Monkey Squares

Bananas are a hot commodity in my house. My husband snags them when they're still green and freezes them for his protein shakes. Something I don't really understand but I'm sure he's explained to me the scientific reason why underipe bananas are better for his workout shakes. Then there's my little baby Wes who eats one for breakfast every morning.

This week Wes boycotted bananas and the bananas sitting on my counter were too ripe for John's muscles so I found myself looking at a bunch of overipe bananas getting more ripe by the minute. My usual go-to is my favorite Banana Bread. Ohhh, it's good. But today I made these Monkey Squares. It's supermoist sour cream banana squares topped with a browned butter frosting. I found the recipe from a comment from a reader on another blog. I love finding recipes in obscure places. It's a family favorite recipe...my favorite kind of recipe.

This picture does not do them justice. I LOVED them. They are good warm, cold, and room temperature. Browned butter anything gets me everytime. Make these...

Monkey Squares

from TheWelcomeMat 

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.