Banana Surprise Cookies

I had two reasons to try this recipe - I had very ripe bananas and wanted to try something different instead of my regular banana muffins or bread, and I am involved with the Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap 2012 and need to find a cookie recipe to swap!  For years I have avoided cookies because they are so much more involved than bread, cakes or brownies.  But it sounded like fun to participate.   You have to do a food blog to be accepted to the cookie swap.  So I am guessing most people will be much more accomplished than me!  No pressure then.

In the continuous unpacking of cookbooks and kitchen paraphernalia, I discovered a much loved cookbook I had completely forgotten about!  It is called The New Dr. Cookie Cookbook.  It is dated 1994, so I must have bought it on a trip home.  To be honest, there are not many trips I don't buy a cookbook!  The idea behind this one is to make various baked goods more healthy than they normally are.  Not sure I really buy the idea of a healthy cookie, but then they are just making "healthier" cookies.  A much different concept.

Banana Surprise Cookies - adapted from The New Dr. Cookie Cookbook

Ingredients:

1 large egg
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 1/2 cups mashed ripe bananas (about 3)
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups unbleached flour
1 1/2 cups old fashioned rolled oats
1 tsp baking soda  (bicarbonate of soda)
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp grated nutmeg
1/2 cup chopped walnuts or chocolate chips

Oven temp 350F or 170C and coat grease cookie sheets or use baking parchment paper.

Add egg, brown sugar and oil into a large bowl and beat until smooth with an electric mixer.

Add bananas and beat until smooth again.

Add the remaining ingredients - except chocolate chips or nuts if using,  and, using a large spoon, preferably wooden, beat until all ingredients are thoroughly mixed.

Add nuts or chips at this point and let the batter rest for about 5 minutes.

Using a teaspoon, drop batter onto baking sheets, allowing room for cookies to spread, about 2 inches apart.

Bakke for 12 - 15 minutes and cook on a wire rack.


Yield:  48 cookies

Sorry, in my haste to do this recipe, I did not convert the measures to metric.  I also did not use unbleached flour, but will buy some and try this again.  And I used butterscotch chips instead of chocolate chips.  Any flavor of chips is one of the things I request when people visit me from the States.  Although you can get chips here now, in fact I got cappuccino, dark and white chips from Sainsbury's yesterday!  But you can see from this picture, the American bags are better.  More chips and at a better price.  (unless you factor in the plane ticket of course!)

I also forgot to take a picture of the finished product!  But they look exactly like the picture taken before they were baked, only browner!

And they were delicious.  A change from banana bread or muffins.  I guess the surprise is that they are spicy and different from what you expect when you bite into it.  Having never had a banana cookie, it was a really nice surprise. 

But they don't stay fresh very long and won't be a candidate for my cookie swap. So I guess I will just have to continue to test cookies recipes until I find one I approve of!

“A balanced diet is a cookie in each hand”