Must Make Banana Bread

You've had the thought. The one that says don't throw those far-beyond-ripe bananas away, make banana bread with them. I can still remember when my mom informed me that the brown bananas I would never dare eat, let alone touch, were the perfect kind to make banana bread. 

We had some of those brown 'naners in our fruit bowl that needed used ASAP, so I tried a new recipe and let me tell you, it is to die for.

Monkey Squares
by TheWelcomeMat via The Girl Who Ate Everything

1 ½ cups sugar

1 cup sour cream
½ cup butter, softened
2 eggs
1 ¾ cups (3 or 4) ripe bananas, mashed
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

¾ teaspoon salt
½ cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Heat oven to 375 degrees. Grease and flour 10x15 jelly roll pan. Beat first four ingredients until creamy. Blend in bananas and vanilla one minute. Add dry ingredients and blend one minute. Stir in nuts and spread in pan. Bake 20 to 25 minutes until golden brown. Cool and frost with Browned Butter Frosting (recipe below).

Banana bread option: Instead of spreading into jelly roll pan, this recipe will make about two regular loaves of banana bread, or about four small loaves. Regular loaves bake about 45 minutes at 350 degrees. Small loaves will bake about 25 minutes on 350.

Browned Butter Frosting

½ cup butter
4 cups powdered sugar
1 ½ teaspoons vanilla
about 3 tablespoons milk or half and half

Heat butter in saucepan over medium heat past the melting point until it boiling, and a delicate brown. Remove from the heat and immediately add the remaining ingredients. This should be thicker than a glaze and thinner than frosting. Using a spatula smooth over the top of the Monkey Squares immediately. The frosting will be easier to spread once it's on the warm bread.

Super moist bread and a frosting I had never made before: Brown Butter Frosting. Mmmm-m. I wish you could taste this combination via the picture. I'm not joking. See, my niece Addison, had to get every last bit from the frosting bowl.

With the frosting, it is really more like cake, or as the recipe calls them: Monkey Squares. If you're a regular reader, it's no surprise, this is yet another recipe from my favorite food blogger Christy, also known as The Girl Who Ate Everything. It's not her original recipe, but after tasting these, I know why they are a family favorite at her house. All it took was one taste and I was sold. Try it!