If you love chocolate chip cookies, and banana bread, you are in luck! Healthy Chocolate Chip Banana Cookies are a perfect marriage between the two. They are just sweet enough they will pass for dessert or even breakfast!
Can I hear a hip hip hooray? The kids are finally out of school and we are thrilled. That means the cutest part of our work crew is back to help on the farm. I guess for some families that means their kids get to sleep in and hang around the house all day. That’s not exactly how it works on the farm. We bounce them out of bed pretty early so they can help with all kinds of chores.
My kids bring a lunch from home to school every day. And I feel the need to send them a little treat in their lunches. You know, just to show them I love them. Not having to pack lunches is such a relief. But, now that the kids are home they are bopping in the house throughout the day to grab a quick snack. It needs to be quick and easy to grab and go. And it needs to be quick for me to make because I don’t want to be in the house any longer than I have to. Chocolate chip banana cookies are a little healthier than Death By Chocolate Crispy Treats or these super easy Butterscotch Bar Cookies but they still deliver.
Grab a few ripe, or overripe, bananas and add them to the bowl of a mixer. Cream them until they are mashed and smooth. I didn’t do this next step right because I got distracted while I was on the phone trying to fix an employee’s, who no longer works here, child support problem. Why is his child support problem my problem anyway? Okay, back to the cookies. Add the butter and sugar to the bananas and cream again. This way the butter won’t be lumpy.
Then add the eggs and vanilla and cream again for about 2 minutes.
In a separate bowl mix all the dry ingredients together except nuts and chocolate chips. Add to the banana mixture and beat until combined.
Add chocolate chips and nuts. Stir until they are incorporated.
Line a baking sheet with parchment paper of spray with nonstick cooking spray. Drop cookies using a medium size cookie scoop.
Bake for 8-10 minutes for flatter and chewier cookies, or 10-12 minutes for a more puffy cake like cookie.
You know my rule, if any food contains fruit, it’s healthy, and can be considered breakfast! Go ahead and grab a healthy cookie first thing in the morning! After all, they do have bananas!
These cookies are like having chocolate chip cookies and banana bread in the same bite! Besides that healthy banana cookies are so easy to grab and go!
Ingredients
- 2 bananas
- 1/4 c. butter softened
- 1 egg
- 1/4 c. sugar
- 1/2 c. brown sugar
- 1 tsp. vanilla
- 1 1/4 c. flour
- 1 1/2 c. oats ground into flour
- 1/2 tsp. salt
- 1/2 tsp. baking soda
- 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp. nutmeg
- 1 1/2 c. semi sweet chocolate chips
- 1/2 c. chopped walnuts
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.
- Add bananas to bowl of stand mixer. Mix until mashed and creamy.
- Add butter and sugar to bananas and mix again until creamed.
- Add egg and vanilla and mix until well beaten, about 2 minutes.
- In a separate bowl add flour, ground oats, salt, baking soda, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Stir to combine.
- Add flour mixture to banana mixture and mix until combined.
- Stir in chocolate chips and walnuts if desired.
- Drop cookies onto parchment lined baking sheets using a small cookie scoop, about an 1/8 cup.
- Bake 8-10 minutes. Watch carefully so you don't over bake.
Everything you love about in banana bread and chocolate chip cookies in one bite! Healthy enough for breakfast!
Yum! These remind me of the cookies my husband’s grandma use to make, and we sadly did not get her recipe. I bet this is it, or verrrrry close!
Grandma recipes are the best! Hope this one measures up!
I have 3 more days of packing lunches this school year, and my kids would love it if I snuck a couple of these into them. They sound great!
Yay for summer! I always throw a little treat in my kids lunches. I think they deserve it!
These cookies would go over well here at my house. Anytime I am baking something I seem to get distracted too! I totally feel ya!
Haha! It’s easy to get distracted! I love having treats ready for my kids!
These look awesome, Amy! I love the addition of banana!
Bananas just make everything soft and yummy!
I love the idea of healthy cookies. These looks fabulous!
Don’t get me wrong, I still love regular cookies but I like having a healthy cookie option in my stash of recipes!
I love adding banana to baked goods! We always have an extra supply of bananas because my kids go through them like crazy!
My kids always want to buy bananas but then they can’t seem to eat them all so I end up baking with them!
Man, I could eat like 10 of these…they look so good. I love that you kept these healthy.
Once I start eating treats I can’t contain myself! Thank goodness they are healthier than regular cookies!
Can you substitute the butter for anything else?
I’m a dairy farmer, so I only use butter! We don’t buy margarine or shortening, or any other non dairy substitutes in this house! Honestly, I haven’t tried anything else because I already know butter is so yummy!
Can I use whole wheat flour In this recipe and can I substitute honey for the white sugar? These look so yummy! And we always have extra bananas in the house.
I imagine you could substitute whole wheat flour and it would be fine although the texture might be a little more dense. As far as substituting honey goes I haven’t tried it but the rule I usually for substiting honey in baking is 2/3 cup honey for one cup sugar and reduce the baking temperature by 25 degrees. Let me know if you try it!
Do the oats have to be ground?
You could leave them unground if you’d like. I prefer the texture of ground oats!
I want to bake these cookies and I have about 2 1/2 cups oat flour already ground, but I can’t remember how many cups of oats I used to grind it! Can you tell me how many cups of oat flour I need?
Hi Kay! It will depend on how finely you ground the oats. Typically a cup of oats will grind down to about 1/2 a cup of oat flour, maybe a little more. Hopefully that helps!
Thanks, Amy. The cookies are delicious. My husband said, “They don’t taste healthy!” And he meant it in a good way in reference to previous recipes for healthy cookies that definite did taste healthy but weren’t very good. These were great!
Haha! I have the same reaction to “healthy” in recipes and automatically think it’s not going to taste very good! Thank goodness these ones actually taste like cookies and are still pretty healthy! Glad you enjoyed them!