Besides oil and vanilla extract, the title above pretty much sums up what you will need for this banana cookies recipe.
“Whaaat? No flour and no sugar? Am I missing something here?” one might think.
Believe it or not, this recipe works! Since there’s no sugar required in the recipe, I thought there’s a room to be naughty. 😛 e.g.I have swapped dates in the original recipe to chocolate chips. That’s okay because this is the only naughty aspect of this recipe.
If you are too much of a goody two-shoes, feel free to add dates or any dried fruits instead of chocolate chips. I’m sure it will be just as good. 🙂
Banana, Oatmeal & Chocolate Chips Cookies
(tweaked very slightly from allrecipes.com)
Makes about 15 cookies
What you’ll need:-
- 2 ripe bananas
- 110g/ 4 ounces rolled oats
- 80g/ 3 ounces chocolate chips
- 55ml/ 2 fl ounces flavourless oil i.e. canola, vegetable
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
Preheat oven to 175 degrees C/ 350 degrees F. Line baking tray with a baking paper and set aside. Mash bananas in a large mixing bowl with a fork. Then add chocolate chips, rolled oats, vanilla extract and vegetable oil and mix until well combine with a fork. Set aside for 15 minutes. When you just mix the ingredients together, the mixture is a little watery. By letting the mixture sit for at least 15 minutes, it will allow rolled oats to soften and the mixture to become thicker and stickiers – to be able to shape the cookies. 15 minutes later, use a dessert spoon and the fork to drop teaspoonfuls of mixture onto the baking tray. Use the back of the spoon to flatten the cookie dough slightly as the mixture doesn’t expand much. Bake for 15 -20 minutes or until slightly brown. The cookies are very soft when they are removed from the oven. Cool on tray and the cookies will harden when they are completely cool.
baking it today ! I was just looking for a no flour cookies recipe!
Ooh, I love naturally sweetened treats! Can’t wait to try this one. The cookies look full of life and light – the oats also give them a wonderful rustic feel. Beautiful.
Ooh, I love naturally sweetened treats! These cookies look radiant with life and light. The oatmeal lends a lovely rustic quality too. Wonderful recipe!
cant wait to try these on my little munchkins!
~Jamie
oh dear sweet lord, thank you. i’ve cut pretty much all sugars that aren’t from fruits and vegetables out of my diet, and i love cookies so much… thank you thank you THANK YOU. now, to coax my oven into working…
OMG, these sound so good!!
So, I made these the other day, thinking they’d fall apart due to my lack of baking skills. And OMG…I’m never eating mainstream cookies ever again. (And I’m not even gluten-free). They taste amazing, wholesome, and stay together perfectly. I’m pleasantly surprised. The only thing I did different was sprinkle some cinnamon in the mix. I’m going to try a couple of different variations:
1) Unsweetened dried cherries in place of chocolate chips.
2) Half banana, half mashed sweet potato ratio
3) Sub 2 tbsp natural peanut butter in place of oil.
I’ve already made three batches, and will be making the variation with the cherries in a couple of days to take with me as fuel for my backpacking trip. Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!!
Hi Maelina
I am delighted to know that u like the recipe. I should actually thank you for sharing ur thoughts about the recipe and ur intended variations. Wish u a wonderful backpacking trip. 🙂
Thanks, Emily. I actually just gave you a shout-out on the Udi’s Gluten Free Foods Facebook page. I could live off these things. Popped more in the oven this morning. I added unsweetened dried cherries and subbed half the banana with cooked, mashed sweet potato. Gave it a nice fall kick. Amazing!
Thanks Maelina. You are too nice! 🙂
Sounds like someone has been busy baking. 😉
I just made these with persimmon pulp instead of banana and added cinnamon also. Everything else was the same and they are EXCELLENT!!! What an unusual and successful recipe. Thank you so much!
Okay, so I just made these last night, and they are SOGGY! Didn’t really get very hard at all. They taste good, but because of the consistency, my kids won’t touch them. What did I do wrong? I cooked them for 20+ min. Maybe should have gone longer? Anyone else have this problem? I SOO want this to work. And like I said, they taste good, they are just gooey.
Hi Tonya,
After you have baked them for 20+ minutes, how did the exterior look like? Were they on the verge of being burnt? If they are not, then it is worth letting the cookies bake for another 10 minutes or more. If they are looking burnish after the first 20 minutes, then the next time you attempt this recipe again, I would suggest that you turn the temperature to say 150C and bake them a little longer than 20 minutes until they are firm.
Please note that when you remove them from the oven, they will still appear to be soft. Let it cool completely before eating them. You’ll notice as they cooled, they will get firmer. I hope this helps and thank you for your comment. 🙂
do you know how i would do this with steel cut oatmeal?
would i have to cook the oatmeal first?　
what’s an alternative for rolled oats? is it ok to use quaker oats?
Hi Christie,
I think it is okay to use Quaker oats as Quaker is just the brand of rolled oats. I hope you’ll like the cookies! Enjoy!
xx Emily
These sound fabulous, but I like my oatmeal cookies soft. Is there something I could do differently to keep them soft, rather than getting crispy?
I am wondering, too, how did they turn out with peanut butter in place of the oil?
Hi Alisa,
Normally brown sugar is the component to make cookies soft and chewy and in the absence of the brown sugar, I think that’s what makes these cookies become more crispy. I have not tried with peanut butter so I am afraid I cannot advise whether it is going to work or not.
I made a batch of these, and substituted the 2 tbsp of peanut butter for oil per another reviewer….WOW!!! SO good! Even my picky boyfriend loved them! Definitely a recipe for the books!
I spent about an hour trying to find a chocolate-chip cookie recipe with no added or artificial sugar and ingredients I actually had(I’m just going to have to live with the chocolate chips and the 40 min. round trip walk because we were out of oatmeal:)so that I could make/eat them with my mom and little sister who are mostly-added-sugar-free. Yay! I found one! And they taste good! They won’t be my go to cookie if sugar isn’t a factor, but they’re pretty yummy (and sweet) and while my family isn’t eating sugar they’ll be fun to make and experiment with. Thank you!:)
I decided to whip up this recipe as an after-dinner snack for me and my sister, and they are perfect!!
If anyone is American and wondering about conversions, it’s a little over 1 cup of oats and 1/4 cup of oil!
We made some plain to put peanutbutter on top of for later, and added some vegan choco chips to the rest. Absolutely delicious and a total feel-good cookie! Thanks so much for the recipe!!!
The only problem with these is that I didn’t make enough!! Haha! Amazing recipe, simple to make and they taste so good.