Snickerdoodle Cookie Bars with Banana Filling are inspired by a few recipes I found online credited to the country Burundi. The batter is a snickerdoodle cookie dough batter, which is placed in a baking pan with layers of bananas and dates in between. The entire dessert is then sprinkled with butter, cinnamon, and sugar to create a rich and delicious dessert for anyone to enjoy!
The Tastemaker Conference in Portland, Oregon
Well, the time has come and passed. I’m sitting on my flight on the way home from Portland, Oregon right now. Which means that I just spent the week/weekend at the Tastemaker Conference here!
This conference was pretty much everything I could dream of. I took incredible classes from absolute experts in my field, and got to ask questions that I have literally wondered the answers to since the day I hit publish on my first blog post. My to do list of things to do to improve The Foreign Fork has grown x100, and, while I’m sad to be going home, I’m chomping at the bit to get started on all of the new things I’m excited to do.
Making Connections with Fellow Food Bloggers
Above all else, the best part of this conference was BY FAR meeting so many fellow food bloggers. Sometimes being a food blogger can be a little bit isolating… I mean, there aren’t many people in the world that care to talk about how to make a pot roast look good in a photo or how to word your article just right so that your Snickerdoodle Cookie Bars with Banana Filling show up first in Google’s search index.
But, luckily for me, this conference gave me so many connections I would never have had otherwise. Karli from Cooking with Karli, Alli from Longbourn Farm, Rebecca from Good Things Baking Co, and Terryn from Hot Pan Kitchen were the BEST roommates I could have asked for.
Bloggers Turned Friends
Not only did we have fun blogging, we became actual, genuine friends. We had just as much fun exploring the rose garden of Portland (and eating literally every morsel of food that existed in Portland) as we did working silently side by side with each other. And this list doesn’t even include so many of the other incredible women and men that I met!
We shared tips and tricks, formed bonds with each other, and were genuinely sad when we had to leave…. But now I know that I have friends from around the country that have the same interests as myself.
Okay, Now Let’s Get to the Snickerdoodle Cookie Bars with Banana Filling
So, Burundi was a tough one for me. There’s not much research done on the country of Burundi, and definitely not a lot of recipes or food posted…. I saw Snickerdoodle Cookie Bars with Banana filling from Burundi (also called Date and Banana Mix) on the internet a few times, BUT I will preface this by saying this:
Burundi is not known for having a lot of dessert. Quite frankly, I tried my hardest to find someone from Burundi so that I could ask them for help picking recipes (or confirming that the recipes I had picked were, in fact, Burundian), but to no avail. Electronic resources, book resources, finding people… none of them were super helpful to me about specific dishes from Burundi.
But whenever I saw these cookie bars they looked awesome. So, for the very first time I will tell you point blank: I’m not sure if these Snickerdoodle Cookie Bars with Banana Filling are truly from Burundi, but…. They’re delicious…. so I made them anyways.
What are Dates?
Dates are the fruit that grows on a date palm tree. These trees typically grow in tropical regions, and when the fruit is fresh, it has a smooth skin. Most of the time, when dates are sold in America, they are dried.
Drying the dates makes them sweet and full of fiber and anti-oxidants. Honestly, I don’t really know what an anti-oxidant is, but I know that eating a date is yummy and it taste like dessert. Which is why they’re in these cookie bars!
How to Layer Your Snickerdoodle Cookie Bars with Banana Filling
Once you make the dough for the Snickerdoodle Cookie Bars with Banana Filling, you’re going to layer them in the pan. First, place down a small layer of dough… JUST enough to cover the bottom of the pan with a tin layer. Then add the dates and bananas over the top of this cookie mixture.
Next, add a thicker layer of cookie dough over the top of the dates and bananas. There is just enough cookie dough in this recipe to cover the layers both times but not much left over. Doing a thin layer on the bottom preserves extra cookie dough to make covering the dates and bananas with the second layer easier. It’s hard to have pretty Snickerdoodle Cookie Bars with Banana Filling if you don’t have enough dough to cover the top layer of the dates and bananas.
The Secret Ingredient for Snickerdoodle Cookie Bars with Banana Filling
The very best part of these Snickerdoodle Cookie Bars is the cinnamon sugar topping on the bars <3. To really send these cookie bars over the edge, make sure to brush melted butter over the pan before sprinkling the cinnamon sugar. Oh boy, I can already feel myself melting into the goodness.
Did you like these Snickerdoodle Cookie Bars with Banana Filling? Then make sure to also check out my recipe for Alfajores from Argentina, these Tahini Cookies from Armenia, and ESPECIALLY these Maamoul Cookies with Date Filling from Bahrain. And if you made this recipe, don’t forget to take a photo and share on Facebook or Instagram with the hashtag #TheForeignFork and tag @TheForeignFork. Thanks for stopping by, everyone! I’ll see you all very soon.
Snickerdoodle Cookie Bars with Banana Filling
Snickerdoodle Cookie Bars with Banana Filling are inspired by
a few recipes I found online credited to the country Burundi. The batter is a
snickerdoodle cookie dough batter, which is placed in a baking pan with layers
of bananas and dates in between. The entire dessert is then sprinkled with
butter, cinnamon, and sugar to create a rich and delicious dessert for anyone
to enjoy!
Ingredients
- 1 stick butter softened
- 2 tbsp butter melted
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 1/2 cups flour
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 2 bananas sliced into rounds
- 1 cup dates chopped
- 1 tbsp sugar
- ¼ tsp cinnamon
Instructions
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Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Line an 8×8 glass pan with parchment paper.
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In a large bowl, use an electric mixer to beat together the butter and the sugar until fluffy.
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Add eggs one at a time, mixing briefly between each addition.
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Use a wooden spoon to hand mix in the flour, salt, and baking powder.
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Spread a little less than half of the mixture in the pan on the parchment paper.
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Spread bananas slices over the dough.
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Spread chopped dates over the bananas.
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Spread the other half of the dough over the bananas and dates, using your fingers to make sure it covers the entire surface. You may need to (very lightlwet your fingers with water to keep the dough from sticking to them.
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Bake in the oven for about 30-35 minutes.
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In a small bowl, mix together the cinnamon and sugar.
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When the dessert comes out of the oven, brush the top with 2 tbsp melted butter and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar.
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Wait for the bars to cool, then cut them into 9-12 squares and enjoy!
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Leave a review on this recipe letting me know what you thought!
Recipe Notes
Recipe copyright The Foreign Fork. For educational or personal use only.
Recipe inspired by 196 Flavors, though the measurements are different.
These were a perfect banana-lover dessert! Sweet and fluffy, but not too much! We loved these (and normally I don’t even like dates!!)!