Banana Delights

I have a love/hate relationship with bananas. I love them for a potassium filled snack, to put in smoothies, and to bake into bread. I don't love, however, when they get browner and browner sitting unloved in our fruit bowl. Every week, I go to the grocery store, imagine how many bananas we'll eat, buy half as many, and I still end up with two or three speckled ones by the weekend! So my goal as of late has been to come up with new and delicious ways to make use of my overripe bananas. Last weekend, I found this recipe for Caramel Banana Cake from the Kitchn, which sounded like a welcome alternative to my staple banana bread. It was light and fluffy, perfectly sweet, and would have been only a bit more incredible with some cream cheese icing on top.

Caramel Banana Cake

Recipe, adapted from the Kitchn:
(Makes 10-12 servings)

3/4 cup butter
3/4 cup white sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
3 eggs
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 cups nonfat milk
3 mashed bananas
1/2 cup caramel sauce
Powdered sugar

Heat oven to 325ºF. Grease one 9x13" rectangular pan.
Cream the butter and sugar until fluffy then add the eggs and beat. In a small bowl, mix the flour with the baking soda. Mix the milk and mashed bananas in a separate bowl and add to the eggs and butter, alternating with the flour. Beat until smooth.
Pour half the batter into the prepared pan. Pour half the caramel sauce onto batter, swirl with a knife, pour the rest of the batter, then the rest of the caramel sauce, swirl with a knife. Put pan in the oven and bake for about 70 minutes, or until the centers are set and a knife comes out clean.
Cool completely and dust with powdered sugar before serving.

Next up, I can't wait to try this one ingredient banana ice cream!

What do you do with your leftover bananas?