Banana Split Bars

I've gotten pretty good at making banana-nut muffins and was looking for an interesting twist. I thought What do I like to eat with bananas? I’m a big fan of peanut-butter-banana sandwiches. What goes well with peanut butter? Chocolate. Hmm...I might be on to something...

Preemptive apologies go out to anyone who might be disappointed to discover that at no point does ice cream enter into the recipe, but it's the best name I can think of so far. You can certainly eat the bars with ice cream...but it's not used while making the treat. Actually, the only main ingredient common between the two is banana. Unless you consider toppings. Then peanut butter and chocolate totally count!

Ingredients:

6 oz. butter (I used margarine)

~1.5 cups sugar (Splenda)

2 eggs (you can use just egg whites with a little bit of milk, or egg substitute – I've done both with equal success)

~1.5-2 cups flour (I use superfine whole wheat flour)

~4-5 tbsp crunchy peanut butter

3 large or 4 small/med overripe bananas

~0.5-1 tbsp pure cocoa powder

dark chocolate chips/bittersweet baking morsels

Preheat oven to 375F. Mash the bananas and stir in the peanut butter. In a separate bowl, whip margarine and sugar until the mixture is smooth. Add eggs and mix well. Stir in the banana-peanut-butter mixture. Add cocoa powder and chocolate chips as desired and mix well. Slowly stir in the flour until the batter is sticky and somewhat thick, but not to the consistency of bread. Pour into a greased 8x8inch baking pan and bake 10-15 minutes or until toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let cool, then cut and enjoy (with or without ice cream)!

~Karla