The Best, Easiest Caramelized Bananas

Name: The Best, Easiest Caramelized Bananas
Prep time: 1 min
Cook time: 4 min
Total time: 5 min
Cuisine: American
Ingredients: 2 Bananas; 1 tablespoon Butter; 2 tablespoons Brown Sugar

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Caramelized bananas are a delicious dessert or breakfast topping that combines the tropical flavor of bananas with the rich, luxurious notes of caramel.

Serves: 4 Time: 5 Minutes Cookbook: Good and Cheap

Caramelized bananas are one of our favorite things to make when we want a quick and easy dessert that tastes like a million bucks. The combination of brown sugar and banana is an out-of-this-world flavor combination. The brown sugar sauce enhances the flavor of the banana like none other, and caramelization pairs perfectly with the tropical taste of bananas.

One of the things we love the most about this caramelized bananas recipe is how simple and affordable it is to make. If you need to stretch your grocery budget, you can still have your dessert and eat it, too. The recipe comes from Good and Cheap, Leanne Brown’s flagship cookbook that provides delicious and healthy meal ideas for under $4 a day.

Whether you make this dessert for special occasions, to top a bowl of ice cream for a family fun night, or spoon slices over a warm bowl of oatmeal for your kids in the morning, you’ll be glad you whipped up a batch of these stove top caramelized bananas.

Jump Ahead:

❤️ Why You’ll Love This Recipe
🍌 Ingredients Needed to Make Caramelized Bananas
🍴 Equipment You’ll Need in the Kitchen
🥄 How to Make Caramelized Bananas
♾️ Variations on Caramelized Bananas
❓ Caramelized Bananas: Tips, Tricks, and FAQs

Why You’ll Love This Recipe

Delicious: Caramelized bananas are intensely flavorful with a deep, rich caramel sauce that infuses the banana and highlight the natural tropical taste. This is a delicious recipe you’ll want to make time and time again.

Guest-Worthy: If you’re looking for a simple but scaled-up recipe to serve for dessert, you just found it. This is made to order, served steaming hot, and is particularly stunning over a scoop of ice cream.

Fast and Easy: Guests will think you’ve slaved away in the kitchen when in reality it only took you five minutes to go from prep to plate with three simple ingredients. That’s what we call a simple recipe!

Ingredients Needed to Make Caramelized Bananas

Caramelized banana ingredients banana brown sugar butter 1

Bananas: You want perfectly ripe bananas for this recipe. Look for yellow skin with no brown spots. Bananas that have lots of brown or black spots on the skin are a bit too ripe for this and will break down faster when simmering in the caramel sauce. Overripe bananas that are ready for banana bread shouldn’t be used at all.
Butter: You want unsalted butter for this recipe.
Brown Sugar: Either light or dark brown sugar will work for this recipe. If you don’t have any brown sugar on hand, combine 2 tablespoons of regular granulated sugar with 1/2 teaspoon of molasses to substitute.

Equipment Needed In the Kitchen

12-Inch Skillet

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Spatula

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Medium Skillet: You’re cooking with brown sugar and butter and essentially making a caramel during the process. Either use a high-quality non-stick pan or a very well-seasoned cast iron pan. We have the non-stick pan featured here and it works like a dream.
Spatula: The bananas will be flipped once during the cooking process. A spatula or slotted spoon is perfect for this step.

How to Make Caramelized Bananas

This recipe is super simple. In just a few minutes you’ll have delicious, hot caramelized bananas ready to serve.

Prepare the butter and sugar

In a non-stick or cast iron pan, melt the butter on medium heat. Then add the brown sugar. Let it melt into the butter. This will take about two minutes.

Add the bananas

While the sugar and butter begin to cook, peel the bananas and cut them in half lengthwise.

When the butter-sugar sauce has cooked for two minutes, place the bananas cut side down in the mixture in a single layer. Cook for two minutes. The bananas should start to look golden brown and sticky. Turn them over and cook on the other side for another two minutes.

Serve whole slices or slice in half horizontally so you have quarters. If there’s any leftover caramel in the pan, drizzle it over the bananas when serving.

Variations on Caramelized Bananas

Caramelized bananas lend themselves to use in banana recipes in place of mashed bananas. Here are a few things you can do with them.

Healthy Caramelized Bananas: If you want a less sugary sweet treat, use bananas, honey, and butter and omit the brown sugar. The result will be similar to the original and it’s a teeny bit healthier.

Banana Sauce: If you want a sauce instead of slices to top your favorite dessert or breakfast items, blend the bananas and brown sugar sauce after it cooks. The combination will be a spoonable sauce that is downright heavenly.

Banana Pancakes: Add the caramelized bananas to a banana pancake recipe in place of the mashed bananas.

Banana Bread: Add the caramelized bananas to a banana bread recipe in place of mashed bananas.

Caramelized Bananas: Tips, Tricks, and FAQs

If I want to scale this recipe up, do I just multiply the ingredient list?

Yep! Multiply everything according to how much you want to make and continue with the recipe as written.

Can I make these ahead and reheat them?

You can, but they’re best when served straight out of the frying pan. The freshness adds a whole depth of flavor that you may not taste if they are reheated. The short cooking time of this recipe makes it easy to prepare just before eating.

How should I store this?

Place the bananas and sugar sauce in an airtight container and store it in the fridge. Use within 1-2 days.

What can I serve caramelized bananas with?

We love serving this atop a scoop of vanilla ice cream or as part of a banana split. Our favorite ways to serve this for breakfast include on top of pancakes, french toast, or waffles with caramelized banana slices, chopped walnuts, and a drizzle of maple syrup.