At my workplace, we take it in turns to bring morning tea on a Monday and this week was my turn. So in seeking inspiration for something to take in, I found a recipe for Choc Banana Oat Cookies. This meant that I could use the banana still hanging around my fruit bowl after my banana and parsley effort.
Once upon a time, if I had leftover bananas I would have made them into banana cake. When it comes to baking, cakes have always been my thing – there is nothing I love better than a good rich dense chocolate cake. But lately in an attempt to eat less rich food, I have turned to biscuits, actually mostly choc chip cookies.
I was starting to find many recipes on the net when I found a fantastic book called The Search for the Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookie by Gwen Steege. It has over 100 choc chip cookie recipes. I never knew there were so many variations but it is liberating to read it and find where there’s a will, there’s a way. So far I have made versions with zucchini, coconut, honeyed macadamias, peanut butter and loads of oatmeal. I have discovered I can have my choc chips and anything else I want. So I was sure I could find one to give a purpose to my banana.
There was not one banana recipe in my choc chip cookie book but luckily I had written out a recipe from the net lately. It is on my shame file of unsourced recipes so I can’t tell you where it is from but I can recommend it.The recipe has oats and spices as well as bananas – just how I like it. The mixture was very moist. I am still a novice at biscuits – I think my oven might be less powerful than others so the biscuits always take longer than the recipe - the moment between undercooked and overcooked is a mystery I am yet to solve. The cookies were very soft and cake-like straight out of the oven last night – as I found during quality assurance tasting!
Today at morning tea they were almost chewy and yummy – my colleagues seemed to agree. In fact I had hoped for a few more leftover for a meeting tomorrow but you can’t complain if others enjoy your cooking :-)
Choc Banana Oat Cookies
(source: ????)
1 cup sugar
¾ cup shortening (I used approx 185g butter)
1 egg
1 ½ cups plain flour
½ tsp salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
½ tsp baking powder
¼ tsp nutmeg, grated
1 ¾ cups quick cooking oats or regular oats (I used 1 ¼ regular and ½ quick cooking)
1 cup mashed banana – I used 2 large bananas
¾ cup choc chips
Preheat oven to 400ºF. Mix butter and sugar. Add remaining ingredients and mix well. Drop teaspoons onto an ungreased baking sheet. Bake 10-15 minutes till light brown. Makes about 4 dozen cookies.
On the Stereo:
Tropism: Bexar Bexar
I'm going to order that book right away. Never used a banana in a cookie, but a dense, chewy one, studded with chocolate - yum. I know how you feel about your oven. We finally have a good one in this house, so now when a recipe specifies both temperature and timing, I can relax a bit. These look delicious.
ReplyDeleteShame those greedy collegues didn't leave you with many...
Hi Johanna,
ReplyDeletePerfect for a spot of Afternoon Tea! In fact that's why i have linked to your recipe. It's National Vegetarian Week here in the UK and I wanted to celebrate! hope you don't mind!
Lucy - I recommend this book - let me know if you need extra publications details!!! You are lucky to have a good oven - I actually love our oven as it is a good basic oven, but only moved last year from a place with a new fan forced oven so I think I am still adjusting to the change. (I don't have these timing anxieties with cakes , just biscuits)
ReplyDeletethanks for linking to the recipe holler - great idea for vegetarian week! hope you get to have some great food to celebrate
The addition of bananas and switching off the shortening for butter makes these a healthier alternative than the typical choco chip cookie, as good as those are. I think your changes make them quite suitable for an on-the-go breakfast rather than a processed granola bar. Very nice!
ReplyDeletesusan, these do have similarities with muesli bars (which I think is the same as granola bars) but lighter and more like cake for a cake lover such as myself. But unlike muffins you can have two and still not feel stuffed!
ReplyDeletere the shortening - it was so cakey I wondered if I had used too much butter because I am a bit uncertain about converting American measurements of butter to Australian.
Made a batch of these today (a regular in our house) and realised I didn't have any choc chips in the house just as I needed to add them so improvised and used dried cranberries instead. They were fantastic!!!!
ReplyDelete