Happy Wednesday! I’m pooped and it’s only lunch time around here. I spent part of my morning cleaning my front door/porch area that for the last 5 weeks or so was home to a mother bird and her babies. We wondered why this bird kept flying away as soon as we’d open our front door and soon realized that she made her nest right in our front door wreath. I thought it was adorable, my husband thought otherwise, but after some negotiating he agreed to have mother bird stay for a while.
The boys and I had so much fun peeking at the eggs to see if they had hatched. When they did, the babies were adorable. It didn’t take long for them to grow. Just 2 days ago, we heard them chirping for the first time and yesterday I watched the brave young birds stand at the edge of the wreath ready for their first flight. I just loved watching them. I’m a geek, but I took a picture of 2 of them that were about to leave the nest. See bottom picture.
Ok, onto my yummy brownies…… get your glass of milk ready.
I wrote this brownie recipe last week, whipped them up and my entire family raved about them. You’ve got to try them chilled in the refrigerator. Yum! This is another jazzed up brownie mix, easy and quick and my current favorite recipe. The caramelized bananas and cream cheese really make this recipe incredible. Trust me, you won’t be sorry for giving these a try. I couldn’t do bananas without peanut butter, so I added it in the frosting. Enjoy everyone!
Caramelized Roasted Banana Swirled Brownies with Peanut Butter Sweet Cream Frosting
3 large ripe bananas
2 Tablespoons cold butter, cut into small pieces
3 Tablespoons brown sugar
8 oz softened cream cheese
1/4 Cup sugar
1 box brownie mix (9×13 size, I used Pillsbury)
8 oz softened cream cheese
2 Heaping Tablespoons creamy peanut butter
1 ½ Cups powdered sugar
1.Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.Slice bananas into ½ inch slices and place into a medium baking dish.Top evenly with butter pieces and sprinkle with brown sugar.Bake for 30 minutes, until bubbly and caramelized (golden).Remove from oven and let sit for 10 minutes.Mix with cream cheese and sugar until combined.
2. Prepare brownie mix according to package directions. Line a 7×11 inch baking dish (makes for a thicker brownie with this size of dish), with tin foil that’s been sprayed with cooking spray. Pour brownie batter into prepared dish. Drop banana cream mixture by the spoonfuls evenly over brownie batter. Gently run a knife through the banana and brownie mix, in a swirling motion, without scraping the bottom of the pan to prevent tearing in the foil. Bake for 40-45 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean from middle of brownies. Let cool completely, then pull out of pan with foil edges.
3.In a medium bowl, combine the cream cheese and peanut butter until smooth.Slowly add in powdered sugar until well combined and desired consistency.You can add a bit more if desired.Spread over cooled brownies and cut into squares. Enjoy!
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Caramelized Roasted Banana Swirled Brownies with Peanut Butter Sweet Cream Frosting
Ingredients
For the Banana Swirled Brownies:
- 3 large ripe bananas
- 2 tablespoons cold butter cut into small pieces
- 3 tablespoons brown sugar
- 8 oz softened cream cheese
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 1 box brownie mix 9x13 size, I used Pillsbury
For the Peanut Butter Frosting:
- 8 oz softened cream cheese
- 2 heaping tablespoons creamy peanut butter
- 1 ½ cups powdered sugar
Instructions
For the Banana Brownies:
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Slice bananas into ½ inch slices and place into a medium baking dish. Top evenly with butter pieces and sprinkle with brown sugar. Bake for 30 minutes, until bubbly and caramelized (golden). Remove from oven and let sit for 10 minutes. Mix with cream cheese and sugar until combined.
- Prepare brownie mix according to package directions. Line a 7x11 inch baking dish (makes for a thicker brownie with this size of dish), with tin foil that’s been sprayed with cooking spray. Pour brownie batter into the prepared dish. Drop banana cream mixture by the spoonfuls evenly over brownie batter. Gently run a knife through the banana and brownie mix, in a swirling motion, without scraping the bottom of the pan to prevent tearing in the foil. Bake for 40-45 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean from the middle of brownies. Let cool completely, then pull out of the pan with foil edges.
For the Peanut Butter Frosting:
- In a medium bowl, combine the cream cheese and peanut butter until smooth. Slowly add in powdered sugar until well combined and desired consistency. You can add a bit more if desired. Spread over cooled brownies and cut into squares. Enjoy!
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Here are the brave young birds at the edge of my wreath getting ready for their first flight. Aren’t they cute?
Welcome to my online kitchen! Picky Palate is where you’ll find family friendly recipes along with the best Disney eats, tips and copycat recipes! 
Have the brownies baking right now! Decided to use Nutella for the icing instead of peanut butter. My mouth is watering from the fantastic aromas!!!
Hello there! After drooling over your recipes for a few days, I finally chose one to make myself.
The brownie was really tasty!! I loved the banana/chocolate combination! I need to get a little more peanutbutter and a little less creamcheese in the frosting. I could only get 1/2c of sugar in there without becoming too stiff, so it wasn’t very sweet… I think I need to play with it a little. Maybe sub a little butter to cut the tangy?
In a my-bad moment, I got the regular sized brownie mix. So I adjusted and had some banana mix leftover. I spread one piece of bread with the banana mix, one with nutella and made a grilled sandwich – seriously delicious!! =D
Can’t wait to make many more of these amazing recipes!!
hi,really damn good apple,do you know where i can find that beautiful.thanks,Vox
A friend referred me to your blog and I’m so glad she did! You have the most amazing recipes. I tried this one with the in-laws tonight and we the entire pan. WOW, were they good. Thanks!
i am always so impressed with those who can write their own recipes! this looks amazing!! i can’t wait to try it 🙂
I made these this weekend and passed the recipe on to a few people. They were absolutely scrumptious!! Thanks all the way from Southern Indiana!!
