Banana Bread Bars with Brown Butter Frosting

"Those are the bomb!"  were the words straight out of Noah's mouth after taking a bite of these super yummy, super moist (I kind of don't like that word), super amazing banana bread bars.

Banana Bread Bars with Brown Butter Frosting (say that five times fast)

Banana Bread Bars

1 1/2 cups white sugar

1/2 cup butter, room temperature

2 eggs

1 cup sour cream

3-4 very ripe bananas, mashed

2 teaspoons vanilla

1 teaspoon baking soda

3/4 teaspoon salt

2 cups all purpose flour

Brown Butter frosting

1/2 cup butter

3 1/2 cups powdered sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

3 tablespoons milk

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.  Grease and flour 15x10-inch jelly roll pan.  In a large bowl, cream together sugar and butter.  Add eggs and beat until light and fluffy.  Add sour cream and mix to combine.  Blend in bananas and vanilla.  Add flour, baking soda, salt and mix until all ingredients are combined.

Spread batter evenly into pan.  Bake 20 to 25 minutes or until golden brown.

For the frosting, melt butter in a small saucepan over medium-low heat.  It will melt, then foam, then turn clear golden and finally start to turn brown and smell nutty.  Stir frequently, scraping up any bits form the bottom as you do.  Keep your eyes on it; it burns very quickly after it browns.  Remove from heat and add powdered sugar, salt, vanilla extract and milk (one tablespoon at a time).  Beat until smooth (it should be thicker than a glaze, but thinner than frosting).

Using a spatula, spread frosting over warm bars.  Sprinkle tops of bars lightly with sea salt if you are like me and love salty and sweet.

*I used a 10x10 baking pan and made 16 mini muffins because I don't own a 15x10-inch jelly roll pan.  I think a 9x13-inch pan would work just fine too.

Adapted slightly from life’s simple measures