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Warm and sweet, caramelized bananas are the perfect topping for your breakfast pancakes, afternoon snack, or midnight craving.

caramelized bananas on a spatula in a skillet

Certain desserts can stand on their own with no toppings. However, sometimes you just have to go wild and add a sweet and buttery topping to your pancakes or pound cake.

That’s where this caramelized bananas recipe comes in. Caramelized bananas are bananas that are cooked in a butter and sugar mixture until the bananas are slightly crisp on the edges and the sugar mixture becomes a heavy caramel sauce. They are similar to fried apples.

Eat the caramelized bananas on their own as a sweet treat or sprinkle them with some homemade granola. But adding them to the top of yogurt, homemade crepes, creamy cheesecake or even a bowl of oatmeal is 100% a good idea.

Choosing the Right Bananas

Use bananas that are yellow and firm. You want them to no longer be green, but you don’t want them to have brown spots either – a perfect yellow is the goal, otherwise the bananas might become mushy.

If you only have overripe bananas, feel free to still make this banana sauce, just know that it will be more of a compote in texture.

How To Make Caramelized Bananas

Slice a ripe banana into about 6-9 slices (about half an inch thick).
In a large Ziploc bag, add in your sugar and cinnamon mixture. Drop in a handful of banana slices. Seal the Ziploc bag and gently shake the bag with the sugar and bananas in to coat the bananas.

sliced bananas in brown sugar and cinnamon in a plastic bag

Melt butter in a skillet on the stove top over medium heat and add in slices of bananas in a single layer. Add the vanilla bourbon or extract.
Lower heat to medium and cook bananas for about 2-3 minutes per side, or until the edges become a beautiful golden color.
By the time you’re done with your batches, the butter and sugar sauce should have thickened to become a beautiful golden brown caramel sauce that has an infused banana flavor.

Pro tip

The soft chewy center with crispy edges are absolute perfection, so allow the edges to get crispy. But don’t let the bananas burn! Flip it a few times, or hold onto the banana with a fork and rotate the bananas so the sides are only touching the pan for that perfect crisp.

How to Serve Caramelized Bananas

Made on occasions such as birthdays or for gatherings, caramelized bananas are served on top of pancakes, pudding, waffles, a bowl of ice cream, or over pie.

Here are some of our favorite ways to serve caramelized bananas on breakfast recipes:

Cinnamon Roll Pancakes – The cinnamon in the pancakes will be complimented well by the banana caramel sauce.
French Toast Waffles– Caramelized bananas are excellent served with french toast or waffles (or in this case the best of both worlds are served in one).
Banana Cream Pie – For a delicious alternative, use caramelized bananas in the bottom of our homemade banana pie.
Overnight Oats – Try a few slices of these cinnamon sweet bananas in our strawberry banana overnight oats.
Brown Sugar Pound Cake – That syrup with warm bananas will soak into a pound cake and taste fantastic. And vanilla ice cream with it!

a bowl of pound cake, ice cream and brown sugar bananas

Love bananas? Try my grandma’s banana bread, our cream cheese banana bread, salted caramel banana bread and roasted banana bread.

Caramelized Bananas

4.88 from 8 votes

Warm and sweet caramelized bananas are the perfect topping for your breakfast pancakes, afternoon snack, or midnight craving.

Servings 4

Prep Time 5

Cook Time 5

Total Time 10

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Ingredients

US Customary – Metric

1 cup brown sugar
3 teaspoons ground cinnamon
3 bananas sliced
1/2 cup salted butter*
1 teaspoon bourbon vanilla extract

Instructions

Add brown sugar and cinnamon to a gallon sized Ziploc bag, add in banana slices and seal. Shake bag to coat bananas. 3 bananas, 3 teaspoons ground cinnamon, 3 bananas
Melt butter over medium high heat in a pan. Add in banana slices in a single layer (do multiple batches if necessary). ½ cup salted butter*
Pour in bourbon vanilla extract and cook banana slices for 2-3 minutes on the first side. Once the banana has browned, flip and repeat on the other side. Repeat with remaining bananas. 1 teaspoon bourbon vanilla extract
Serve the caramelized bananas warm however you'd like!

Notes

If you want to make caramelized bananas without sugar, you can use Stevia or an alternative sugar substitute.
You could also flavor the bananas with rum, bourbon, maple syrup, coconut extract or almond extract.
Make vegan caramelized bananas by using vegan butter or coconut oil. And if all you have is unsalted butter, add a dash of salt.
These bananas are best served immediately after making them, but if store leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 1-2 days.
Oven Instructions: Preheat oven to 400ºF. Slice bananas however you’d like and place them on a baking sheet. Top with small chunks of butter. Sprinkle on the sugar and cinnamon. Bake for about 18-20 minutes, or until the bananas are a beautiful golden color and the butter sauce has slightly caramelized. With this method, the sauce will not be as thick as cooking it on the stove. During the last 2-3 minutes, stir in the vanilla extract, if desired.

The calories shown are based on the recipe serving 4 people, with 1 serving being ¼ of the bananas and syrup. Since different brands of ingredients have different nutritional information, the calories shown are just an estimate. **We are not dietitians and recommend you seek a nutritionist for exact nutritional information.**

Nutrition

Author Julie Clark

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Calories 498

Keyword bananas foster, butter bananas, cheesecake topping

Caramelized Bananas

Choosing the Right Bananas