I love bananas.

I love peanut butter.

I love chocolate.

And I love all of these things together, in any combination.  Toast with peanut butter and banana.  Oatmeal with Nutella and banana.  A smoothie with banana, peanut butter, and a little cocoa powder.

I found this recipe for Banana Blondies with Chocolate Peanut Butter Ganache on How Sweet It Is and thought I had hit the jackpot.  I needed a new dessert to bring for dinner at a friend’s house, so I whipped these up. I trimmed some of the blondies for a taste (to make sure they were good enough for my friends!) and it was delicious.  I mean, melted butter, brown sugar, and mashed banana is a pretty fool proof combination, so I shouldn’t be so surprised.  Then I mixed up my first ever ganache (who knew it was so easy?) and poured enough of it over the blondies to cover them and then licked the bowl clean.  OMG.

With two great components, the final product must be amazing, right?  Mind blowing, write home to your mother good?

Meh.

I mean, they’re good.  But the “blondie” part is more like a banana bread or cake texture and the ganache is so thick and chewy.  The husband and I both agree that the textures just didn’t quite work together as well as we hoped.  So I embarked on the mission to find a way to make a chewy banana blondie to top with Chocolate Peanut Butter Ganache.

I researched several other blondie recipes and used Smitten Kitchen‘s recipe as a starting point for my next attempt.  This proved to be the winner.  With just a couple adjustments, this blondie plus the ganache from the other website is a gem.  The husband agrees, this gives us the proper blondie texture to bear the thick weight of the ganache.

Perfect Banana Blondies

Ingredients

• 1 stick (8 tbsp) butter, melted
• 1 cup dark brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 banana, mashed
• Pinch of salt
• 1 cup flour
• 1/2 cup almond flour

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and butter an 8 x 8 pan.  Or, spray with non-stick spray and place parchment paper inside the pan and spray again.

2. Melt your stick of butter and combine it with the brown sugar.  Beat until smooth and then add the egg, vanilla, and mashed banana.

3. Then add the salt and both flours and stir to combine.  Pour the batter into the prepared pan.  Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until a knife inserted in the middle comes out clean.

4. Cool the blondies on a rack before cutting them.

 

Chocolate Peanut Butter Ganache

Ingredients

• 6 oz chocolate chips or pieces ( I recommend dark or semi sweet chocolate chips)
• 1/3 cup smooth peanut butter
• 1/2 cup half and half

Instructions

1. Place the peanut butter and chocolate pieces in a heat-safe bowl.  I recommend one with higher sides for really quick stirring.

2. Heat the half and half in a saucepan over medium heat but don’t let it boil!  Once it’s hot, dump the hot half and half over the chocolate and peanut butter and let it sit for 1-2 minutes.  Then stir continuously until the mixture is smooth.  If it gets stubborn, create a double boiler and heat the chocolate until you can get it smooth.

3. Pour the chocolate ganache over the blondies and make sure it covers them all.  Feel free to lick the bowl clean.