Thursday, March 26, 2009

Banana-Oatmeal-Chocolate Chip Cookies

I haaaaaaate brown bananas. Ick, ick ick. I like to eat bananas when they are still slightly green. If there is a single brown spot on a banana, I will not eat it because that is disgusting. Ewwwww.

The problem comes when I have a banana that is slightly too green one night, so I plan on eating it the next day. OF COURSE, by the next day the banana is brown and rotting. Because that is how my life works.

The obvious solution to this problem is to make banana bread, but I saw this recipe on Taste & Tell and decided to give 'er a try. I made a few little changes, and the end result is delicious!


You need: flour, rolled oats, salt, sugar, vanilla, baking soda, butter (softened), an egg, icky brown bananas, chocolate chips, and cinnamon (optional).

NOTE: The one banana looks weird in this picture because it is frozen. When I have nasty bananas, I usually stick them in baggies and put them in the freezer. Then I can use them in smoothies, or I can pull them out when I want to make banana bread. Or cookies.

I didn't have any chocolate chips on hand (gasp! horrors!!!), but I did have this bag of mini Hershey kisses, which are smaller than normal Hershey kisses but bigger than normal chocolate chips. I like to eat these by the handful. For proof of this habit, see my butt.

First, cream together 3/4 cup of butter and 1 cup sugar until light and fluffy.

Then, add an egg and 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla. Mix well.

Once the wet ingredients are fully combined, add 1 1/2 cups flour, 1 3/4 cups oats, 1/2 teaspoon baking soda, 1 teaspoon salt, and 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon (I don't really like cinnamon, so I left it out). Add 1 cup of mashed banana on top (about 2 bananas). Mix well until everything is evenly combined.

If I were using normal chocolate chips, I would mix in 1 cup of them at this point. With the big chips I was using, I was worried that they wouldn't distribute evenly throughout the dough, so I decided to stud them on top.


Whichever method of chocolate-chipping you prefer, blop your dough on a parchment-lined cookie sheet in generous tablespoons. Bake at 375 degrees for 12-14 minutes.

Once they're done, let them cool on wire racks. The recipe made 3 dozen plus 2 cookies for me.

Overall, I think this is a great cookie. I like the sweetness of the Hershey kisses, and the little chunks of banana. They're really good with milk (which, duh, all cookies are good with milk. But these are especially good with milk).

15 comments:

  1. I'm glad you tried and liked these! I love the mini kisses - they look great in these cookies!

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  2. I just don't get this squeamishness about ripe bananas. Green bananas are unripe. Why eat something with no flavor? Oh well.

    Ripe Fruit Lover

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  3. Hi, Ripe Fruit Lover - I don't think green bananas have no flavor! I don't know exactly why I get icky about bananas when they are ripe... just a personal preference, I guess :)

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  4. Browning bananas are sweeter. So, when cooking with them or making smoothies, I tend to let the bananas crop up some extra spots on the peel.

    Great recipe. Here thanks to foodgawker.com :]

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  5. I just made these (I had some REALLY, REALLY unripe 'nanas), and they are DELICIOUS. Thanks for the excellent recipe.

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  6. Interesting article, added his blog to Favorites

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  7. I'm the same way, I will not eat banana's once they no longer have any green. I feel like when they still have a little kiss of green at the ends they have a nice sweetness and they are firmer and not as mealy. I'm lucky because my husband wont eat them unless they are "normal" as he like to call it, and my kids dont really care what they look like.

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  8. loved this recipe. might give it a try. bought 12 too many bananas this month.

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  9. I just made these tonight. My plan was to make some without chips and some with. Ha! Turns out I didn't have any chips at all so they are all chipless. I also used 1 cup wheat flour and only a half of a cup white. They came out interesting. My husband loves them. I think they would be better with nuts or chips. Thank you for the recipe!

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  10. Just made these cookies...so glad to not have made boring banana bread...I pushed Hershey Kiss' in the cookie centers as soon as they came out of the oven. Thanks for a great recipe!

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  11. I'm the same way about bananas! I tried this a couple weeks ago following your recipe exactly, but used milk chocolate chips mixed in. My family loved it! At our house we love bananas and peanut butter, so I had an idea....I added 2 tablespoons of creamy peanut butter and 1/2 cup Reeses peanut butter chips and 1/2 cup milk chocolate chips. They are fantastic! I like both recipes, but was in need of pb tonight. Thanks for your inspiration.

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    1. just made this recipe with my 2 little girls, didnt have normal rolled oats but golden syrup flavoured oats so i threw that in instead, was delicious!! also didnt have choc chips so i threw in a packet of smarties, done the trick in this house lol ....thanks from a mummy with 2 little girls on a wet and windy sunday xxx

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  12. Just made these awesome cookies, I used very very ripe bananas and they were excellent !! Thank you !

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  13. OMG!!! My hubby is gonna kill me for making these truly awesome cookies. I was looking for something other than breads to make out of really brown bananas and viola i found this one. Thanks for being there!! I didn't have chocolate chips, i used a handful of dark chocolate kisses broken up and plane instant oatmeal. Still turned out GREAT!!! Putting this receipe in my family receipe box!

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  14. Thank you for this recipe! They are wonderful. I did add in some chopped walnuts as well.

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