So, if you guys were paying attention, you’ll recall that I said there were four over-ripe bananas on top of my fridge. But, only two of ’em went into my banana cake. That means that as of 7pm last night there were still two mushy (quickly getting mushier) bananas laying around, attracting millions of fruit flies into my home. Aiyahhh!
We are nowhere near being done eating banana cake, so the last thing I wanted to do was make another banana-flavored dessert. But, I really hate it when I have to throw food away, and very ripe bananas taste really good in baked form, so…All I can say is, it’s a really good thing Dan and I love banana-based treats.
I’ve had this peanut butter and banana whoopie pie recipe bookmarked for a long time, so I was actually pretty pleased to have an excuse to make them. But because Dan and I aren’t crazy about peanut butter, I decided to go with a Nutella-based filling instead. Great decision. The filling turned out to be sweet and creamy, and not overpoweringly nutty or chocolate-y — super delicious, and absolutely perfect sandwiched between the light, delicately banana-y cookies.
Banana Whoopie Pies with Nutella Buttercream Filling (Adapted from Tracey’s Culinary Adventures)
Ingredients:
(Cookies)
– 2 cups all-purpose flour
– 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
– 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
– 1 teaspoon salt
– 2 large bananas, mashed
– 1/2 cup vanilla yogurt
– 1 stick butter, melted and browned
– 1/2 cup granulated sugar
– 1/2 cup packed light-brown sugar
– 1 large egg, at room temperature
– 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
(Nutella Buttercream Filling)
– 1/4 to 1/3 cup Nutella
– 1 stick butter, softened
– 1 to 1-1/4 cups powdered sugar**
– 2 tbsp heavy cream
** This is a rough estimate — I didn’t use a measuring cup to scoop my powdered sugar. One reader who tried the recipe only used about 1/4 cup and found it to be too sweet for her tastes. I have a crazy sweet tooth, so I probably would normally use more sugar than her anyway, but I think with all the Nutella, 1 cup powdered sugar is your best bet.
Steps:
(1) Preheat oven to 350 F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
(2) Combine the banana and yogurt in a measuring cup and set aside.
(3) In a medium bowl, combine all your dry ingredients. Set aside
(4) In a large bowl, mix your brown butter, sugars, egg, and vanilla extract until well combined.
(5) Alternately add the dry ingredients and banana mixture to your batter. Mix until ingredients are just combined.
(6) Transfer batter to a pastry bag fitted with a plain tip. Pipe batter into 1-1/4 inch rounds on your baking sheets, about an inch apart.
** I used a sandwich bag with one corner snipped off. Worked great.
(7) Bake for 10 minutes, until the edges are golden and the cookies are springy on top. Set aside to cool.
(8) While cookies are cooling, start making your frosting/filling. Cream together your softened butter, heavy cream, and powdered sugar. Add Nutella, and mix until your filling is uniform in color and texture.
(9) Spoon about 1-1/2 tbsp filling onto the bottom of a cooled cookie, then lay another cookie, bottom to bottom, on top. Press down gently, so that the filling moves towards the edges, and you have a cookie sandwich. Repeat until all your cookies/frosting are gone.
** I ran out of frosting before I ran out of cookies. You could probably use less filling per sandwich, but where’s the fun in that??
(10) Enjoy plain, or with a glass of milk!
This looks really delicious! Love the idea of the flavor combo of bananas and nutella, yum! 🙂
I have discovered that bananas go really well with Nutella. I must admit though that overripe bananas do not go well with anything at all. Let me rephrase that…Overripe bananas don’t go well with anything except when mashed and turned a baking ingredient. Yeah! That is more like it! I don’t know why bananas (overripe ones most specially!) turn so great after spending some time in the oven. Perfect treat! I’m diggin’ in!
I think it’s because over ripe bananas have such a strong banana-y flavor that it seeps into everything you bake with it. So good.
Bananas and Nutella work well together, this should be yummy!
I hate those darn fruit flies! These whoopie pies look really good. I’m always looking for new ways to use Nutella. I always seem to come home with it whenever I go to Costco.
Me too! Sometimes I have to give myself a talking to so that I’ll put the economy-sized jar of Nutella back on the shelf…
That’s too funny! It’s amazing how fast an economy size Nutella can be eaten though. I’ll admit my favorite way is with a spoon right out of the jar.
Just pinned these on Pinterest! They look amazing. Going to have to make them for my husband.
Thanks! I hope he likes them 🙂
My son and I are both Nutella addicts, and I’m always looking for new recipes–this on is a KEEPER!!
Thanks! I hope you both like them. I have a bit of a Nutella addiction myself…
These look wonderful, I was looking for something to do with my leftover bananas! Could you tell me how many sandwiches this made? I would like to take them to our tailgate on Saturday.
Thanks!
This made about 8 cookie sandwiches, 2-1/2 inches or so in diameter (they spread a bit while baking). I actually ran out of frosting before all the cookies were sandwiched. With the amount of frosting I used per sandwich, there were 4 cookies leftover. If you’re taking these to a party I’d suggest making smaller cookies, and upping the amount of frosting you make so that you have plenty to feed everyone. These are sure to be a hit 🙂
They look beautiful and sound delicious. I love bananas and chocolate together. Yummy! Thanks for sharing on Sweet Indulgences Sunday.
Thank you for this recipe! I’ve just made them today (after a week of drooling over the thought of them), but unfortunately they didn’t rise as well as yours for some reason… they just turned out slightly flat after 10 minutes 🙁 Also, the frosting was far too sweet for my taste, and this was after I added just 1/4 cup icing sugar! Will probably add only a teaspoon next time 🙂 Here is a picture of it if you like too see http://twitgoo.com/4sjp0k
I’m sorry they didn’t turn out as well as you hoped. I wonder if the puffiness of the cookies is affected by oven power? I think they still look good in your picture though! As for the frosting…I have a huge sweet tooth, so I didn’t even notice! Maybe cut back on the amount of nutella next time too?
When I made this my cookies weren’t as puffy as yours, they were really good but not puffy. And for the filling besides it being too sweet mine wasn’t solid enough to be able to stay like yours, it ass more like jelly. Any advice on how to fix it? I did exactly like you said but since I don’t own w whisk I use a fork instead.