture: soft and moist with a touch of chewiness. We finish them with a rich buttermilk & brown butter fudge frosting that puts the flavor over the top!

A few notes about this recipe

Traditionally blondies are made like brownies, but without chocolate or cocoa powder. They usually lean a little more cookie like, think a thick cookie bar. When you add bananas to the mix, they veer into cake territory. These banana blondies are very similar to my Apple Brownies recipe, but I wanted them to be more dense and less cakey, so instead of creaming butter and sugars, we add brown butter in its melted form and gently mix with the sugar. Like brownie recipes, we’re skipping the baking powder. To add a extra chewiness and moisture, we add an extra egg yolk.

Ingredients for banana blondies:

• Butter (salted)-we’re going to brown this for extra flavor
• Brown sugar-I use dark brown sugar, but light is fine too
• Granulated sugar
• Egg + egg yolk-extra moisture and chewiness
• Vanilla
• Salt
• All purpose flour
• Banana (medium size)
• Chopped pecans (optional but recommended)
• Icing-butter, brown sugar, buttermilk, powdered sugar, and vanilla

How to make Banana Blondies

Let’s get the oven preheated to 350 F. You can go ahead and prep your baking pan too. I use a metal 8 x 8 pan lined with parchment paper.

Next we’re going to brown the butter. Cut the butter in tablespoon slices and place in a medium sized light colored sauce pan over medium heat. On my stove, it takes about 7 minutes or so from a cold stick of butter to get perfectly golden brown.

DON’T WALK AWAY while browning butter! After the butter has melted, you’ll want to watch for the butter to foam up-it’ll look a bit like shaving cream. Keep stirring, you should see the golden bits on the bottom.

It will smell tantalizing, (a bit like toffee or caramel) and you’ll be tempted to try some (do not-you’ll burn your tongue.) Take this off the stove and immediately pour it into your mixing bowl. Scrape that pan, you want those brown bits and all! That’s where the flavor is. Here’s a visual guide for what browned butter will look like:

Let the butter cool for 10 minutes. The brown bits will sink to the bottom and separate from the oil. This is okay, once we stir it everything will blend together as it should.

Now we’re going to add the sugars & salt to the brown butter and whisk together, followed by one egg + one egg yolk, and a teaspoon of vanilla.

Add the flour and stir together. It’ll look a bit like cookie dough at this point. Now add the banana and pecans and stir in until thoroughly mixed.

Pour the batter in an greased 8×8 pan (or lined with parchment paper). Bake for 20-22 minutes or until the edges are lightly brown and the center is just set. Remove and let cool on a wire rack.

Make the Brown Butter Icing

This icing is smooth and sets up like a soft fudge, firm to the touch with an easy bite. You’ll need butter (again I’m using salted), brown sugar, buttermilk, powdered sugar, and vanilla. You’re reading that correctly. We’re using whole buttermilk in this icing. You’ll have to trust here, that the taste is AMAZING.

You don’t have to make the icing, it’s completely optional. We ate 3 pans of blondies with zero icing and they definitely don’t require it. But if you do, please brown the butter and use the buttermilk!

Here’s how to make it: grab a medium saucepan and brown 4 tablespoons of butter. Add the brown sugar and buttermilk to the pan and whisk together with the butter and let it heat until it’s just boiling, continuing to stir the whole time. When it reaches a boil, take it off the heat and let it cool for 5 minutes. Add the vanilla and powdered sugar, whisking until the sugar is dissolved and the icing is smooth. Immediately pour it over the blondies. This icing sets fast, so don’t waste time getting it smoothed out.

Once the icing has set, you can cut the blondies into bars. Take a bite, and close your eyes and enjoy the heavenly taste!

I’d love to hear from you!

If you try this recipe and love it, please leave a comment and a star rating and let me know how it went. Happy Baking!