Not sure what to do with those browning bananas in your fruit bowl? Well have no fear, the more ripe and mushy your bananas are, the better this recipe turns out!
If you only have fresh bananas then put them in a brown paper bag for a couple days and they should be brown in no time. (The brown bag blocks gases from being released which speeds up the ripening process. Also putting other fruits such as an apple or nectarine will speed it up even more).
Contrary to other recipes, there really is no need to separate your dry ingredients and your wet ingredients. Save a bowl and add them into one giant bowl. (Not all at the same time, of course).
Mash up your bananas with the brown sugar. Add the flour, oats, vanilla, baking soda, baking powder, and coconut. At first the mixture may seem a little dry, especially if your bananas aren’t as ripe. But DO NOT add any more liquid! The more your mix your bananas, the more moist everything gets!
Lizzy Boshears/ Old Gold & Black
Now add your dried fruit and/or nuts or chocolate chips. Really you can add anything you like! I added dried cherries and cranberries to half my batter and chocolate chips to the other half.
Scoop onto a greased cookie sheet. (The bigger you make the cookies, the longer they will take to cook.) Don’t worry about spreading them 2 inches apart, as despite the baking soda/powder, the cookies only rise slightly but will not expand into each other unless that’s what you want.
Bake at 350 degrees for 12-16 minutes depending on the size and how crispy you want them.
Probably the best thing about these besides the taste is the smell. I made these in my dorm kitchen and had a flock of people come to the kitchen wanting one before they even knew what they were.
Cool on a rack or eat them hot out of the oven!
2 ripe bananas
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 + 1/8 cup brown sugar (I’m not good at adding fractions)
1 1/2 cup oats
1 cup flour
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup coconut
1/2- 1 cup dried fruit/chocolate chips/nuts