Kristi
Just found your blog a couple of days ago…couldn’t resist the brownie recipe and they’re in the oven now! Also, trying the chicken with gorgonzola sauce tonight. Thank you-
Yum yum yum! My banana mixture didn’t swirl as nicely as yours did, but they were still heavenly. Your recipes are the best!
So it dawned on me that your married name is Flake, so you’ll probably have to play the name game of Jay and JenaVee Smith with your husband. The only name Kevin and I can think of is Lorena Flake. Is she your husband’s sister? Kevin said there are lots of Flakes and he thinks the relation is on his mom’s side. Anyway, I commented about this earlier. And am still thinking about those brownies! 😉
Jenny,
I just discovered your blog (I’ve been food blogging for a couple months now after finding Cookie Madness and loving it) and I saw you on Ultimate Recipe Showdown. Have you also been on some other contest shows on Food Network? Seems like it. Best burger or something? Anyway, I am married to one of Jay Smith’s sons (Kevin) and I think that makes us somehow related.
I will totally enjoy reading your blog now, too and love the look of these brownies with banana. Did you see that one of the finalist from the Pillsbury Bake Off did a brownie with banana in it? I bought the stuff to make them just a few days ago and am now torn between their recipe and yours. Hmmm. They look great–so do your DD PB Cookie on your latest post. You can check out mine, too. I’m not very good with the whole blog thing, yet! I love baking and am having fun in the kitchen!
Wait. Did the birds make it into the recipe?
Ok bad joke. 😉
Yum. I think Elvis would have written a song for you for these babies. Seriously, nice going!
my husband is a total banana freak, so these are definitely going on the list.
someone really needs to invent a way to beam food directly through the interweb.
This has nothing to with this post. But Where do you find the coconut cake mix that you use for your coconut cupcakes? Would you reply on my blog. Thanks hon
Wow. Baby birds on the front door?! We once had ducks breeding in our pool area, but that didn’t give us as good of a view!
Oh, and the brownies look great. May have to make them even if my room mates claim they don’t like banana.
You get the W and the A awards today.
W – WOW factor for the brownies – very original and lookin’ fine.
A – AWWWWW factor – the babies are sooo cute and you got a great shot of them.
Yummy! Those look good.
Three cheers for you for being nice to those birds! That photo is incredible.
And those brownies look amazing. I’m always looking for banana recipes, so those are on my “to-try” list!
Those sound so good! I rally like the idea of using caramelized bananas in chocolate brownies! And the peanut butter frosting…mmm…
These really sound yummy. I keep seeing banana brownie recipes and I think I need to try one out. I love to do the jazzed up mix recipes from time to time.
We have a little family of birds living in our eaves outside our front door too! So cute, but they do make a mess!
Kill me now! Those look so…I don’t know…scrumptious, delicious, heavenly (and sinful). I can’t come up with enough words. YUM!
Those birds look like they’d fit right in with the rest of your decor. How fun. Thanks for adding me to your list, and the brownies sound yum!
What a great brownie recipe! I can’t wait to try these. We have some robins in our back yard that nest in one of our trees every year. It’s always fun to watch them come back.
Bonnie,
It’s funny, the more people I talk to about the birds, I find out this happens quite often. I’d always duck everytime I’d have to unlock the front door thinking she’d fly in my hair!
Thanks Tarah!
Emiline,
I know, Peanut butter and bananas are killer. I could eat this everyday!
Thanks Patsy! Hope you’ll enjoy them as much as we did.
Brilyn,
I know there are many people who don’t go for the brownie mixes. The nice thing is you could do this with your favorite homemade brownie recipe, which I also plan to do! I enjoy making both.
Although I don’t generally use a boxed mix, I LOVE the idea of caramelized bananas and will definitely be trying something along these lines.
Those brownies sound wonderful! I can’t wait to try them.
Too sweet about the baby birds!
Banana, Peanut Butter, Brownies, Cream Cheese…Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes!
These look incredible.
The birds are cute. I think you guys in Arizona are farther along in spring. I haven’t seen any baby birds here (MO), yet.
Oh wow. Those look and sounds brilliant!
Those birds are so cute. We have a mother quail nesting on 15 eggs in a large planter full of ivy on our back patio. Everytime I go out there, she gets scared and flies out and scares me to death. They will be so cute when they hatch, but my husband was like yours…not too happy! These brownies sound so delish. I LOVE banana, and chocolate, and peanut butter!!
Thanks Karen!
Hi rvan,I hope you enjoy the brownies as much as we did. Do try them chilled in the fridge! My sister thought I just posted fake birds on my blog, they do look fake!
Hi Sarah,
I agree, those flavors together are delicious!
HI Kimmy,
Wish you could have seen the cute birds. If you would have come over like you said you were you wouldn’t have missed them! Slammed you!
Thanks Marie!
Wish I could cook Italian like you!
Jenny, you make the best dessert’s!
Those brownies were incredible and those baby birds are so HUGE, I’m still having a hard time believing that’s a real picture, it looks totally fake!
Oh my–how delicious sounding. Peanut butter, chocolate and banana… how could you go wrong?
I was just browsing for a brownie recipe!! looks so yummy!!!I’ll have to pick up bananas tomorrow so I can make them. and those birds look almost fake?? Like you placed them there. We’ve never had birds but we had honey bees in our attic and honey pouring down our roof! But still not as sweet as baby birds taking flight!
Oh Jenny, those look like heaven! I love your clever ideas! The banana is inspired. Love it!