Banoffee Bars

The inspiration of this dessert is Banoffee Pie; an English dessert made with bananas, cream and toffee (made from boiled condensed milk--Dulce de leche) in either a pastry shell or crumbled biscuits and melted butter.  The pie is delicious and when I found that my hubby had again left two bananas on the "rack" I needed to come up with an idea to use them.

The pie was the inspiration of own and chef of The Hungry Monk Restaurant in Jevington, East Sussex, Nigel Mackenzie and Ian Dowding in 1971.  The claim is that they came up with this recipe because of an unreliable American pie, "Blum's Coffee Toffee Pie." After trying several different fruits, they decided that banana was the winner!  I guess you can figure out the name for this pie comes from combining Banana and Toffee.

Fir the bars I created today, I actually used Heath's Bit of Brittle Toffee Bits, instead of Dulce de Leche.

In my mind if I wanted something I could pick up, I didn't want the bars too soft and the Toffee Bits did the trick.  Also, since the pie I had was with a crumbly cookie base, I wanted to simulate that taste sense too and used Biscoff Cookies that I smashed with a rolling pin.

I used half in the batter and the remaining I sprinkled on top, but I'm getting ahead of myself.  Here's my recipe.

Banoffee Bars

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted
2 cups firmly packed light brown sugar
3 large eggs
2 banana, mashed
1 1/2 tsp. Vanilla extract
3 cups King Arthur all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. Kosher salt
2 bags Heath Bits of Brickle Toffee Bits
1 pkg Biscoff cookies (or you can use shortbread cookies) about 2 cups crushed

Preheat oven to 350F-dgrees.  Spray a 9" x 13" baking pan with baking spray.  In a stand mixer, using the paddle attachment, measure the brown sugar then while the mixer is running on low, add the melted butter.  Beat for about 5 minutes so the sugar dissolves.  Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition and scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed.

Add the bananas and Vanilla extract and mix together.  Add the dry ingredients and mix on low.  Add one bag of toffee bits and 1 cup of cookie pieces to the batter.  Remove from the stand and give the batter a stir with the rubber spatula to make sure everything is incorporated.  Spread into the prepared pan.  Sprinkle 1/2 bag of Toffee Bits and 1 cup Biscoff pieces on top.  Bake in preheated oven for 25 to 30 minutes.  Bars should pull away from side and when you test the center with a wooden skewer, it should come out clean.

I have a spring-form rectangle pan, so after the bars cool for about 7 to 10 minutes, I can run a spatula around the sides then, remove it.

Well, what can I say...these are delicious and if you have bananas "hanging" around, this would be a nice change to just making banana bread.  Enjoy!

I thought you all would get a kick out of one of our kitties, Clara.  She loves boxes and couldn't help but crawl into this Priority box yesterday.  Gotta love Cats<3 p="">