This recipe allows you to use up the over ripe bananas without having to resort to banana bread. Although these taste pretty much like banana bread, but lighter, more airy. While the large amount of butter seems to make these anything but a low-fat cookie, I find that they are very satisfying so I don’t gobble down an entire half-dozen. If you break it down it is about 1/8 of a tablespoon per cookie. It is a cookie and like all cookies, they are meant to be a treat. I think that the bananas, the oats, and the walnuts add a bit of nutrients to them. I think anytime good-for-you ingredients can be added to a sweet treat it is a great thing. Homemade is better than packaged goods.
Banana Oatmeal Walnut Cookies
Ingredients:
3/4 cup of butter
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon of vanilla
1 cup wheat flour
1/2 cup white flour
1 3/4 cups oats
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
¾ teaspoon cinnamon
A sprinkle of nutmeg
3 bananas
Chopped walnuts
Preheat oven 375 degrees
Using an electric hand-held beater, mix up the butter and sugar. I mix it up until it is fluffy.
Then, add the egg and vanilla. Mix well. This I mix until it is light and fluffy. (I think that is what helps make the cookies lighter than banana bread.)
Add the rest of the ingredients (except the nuts) one at a time. Blending well – using the electric hand-held beater – after adding each one and before adding the next.
Stir the walnuts in using a spoon or whatever. I just wouldn’t use the beater.
The “dough” is rather runny for me at this point. I use a round measuring spoon to scoop up the mixture and put it on a cookie sheet.
I don’t grease the sheet, but I think that really depends on what you are baking on. You can decide. I do space them out rather far because they tend to grow a little bit.
I bake them at 375 degrees for 12. I bake them for 6 minutes, then I turn the pan. And bake them for another 6 minutes, for a total of 12 minutes. Again, you decide how “DONE” you want your cookies, plus you know your oven. So maybe start out with 10 minutes and add minutes accordingly. And if you have greased the cookie sheet the time might need altering.
I think I get about 4 dozen out of this recipe.
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I am going to keep this version of the recipe, but also do some alterations sometimes when I make them. I have some ideas I want to try. I want to try LESS butter. I also might try the chocolate chips again, but maybe less of them (I only used ¾ of a cup the first time!) and maybe WITH nuts, oh (!) and with my nutmeg addition. That might make a big difference. But I somewhat agree with my husband about adding chocolate chips to a cookie, it just makes it a chocolate chip cookie.
I want to let you know the path that led me to making this recipe. First I went looking for recipes and ideas on what to do with over ripe banana and I found 100 Things to Do with a Banana (yeah, really). Since they have pictures I just scrolled through clicking on pictures I liked and it led to A little bit of this, a little bit of that .
So, what do you think? Are you a chocolate lover? Then you might want to add a cup or so of chocolate chips. What else can you think of to make this better? Let me know. I am always interested in hearing about alterations.
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