Banana Oatmeal & Chocolate Chip Cookies

I went thru the kitchen today and realized I had no cookies in the cookie jar! In my house, this is a CRIME! Especially when all the daycare kids are ready to leave and they have to take an apple instead of a cookie... OH NO!!! So, I looked around and realized I had two bunches of bananas that were looking pretty ripe. The last time I tried a banana cookie recipe, they were not good at all (it may be safe to say they were nasty), so I was a little hesitant. But then I thought, "If at first, you don't succeed, try try again!" I'm only trying to live by the words I preach to all these little kids running around here. (Truthfully, my motto is more like, "If at first you don't succeed, destroy all evidence that you ever tried!"lol) So, I found this recipe that I printed off from The Tasty Kitchen. I doubled it because I have the next two days off from babysitting and I don't want to have to bake cookies in those two days :-)... There are a couple other things I need to concentrate on! Anyway, I didn't put quite as much cinnamon as the original recipe called for because some kids aren't too sure about the spice. They are GOOD! I was so pleasantly surprised! They remind me of applesauce cookies, chewy, moist and soft. But the flavor of banana is just perfect, not too strong... and... they don't taste like banana bread. I like that too because if I'm eating a cookie that tastes like banana bread, I might as well have made banana bread, right??? Well enough of my blabbing, here's the recipe. I hope you enjoy it!

Banana Oatmeal & Chocolate Chip Cookies

printable recipe

1 1/2 c butter, softened

2 c sugar

2 eggs

2 tsp vanilla

3 c flour

3 1/2 c old fashioned oats

1 tsp baking soda

2 tsp salt

1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

4 bananas, ripe & mushed

2 cups chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Using a mixer, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the egg and vanilla and mis well. When the wet ingredients are thoroughly combined, add flour, oats, baking soda, salt and cinnamon and mix everything together well. Then add your mushy bananas and your chocolate chips, stirring until just combined. Drop scoops ( I use a large cookie scoop) of dough onto lined cookie sheets or lightly greased cookie sheets. (Of course I used my SILPAT). Make sure there is about 2" between the cookies, as they do spread. Bake at 350 degrees for 12-14 minutes or until they start to brown around the edges. (10-12 mins for cookies when you use the smaller cookie scoop). Cool completely on a wire rack before storing in an airtight container!

Yield: 6 dz large cookies

The original recipe was half of the recipe posted. So, if you don't want this many cookies, half this recipe... :-)

Happy Cooking!

Teauna