Chocolate-Crusted Banana Blondies
Updated August 20, 2024
Andrew Scrivani for The New York Times
- Total Time
- 1 hour
- Rating
- Comments
- Read comments
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Ingredients
2 ½ sticks unsalted butter (1 ¼ cups), more for greasing pan
200 grams chocolate wafer cookies (to make about 3 cups crumbs)
55 grams light brown sugar (about ¼ cup)
3 grams fine sea salt (about ½ teaspoon), plus a pinch
2 ripe bananas, mashed
2 large eggs
455 grams dark brown sugar (about 2 ½ cups)
2 tablespoons dark rum or 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
130 grams all-purpose flour (about 1 cup)
80 grams toasted walnuts, chopped (about ½ cup)
Flaky sea salt, for sprinkling (optional)
Nutritional analysis per serving
29 grams carbs; 41 milligrams cholesterol; 237 calories; 4 grams monosaturated fat; 2 grams polyunsaturated fat; 7 grams saturated fat; 13 grams fat; 1 gram fiber; 138 milligrams sodium; 2 grams protein; 21 grams sugar
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.
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Preparation
- 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
Comments
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.
I use chocolate biscuits from Trader Joes or chocolate Teddy Grahams
Trader Joe's chocolate hazelnut biscotti is fabulous for chocolate cookie crusts.
Just made these with half of both sugars, and they are perfect. Quite greasy though, so maybe cutting some butter from the blondie part would be a good idea.
I really like Melissa Clark's recipes and while I omitted the cookie crust, I wanted to follow the recipe faithfully otherwise (I almost always tweak recipes as I go). I wasn't thrilled with the texture though. I used about a cup of mashed banana (I had frozen mashed banana in the freezer stored in 1 cup portions, since that is supposed to be equivalent to 2 bananas). I wonder if the full cup was too much. I found the ratio of brown sugar to flour to be very odd but went ahead. This resulted in a sticky and caramelized texture, which was nice, but definitely not like a blondie. I might try reducing the sugar and/or adding a bit more flour next time.
These were delicious though I did modify the recipe. I made the crust with TJ’s cinnamon graham crackers, coconut oil, and salt (no sugar). For the wet ingredients, I cut the sugar in half and only used 1 stick of butter. Plenty sweet and the crust got nice and chewy and held up great. Wish I would have had nuts and rum on hand!