Chocolate-Crusted Banana Blondies
- Total Time
- 1 hour
- Rating
- Notes
- Read community notes
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Ingredients
Yield:24 bars
- 2½sticks unsalted butter (1¼ cups), more for greasing pan
- 200grams chocolate wafer cookies (to make about 3 cups crumbs)
- 55grams light brown sugar (about ¼ cup)
- 3grams fine sea salt (about ½ teaspoon), plus a pinch
- 2ripe bananas, mashed
- 2large eggs
- 455grams dark brown sugar (about 2½ cups)
- 2tablespoons dark rum or 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 130grams all-purpose flour (about 1 cup)
- 80grams toasted walnuts, chopped (about ½ cup)
- Flaky sea salt, for sprinkling (optional)
Ingredient Substitution Guide
Nutritional analysis per serving (24 servings)
237 calories; 13 grams fat; 7 grams saturated fat; 0 grams trans fat; 4 grams monounsaturated fat; 2 grams polyunsaturated fat; 29 grams carbohydrates; 1 gram dietary fiber; 21 grams sugars; 2 grams protein; 138 milligrams sodium
Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
Powered byPreparation
- Step 1
Heat oven to 375 degrees. Line a 9-by-13-inch baking pan with parchment, and grease with butter.
- Step 2
Melt 1 stick of butter in a saucepan over low heat or in microwave. Put the chocolate wafer cookies in the bowl of a food processor and process to make fine crumbs. Add the light brown sugar, melted butter and a pinch of salt. Process until the mixture is the consistency of damp sand. Dump the mixture into the pan and press it into an even layer. Bake for 7 to 10 minutes, or until the surface is firm. Remove the pan and set aside.
- Step 3
Reduce oven heat to 350 degrees.
- Step 4
In a large skillet over medium heat, melt 12 tablespoons butter, then let it cook until the foam subsides and butter turns a deep nut brown, about 5 minutes. Cool.
- Step 5
In a large bowl, whisk together bananas, eggs, dark brown sugar and rum. Whisk in brown butter. In a separate bowl, whisk together flour and fine salt. Fold into batter along with the toasted walnuts. Pour the mixture over the prepared crust and spread evenly. Sprinkle top with flaky salt if using.
- Step 6
Transfer pan to oven and bake until the top is firm and a toothpick inserted in the center emerges with a few crumbs attached (or clean) but not wet, 45 to 55 minutes. Cool completely on a wire rack; cut into 24 bars.
Private Notes
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Cooking Notes
Olivia
As with all of Melissa's recipes, they are a truly great starting point but my god will you be disappointed if you don't make any adjustments. Reduce the butter to 2 sticks (using one of them to grease your pan because you really don't need even full 2 sticks) and you won't feel your throat seize from being coated with fat when you take a bite of your finished brownie.
nb
I use chocolate biscuits from Trader Joes or chocolate Teddy Grahams
Amy
Trader Joe's chocolate hazelnut biscotti is fabulous for chocolate cookie crusts.
Heather
We couldn't find chocolate wafer cookies, so we substituted gingersnaps and it's so good that who needs chocolate?
KW
OK Wikipedia says 1 medium banana is 118 grams. Answered myself.
Pam Bea
This seems like a ton of sugar. Did anyone reduce the sugar or replace all/part with something else?
KW
Volume-wise, how much? I have a freezer full of bananas from my yard, not Cavendish but various other varieties, all short, ranging from 3 - 6". Drives me nuts trying to get the measurements right when it says "2 bananas." Especially frustrating when they've gone to such trouble to give precise measurements of the rest. grrrrrh :(
Joan
2 1/2 cups of dark brown sugar. No way. I used one cup. 3 T of rum. The taste is much more complex.
Jo L.
These are fabulous. Since chocolate wafer cookies seem to be rationed here in northern California, I had to use a box of 100 calorie snack pack Oreo wafers. The rest of the required amount was Trader Joe's triple ginger gingersnaps. OMG. Keeper!
BTW, the amounts seem a little off--the weights and volumes don't appear to match. 200 grams of crumbs looked like way more than 3 cups, and 80 grams of walnuts? Well, my package of walnuts says that 1/4 C is 30 grams.
Ingrid
I reduced the dark brown sugar by 1/3 and could have cut it down further. Next time I will also eliminate sugar from crust. Also needs more rum, which surprised me.
SmcG
I messed with this recipe quite a bit based on the notes and what I had on hand, and I was very happy with the results. I skipped the cookie crust layer, cut the butter to 9 Tbsp and the sugar to 360 grams, swapped pecans for walnuts, and added 1/2 cup chocolate chunks. Very gooey and tasty, and not too much work!
Jennifer
A crowd pleaser. The filling most closely compares to the taste of Banana's Foster - browned butter caramel plus ripe banana. The parchment pan lining let's the cooled bars literally fall right out of the pan. They were an ease to slice. Will definitely be adding this to my bar cookie repertoire!
scottholly505
I made a lot of changes even though I LOVE Melissa Clark. I just can’t use that much butter and sugar in anything. I also didn’t have chocolate wafer Cookies on hand —and I never found anything but Oreo cookies or chocolate wafer cremes . I substituted Ginger-os w the cream scraped out. Tasted great but chocolate is always better. Chocolate sandwich cookies would work fine. I cut amt to 1/4 c butter in crust and use only 2 TbSP sugar. I cut sugar to 1c. In batter, 2/3 c butter. Tasted great.
