The family and I recently made a pact.  It came soon after I finished my most recent cleanse, which means I was probably giddy with clean living and health.  We decided that, while we didn’t want to give up dessert after dinner, we wanted to reduce our exposure to processed foods.  So, if we were going to have dessert, it always had to be homemade.

I know.  What was I thinking?

Well, besides the crazy cleanse brain, I think I figured that if I made a batch of healthy (ier?) cookies every few days, we’d be set.  It occurred to me at the time that this plan was totally workable.  Now, it seems a little more ambitious.

So I’ve been trying to put together some healthy cookie recipes.  I have my standard go-to healthy chocolate chip cookies, but sometimes I’m sick of that.  Or I’m out of date paste or brown rice syrup.

This week, I had extra over-ripe bananas.  Even after making a loaf of banana bread.  So I went searching for a banana cookie recipe.  I made one once with oats that came from Bethenny Frankel, but I am kind of morally opposed to anyone who’s been on any Housewives show giving any sort of information to the world.

I did find a recipe in this cookbook I have, called The Ultimate Cookie Cookbook.  It’s one of those off-label looking books that I’m sure I got on sale at a bookstore sometime while perusing the discount racks.  In it, there was a recipe for “Ultimate Banana Cookies.”  Surprisingly, not every recipe in this book starts with “Ultimate,” but this one did, so, go figure.

I adapted it because, well, frankly, it was kind of a terrible recipe.  And written really poorly, too.  It seems like someone took a recipe template and just cut and pasted the details in, without proofreading.  So you get things like, “Add the eggs, making sure each is incorporated before the next addition,” but the recipe only calls for ONE EGG.  Don’t worry, y’all, I fixed it.

They turned out pretty nicely.  Kind of like eating banana bread in a cookie form.  So if that sounds good to you, make these.

ready for the oven

Ultimate Banana Cookies

• 1 1/2 sticks butter, room temperature
• 1/2 cup superfine sugar (I’m pretty sure you could use regular sugar here)
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 3 medium bananas, mashed
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 1/4 cups white whole wheat flour
• 1/4 cup ground flaxseed
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• chocolate chunks
• sanding sugar or table sugar, for coating

In a large bowl, cream butter until it is light and fluffy, then add both kinds of sugar.  Beat until light and fluffy again.  Add in the egg, mixing until completely incorporated.  Stir in mashed bananas and vanilla; set aside.

In a small bowl mix together flour, flaxseed, baking powder and baking soda.  Add these dry ingredients to the butter mixture.  Stir in chocolate chunks.  Cover the bowl and refrigerate for at least 2 hours.

Preheat the oven to 375°.  Form tablespoon-sized balls of dough and roll in sanding or table sugar.  Place on a baking sheet about 2″ apart.  Bake for 18-20 minutes, until the tops are just becoming golden.

Now, I do have to admit that I had some extra help in adapting the recipe, so I can’t take all the credit.

Special thanks to Remarkably Domestic Zalia.

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