Banana Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies

Original Recipe HERE

I had some flirting-with-rotten bananas that were asking to be used (because throwing them in the garbage would stink up my kitchen).  I'd been wanting to try this recipe, so...yeah.  Easy solution.  These turned out really well.  They had a light, almost muffin-y texture to them that would make it really easy to justify them as a breakfast food - because doesn't everyone usually put a few chocolate chips in their morning oatmeal anyway?  No?  Really?  You should.

The original recipe says that it makes 12 servings.  I got 25 good-sized cookies out of this, so maybe a serving = 2 cookies?  If that's the case, I need to talk to them about their math.  Because no serving of cookies should include only two.

Husband brought these to work so I wouldn't eat them all, and he was asked for the recipe.  That affirms that they were just as good as I thought they were.

Ingredients

¾ cup butter, softened

1 cup sugar

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla

1-½ cups flour

1-¾ cups oats [I used quick cook]

½ teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon cinnamon

2 to 3 whole, very ripe bananas

1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Directions

1) Preheat oven to 350ºF.

2) Using a mixer, cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the egg and vanilla and mix well.

3) In a separate bowl, combine flour, oats, baking soda, salt and cinnamon.  Stir in chocolate chips so they're coated with flour mixture.

4) Add flour mixture to wet ingredients [I used the hand mixer to expedite this].  Add bananas and stir [hand mixer, again] until combined.

5) Drop large balls of dough onto parchment-lined baking sheets, leaving 2 inches between them.

6) Bake for 10-12 minutes until cookies start to turn slightly brown at the edges.  They will still be soft in the middle; immediately remove from baking sheets and put on a cooling rack.

Notes: I think chopped nuts could be a good add-in.  I'm storing them uncovered - since they're so moist they might get too chewy (for lack of a better word...the first one that came to mind was "humid," though that doesn't make sense).  Though I liked them just the way they were, next time I'll try substituting half the white sugar with brown to see if I can get them more cookie-ish.

Update: Made again but with 1/2 cup white sugar and 1/2 cup brown sugar as well as 1 cup white flour and 1/2 cup wheat flour.  I didn't notice much of a difference - just slightly more dense (less cake-like).

Kid Participation:

* Measure and mix dry ingredients.

* Mash bananas before adding to the dough.