Waking up this morning, I was presented with a few dilemmas:
- There are three bananas on the counter coming up to that point where they’re past their prime, and I already have about 20 bananas in the freezer for smoothies.
- I have a nice, nasty little cold right now, which makes me crave sweets as a comfort food. I’m trying to eat healthy, so I don’t want to go out to get junk food.
- Because I’m sick, there’s no way I’m going to go out and get junk food. I’m surprised I can even get off of the couch for more than five minutes.
The solution: healthy cookies with bananas! These turned out so soft, and so yummy… There’s no butter, no eggs, no junky stuff, and barely any sugar. They’re filled with a whole bunch of flavour and goodness! This recipe makes 12 medium-sized cookies, about an inch thick. They almost have a cake-like texture, very similar to a chocolate crueller or something. I am embarrassed to admit that I’ve already eaten four of these. Anyways, here’s the recipe, enjoy! 🙂
Chocolate Peanut Butter Banana Oatmeal Cookies
Dry Ingredients:
- 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
- 1/2 cup oat flour
- 1/2 cup quick cooking rolled oats
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1/8 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
- 1 tbsp ground flax-seed
- 2 tbsp chia seeds
- pinch of salt
- 1/2 cup cocoa powder
Wet Ingredients:
- 1/4 cup honey
- 1/4 cup vanilla almond milk (or milk of your choice)
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 tbsp organic cane sugar (this obviously isn’t a wet ingredient, but is mixed in with them anyways)
- 1/4 cup natural creamy peanut butter
- 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 1 ripe banana
Solid Ingredients:
- 1/2 cup carob chips (you can use regular chocolate chips if you like, I just really LOVE carob chips.)
- 1/2 cup crushed walnut pieces (this is optional also, so feel free to omit if you don’t like walnuts.)
Method:
- Pre heat your oven to 325 F for convection ovens. (If not using a convection oven, pre heat to 350 F)
- Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a Silpat (or any silicone baking mat), and set aside.
- In a bowl, sift together all dry ingredients.
- In another bowl, mash the banana, and add all wet ingredients to the mashed banana.
- Pour the wet into the dry.
- Add the solid ingredients, and stir together until everything is combined.
- Because it’s a dough that’s a bit on the dry side, I like to get my hands right in there and mush it all together, so don’t be afraid to get your hands dirty!
- Using your hands, shape pieces of the dough into balls about the size of a golf ball (or a little bigger), and press into a patty that is about 1 inch thick. These don’t really spread while baking, but you also want to make sure that they maintain that cake-like texture because it’s pretty darn good!
- Once all of the dough is shaped and on the baking sheet, pop it into your oven and bake for about 20-25 minutes. Make sure to check the cookies at 15 minutes. The bottoms of the cookies will be slightly darker than the rest of the cookie. If it’s looking a lot darker, take them out!
- Allow to cool for about 15 minutes, then eat and enjoy! 🙂
- Note: I made these in a convection oven, so my cooking time was longer. (Lower temperature, slightly longer cooking time, however they cook perfectly even.) So if you don’t have a convection oven, keep it at 350 F, and cook for 10-15 minutes.