Banana Bars with Brown Butter Glaze — ‘Fudgy’ is the only word that describes these banana bars! They’re the banana equivalent of moist, fudgy brownies with zero trace of cakiness.
Table of Contents
These brown butter banana bars are rich, soft, supremely moist, and tooth-sinkingly dense and satisfying. If you’re looking for a fluffy slice of banana cake or banana bread, they’re not that.
This is an easy, no-mixer recipe and the brown butter glaze makes the banana bars go from really darn good to out-of-this world amazing. It’s a must-make recipe! I cannot think of two more powerfully flavorful ingredients than browned butter or vanilla beans seeds, and flavor just explodes from the glaze.
After pouring the glaze over the warm bars, it seeps down and soaks in, and makes the bars even moister and softer. The rippled appearance that’s created as it sets up enhances the homey comfort food factor.
I normally have a piece or two of what I make and give the rest to my family or re-home the leftovers with friends and neighbors, but I hoarded these bars!
Recipe Ingredients
To make these brown butter frosted banana bars, you’ll need:
- White chocolate chips
- Unsalted butter
- Egg
- Granulated sugar
- Vanilla extract
- Mashed banana
- All-purpose flour
- Salt
- Confectioners’ sugar
- Vanilla bean paste
- Cream or milk
Note: Scroll down to the recipe card section of the post for the ingredients with amounts included and for more complete directions.
How to Make Brown Butter Glazed Banana Bars
- Make the banana bars: In a large, microwave-safe bowl, add the white chocolate and butter, and melt.
- Add the egg, sugar, and vanilla, and whisk until combined.
- Stir in the bananas, followed by the flour and salt.
- Turn batter out into a greased 8×8-inch pan and bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out mostly clean.
- Make the brown butter glaze: You’ll first need to brown the butter (I’ve listed exact instructions and tips below), then combine it with confectioners’ sugar, vanilla bean paste, and salt.
- Slowly pour in the milk, whisking until smooth.
- Pour the glaze over the bars while they’re still warm.
- Let the bars rest, uncovered for two to three hours before slicing and serving.
Adjusting the Consistency of the Glaze
As you whisk together the vanilla glaze, you may need to add additional powdered sugar or milk to reach your desired consistency. When adding extra milk or sugar, add just a little at a time to be safe!
How to Brown Butter
Browning a stick of butter takes about 5 minutes (depending on pan size), but watch it closely so you don’t burn it!
- Cook butter over medium-high heat in a small saucepan until it’s amber to brown in color.
- I swirl the pan in the last minute or so to make sure I can really see the color changes. While browning the butter, it will go through stages of hissing, sputtering, and making noise until the water cooks off, at which point the browning occurs.
- Besides changing color, you’ll know the butter is fully browned once it starts smelling nutty and fragrant. Trust me, you’ll know when it’s done!
Tips for Making This Recipe
Melting the white chocolate: White chocolate is very prone to scorching and seizing up, so watch it carefully and don’t overheat.
Vanilla bean paste substitute: I used vanilla bean paste in the vanilla glaze, but scraping the seeds of a vanilla bean works too. Vanilla extract is okay, but it won’t be as intense as vanilla paste or seeds would be. Use what you have on hand — these frosted banana bars will be delicious no matter what!
Browning the butter: When you’re transferring the browned butter from the saucepan to the mixing bowl, make sure to get all of the brown bits from the bottom of the pan into the bowl. Those little browned bits are full of flavor, so definitely include them in the vanilla glaze!
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Banana Bars with Browned Butter Glaze
Ingredients
Bars
- ¾ cup white chocolate chips
- ½ cup unsalted butter, melted (1 stick)
- 1 large egg
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 cup mashed banana, (about 2 large or 3 small/medium ripe bananas)
- 1 ¾ cups all-purpose flour
- pinch salt, (optional and to taste)
Glaze
- ¼ cup unsalted butter, browned
- 1 cup confectioners’ sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste*
- pinch salt, (optional and to taste)
- ¼ cup heavy cream , or as necessary for consistency (can also use milk)
Instructions
Make the Bars
- Preheat oven to 350F. Line an 8-by-8-inch baking pan with aluminum foil, spray with cooking spray; set aside.
- In a large, microwave-safe bowl add the white chocolate, butter, and heat to melt, about 2 minutes on high power. Stop to check and stir after 1 minute, and then heat in 20-second bursts, stopping to stir after each burst, until mixture can be stirred smooth. White chocolate is very prone to scorching and seizing up, so watch it carefully and don’t overheat.
- Wait momentarily before adding the egg so you don’t scramble it. Add the egg, sugar, vanilla, and whisk until combined.
- Stir in the bananas until well-combined.
- Add the flour, optional salt, and stir until just combined; don’t overmix.
- Turn batter out into prepared pan, smoothing the top lightly with a spatula.
- Bake for about 32 to 33 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out mostly clean, or with a few moist crumbs, but no batter. In the last 15 minutes of baking, make the glaze.
Make the Glaze
- Brown the butter (click for tutorial). Cook butter over medium-high heat in a small saucepan until it’s amber to brown in color, about 5 minutes depending on pan size, but watch it closely so you don’t burn it. I swirl the pan in the last minute or so to make sure I can really see the color changes. Butter will go through stages of hissing, sputtering, and making noise until the water cooks off at which point the browning occurs. Butter will smell nutty and aromatic.
- Transfer butter, including brown bits at the bottom of the pan (they’re flavor powerhouses, keep them) from pan to large mixing bowl which stops any carryover cooking.
