Banana Chocolate Oat Cookies – Using Brown Bananas
These banana chocolate oat cookies are unbelievably good. It’s hard to believe they’re basically just bananas and oats! These are what you’re making when you have extra bananas and want a more wholesome, chewy soft cookie. For a more classic cookie make these traditional chocolate chip oat cookies.
Also Read: Chocolate Banana Avocado Pudding, Banana Apple Kale Smoothie, Apple Pie Overnight Oats
These wholesome banana chocolate oat cookies are made of mashed ripe bananas (see alternatives below) that hold together oats and chocolate chips. That means they are soft and tender. They are not a crispy choco chip cookie.
I’ve also added ground flax for fibre and cinnamon for flavour, but really these are optional. If you have a sweet tooth, you can add 2 Tbsp brown sugar. Amazing for a cookie, right?! It’s not that we don’t enjoy regular chocolate chip cookies, it’s just nice to have something different. And it’s nice to have a gluten free, dairy free, vegan snack option for friends and family.
Remember, oats are naturally gluten free, but they may be cross contaminated if made in a factory that also processes other grains, so check your package to ensure they’re gluten free. And check your chocolate chips to ensure your cookies are dairy free and vegan. Luckily there are more and more options available in regular grocery stores.
These cookies have become one of our favourite go to recipe when we have soft brown bananas on the fruit tray or a collection of brown bananas in the freezer. They’re much easier and quicker to make than banana loaf and provide a great snack or even breakfast on the go.
Sometimes, I like to add extra nuts and seeds like sunflower seeds or walnuts. But my kids tell me they prefer the original version with just oats. They said adding “all those other things” makes it more like a granola bar and less like a cookie – and sometimes they just want a cookie. Fair enough, I’ll keep them as banana chocolate oat cookies – with ground flax seed.
Banana Chocolate Oat Cookies Recipe
Banana Chocolate Oat Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup mashed bananas (3 very ripe medium bananas)
- 2 1/4 cups quick oats
- 2 Tbsp ground flax optional
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1/4 cup mini chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°C. Lightly grease or line baking sheet.
- In medium sized bowl, squish ripe bananas with back of fork to a smooth, almost liquid consistency.
- Combine oats, ground flax and cinnamon with mashed bananas.
- Stir in chocolate chips.
- Drop by large tablespoon onto baking sheet. Press and shape into rounds about 1 cm thick. Cookies will not spread or rise but leave space between to allow slight browning of edges.
- Bake for 8-10 minutes until set and beginning to turn golden brown.
- Store in a sealed container in the fridge for 3 days. Also great for storing in the freezer.
Notes
To ensure gluten free and dairy free – double check your oats are gluten free and your chocolate chips are dairy free. Instead of Bananas: 1/2 cup applesauce + 1/2 cup nut or seed butter 1 cup pureed sweet potato, pumpkin or squash plus additional sweetener
Nutrition Facts (per serving)
Substitutes – Use What You Have
These cookies have room for substitutions – use what you have!
Bananas – If you’re not a fan of bananas or are allergic, here are some substitutions I’ve tried and can recommend.
Sweet Potato, Squash or Pumpkin Puree: Replace mashed bananas with sweet potato, pumpkin or squash puree. The puree should be quite dry (no more liquidy than mashed bananas). Use a sweet, dry squash like pie pumpkins, butternut squash, kabocha or buttercup squash. If the squash puree is not very sweet, add extra brown sugar or sweetener to the recipe.
Apple Sauce AND Nut/Seed Butter: Replace mashed bananas with 1/2 cup apple sauce and 1/2 cup nut/seed butter (peanut butter, almond butter, WOW butter, tahini, etc.). Taste and add 2 Tbsp extra sweetener or as desired. I do not recommend replacing with just apple sauce as the dough will be too wet.
Oats – I have used large flake oats with all their health benefits. When I use large flake oats, I chop half the amount in a food processor to make smaller crumbs so the cookies hold together better. You could use quinoa flakes as well.
Ground Flax – I love the extra fibre, omega3 and other benefits that come from ground flax, and yes, you should use ground flax seed or flax meal instead of whole flax seeds. Whole flax seeds will go right through you without your body being able to extract all the nutritional benefits. If you don’t have flax, you can omit them or try hemp seeds for extra nutrients and protein.
Cinnamon – Add whatever flavor you like – how about vanilla, cardamom, nutmeg, ginger or anise.
Sweetener – This is totally your choice, in fact, you don’t even need any sweetener if you find the banana sweet enough. You could add a little maple syrup, white sugar, honey, stevia, xylitol, corn syrup, pancake syrup – totally your call.
Oil – For a richer, more dessert style cookie, add 1-2 Tbsp oil or nut butter. But it’s not necessary.
Chocolate Chips – When the kids see chocolate chips they’re all in! That said, you can add in whatever you’d like – nuts, seeds, shredded coconut, dried fruit or some combination.
Are you ready to try them!?
If you make a batch, I’d love to hear what you think of them. And please tag your photos on Instagram with @getgettys so I can see them and like ’em!
I made your banana oatmeal cookie recipe and they tasted terrible and threw them out. Followed recipe exactly. You mention oil but none is shown in the recipe. Is your recipe correct. I did add one tbsp brown sugar as you mention to add two optionally.
Hi Linda,
Thank you for your comment. I’m sorry you were disappointed. These are not meant to be a classic, buttery chocolate chip cookie. They’re flourless, soft and chewy bites that rely on mashed banana to hold everythign together and provide natural sweetness. The result is a more wholesome snack.
If you were expecting a sweeter, bakery style oat cookie, I can understand why you’d be disappointed.
I appreciate your feedback and have tried to make the difference more clear in my post.
All the best,
Getty