Luther
WOW! OK, now that that is out of the way let's concentrate on the rest. These are to die for. Very rich, ergo why the instructions say to cut the pan into 24. Still deciding about refrigeration vs. room temp. Room temp does give these a bit of a greasy taste, probably why one reviewer suggested two sticks of butter instead of 2 1/2. But I assure you mine will not go to waste. A really great recipe that I will use many times to come. No changes with the possible exception of the butter.
The Tortoise
Taking a cue from comments, I used 7 TBS butter for the chocolate crust and 1 stick + 1 TBS for the blondie. I also reduced the sugar in the blondie to 1-3/4 cups. It seemed to work fine. I liked the result, but I felt something was missing. Maybe raisins in the blondie part or a chocolate drizzle on top.
L
Again, with the dessert people complaining about butter and sugar. Chill. You can adjust and tell us about it, but stop using language like people who use sugar in desserts are imbeciles. These are awesome, and quite different. I used Oreos, which I know changed the consistency of the crust, but I was in a hurry and it worked. Excellent and crispy. My 6 year old calls this banana bread pie and that‘s fairly spot on. Will definitely make this again.
Sam
Came out incredibly greasy and flat, did not have the texture of a blondie. Something also did not work for me with this recipe; the amount of butter seems off, or perhaps the amount of banana I used threw it off.
Mom
Use chocolate teddy grahams, rum, and 1 cup chocolate chips. Could prob cut down on butter but haven’t tried.
Beth from NJ
Baked it in a store-bought graham cracker pie crust. It was exactly the right size for the filling. Browned just 5 TBS of butter and added about 2 TBS of applesauce to replace some of the missing butter. Reduced the brown sugar to just under 1 cup. Used chocolate chips instead of nuts and chocolate liqueur instead of rum. DELICIOUS! I could eat the whole thing straight out of the oven.
Lesteck
Used 1 3/4 sticks of butter (200 gms), about 2/3 the brown sugar, and added more flour. These were pretty good, and just got more addictive as the day went on. Didn't have rum, and used Kahlua instead. Still, plenty sweet. May use vanilla next time. There will be a next time. I actually enjoyed the crispy, chewy edges, which originally appeared overcooked.
Gabrielle
I'm so confused by the ratings on this recipe - mine came out slimey and flat, nothing like a blondie. I double checked everything I did, convinced that I must have missed an ingredient entirely for them to come out so badly, but couldn't figure it out. I love Melissa Clark but there is something about this recipe that does not work.
Elissa
Made with mixed cookie crumbs (I keep a bag in the freezer and add leftover cookies of all sorts until I have enough to make a crust), added a bit of cocoa and only used about 1/2 of the butter in the crust. Reduced sugar in the topping to 320 grams, added chocolate chips and pecans instead of walnuts. Super tasty but still could reduce sugar a bit more for my tastes.
Bkln Mom
I've recently been doing these kinds of crusts with Oreo Dark Chocolate Thins, throwing them into the food processor whole and adding melted butter to get the wet sand consistency. The dark chocolate is a bit bitter and makes a super nice counter point to the sweet and creamy stuff (good with cheesecake, too) and was great on this recipe. People love this crust and soooo easy!
JBandK9s
Yasssss! I love this recipe and have also made them a few times. Last time I used the Oreo Dark Chocolate thins and not only were they the best by far, the package also provided just enough for the three cups of crumbs (minus one or two that jumped into my mouth). For some of the others I tried I needed two packages to reach the three cups. These bars are SO GOOD!
mc
Halved it but used 2 bananas still, baked in an 8x8 added chocolate chips. Used 3 tbsp butter in crust, 5 tbsp in blondie mix for 1 stick butter total. Used 1 tbsp white sugar in crust. Used 1 c sugar in cookie mix could have gone to 3/4c. Used 1.5 tbsp rum, not much rum flavor still. Absolutely delicious. Moist blondie/cake and yummy crunchy crust. Will definitely be making again.
Chocolate Wafers
I used the Oreo Thins for the crust and it was delicious!
jil
Yumm. I had 3 bananas, so i made this twice. First time full recipe. 2nd time half-recipe in an 8" cake pan. I couldn't find chocolate wafers, so i used vanilla wafers and added a generous amount of chocolate chips to the banana/egg mixture. Otherwise, just as written in recipe. I learned from first to second time that it is really important to brown the butter, which I didn't manage to do the first time. I'm so tired of banana bread, this is now my go-to for overripe bananas. Thank you Melissa!
e. f.
I did reduce the butter in the chocolate base by 2 tbsp without an issue. Otherwise made as written. It was a good bar cookie. The banana flavor does not come through enough for my tastes. Interesting to make as a change from banana bread.
claudia woo
they were just okay, followed some of the advice, cutting back on sugar and butter. my favorite recipe is from Eating Well, almond butter quinoa blondies. i use regular flour, adding milk chocolate chips and cut up heath bars. they are divine, pecans too.
ted
As with all of Olivia's comments, you should stop reading immediately. Next you should make this recipe because it is fantastic. So buttery and gooey (yes, buttery, Olivia). I used both dark rum and vanilla and was happy I did.
Ruth
These bars are fantastic per usual for Melissa's recipes. Her proportions are perfect. Didn't change a thing. "Too much sugar" and Chocolate crusted Banana Blondies is and oxymoron. If your concern is too sweet or too much sugar, skip dessert!
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