- Add the confectioners’ sugar, vanilla bean paste, optional salt, and slowly add the milk, whisking until smooth or beat with a handheld electric mixer. As necessary, add additional cream (or confectioners’ sugar) to reach desired glaze consistency. Glaze should be of medium thickness and easily pourable.
Assemble the Bars
- Evenly pour glaze over bars (they don’t have to be cooled first), smoothing it lightly with a spatula if necessary, but glaze will likely just slide into place.
- Allow bars to cool in pan uncovered for at least 2 to 3 hours, (or overnight and cover with a sheet of foil) before slicing and serving so glaze can set up.
- Bars will keep airtight at room temperature for up to 1 week, or in the freezer for up to 6 months.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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More Easy Banana Desserts:
Old-Fashioned Banana Pudding Recipe — This 100% scratch old-fashioned banana pudding recipe is made with homemade vanilla pudding, ripe bananas, and Nilla Wafers. It’s EASY to assemble and SO GOOD!!
Banana Cream Pie Bars – Faster and easier than making a banana cream pie and taste AMAZING!! A crunchy crust, tender banana slices, luscious banana pudding, and creamy whipped topping make these layered pie bars WINNERS!!
Banana Bread Pudding — Bread pudding meets banana bread in this EASY breakfast or brunch recipe that everyone will LOVE!
Six-Banana Banana Chocolate Chip Cake — Yes, 6 bananas in 1 cake means it’s super SOFT, moist, and has robust banana flavor with chocolate chips in EVERY bite!
Cream Cheese-Filled Banana Bread — This is the BEST homemade banana bread recipe! This banana bread tastes like it has cheesecake baked in! Soft, fluffy, easy and tastes ahhhh-mazing!!
Banana Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting – The BEST banana cake recipe because it’s soft, tender, moist, and bursting with banana flavor thanks to the 4 bananas used!
Oh these bars look delicious! Love their fudgey texture!
I’m in awe, Averie, these are brilliant, shared and pinned!
Sue seriously I loved these bars! Saw your FB comment before I got thru my blog comments but as I said there, these are one of my personal faves of ’14 and go down in the personal favorites list of all time. Thanks for pinning & sharing! Knowing you, and your style and taste, I think you’d love these as much as I did!
I have never imagined a FUDGY banana bar….now I am very very intrigued…mmmmmm
We are totally on the same page with our brownie love. I have lemon and brownie recipes on my site too. I am a fudge brownie addict and coming up with new fun flavors has become an obsession ;) Love the glaze on these, great idea!
Ok I need to go find yours! I honestly have no more flavors in mind…but that could change! Give me a couple long runs to ponder and who knows what could happen :)
Carrot cake! Orange Creamsicle! Pumpkin!!Strawberry! Sorry, I’m yelling! I love these! Pinned.
Thanks for pinning all of those and glad you like them :)
This looks amazing!!!! I have got to make these next weekend!
I made these just now… I’m a little bit nervous though, you said I didn’t have to let them cool before putting on the glaze… I let them sit for a while, but they were still warm. Now the butter seems to be separating? I hope that works itself out. The glaze is good enough to eat by the spoonful though! Can’t wait to cut them!
IT DOES work itself out. It seems a little iffy/separating when you first pour it on, I know, but it does just magically come together (hence the rippled appearance) – you’re fine :) Enjoy!
I want to sink my teeth into these bars. They look so different than anything banana I have seen but I really really want one.
Averie, I’m adding these to my list to bake. And how did I miss the Lemon Lemonies? These are right up my alley!
Averie, these look delicious! I can only imagine how addictive they must be. Pinned!
Thanks for pinning!
Oh my goodness, they looks soooo delicious! Wow!
A perfectly curated collection of banana recipes – thank you! Anything that included butter or cream cheese is a favorite of mine.
Oh my goodness, these look just amazing! So dreamy!
Yum these look amazing! There is nothing like the flavor of a true vanilla bean!
P.S. So excited to see you in Taste of Home’s cookbook this month, and the cover recipe no less. Congrats!
Thank you for noticing!! I was pretty excited and flattered about that :)
Absolutely! My family may think I’m crazy because I was all “OMG Averie I “know” her!”. -cue Santa scene from Elf-
When I saw “fudgy” I thought “where’s the chocolate”. I’m glad it’s only white chocolate – I really like banana desserts. Will try soon.
I always try to use banana as a substitute. Sometimes it works, and sometimes not. I can’t wait to try these.
I absolutely agree with you when you say that browned butter adds so much flavor to recipes… I just browned some this morning for a blondie recipe and the smell alone was intoxicating! These bars, oh my… I pinned them to make as soon as the vanilla bean paste arrives. Can’t wait!
Oh yay! LMK how they turn out! And that’s awesome you have vanilla bean paste on order :)
You’re the second blogger who’s mentioned the paste, so I figured it was time to try it out myself:)
Averie, the vanilla bean paste arrived today and we made these bars. They turned out exactly as you described! They ARE fabulously fudgy and the banana flavor is out of this world. And that glaze… My whole family thanks you!
Oh wow, so, so, so happy that these got a glowing report, both on the texture/flavor as well as the glaze! I am so glad you feel the vanilla bean paste was worth it – now you’ll be hooked on that stuff :) It’s amazing in just regular cookies, cakes, etc rather than using extract if you really want to make a bold, big vanilla impact. Thanks for the field report, Heather! I appreciate it!
It’s my pleasure…