This week has been my first week working from home, so I have been trying to adjust to a new routine. Funemployment brought out my lazy, indulgent side; whipping myself back into shape has proven a painful process.
I’ll share a glimpse of working from home soon, and discuss my frustrations with modern life in the digital age and the challenge of setting realistic expectations. All in due time, my friends.
Today we will talk about cookies. Cookies make everything better. These cookies are extraordinary for two reasons:
- They are crazy delicious.
- They are significantly healthier than the average chocolate chip cookie. They are significantly less unhealthy than most chocolate chip cookies.
Let’s call them reasonably healthycookies. Why?
- These cookies call for only two tablespoons of butter, whereas an equal-sized batch of classic Tollhouse cookies would require an entire stick of butter. That’s a 75% reduction in butter, and you would never guess it!
- They are 100% whole grain, made with whole wheat pastry flour and old fashioned oats. Do we need to discuss the benefits of fiber?
- Make them with dark chocolate chips, and you’ve incorporated some antioxidants.
- Banana. Cinnamon. Yum.
The recipe is a combination of Gina’s recipes for Low Fat Chewy Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies, which uses applesauce in place of most of the butter, and Chewy Low Fat Banana Nut Oatmeal Cookies, which calls for mashed banana instead of applesauce. I thought, wouldn’t banana taste great in chocolate chip cookies? And can I trade all-purpose flour for wheat? Success!
- 1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
- 2 cups oats (the original recipe called for quick oats, but I used old fashioned oats with great results)
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 2 tbsp unsalted butter, room temperature
- 1/2 cup turbinado/raw sugar (or regular sugar)
- 1/2 cup unpacked Muscavado sugar or brown sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1/3 cup mashed banana, which is a almost one whole banana, OR same amount of unsweetened apple sauce (see footnote)
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 3/4 cup dark chocolate chips (Ghirardelli 60% cacao chips are my favorite!), OR walnuts, if you’re into that.
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line baking sheet with parchment paper.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, oats, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon.
- In a large bowl, cream together the butter and the sugars. I used an old-fashioned egg-beater but if you’re lucky enough to have an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugar on medium speed.
- Add the egg, followed by the mashed banana and vanilla extract.
- Working by hand, stir in the flour mixture and the oats until just combined.
- Stir in the chocolate chips.
- Drop heaping spoonfuls onto baking sheets, flattening each cookie slightly. Bake for about 10-12 minutes, or until cookies become light brown at the edges. Do not overbake these cookies!
- Let cool on baking sheet for 3 or 4 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
- Yields about 30 cookies (roughly 1 tbsp each).
- Note on apple sauce, added 5/20/11: I just tried these cookies with apple sauce instead of mashed banana. While they are tasty, they seem a little more like reduced fat cookies. The banana cookies have a fluffier texture, with a higher rise and softer insides. Final verdict? I’m sticking with banana.
36 Comments
Yummy. I love banana and chocolate together.
I just finished lunch and now I want some of your cookies! Considering how often you make cookies, I’m not surprised by your little guy’s name. Even though you’re working from home now, don’t work too much this weekend! Have a good one!
You’re right, I have been making lots of cookies lately! I saved a few of these for me and put the rest in the freezer for when I have company. I feel like my grandmother when I do that, but it’s so much easier to resist temptation that way! She’s a smart lady.
Oh boy, now I have to try your version!!! Glad you liked them!!
Mmm these look yummy! Love banana in baked goods!
Ohh wow! I have been trying to eat healthier with more nuts and oatmeal type stuff and this is right down my alley. Awesome job, I am trying them this week!
Yep, I’m making these tonight!
*stares evil brown banana down*
Hooray! Please let us know how they turn out!
Well, I made them and they are awesome. I accidentally veganized them as I realized had no butter or eggs in the house, but they still turned out really great (although I’m new to photography so maybe they don’t LOOK great). They sure didn’t taste vegan at all. Thanks for the recipe!
My banana is much happier :-D
Good to know! I never would have guessed they would turn out well without eggs or butter. I wish I hadn’t eaten all of mine already!
Those look stinking DELICIOUS! And oh so wholesome and healthy. Thanks for sharing! I’ll be trying these out soon.
I just made these– so good! I added a little more vanilla extract, but they came out spongy and delicious.
So glad to hear it. Thank you for letting me know how they turned out! :)
Definitely making these today! :)
I made these last night and they are spectacular – probably one of my new favorite cookie recipes because it combines my fave things into one: choc chip cookies and banana bread!
