I'm not overly fond of fruit, but I do love bananas, so bananas are my "go-to" fruit of choice. I always buy a big bunch of bananas on my way to work on a Monday and keep them in my desk drawer for snacking on throughout the week, but this means that by Friday I often have one or two leftover bananas that I need to use up. Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining about this - just an explanation for the sheer number of banana recipes that turn up on this blog!
Here, have another photo of the cookies:
Anyway, my leftover bananas usually go into making my favourite Banana Oat Muffins, which I wrap, freeze, and use for pack-up during the week. However, this time I fancied a change. I really, really fancied cookies. I don't often bake cookies and biscuits, so I decided to scour the Internet for recipes to use. Originally I was looking at healthier banana and oat cookies, but then I came across this recipe for Nutella Banana Cookies. Nutella. Banana. Cookies. What more could a girl ask for on a rainy Saturday afternoon? After baking though, I think I'd describe these more as a drop-cake, rather than a cookie, as they have a deliciously spongy texture. (I'm eating one RIGHT NOW. It is amazing.) Maybe they should be called cakies? I haven't changed the original recipe too much, so all credit for this goes to Chef in Training. I did make a couple of tweaks to the method, and made the measurements UK friendly :-)
Ingredients:
2 medium, ripe bananas
1 medium egg
200g plain flour
175g light brown sugar
125g rolled oats
1tsp baking powder
75g slightly salted butter
75g vegetable shortening (Trex)
2 tbsp Nutella
Prep time: 10 minutes
Cook time: 10 - 12 minutes
Makes 18 cookies
- Preheat the oven to gas mark 6 and line a baking tray with grease-proof paper.
- Break the bananas into a bowl, then mash with a fork. Beat in the egg, and put this to one side.
- Tip the flour, sugar, oats and baking powder into a bowl and mix. Add the butter and shortening, in cubes, to the bowl, and then rub in until the mixture resembles a coarse crumble.
- Stir the banana and egg into the dry mixture until they combine to form a sloppy dough. Plop the Nutella into the middle of the bowl and then swirl through the mixture with knife to create a marble pattern.
- Dollop the mixture onto the prepare baking tray in tablespoon sized blobs, leaving enough space in between each blob for the cookies to expand slightly. Bake for 10-12 minutes until the cookies are golden brown all over and firm to touch.
- Allow to cool on a wire rack, if you can resist the banana, chocolate, nutty goodness.
Happy Thoughts
x
