Butterscotch & White Chocolate Chip Caramel Banana Bars
7 Apr
Remember how I droned on in THIS post about how I go through phases with bananas? About how I can go for weeks and even months on end without so much as the desire to LOOK at a banana, and then wake up one morning wanting to eat nothing BUT bananas for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks for the remainder of my days? Right now I’m on the latter. Total banana kick in full swing. I even managed to find organic Del Monte bananas (my favorite!) at my favorite fruit store in the world – SCORE! I bought a few bunches immediately, and then realized I’d be heading out of town again for the weekend…
So, currently there’s just one major problem I have with bananas.
Traveling with them.
Correct me if I’m wrong, and please share if you know a secret about this that I don’t, but bananas are not the easiest fruit to travel with (even a road trip, as is the case right now). An apple I can toss in my purse, backpack, bathroom bag (you know, wherever), and open it to find a nearly perfect apple waiting for me when hunger strikes. Bananas, on the other hand, are NOT easily thrown in to a purse or any bag containing really ANYTHING at all, let alone a bag of clothes.
Bananas just have that ability to be impossible to pack on a trip both because of their penchant to brown and squish ALL over the place, but also because of their ability to make everything in your life at any given moment SMELL like banana. Now, I love me a banana (on a good week/month) but I don’t want to pull a pair of banana smelling pajama pants out of my bag at the end of the day. There’s a reason banana didn’t make it on the list of fruity scented body washes and lotions in the Burt’s Bees and The Body Shop bath and skin care line.
The only places bananas smell good are right after you peel them and they’re headed straight into your mouth, or coming out of the oven in breads, muffins, cupcakes, and bars. Speaking of bars, the banana bars I’ve got for you today are a cookie-banana bread-hybrid, and it was totally unplanned as far as texture, as well as everything else about them goes. Some of the best things in life are unplanned!…Although, as far as I’m concerned, some of the worst things in life are also unplanned (ie: running out of gas on the freeway).
I had an idea in my head for the flavor profile I was hoping to achieve, but the rest was left to chance. That being said, if you’re looking for a dense, chewy cookie with a mild banana taste, this might not be what you’re looking for. If, however, you have a hankering for a breakfast-ish bar with a sorta gooey, cakier than cookie texture, and lots of caramel and butterscotchy goodness packed in, this recipe is quite possibly exactly what you’re looking for.
Butterscotch & White Chocolate Chip Caramel Banana Bars
Ingredients:
- 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup butter or margarine (I used non-dairy butter flavored shortening)
- 2 large bananas
- 3/4 cup brown sugar
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup butterscotch chips
- 1/2 cup white chocolate chips
- 9 cubes wrapped caramel
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350*F. Grease an 8×8″ baking pan or line with parchment paper or a Panpat.
Cream together the shortening and sugars in the bowl of a stand mixer until fluffy. Add in bananas and vanilla, and beat until smooth. Add eggs 1 at a time, mixing between additions.
In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, and salt. Slowly add dry mixture to the wet ingredients, mixing between additions.
Stir in the butterscotch chips and white chocolate chips by hand. Pour batter into prepared pan. Push the caramel cubes down into the batter, evenly spaced ( 3 x 3). Smooth batter over the top of the caramel pieces.
Bake for about 40-45 min, covering with foil and rotating pan half-way through (about the 20 min. mark). Remove from oven and allow to cool in pan before cutting.
That being said. I obviously (OBVIOUSLY) still packed up the SEVERAL bananas I had left after making these bars and loaded them in to my car to take with. I wasn’t about to leave them behind only to get down to LA and wish I had bananas, and then be forced to buy new ones.
I love me some bananas! (FOR NOW) <3
Blog post today fueled by Starbucks!  Ahhhh, I love me some green tea (FOREVER!) <3
