Good Eating Monday: Frosted Banana Bars!

Today's Good Eating recipe is one great for using up those bananas that got ripe too fast: Frosted Banana Bars!

I don't know about you, but I have stages for bananas: 

Stage 1: slightly green to just barely ripe and no spotting on peel: eat plain.

Stage 2: more ripe, but not squishy with only a slight amount of spotting on peel: slice on cereal or use in gelatin.

Stage 3: squishy ripe and heavily spotted peel: use in baking muffins, quick breads or something. 

Now Hubby will eat a Stage 2 banana plain. I won't.
But nobody in my house eats Stage 3!

This recipe calls for a jelly roll pan, which is either a 10 x 15 or 12 x 17 size baking pan with a 1" high side wall.  I have a couple I use for baking cookies on. They make good cookie sheets, too, so not a waste to have on hand.

This is a pass-along recipe given to me by my friend, Paula, who said these bars were popular whenever she took them to a pot-luck.

A good picture of what Banana Bars look like.

Frosted Banana Bars

Ingredients
1 1/2 cup sugar

1 stick margarine or butter (=1/2 cup)
2 eggs, beaten
3/4 cup sour cream

2 cups flour

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 ripe bananas

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

Frosting:

4 oz cream cheese, softened

1/2 stick margarine or butter (= 4 Tablespoons or 1/4 cup)

2 cups Confectioners sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

Directions:

1)  Prepare jelly roll pan by spraying with oil cooking spray. Pre-heat oven to 350.

2)  In a large bowl: Combine sugar with softened margarine/butter. Stir in mashed bananas, beaten eggs,  & vanilla. Combine flour, soda & salt in sifter and gradually add to wet ingredients, stirring in after each addition until well mixed. (Optional: add nutmeg and/or cinnamon or nuts!)  Pour mix into jelly roll pan & spread evenly.  Bake for 30 minutes. Remove when golden brown and a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Allow to cool completely before frosting.

Frosting Directions:

Whip softened cream cheese & margarine/butter & vanilla together.

Then gradually stir in 2 cups of Confectioner's sugar, beating after each addition until well combined and fluffy.

Spread over cooled cake and cut into desired serving size squares.

Note: Because frosting is cream cheese, be sure & keep cake chilled until ready to serve and store leftovers in refrigerator.

*****

I find this recipe a little extra sweet, so reducing sugar in the cake to 1 1/4 cups might be useful and, instead of a bar cream cheese, buy a container of light whipped cream cheese and substitute 1/2 cup or so of that in the frosting recipe for a lighter frosting!

If I'm making a cream cheese frosting, I always prefer the light whipped cream cheese!

So how do you eat your bananas?
*****

Eat up, me hearties, yo-ho!