So, I did a juice cleanse earlier this week. And now I’m craving cookies. Cookies, cookies, cookies.
That’s how it’s supposed to work, right?
Well, since these cookies have peanut butter and banana in them, maybe that can at least partially count as health food. ;)
Actually, the inspiration for these tasty little cookies did come from a healthier source — this protein-packed Peanut Butter Banana Smoothie recipe. It was so good when I made it for breakfast, that I thought about re-making it for dessert after dinner. And then the idea occurred to me — why not translate it into a cookie?
I mean, everyone loves peanut butter and bananas when it comes to baking. So the idea seemed to have potential.
And sure enough, it was a winner. Here’s how to make them!
Start out with your basic cookie ingredients, plus a nice ripe banana and a bunch of peanut butter.
Mix up a simple dough, then form it into balls on a cookie sheet.
Use a fork to make the classic PB cookie criss-cross pattern if you’d like. Then sprinkle with a pinch of turbinado sugar (or granulated sugar). Bake ’em for about 8-10 minutes…
…the voila! These cute and easy little peanut butter banana cookies are yours to enjoy.
They are sweet but not too sweet. They are soft and chewy, especially when just out of the oven. And they basically taste like banana bread meets peanut butter cookies. Aka, peanut butter banana heaven.
Alright, run to your kitchen and make some already!
Peanut Butter Banana Cookies
Ingredients
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon cornstarch
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened
- 1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
- 1/2 cup creamy natural peanut butter (I used creamy natural from Trader Joe’s)
- 1 egg
- 1/2 cup mashed banana (about 1 medium banana)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- (optional: cane sugar, for sprinkling)
Instructions
- Heat oven to 350F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- In a medium mixing bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder, cornstarch, salt, baking soda and cinnamon until combined. Set aside.
- In the (separate) bowl of a stand mixer, cream the butter and brown sugar together on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 1 minute. Add peanut butter, egg, banana, and vanilla, and continue mixing on medium speed until combined, scraping down the sides of the bowl once if needed. Fold in the dry ingredients and mix until just combined.
- Measure out a rounded tablespoon-full of dough, roll it into a ball, then place on the baking sheet. Use a fork to press down the top of the ball and make a criss-cross pattern. Sprinkle with a pinch of cane sugar, if desired. Repeat with remaining dough.
- Bake for 8-10 minutes or until slightly golden around the edges. Cool for 10 minutes on baking sheet, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
- Serve immediately or store in a sealed container for up to 1 week.
Did you make this?Let me know how it turned out in the comments below!
These are delicious! I added mini chocolate chips and an extra banana and they so good!!!
These are absolutely delicious. I added a bit more brown sugar and more banana. I also stirred in peanut butter chips at the end then baked them, yum!
Awesome cookies, I read reviews and added 1 extra banana. 1 extra egg, 1/2 cup more of brown sugar and 3/4 of a teaspoon of cinnamon. And 1/3 cup more flour and 1/2 cup more almond butter Added chocolate and butterscotch chips. Made a drop cookie. Sooooo good. But then again I’m a terrible cook lol I always believe recipes are there to give you ideas and then you make them your own ♥️
Made a few mods based on other reviews… up the banana, added a bit of oil, 2 eggs and a bit extra salt and some molasses to help boost flavour. Turned out very yummy, mini cakes really but a great recipe when you’re looking for a recipe with very low sugar content.
These are delicious! I added an extra banana, as I had 2 getting very ripe, and they were perfectly moist without being overly dense. I also added chocolate chips too half the batch, and both ways came out by good. My husband was skeptical, but after trying them really liked them and ate 3 right away. This will be my new go-to for overripe bananas, as it’s easier and less sugar than banana bread.
I always come back to this recipe, so good and easy!
I made this recipe and I too found it disappointing as I found it dry with little peanut butter taste. I feel the amount of peanut butter should be increased to 3/4 or even a full cup in order to enhance the flavour.
This came out okay but not great and largely my own errors. First of all, for whatever reason, and maybe my butter just wasn’t quite at room temperature, when I creamed simply the butter and brown sugar together, that alone was a failure, everything just stuck to the beaters. Had I put the egg in there at the same time as the butter and sugar, I bet it would have creamed better. Once that happened, I wasn’t sure I needed all the dry ingredients (I mixed them all together but suspected I’d lost some of the wet ingredients so I had to guess at how much less dry to use). They still didn’t come out badly at all, but maybe next time a little maple syrup or something to sweeten them. They were a tad dry but not a crumbly disaster like some have said. Not that bad but not great.
I think there is to much flour in this recipe. I don’t think you need corn starch or baking powder, just baking soda, 3/4 tsp. Try 1 & 1/2 C flour, and 1 stick soft butter. Much moister.
These are my husbands favorite cookies. I make them exactly without the cane sugar on top. Have made them twice since quarantine! Will definitely be a staple cookie in our household. Who doesn’t love peanut butter AND bananas?!
My cookies turned out well… Light and fluffy. I used https://www.allrecipes.com/article/cup-to-gram-conversions/ to convert cups to grams as we don’t use cups in the UK. It happened to taste a lot more like banana, so I may have done wrong conversions somewhere. I also used crunchy peanut butter too because that’s all I had. A very nice recipe though. I had them in the oven for 15 minutes though at 160 degrees C in a fan assisted oven.