Chocolate-Crusted Banana Blondies Recipe (2024)

As with all of Melissa's recipes, they are a truly great starting point but my god will you be disappointed if you don't make any adjustments. Reduce the butter to 2 sticks (using one of them to grease your pan because you really don't need even full 2 sticks) and you won't feel your throat seize from being coated with fat when you take a bite of your finished brownie.

I use chocolate biscuits from Trader Joes or chocolate Teddy Grahams

We couldn't find chocolate wafer cookies, so we substituted gingersnaps and it's so good that who needs chocolate?

This seems like a ton of sugar. Did anyone reduce the sugar or replace all/part with something else?

Trader Joe's chocolate hazelnut biscotti is fabulous for chocolate cookie crusts.

OK Wikipedia says 1 medium banana is 118 grams. Answered myself.

Volume-wise, how much? I have a freezer full of bananas from my yard, not Cavendish but various other varieties, all short, ranging from 3 - 6". Drives me nuts trying to get the measurements right when it says "2 bananas." Especially frustrating when they've gone to such trouble to give precise measurements of the rest. grrrrrh :(

I messed with this recipe quite a bit based on the notes and what I had on hand, and I was very happy with the results. I skipped the cookie crust layer, cut the butter to 9 Tbsp and the sugar to 360 grams, swapped pecans for walnuts, and added 1/2 cup chocolate chunks. Very gooey and tasty, and not too much work!

I reduced the dark brown sugar by 1/3 and could have cut it down further. Next time I will also eliminate sugar from crust. Also needs more rum, which surprised me.

2 1/2 cups of dark brown sugar. No way. I used one cup. 3 T of rum. The taste is much more complex.

A crowd pleaser. The filling most closely compares to the taste of Banana's Foster - browned butter caramel plus ripe banana. The parchment pan lining let's the cooled bars literally fall right out of the pan. They were an ease to slice. Will definitely be adding this to my bar cookie repertoire!

WOW! OK, now that that is out of the way let's concentrate on the rest. These are to die for. Very rich, ergo why the instructions say to cut the pan into 24. Still deciding about refrigeration vs. room temp. Room temp does give these a bit of a greasy taste, probably why one reviewer suggested two sticks of butter instead of 2 1/2. But I assure you mine will not go to waste. A really great recipe that I will use many times to come. No changes with the possible exception of the butter.

Taking a cue from comments, I used 7 TBS butter for the chocolate crust and 1 stick + 1 TBS for the blondie. I also reduced the sugar in the blondie to 1-3/4 cups. It seemed to work fine. I liked the result, but I felt something was missing. Maybe raisins in the blondie part or a chocolate drizzle on top.

I made a lot of changes even though I LOVE Melissa Clark. I just can’t use that much butter and sugar in anything. I also didn’t have chocolate wafer Cookies on hand —and I never found anything but Oreo cookies or chocolate wafer cremes . I substituted Ginger-os w the cream scraped out. Tasted great but chocolate is always better. Chocolate sandwich cookies would work fine. I cut amt to 1/4 c butter in crust and use only 2 TbSP sugar. I cut sugar to 1c. In batter, 2/3 c butter. Tasted great.

Used 1 3/4 sticks of butter (200 gms), about 2/3 the brown sugar, and added more flour. These were pretty good, and just got more addictive as the day went on. Didn't have rum, and used Kahlua instead. Still, plenty sweet. May use vanilla next time. There will be a next time. I actually enjoyed the crispy, chewy edges, which originally appeared overcooked.

I'm so confused by the ratings on this recipe - mine came out slimey and flat, nothing like a blondie. I double checked everything I did, convinced that I must have missed an ingredient entirely for them to come out so badly, but couldn't figure it out. I love Melissa Clark but there is something about this recipe that does not work.

Made with mixed cookie crumbs (I keep a bag in the freezer and add leftover cookies of all sorts until I have enough to make a crust), added a bit of cocoa and only used about 1/2 of the butter in the crust. Reduced sugar in the topping to 320 grams, added chocolate chips and pecans instead of walnuts. Super tasty but still could reduce sugar a bit more for my tastes.

I've recently been doing these kinds of crusts with Oreo Dark Chocolate Thins, throwing them into the food processor whole and adding melted butter to get the wet sand consistency. The dark chocolate is a bit bitter and makes a super nice counter point to the sweet and creamy stuff (good with cheesecake, too) and was great on this recipe. People love this crust and soooo easy!

Halved it but used 2 bananas still, baked in an 8x8 added chocolate chips.Used 3 tbsp butter in crust, 5 tbsp in blondie mix for 1 stick butter total. Used 1 tbsp white sugar in crust. Used 1 c sugar in cookie mix could have gone to 3/4c. Used 1.5 tbsp rum, not much rum flavor still. Absolutely delicious. Moist blondie/cake and yummy crunchy crust. Will definitely be making again.

I used the Oreo Thins for the crust and it was delicious!

Yumm. I had 3 bananas, so i made this twice. First time full recipe. 2nd time half-recipe in an 8" cake pan. I couldn't find chocolate wafers, so i used vanilla wafers and added a generous amount of chocolate chips to the banana/egg mixture. Otherwise, just as written in recipe. I learned from first to second time that it is really important to brown the butter, which I didn't manage to do the first time. I'm so tired of banana bread, this is now my go-to for overripe bananas. Thank you Melissa!

I did reduce the butter in the chocolate base by 2 tbsp without an issue. Otherwise made as written. It was a good bar cookie. The banana flavor does not come through enough for my tastes. Interesting to make as a change from banana bread.

they were just okay, followed some of the advice, cutting back on sugar and butter. my favorite recipe is from Eating Well, almond butter quinoa blondies. i use regular flour, adding milk chocolate chips and cut up heath bars. they are divine, pecans too.

As with all of Olivia's comments, you should stop reading immediately. Next you should make this recipe because it is fantastic. So buttery and gooey (yes, buttery, Olivia). I used both dark rum and vanilla and was happy I did.

These bars are fantastic per usual for Melissa's recipes. Her proportions are perfect. Didn't change a thing. "Too much sugar" and Chocolate crusted Banana Blondies is and oxymoron. If your concern is too sweet or too much sugar, skip dessert!

A lot of work, but worth it! Made for Mart’s 75th

I made these with less butter, 1 TBSP more rum, and an extra very ripe banana. But the big difference in my version was that I used one of the measure for measure brown sugar substitutes now available. For those looking to switch baked goods and desserts to a low- sugar version, these substitutes have frequently worked well for me. And that was the case here - these turned out great, and the brown sugar substitute tasted great and baked perfectly.

Absolutely delicious. Used chocolate teddy grahams & 1 stick of butter for the crust - no sugar. Used only 1 stick of butter and only 2 cups of sugar for the filling. Came out a wonderful Valentine's treat.

I made this twice and they both came out great. I think the recipe is a guide and you are meant to make adjustments as you see fit or to taste. I reduced sugars by half, always. But have not reduced butter, will try to reduce it next batch. Used both pecans and walnut, pondered on adding chocolate chunks too! So third batch will be another fun one to make!