Ooey Gooey Banana Bars are sweet and moist dessert bars that are loaded with bananas and frosted with homemade salted caramel buttercream. Although these bars would be delicious on their own, the frosting puts this dessert over the top! If you love desserts with bananas, or just need a great recipe to use up ripe bananas, be sure to also try my Chocolate Chip Banana Bread.
Ingredients & Substitutions
Butter: Use unsalted butter for both the bars and the salted caramel buttercream.
Brown Sugar: These bars are rich dessert bars that are made with brown sugar to give them that extra sweetness.
Bananas: Mash a couple of bananas to use in the bars. You need about 2/3 cup of mashed bananas.
Caramel Sauce: Skip the store-bought caramel sauce and make your own to use in the salted caramel buttercream!
Can These Bars be Gluten-Free?
I stress this often, that I am not a gluten-free specific baker. However, a few readers have mentioned that this recipe works very with a high-quality gluten-free replacement.
Storing & Freezing Ooey Gooey Banana Bars
This cake is best served fresh! However, you can store it in an airtight container (or covered with plastic wrap) in the refrigerator. You can also freeze this cake, however, I do recommend waiting to frost the cake until after thawing.
Can I Make the Bars Without the Frosting?
Yes, of course. However, the salted caramel buttercream truly is magical on these bars and I do hope you’ll give it a chance!
More Delicious Bars
Ooey Gooey Banana Bars
Ingredients
Banana Bars
- 1 cup (2 sticks / 227 g) unsalted butter, melted
- 2 cups (400 g) brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 2 large eggs, room temperature
- 2 cups (250 g) all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 2 ripe bananas, mashed, some chunks are okay (about ⅔ cup)
Salted Caramel Buttercream
- ½ cup (1 stick / 113g) unsalted butter, room temperature
- 2 cups (250 g) confectioners' sugar, sifted
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- ¼ cup (82 g) caramel topping
- 1 ½ teaspoons whole milk, as needed
Instructions
Banana Bars
- Preheat the oven to 350°F and line a 9×13-inch baking dish with parchment paper.
- In a large bowl, using a hand mixer, combine the butter and brown sugar.
- On low speed, add the vanilla and mix until incorporated.
- Add the eggs, mixing on low until incorporated.
- Add the flour and the salt, mixing well.
- Fold in the mashed bananas.
- Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 45 minutes, or until the center is set.
- Let the bars cool as you prepare the buttercream frosting.
Salted Caramel Buttercream
- Combine the butter, sugar, salt, and caramel topping in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment.
- Start mixing on low speed until the sugar is incorporated with the butter.
- Increase the mixing speed to high and beat until smooth and fluffy, about 2 minutes.
- Adjust the consistency with milk as needed.
- Frost the banana bars with the buttercream after they have cooled completely.
Video
Did you make this recipe?
Thank you for making my recipe! You took pictures, right? Well go ahead and post them on Instagram! Be sure to mention me @iambaker and use the hashtag #YouAreBaker.
these are wonderful! It was very much like banana bread in density and taste. The salted buttercream frosting was the perfect topping for these. I didn’t sift the powdered sugar so the frosting was a tiny bit granular, but I didn’t mind. I loved the hit of salt in the frosting. At first I thought there wasn’t enough frosting, but it goes a long way and was the perfect amount. I baked until the toothpick came out clean which was about 42 minutes. Will totally make again!
My family begs for these anytime I have brown bananas. I start testing for doneness at 30 minutes-they were done at 35 minutes. I always put the frosting on when the bottom of the pan is still a little warm and love how a tiny bit of the icing kind of melts into these bars. You seriously need to make these. So. Darn. Good.
I don’t like “salted caramel” but love caramel! How do I make the icing as just regular caramel buttercream?
Kinda seems self evident…
Love these
I made these with 1/4 cup greek yogurt. 1 & 3/4 brown sugar
Best banana bars I’ve tried in a long time! Didn’t realize I didn’t have powdered sugar until it was too late and used regular sugar instead in the frosting. Texture was a little off but still tasted great! Thanks for the new fav recipe!
Hi Annie! Just a small baking tip…you can blend regular white sugar, in the blender, to get powdered sugar! Just be careful, when you open the lid, don’t get too close, as it does tend to blow up some very visible dust, from the sugar.
Blend blend blend until you get the right consistency of powdered sugar! Usually no more than 30 seconds at a time
Hope this helps, I’m not trying to step on toes here, just being helpful 😅 🙃 😊
They weren’t ooey or gooey and not enough banana flavor. I gently spooned in the fluffed up flour, so I know that I didn’t use too much flour. I also took them out of the oven 5 minutes early. They’re not horrible but they weren’t anything like I was expecting or hoping they’d be….
Sorry to hear that. Did they look like my pictures? Unfortunately, every oven is different and yours just may heat differently and the bars may be a tad overbaked. In that situation I agree, they would still taste ok, but not be super soft.
I don’t have a stand mixer. Can I use a hand mixer?
Yummy, I give them a ten!
Awesome thank you for sharing. Love it , I added pecans😊❤️