Banana Crunch Bars

Submitted by SkinnyMinnie

"Got this one from BHG. Banana, chocolate and peanut butter--what's not to love? The four-hour chill time is included in the cooking time."

 

• Ready In: 4hrs 20mins
• Ingredients: 12
• Yields: 16-20 bars

ingredients

• 1 3⁄4 cups chocolate wafers, crushed (about 36 wafers)
• 1⁄2 cup sugar
• 1⁄4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1⁄2 cup butter, melted
• 3 tablespoons light corn syrup
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 2 medium bananas, sliced (1 1/2 cups)
• 1 teaspoon rum flavoring
• 1⁄2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 1⁄2 cup peanut butter chips
• 1 teaspoon shortening

directions

1. Preheat oven to 350ºF.
2. In a medium bowl combine the crushed wafers, sugar, cocoa powder, and vanilla.
3. Stir in 1/2 cup melted butter.
4. Press into the bottom of a greased 8x8-inch pan.
5. Bake for 10 minutes and cool slightly on a wire rack, about 10 minutes.
6. In a small saucepan combine the corn syrup and 2 tablespoons butter.
7. Stir over medium heat until melted and bubbly.
8. Remove from heat.
9. Stir in bananas and rum flavoring.
10. Spoon banana mixture in an even layer over baked crust.
11. In another small saucepan combine the chocolate chips, peanut butter chips, and shortening.
12. Stir over low heat until melted.
13. Drizzle over the banana mixture.
14. Cover and chill until set, about 4 hours.
15. Let stand at room temperature for 20 minutes before cutting into bars.
16. Serve the same day.

Reviews

[rosslare]

Now, now, this banana-chocolate-peanutbutter yummy thing is an overkill! I can't give this a star rating, because I did not follow the instructions all the way. Flavor is, needless to say, to die for, but there was a problem with texture. For the chocolate wafer crust, I used the chocolate covered wafers, and the 1/2 cup butter made it all too wet. I decided, that since it was going to get chilled and would get hard with the butter, there is no need to bake it, so I didn't. Fine. The next layer with syrup, butter and bananas, then. After boiling the syrup and butter, I added the bananas in it while it was still hot. Mistake. The bananas sort of boiled in it and gave out their juices, making it all too runny and bananas loosing their fresh flavor. Add the bananas after chilling the syrup! For the top layer, Chocolate chips and peanut butter chips, I did not have peanut butter chips but used 1/4 cup peanut butter and some sugar to taste, and that was fine. The ready produce, after chilling, was hard on the bottom and runny in the middle and bit thick and hard on the top, again. Not very easy to cut but Oh, boy, those flavors! So, what did I learn? Use only 1/4 cup butter for the bottom, no need to bake necessarily and add the bananas to chilled syrup and the topping can be halved, and all's gonna be fine.