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For some reason I have a lot of overly ripe bananas these days, but I’m not complaining!  I love making (and eating) banana bread, but it is fun to make other yummies with bananas.  Several years ago I started making banana cookies.  Today I twisted my base recipe to make them even healthier, but the flavor was not compromised!

I used coconut oil and apple sauce.  Coconut oil to provide a healthy fat, and apple sauce to cut down on the amount of fat.  I also used a combination whole wheat flour and oatmeal.  The texture of these cookies is soft and cake like.  They should be baked until just lightly brown on the bottom, if they are overcooked they will be dry, NO good!  So watch them while baking and store in an airtight container at room temperature to keep them moist and delicious.

This recipe has two variations, either “Nutella Thumbprint” or chocolate chip banana, either way they are so good.  I think I like the Nutella version better today, but tomorrow I might prefer the chocolate chips, it really depends on my mood, why don’t you give them both a try and see what you like best?!?

Whole Wheat Oatmeal Banana Cookies, 2 Ways!

Loosely Adapted from here

  • 1/2 cup coconut oil, in liquid form
  • 1/4 cup apple sauce
  • 3/4 cup brown sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 1 tsp. vanilla
  • 1 3/4 cup whole wheat flour
  • 1 3/4 cup oatmeal
  • 1/2 tsp. baking soda
  • 1 tsp. salt
  • 1-1 1/2 cups mashed banana (about 2 large bananas)
  • 3/4 cup Nutella OR 1 cup chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

In a large bowl stir together the coconut oil, apple sauce and sugar.  When it is well combined mix in the egg and vanilla.  Stir in the flour, oatmeal, baking soda, and salt.  Finally, fold in the mashed banana.

Once the batter is mixed you have to decide what kind of cookies you are going to make, either Banana Chocolate Chip or Nutella Thumbprint.

For the Banana Chocolate Chip:

Mix 1 cup of chocolate chips into the batter and scoop (1-2 Tbs. sized) onto a greased or parchment paper lined cookie sheet.  Bake for 10-14 minutes until just golden brown on the bottom, the cookies will still look moist on the top.  Let the cookies cool for 2 minutes and then remove to a cooling rack.

For the Nutella Thumbprint:

Scoop the batter (1-2 Tbs. sized) onto a greased or parchment paper lined cookie sheet.  Place a 1/2 tsp. dollop of Nutella in the center of each cookie.  Bake for 10-14 minutes until just golden brown on the bottom, the cookies will still look moist on the top.  Let the cookies cool for 2 minutes and then remove to a cooling rack.

Store cookies in an airtight container at room temperature.