Banana Oatmeal Cookies

Oatmeal cookies with a twist, a banana twist, that is. Move over, banana bread! They're slightly chewy and sweet with real, ripe banana flavor.

Real Food, Fast & Fresh. Great for After School Treat. Budget Friendly. Low Fat, Just Two Tablespoons Butter for 30 Cookies. Rave Reviews. What're you waiting for?!

~ Skip Straight to the Recipes ~

~ Banana Oatmeal Cookies ~
~ Banana Mango Smoothie ~
~ Quick Banana Dessert ~

COMPLIMENTS!

• "These are delicous!" ~ Mia
• "... very yummy ..." ~ Becky
• "I love them - a soft cookie that really feels like a treat ... whilst not being too naughty!" ~ amalissy
• "... they turned out great! Love the coconut touch." ~ Susan

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Ripe Bananas: Think Ahead & Be Patient!

Long-time cooks know that the first rule of baking with banana is "Think Ahead".

The unavoidable fact is that it takes a couple of weeks for bananas to ripen enough.

You see, green bananas (as in "unripe" bananas which may have tinges of green but are often yellow) make for blah banana-baking. A banana must be really ripe — nearly all brown and even, if you want, well into "black" — to yield the luscious banana flavor in banana bread, banana cakes and here, Banana Oatmeal Cookies.

So wait for dark-brown, not yellow, skins to imbue heady banana flavor into quick breads, banana cakes, banana pancakes and here, the best oatmeal cookies, bar none, I’ve ever made – or eaten.

The freezer can help! To keep ripe bananas on hand all the time, just wash the bananas, then let them ripen naturally on the counter or in a paper bag. Once the skins turn dark, tuck the bananas into a freezer bag, right in their black jackets, and freeze. When you’re ready to bake, just thaw as many as needed in a container for an hour before using.

And now? Black Bananas! I've gone extreme when it comes to ripe bananas. "Black bananas" aren't for everyone but for photographs, and just "how black" I let bananas get before baking, see Ripe Bananas for Baking: How Ripe Should Bananas Be? It might be a little shocking but boy-oh-boy, talk about heady banana richness.

Banana Lovers Will Love These Oatmeal Cookies!

Bananas Not Ripe Enough?

Apparently, I'm a fiend for oatmeal cookies! If you don't have a ripe banana but are still hankering for oatmeal cookies, here's some ideas! You won't go wrong, these have been in my recipe box for decades!

• Mom's Everyday Oatmeal Cookies, never the same twice
• Oatmeal Raisin Cookies, perhaps with chocolate-covered raisins?!
• Gum Drop Cookies, an old-fashioned favorite

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BANANA OATMEAL COOKIES

Banana ripening: 2 weeks
Hands-on time: 30 minutes
Time to table: 1 hour
Makes about 30 cookies, easily doubled

• 2 tablespoons (30g) butter, room temperature
• 1/2 cup (100g) sugar
• 1/2 cup (100g) brown sugar
• 1 very ripe banana
• 1 large egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

• 1-1/4 cups flour, fluffed to aerate before measuring or 155g
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon table salt
• 1-1/2 cups oatmeal (old-fashioned or quick, not instant)
• 1 cup unsweetened coconut

Heat oven to 350F/180C. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.

In a mixing bowl, use an electric mixer to thoroughly combine the butter, sugars, banana, egg and vanilla. (Yep ... it's unconventional but it's okay to mix these all together all at once.)

In another bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder, soda, cinnamon and salt. Stir in the oatmeal and coconut. By hand with a spatula, stir the flour mixture into the butter mixture.

With two spoons (one to scoop and one to scrape), drop the dough onto the baking sheet, leaving room for the cookies to spread. For rounder, flatter cookies, use the back of a spoon to gently shape and flatten the dough just a bit.

Bake for 11 – 14 minutes until set and golden. Let cool for 5 minutes before removing from the parchment.

ALANNA's TIPS Be prepared! Your kitchen is going to smell like warm banana bread! Does your brown sugar get a little clumpy in the cupboard? Mine too. I like to "work" the white and brown sugars together with the back of a spoon in the mixing bowl before adding the other wet ingredients, working out those tiny clumps which can create little pockets of dark, even burned sugar in baked goods. To produce Banana Oatmeal Cookies all the same size, use a cookie scoop but then gently flatten and shape the dough.

STICKY TROUBLES A couple readers have reported "sticky" cookies. It's happened to me too. I think it's caused when we measure flour by volume – there can be such variation! – but doesn't happen to everyone because smaller bananas do fine with less flour. Ohhh the vagaries of baking, some times! I've re-written the recipe to fix this and believe it improves the recipe considerably. Flour really needs to be measured by weight, I pull out my kitchen scale several times a day. I recommend that for this recipe, you do too.

SPLENDA Yes, Splenda works! Great news for dieters and diabetics, Banana Oatmeal Cookies turn out beautifully when made with "alternate" ingredients. Substitute Smart Balance for butter, Splenda for the white sugar and white whole wheat flour for the flour. (See Nutrition Information below!)

NUTRITION INFORMATION
As Written Per Cookie, assumes 30: 64 Calories; 1g Tot Fat; 1g Sat Fat; 9mg Cholesterol; 57mg Sodium; 12g Carb; 0g Fiber; 7g Sugar; 1g Protein. WEIGHT WATCHERS Old Points 1 & PointsPlus 2 & SmartPoints 3 & Freestyle 3 & myWW green 3 & blue 3 & purple 3

With Smart Balance & Splenda Per Cookie, assumes 30: 30 Calories; 1g Tot Fat; 0g Sat Fat; 7mg Cholesterol; 57mg Sodium; 5g Carb; 0g Fiber; 4g Sugar; 0g Protein. WEIGHT WATCHERS Old Points 1 & PointsPlus 1 & SmartPoints 1 & Freestyle 1 & myWW green 1 & blue 1 & purple 1

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BANANA MANGO SMOOTHIE For a quick after-school snack, toss a frozen banana (skin removed, silly!) and frozen mangoes into a blender with a couple of ice cubes and skim milk. Delicious – and refreshing!

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QUICK BANANA DESSERT I made this a-l-l the time when I was a kid! Just slice a barely ripe banana lengthwise. Spread each flat side with sour cream or Greek yogurt, then sprinkle with about a teaspoon of brown sugar, it'll soon "melt". It's gorgeous good! With non-fat Greek yogurt, it's a one-point dessert (blue and green points) for Weight Watchers!

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More Great Banana Recipes

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~ more banana recipes ~

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(helping home cooks save money on groceries)

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~ oatmeal recipes ~
~ coconut recipes ~

~ All Recipes, By Ingredient ~
~ How to Save Money on Groceries ~

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Kitchen Parade is written by second-generation food columnist Alanna Kellogg and features fresh, seasonal dishes for every-day healthful eating and occasional indulgences. Quick Suppers are Kitchen Parade favorites and feature recipes easy on the budget, the clock, the waistline and the dishwasher. Do you have a favorite recipe that other Kitchen Parade readers might like? Just send me a quick e-mail via recipes@kitchen-parade.com. How to print a Kitchen Parade recipe. Never miss a recipe! If you like this recipe, sign up for a free e-mail subscription. If you like Kitchen Parade, you're sure to like my food blog about vegetable recipes, too, A Veggie Venture. If you make this recipe, I'd love to know your results! Just leave a comment below.

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