Banana Bars with Cream Cheese frosting
These banana bars are my all-time favorite. They’re so moist and delicious. The cream cheese frosting on top goes with the banana bars perfectly.
Banana Bars – from my mom (no idea where it came from originally) – makes ~3dozen bars1/2 cup softened butter or margarine
2 cups sugar
3 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups mashed ripe bananas (about 4 medium)
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
Pinch salt
Preheat oven to 350F. In a mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar. Beat in eggs, bananas, and vanilla.
Combine to flour, baking soda, and salt; add to creamed mixture and mix well.
Pour into a greased 15x10x1 inch baking pan. Bake at 350 for 25 minutes or until bars test done. Cool.
Frosting
1/2 cup softened butter or margarine
4 cups confectioners sugar
1 package (8 ounces) softened cream cheese
2 tsp. vanilla extract
Cream butter and cream cheese in a mixing bowl. Gradually add confectioners’ sugar and vanilla; beat well. Spread over bars.
I am Jen the Beantown Baker. Engineer by day and baking maven by night. Hubby serves as my #1 fan and official taste tester. We got hitched back in 2006. Barefoot. In the sand. With the waves crashing behind us. It was one of the best decisions we’ve ever made. 
Mmm I love jam, and this looks great for strawberry season! I unfortunately don’t like blueberries — would you adjust the other ingredients if you minus them? Also where do you get canning jars? Yay, fun summer project!
yumventures – You can def leave the blueberries out. Follow the link through to Ina’s original recipe. It doesn’t have blueberries in it. The comments on the Food Network website did say that it was a bit sweet with the sugar listed in the recipe, so keep that in mind.
I’ve never made homemade jam before…but wow this sure does look delicious!
It would be great in some thumbprint cookies or linzer cookies…yumm.
I’ve never had strawberry & blueberry jam before. That looks divine!
Oh, this looks wonderful! I’ve never made jam before but it’s on my list of things to try, this looks like the perfect way to get started. I love berry combos like this. Thanks for sharing. 🙂
Does this recipe require pectin? I’ve heard that pectin is found naturally in raspberries so you don’t need it for that kind of jam, but wasn’t sure if it applied to strawberry as well. I am new to making jam but am excited to try!
Sarah – This recipe does not require pectin.
Hey there.. I have done your strawberry/blueberry jam, and I’m tellin ya,, it was sooooo goooood. Not too sweet either. My problem was, it never would really thicken, and I checked it on a saucer I kept in the freezer. It remained runny,, but ohh sooo good. I gave it away to family and they loved it. I’m just preparing to do more,, fingers crossed, I do hope it gets a little thicker this time. If I were to put the slightest amount of pectin I’m wondering what would happen?????? I noticed this posting is from 2010
beantownbaker — June 15th, 2013 @ 11:44 am
I think a little bit of pectin could help thicken the jam. If you try it, I’d love to know how it turns out.