Banana Everything Cookies

About a year ago I acquired a most wonderful recipe for a cookie using up over ripe bananas. I need to keep better track of my sources so I could give credit where credit is due, but alas, back then, I did not keep track. I just wrote down recipes, tried them and then kept them or tossed them. This one I kept. When I first made this cookie I added walnuts and raisins to make a sort of trail mix cookie. While I loved them like that, my chocolate loving boyfriend would never touch raisins or nuts and so I began making one batch my way and one batch with chocolate chips. These cookies are serious winners either way, and if you decrease the sugar, I say they aren't that bad for you (no health claims are made here as I am not a dietitian or nutritionist). I have tons of pictures of the process for these cookies as I make them all the time. So, let's begin. You will need:

1 medium ripe banana
1/3 cup canola oil
2/3 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla

3/4 cup flour + 2 tbs if dough is too wet
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
2 cups oats

1 cup mix ins. For example, 1 cup chocolate chips or 1/2 cup chopped walnuts and 1/2 cup raisins but be creative. Anything you have on hand would work. And just about everything goes with chocolate, right?

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Perfectly ripe bananas.

I like to make the wet portion of this recipe in my food processor so that the bananas get really pureed. Some recipes call for hand mashing the bananas so that you have chunks, but I like it nice and smooth.

Banana and sugar

This is a sugar that I cannot remember the name of. I believe it is similar to, if it is not actually, sucanat. 

Add in vanilla and canola oil

And process

Meanwhile, whisk together your dry ingredients. Ooh, I wish I had a picture to show you my two favorite baking tools. If you've read many posts then you know I love my citrus press for cooking. For baking, I could not live without my whisk and my silicone spatula.

Oats

 

Oats & flour

Whisk it all toghether

Add your mix ins

These chocolate chips I used a few months ago were really too large for these cookies. This time I used regular sized and they worked much better. So, let's pretend these are regular sized chocolate chips.

Once everything is good and mixed, add in your wet. Oh, hey, there's my spatula. I love that thing. Can you propose to a spatula?

Gooey

 

And apparently I have no pictures of the after mixed stage or the rolling stage. But here's how it goes down. I use a cookie sheet covered with a silpat (I used to use parchment paper) and I scoop out the dough using a cookies scoop. This works really well and the cookies turn out mostly the same shape and size. You could always use your hands and a spoon though.

Bake for 10 - 12 minutes and then let cool for a minute or two on the cookie sheet before transferring to a wire rack. I have found that the trick to vegan cookies is usually to undercook them. This leaves them moist and chewy. Of course, I am probably biased since that is how I like my cookies. If you prefer a crunchy cookie, this recipe isn't the best place to start. And while I am on the topic of undercooked dough, don't forget to taste the dough as you are rolling out the cookies. It is quite delicious. Though it is not nearly as addicting as my go to chocolate chip cookie dough is. Or the dessert hummus. But the baked version of these cookies is more addicting than the blueberry muffins I made this weekend. But not by much. By the way, I have all of those in my house right now. Dozens of cookies, muffins, dessert hummus and even pancakes. Thank goodness for the salad I had for lunch and the taco I'm about to go make for dinner. I don't really want to see any sugar for the rest of the night. 

Enjoy!

Dehydrator Love

After expressing my appreciation for the dehydrated bananas my friend Lacie gave me this week, she offered to let me borrow her dehydrator.  I didn't realize that meant she would be bringing it to me today!  I was caught quite unprepared for having this piece of equipment in my kitchen.   Luckily I knew right where to look for some inspiration.  Green and Crunchy makes some delicious looking fruit in her dehydrator and I broke down and bought some fruit to try my hand at dehydrating.  And by some fruit I mean that I used my newly aquired Costco card to buy enough food to feed an army. 

The apples are actually from the farmer's market which makes it just slightly worse that I went to two different places to get this haul.  Even worse than that is that this isn't all I bought.  I got a huge thing of pistachios that come in a reusable container, dates for potential dehydrated cookies and boca burgers that are specifically vegan!  I had no idea Costco carried these, or that they even existed. 

But back to the dehydrating.  So this is the beautiful dehydrator:

 

It runs a little loud which was sort of disappointing and  runs quite a bit warmer than I expected it to but I am excited to experiment.

Here is what is (un)cooking away in it as I speak type:

 

Plain sliced kiwis

 

 Cinnamon coated apples

 

 Half a tray of plain bananas and half a tray of my attempt to recreate Green and Crunchy's yummy flax/cocoa/agave bananas.  I coated the bananas in a little honey and then poured on the ground flax and cocoa powder.  They were a little sticky but I think they will turn out fantastic.

I didn't plan very well and started them at about 7pm which means I may be in for a long night.  Luckily the thought of dehydrated yumminess is enough to keep me going for quite a few more hours.  Look forward to more dehydrator posts as my current plan is to dehydrate all weekend.  Muahahaha.