Recipe: Banana Cookies!

 Who doesn't love a good cookie, right? Well, my friend Megan found this fantastic recipe online for banana cookies. She was telling me about it one day while she was baking them, and I just had to try it for myself. It's a great recipe, and they came out delicious. More like mini cakes than cookies, with a great banana flavor.

However, as good as they were, we both agreed they needed something more. Like, some small change to them to make them even better. So after doing a bit of testing today, I found a few changes that I am keeping in my personal version of the recipe, and I'm going to share with you my new and improved banana cookie recipe.

Preparation time: 8 minutes
Bake time: 11-13 minutes

Ingredients:

1/2 Cup butter
1/2 Cup brown sugar
1/2 Cup white sugar
1 egg
1/2 tsp almond extract (vanilla extract works well too, if you don't have almond)
1 Cup bananas, mashed
1 tsp baking soda
2 Cups flour
Pinch salt
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp allspice
Optional: 1 Cup chocolate chips or walnuts, or both

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Line baking sheet with parchment paper, or spray with cooking spray. (I use the cooking spray.)
2. Cream butter and sugars. Add egg and continue to beat.
3. Mix mashed bananas and baking soda in a bowl; let sit for 2 minutes to froth a bit (this gives the cookies their rise).
4. Mix bananas into butter mixture. Add almond extract.
5. Combine flour, salt, and spices. Add to banana mixture and mix well. Add in any extra ingredients (chocolate chips or nuts).
6. Drop in large Tablespoons onto baking sheet. Bake for 11-13 minutes or until golden brown. Let cool on wire racks.

There are other options and experiments

Plain banana cookies

Chocolate chip banana cookies

you can try as well. My friend Megan mixed in mashed strawberries to make Strawberry-Banana Cookies. I tried with both almond and vanilla extract; although both were better than the original recipe in my opinion, the almond extract just added a little something extra, though I can't quite explain it.

You can find the original recipe here. I encourage you to experiment with it yourself, find something you really like, and make it your own! That's the best part of baking... making new (tasty) discoveries. ♥