I made a few changes. Instead of one ripe banana, I used 2 since I had them. This created a more gooey cookie – which is NOT a bad thing. If you like them more dense, just add more flour. I used the Turbinido raw sugar which I found in the store, no problem. Great discovery from a baking perspective; can’t wait to use it again, even for sprinkling on cakes and breads. And if you use more banana, you can eliminate some sugar since the natural sugar in the fruit makes it sweet enough. For a final touch, I added 1/2 cup coconut into the batter, which gave it a little more crunch.
Consensus: YUMMY!
Thank you Kate, love your recipes!
Despite how much I messed up the recipe, I made these tonight and they are AWESOME!!
Thanks for sharing!
Hmmm, they are in the oven right now. I only added one tablespoon peanut butter (I loove peanut butter), and the dough was the best cookie dough I ever ate! Oh, I veganised It because I’m a vegan, with an Egg-Replacer and margerine.I love oat-cookies, I love bananas, I love cinnamon, I love pb and I love chocolate!! The best recipe ever!
I hope those cookies turned out as good as the batter tasted, Jana! I am definitely going to add some peanut butter to mine next time around. Yum!
They are great. Taste good like banana and like oats, and the cinnamon and the peanut butter perfect the taste. I made half with chocolate chips and half without, and even I love chocolate, these without taste even better to me! Thanks for this recipe!!!
Oh, I’m so glad! I might have to make another batch just so I can try them with peanut butter. Yum.
Amazing cookies! Made the cookies last night and I am in love. Thanks for the the recipe! :)
Hi there,
Just wanted to say that these were delish! I added a handful of sliced almonds and a tablespoon of almond butter to replace some of the butter….worked like a charm. Thanks for the awesome recipe :)
these are sooooo good! i did half whole wheat half all purpose to use up my all purpose flour and actually omitted the butter and used 2 mashed bananas and they were really good! and no butter! it actually creams just like the butter with the sugars : )
thanks for the recipe! my best friend is hooked and i am making them again tonight for our company coming for dinner!
Thank you for commenting, Ashley! I’m so glad you enjoyed the cookies. I’m glad to know that they’re great without any butter at all!
I picked out this recipe to try over the holidays when I home from college for winter break. I never got around to making the cookies, but to my surprise, a box arrived at my apartment this morning, it was filled with 2 dozen of these cookies!
My mom made the cookies after finding the recipe in the kitchen and remembering my excitement. The note enclosed with the home made cookies reads: “Ellen, Here are the chocolate chip banana cookies from the recipe you got from cookiesandkate.com. They turned out good! Love you, Mom xxoo.
Just wanted to share this story of love that made my day!
I made these and did the substitution with no butter and added an extra banana. I also did 1/4 sugar and 1/4 spenda to cut more calories. They turned out great! My taste testers agreed =)
Happy with the result! I’ve tried other recipes of yours but this is my first comment. I love the banana and dark chocolate combo, but unfortunately when I got to that step, my ripe banana was missing from the basket! The compost jar held the evidence… Alas it was my last banana and I didn’t have any applesauce. So I improvised by adding mashed fresh strawberries. Wow. What a cookie! I will still try again with bananas, but the berries were a nice mistake.
Kate, your cookies sound like quite a delicious mistake! I’ve been wondering lately if I could substitute mashed strawberries for bananas, so I’m glad to know that it worked for this recipe, at least! Thank you for commenting!
I tested these out today and they were so delicious! I left out the egg and butter, upped the banana some, and actually meant to use the brown sugar but forgot it… it was still delicious! I made it using peanut butter chips, and I will definitely be making this again soon!
Glad you liked the cookies, Ashley!
Since I bake with no gluten, I’m wondering how these will turn out with gluten-free flour. Will they keep together or flatten out? I will try to make them with a mix of brown rice flour, almond flour and maybe some other kinds of gf flours to see how they turn out. If I remember, I’ll try to report back here about them. I’m allergic to bananas (darn!) so I will have to try them with the apple sauce. Otherwise, these seem like incredible cookies!
I don’t have much experience substituting with gluten-free flours, to tell you the truth. Please let us know how the cookies turn out!
Girl. Friend.These cookies look amazing! Just found you’re blog today and I LOVE your adventurous baking style. Can’t wait to try your recipes!
Yum! Didn’t have whole wheat pastry flour so I just used whole wheat flour. Also, I added some honey which added to the taste AND made then stick easier. Turned out great!
I’ve been trying to coax my kids into eating “healthier”, so this recipie was perfect. Delicious! I used your recipie but changed it a bit to appeal to my fussy kids. I ground the oatmeal ( it’s a texture thing), I used 2 bananas (it made them more of a soft baked cookie), and 1/2 cup mini chocolate chips (mini chips spread further and trick the kids into eating them)
Thanks, Lisa. I’m glad you made the recipe work for your family!
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