A hot skillet might seem out of place in a recipe for an icy, creamy milkshake. But stay with me on this one, because it turns out to be an amazing way to add tons of flavor.

It’s pretty simple. There’s nothing all that unusual about adding fruit to a milkshake, especially bananas. But what makes this recipe different is that we brown the bananas in a skillet before adding them. This quick and easy step caramelizes the natural sugars in the bananas and gives them a serious flavor kick.

To help the caramelizing along, I added butter and a bit of brown sugar to the pan. The result is a rich, caramel banana sauce in the skillet, as well as deliciously browned fruit.