When my baby sister got married and moved away from Chicago over 10 years ago, one of the first things I gave her was a cookbook. Back then, she was just getting into cooking and liked to find new recipes to try. In fact, over the years, I’ve sent her several ‘AllRecipes’ cookbooks which I hoped she could use in addition to their website.
Fast forward to last week, we were on our usual daily check in phone call and got to talking about food… a usual topic whenever I open my mouth. I’m not sure how it came about, but she mentioned this recipe for Brickle Bars. She said it found it on the Kraft website or magazine but I had no luck finding it. She gave me the recipe over the phone while I scribbled it down. As I was cleaning out my work bag, I came across the recipe and decided to give it a whirl in the kitchen.
The recipe my sister gave me was pretty simple and called for a boxed yellow cake mix. Since I didn’t have that on hand, I looked at what cake mixes I did have and decided on a banana supreme cake mix. That’s when my creative juices started to flow…
While in college, I took a trip with my roommate to Paris and London. It was when I was walking through London’s Covent Garden, I learned about Banofee. Banofee is a flavor combination of banana, toffee or caramel and whipped cream flavored with coffee. When I first tried this combination, it was in an ice cream form and I was hooked! It was the perfect flavor combination to apply to the recipe my sister gave me. As a result of a few substitutions, these Banofee Brickle Bars were born.
Using the banana supreme cake mix as the dessert bar base, I made the rest of the recipe as my sister told me. As an added topping, I made whipped cream flavored with coffee to mimic the whipped cream used in a traditional banofee pie. The flavors of banana and toffee in these bars really compliments each other so well. However the added coffee flavored whipped cream makes the entire dessert even more heavenly with that creamy component to contrast the cakey bar.
recipe inspired by my sister
1 stick (8 tablespoons) unsalted butter, room temperature
2 eggs
1 (14oz) can sweetened condensed milk
1/4 cup chopped walnuts
1 (8oz) bag Heath toffee bits
Coffee Whipped Cream for garnish (recipe follows)
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Prepare a 9×13 baking pan by greasing it with butter or misting with cooking spray.
In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the dry cake mix, butter and 1 egg with the paddle attachment until it’s fully incorporated. Transfer this mixture into the prepared baking dish and press out evenly to create the crust.
In another bowl, whisk together the remaining egg and condensed milk until combined. Stir in the walnuts and toffee bits. Pour this mixture over the prepared crust in the baking dish.
Bake the dish in the preheated oven for 30 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool to room temperature before cutting. Cut into squares and top with a dollop of coffee whipped cream before serving.
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream, cold
1/4 teaspoon instant coffee granules
2 tablespoons powdered sugar
In a bowl of your stand mixer, whip the cream, coffee granules and powdered sugar until stiff peaks using the whisk attachment; about 5-7 minutes.
I've actually heard it referred to as "American Banoffee Pie" and many people here think its an American thing so they were a bit surprised that I had never heard of it until I moved here. I think its kind of the English take on what they think American style desserts are like as opposed to the traditional puddings.
I love banoffee pie so these sound amazing to me. I have a work bake sale coming up and these sound perfect. Now I just need to figure out how to make these without using cake mix. Hmmmmm…
i am so making this soon!!!!! oh yummmmmm!
I could totally get behind this! Yum, they look awesome.
I think its kind of the English take on what they think American style desserts are like as opposed to the traditional puddings.good luck