Banana Cream Pie Bars

This Banana Cream Pie Bars recipe has a soft and chewy homemade crust, a pudding center and a whipped creamy topping. It feeds a crowd and is perfect for holiday gatherings and parties.

The Mancub loves anything banana cream pie. Like, eat the whole pie. For the banana cream pie bars, I used a slightly different version of crust from my Raspberries and Cream Bars, and baked it first.

The first time I made the banana cream pie bars I baked the crust a little too long, so it had quite a bit of crunch. However, the next day when we ate them for breakfast {don’t judge} the crust was soft from the pudding filling sitting on it over-night. They were perfect. So it’s definitely okay to prepare these a day ahead.

After baking the crust, I mixed up some banana flavored pudding mix with less milk and spread it onto the base. After that I whipped up some heavy whipping cream and mixed it with cream cheese {YUM} and spread it over the pudding. I decided to top it with crumbled vanilla wafer cookies, but graham crackers would work just as well.

I have a few tips to make the banana cream pie bars amazing:

• Don’t over-bake the crust!
• DO NOT substitute soy, almond, or cashew milk for the cows’ milk. Any other kind of milk inhibits the set-up of the pudding and makes the bars runny. If you decide you want to try it anyway, I’ve heard that adding 2 tsp of cornstarch to 1 -1/2 cups almond milk will help thicken it. I have not tried it, and I cannot say if it will set up stiff enough to slice.
• I like to slice bananas for the top, but only right before I serve the bars. Brown bananas are gross.
• Try it with other kinds of pudding mix!

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Banana Cream Pie Bars

Banana Cream Pie Bars have a soft chewy crust, banana pudding, and a whipped cream topping with a special ingredient. They’re the perfect treat for a crowd!

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Prep Time 20 minutes

Cook Time 10 minutes

chilling/cooling 30 minutes

Total Time 1 hour

Servings 24

Ingredients

For the crust:

• 1 cup butter 2 sticks room temperature
• 1 cup white sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla
• ½ tsp salt
• ½ teaspoon baking powder
• 3-1/2 cups all-purpose flour

For the banana filling:

• 2 3.4 oz boxes of instant banana cream pudding mix
• 3 cups cold milk

For the whipped cream topping:

• 2 cups cold heavy whipping cream
• 8 oz room temperature cream cheese
• ½ teaspoon vanilla
• ½ cup powdered sugar

optional toppings:

• banana
• graham crackers or vanilla wafer cookies
• mini chocolate chips

Instructions

For the crust:

• Preheat the oven to 375 F. Lightly grease a (13’’x18’’ x 1’’) baking sheet.
• In a stand mixer, mix butter and sugar together on medium high speed for 2-3 minutes, until fluffy. Add eggs, vanilla, and mix well.
• In a separate bowl mix together salt, baking powder, and flour. Slowly add into the wet ingredients until well combined.
• Pat into the prepared baking sheet evenly. Bake at 375 F. for 10 minutes. It will be barely golden brown on top. Let cool completely before spreading filling onto it.

For the banana filling:

• Mix together instant pudding mix and cold milk for 2 minutes. Spread onto cooled base before it completely sets up. Let rest in refrigerator for 20-30 minutes before spreading on whipped topping.

For the whipped cream topping:

• In a stand mixer, begin mixing heavy cream on medium high speed, for about 2 minutes.
• When it’s starting to thicken, mix in the cream cheese, vanilla, and powdered sugar. Continue mixing on medium high speed for another 2-4 minutes, until fluffy. Careful not to overmix too much, otherwise it will be too thick to spread over pudding mixture.
• Spread carefully over pudding mixture. Top with bananas or crumbled graham crackers or vanilla wafer cookies.

Notes

Don't substitute almond, soy, cashew milk, etc for cows milk in this recipe. The pudding will not set up properly.