Banana and oat cookies

Difficulty: Easy

Time: 30 minutes plus 12 minutes baking

Serves: approx 25-30

It seems to be a recurring theme that we have left over bananas in our house but once again I’ve found myself looking for something to make with a few past their best fruit.

This time rather than make banana bread or a cake (which we make all the time) I decided to try some banana and oat cookies. These ones have got a nice soft, chewy texture and you get a good strong flavour of banana coming through. And with the oats, you can almost convince yourself that they are healthy! They’re also easy to make with kids as you just have to mix everything together in one bowl. So, the next time, like us you have a load of bananas needing used why not try these for a change?!

Ingredients

3/4 cup salted butter (170g), softened
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup caster sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup mashed bananas
1 1/2 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp cornstarch
3 cups old fashioned oats

Method

Preheat your oven to 180C/170CFan/350F and line some baking trays with baking paper.

Mix the wet ingredients together

Get your kids to measure the butter (170g) and chop it into small pieces (if it isn’t already soft, blast it in the microwave for a few seconds to make it easier to mix). Add it to a large mixing bowl.

Measure out the brown sugar (1 cup) and caster sugar (1/2 cup) and add to your mixing bowl.

While your kids are doing that, measure the vanilla extract (1 tsp) into your bowl.

Crack the egg into a cup, and then add it to your mixing bowl. If you are feeling brave you could crack the egg straight into your mixing bowl. I prefer to let the kids do into a separate bowl first though as it’s easier to fish out any rogue shell!

Get your kids to peel and then mash the bananas (1 cup) with a fork/masher. When they are well mashed add them to your mixing bowl.

Give everything a good mix.

Add the dry ingredients

Measure the flour (1 ½ cups) out and add to your mixing bowl.
Add the cinnamon (1 ½ tsp), baking powder (2 tsp), and cornflour (2 tbsp). If your little ones have a steady hand they could do this part, but if not do it yourself.

Mix everything together.

Add the oats

Measure out the oats and add them into your bowl. Give everything one last mix.

Bake the banana and oat cookies

Spoon tablespoons of cookie dough onto your baking sheet. You kids might enjoy doing this, but you might need to neaten up the dollops a bit. You want to flatten them down a little bit into thick disks. Make sure they are spread out nicely as they’ll spread a bit when they bake.

 
Bake them for 10-12 minutes. They’re ready when the edges start to go golden.

Remove the banana and oat cookies from the oven and leave them to cool for a few minutes. Move them to a wire rack to finish cooling.