The recipe also appealed to me because the blogger, Christine Malone Kline, recommended Trader Joe's brand ingredients, which I knew were generally healthier than a lot of ingredients found at other grocery stores. Okay, I thought. Let me grab some bananas and get started.
The banana grabbing was the easy part. The other ingredients...not so much. Vanilla wafer cookie crumbs (or any type of cookie crumbs) were required to make the crust of this treat. Graham crackers are my absolute favorite, so I decided that's what I would use...except we were out of graham crackers. I must have used up all the crumbs I'd crushed for a s'mores recipe a few weeks ago and there weren't any boxes left in the pantry. Okay, I thought, what about those ginger thins I bought at Trader Joe's that nobody's been eating? Apparently someone had been eating them. The ginger cookies were nowhere to be found. It was already 9:45 p.m. (Trader Joe's closed at 9) and I wasn't about to go out late-night cookie hunting when I knew we had so much food in our house already. I'd just have to improvise. I finally settled on sugar ice cream cones that I crushed into pieces with a metal ice cream scoop. Resourceful, and delicious. Okay, I thought again. On to the next ingredient! Instant vanilla pudding.
Crud.
Yes, we were all out of pudding mix. I think we had ended up donating some boxes of Butterscotch pudding mix to our church food drive. There was nothing left. Well, what was pudding usually made out of? Mostly sugar and milk, right? I had sugar and milk at least.
Forget this recipe, I thought. I'm just going to wing it now. I tossed a tablespoon of brown sugar and a fourth cup of almond milk in with my bananas, mushed them up, and spread them on top of my ice cream cone crust. Both the crust and the banana mixture weren't quite enough to fill the 9x13 pan that Christine recommends, so my version of the recipe ended up looking just a little strange. Not very "square-ish" for a dessert called banana squares. After freezing over night, however, I taste-tested the concoction this morning. Actually, not bad. Actually quite tasty with a banana topping that's not too sweet and a crust that is sweetly delicious. If you want to try out my odd version of Frozen Banana Squares, it's fairly easy too:
Ingredients:
Just under 1 cup sugar cones, crushed into crumbs (I didn't have quite enough to fill a cup, but used about eight cones, I think. Keep in mind you can still use any kind of cookie crumbs)
Just under 1/2 cup white sugar
1/4 cup melted butter
4 medium bananas, mashed
1 Tablespoon brown sugar
1/4 cup almond milk (or milk of your choice)
Directions:
1.) Cut a piece of parchment paper to fill the size pan you're using, and spray the paper with nonstick cooking spray. In a bowl, combine the crushed cone crumbs with the sugar and butter, whisking until everything is thoroughly mixed.
2.) Press the cone mixture flat onto your parchment paper in the shape of a square or rectangle to form a crust (I recommend using a plastic baggie on your hand when pressing the crust down to avoid it sticking to your fingers).
3.) In the same bowl (it should be empty now), add your bananas, brown sugar, and milk of choice. Mash and mix until combined. The batter should be about cookie-dough consistency, not too runny or too thick (A few unbroken banana chunks are fine).
4.) Scoop the banana batter on top of your crust and press flat to form a square or rectangle on the parchment paper in your pan.
5.) Place the pan in the freezer and freeze at least four hours or overnight. Remove from freezer, and let thaw just enough to be able to cut into squares.
One day I'd still like to try Christine's original recipe. I'll try to remember to go grocery shopping first.
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