Caramelized bananas are are an easy 5-minute sweet treat whose tastes and textures will have you swooning. Use this irresistible topping on your ice cream and waffles or enjoy a bowl on its own!
Easy Caramelized Bananas
Caramelized bananas are such an easy treat that shouldn’t be reserved for special occasions. Having a movie night? Top your homemade vanilla ice cream with caramelized bananas. French toast for breakfast? Caramelized bananas on top! Making a cheesecake for dessert? You get the idea!
Bananas are naturally sweet as is, but when you cook them down in butter, sugar, or perhaps a cinnamon sugar blend, you get the crystallized sugary bits that coat the outside of each soft sweet banana. They’re so insanely good you might just find that you’ve helped yourself to a bowl full without realizing it!
How to Caramelize Bananas
- Roll banana slices into a bowl of sugar.
- Melt butter in a saucepan on the stove top over medium-low heat.
- Add banana slices in a single layer and cook for 2 minutes until golden.
- Flip and cook for another couple of minutes until both sides are nicely caramelized.
- Sprinkle with cinnamon if desired and enjoy it on everything!
Tips for Success
- Use ripe bananas if you have them. The riper your bananas are, to begin with, the softer and sweeter they’ll be.
- You can use a cinnamon-sugar mixture instead of just sugar or sprinkle a bit of cinnamon over top at the end. Some people also enjoy a bit of nutmeg too.
- Keep an eye on the bananas as they cook so that they don’t burn. Turn the heat down if needed.
- To clean the pan afterward, run it under hot water. You may need to boil the water to remove stubborn sugar crystals.
- For a vegan caramelized bananas recipe swap the butter for coconut oil. You won’t have the same buttery flavor, but it will still caramelize nicely.
Favorite Ways to Use Caramelized Bananas
- A great filling and topping for crepes whether regular or flavored like Nutella crepes or pumpkin crepes. Bananas pair well with all of them.
- Add it on top of a scoop of ice cream. My personal favorite is homemade vanilla ice cream with a drizzle of caramel sauce on top. So good.
- Add a little something extra to your banana cream pie.
- Make the best banana bread from it!
- Swirl some into your morning yogurt bowl or oatmeal bowl.
- Chocolate chip pancakes, Belgian waffles, buttermilk pancakes, and blueberry pancakes would welcome sweet bananas on top. Maple syrup to top that off? Yes, please!
More Delicious Desserts:
- Bread Pudding
- Strawberry Sauce Recipe
- Mixed Candied Nuts
- Homemade Apple Pie Filling
- Easy Baked Peaches
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Caramelized Bananas
Ingredients
- 2 bananas
- 2-3 Tablespoons brown sugar , more if needed
- 2 Tablespoons butter
- ground cinnamon
Instructions
- Slice bananas into 1/4" thick circles.
- Place sugar in a shallow bowl or plate. Then roll bananas into the sugar.
- Heat butter in a skillet over medium low heat until melted. Add sugared bananas in a single layer. Cook for about 2 minutes or until the bottoms are starting to turn golden brown. Then flip and cook an additional 1 to 2 minutes on the other side. Watch carefully so they do not burn. Turn down the heat if needed.
- Slide the bananas into a bowl of ice cream, on top of pancakes or inside a crepe. Sprinkle the tops of the banana with cinnamon if desired.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition provided is an estimate. It will vary based on specific ingredients used.
Did you make this recipe? Don’t forget to give it a star rating below!
These were wonderful! We made them for our ice cream sundae and it made them SO good!
So dang yummy! We gobbled these up quick as a flash, they were so delicious!
Oh my goodness!! I made these for our ice cream, movie night and now I’m the hero!! Thank you so much. They were fantastic!
Yay, glad they were a hit!