Banana Cream Cheese Brownies
Caramelized bananas and vanilla cream cheese swirled into a classic brownie batter, these Banana Cream Cream Cheese Brownies are so decadent and so delicious.
Servings: 9
Equipment
- 8" x 8" square metal pan
Ingredients
Caramelized Bananas
- 1 tablespoons salted butter
- 30 grams brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 2 bananas medium/large
- 1 pinch flaky salt
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Cream Cheese Swirl
- 227 grams cream cheese room temp, 8 ounce block
- 1 egg room temperature
- 1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste
Brownies
- 200 grams salted butter
- 325 grams dark brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon espresso powder
- 1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 65 grams cocoa powder natural or dutch processed
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 3 eggs large, room temperature
- 90 grams all purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 100 grams 60% chocolate chips
Instructions
Caramelized Bananas
- In a medium flat bottomed pan add in 2 tablespoons of salted butter. Place the pan over low heat to melt the butter. Sprinkle in the brown sugar and cinnamon.
- Peel and slice two bananas, it doesn't matter to much how you slice them because we'll be smushing them with a fork once they've softened.
- Keep the heat over low or medium low. Use a spatula or a spoon to push the bananas around a bit to keep them from sticking and slowly start to break them up.
- After a couple minutes, they should be nice and soft. Use a fork to mash them up. There will still be banana clumps but there shouldn't be any pieces larger than 1/2" chunks.
- Turn off the heat, sprinkle in the flaky salt and pour in the vanilla. Stir to combine and set aside to cool.
Cream Cheese Swirl
- In a medium mixing bowl, whip the cream cheese until smooth. Crack in the egg and then add in the salt and vanilla.
- Beat again on medium speed until smooth. Set aside.
Brownie Batter
- Preheat the oven to 350 F and place a rack in the center of the oven.
- In a medium pot add in the butter, brown sugar, espresso powder, and salt. Place over medium low heat to melt the butter. Whisk occasionally until the butter has melted.
- Continue to cook and whisk until the butter and sugar are completely mixed, smooth and bubbling. Keep cooking and whisking for 2-3 minutes after it has started to bubble.
- Add in the cocoa powder and vanilla and whisk again. Allow it to cool for at least 5 minutes but ideally 10.
- Then crack in all 3 eggs, one at a time whisking until mixed in between each addition.
- Pour in the flour and baking powder and whisk once more until just combined.
- Last but not least pour the chocolate chips into the batter and stir to combine.
- Line an 8" x 8" square metal baking pan with a sheet of parchment paper for an easy lift out.
Assemble
- Pour 95% (like basically all except scraping the sides of the pot) of the brownies batter into the lined metal pan.
- Dollop the cream cheese filling (about 2 tablespoons at a time) all over the surface of the batter.
- Then dollop the caramelized bananas in between the dollops of the cream cheese. Finally scoop the remaining brownie batter into small 5-6 little dollops on top wherever you want. Use a knife to gently drag lines in an s pattern over the surface first snaking up and down in one direction. Then turn the pan 90 degrees and snake back up and down.
Bake
- Bake the brownies in the hot oven for 30 minutes, then rotate 180 degrees and bake for another 15 minutes until the whole top has puffed and cracked.
- It should still have a wobble to it.
- Remove the pan from the oven. Leave to cool to room temperature for 30 minutes to an hour.
- Slice the set brownies with a hot knife, cleaning between each slice, to get clean cuts and serve immediately or store in an airtight container at room temperature.
Notes
Tips for making Banana Cream Cheese Brownies
- If your bananas aren't ripe, don't stress just put them (still with the peels on) onto a small baking sheet. Bake them at 350 F for 10 minutes until black. Remove from the oven and allow them to cool before peeling and using.
- Because the bananas aren't part of the batter, it's not super important to have an exact size but I generally go for medium large. If yours are little you could totally do 3 bananas.
- While any chocolate will work in these brownies, I recommend using dark chocolate so they don't get too sweet.
- Make sure to fully whisk the sugar into the butter, at first it can seem like they won't combine while cooking, but just keep whisking.
- If you don't have espresso powder/instant espresso don't stress. It adds a little extra something but it's not crucial.
- After adding the first egg the batter may thicken strangely but don't stress just keep going and it'll all be ok.
- These brownies are hard to over mix because there isn't much flour in them, that being said it's always best to stop whisking when no more dry flour is visible.
- Be careful not to over swirl the fillings into the batter, if you do you'll have a bit of a brown mush on top lol.
- Bake until just set, to keep these brownies fudgy you don't want to over bake them so just go until the top is shiny and slightly cracked and the edges have set.
- Let them cool!!! To get clean sliced brownies, you have to let them cool. They're absolutely delicious hot and gooey but they won't look nice.