Banana Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
These Banana Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies don’t use any butter but are still incredibly moist, flavorful, & delicious. You won’t be able to eat just one!
As a mostly dessert blogger, I’ve tasted my fair share of desserts. Sugary, sweet, frosting-laden cakes, buttery croissants, cheesy breads, and candy filled confections have been part of my routine. Factor in being a college student, and I haven’t exactly been the healthiest eater of all time.
However, as I’ve experimented more and more with “healthier” baking – gluten-free, vegan, paleo, and sugar free desserts have all been featured on the blog – the more I’ve realized how tasty, healthier desserts are both possible and delicious. I’ve been trying hard to not just talk about trying to get healthy anymore, but actually doing it. It’s all about the margins people.
Still have those cookies that you can’t resist – but just have one, instead of three. Eat more vegetables than white pasta. I’ve been making minuscule changes in my eating routines, but I feel so much better, and healthier. I’ve always thought that fitspirational saying “nothing tastes as good as skinny feels” was utter crap, because hello, chocolate cake tastes pretty darn good. But the truth is, healthy (not necessarily skinny), does feel really darn great.
Now, I am by no means in any way shape or form a nutritional expert or in any sort of place to be giving you advice about how to eat, except to eat well. Don’t deprive yourself of the things you love, just balance it out. Moderation, baby, moderation.
That said – I’m going to continue to post my usual sugary desserts, because we all need an indulgence sometimes and I know some of my readers cringe when I post a recipe with “GF, Paleo, SF” at the end of the title, but I also know some of my readers cringe when they read “three sticks unsalted butter” in the ingredient list. So, as in my life, Bakerita is becoming moderately healthy as well. For those of you anti-healthy baked goods on principle (hi, mom!), I encourage you to try these vegan blueberry muffins (who have many fans, check the comments!) or the dark chocolate, coconut & macadamia nut tart which is so ridiculously decadent you won’t believe it’s not full of cream, butter, and sugar.
These cookies are a bit of an “ease-in”. They still have sugar, but they use only a little bit of coconut oil as the fat and use whole-wheat flour instead of white, which is pretty much undetectable. The only difference I noticed in these versus a regular, full fat cookie is the lack of butter-y flavor, which can be fixed with a little bit of butter extract if you’re into that. I liked them just fine without though, as did everyone else who tasted them!
The banana doesn’t give much flavor, but it helps with the consistency that would otherwise have been affected from the lack of butter. The banana gives them a bit of extra moisture and helps keep them chewier for longer. Can’t argue with that! These cookies aren’t totally healthy, or totally bad for you, leaving them to be the perfect thing to help transition your tastebuds into healthier baking, or the perfect thing to give to your sweet-craving kid without feeling bad about feeding them purely unhealthy food.
And c’mon, they have chocolate chips. And as we know, chocolate makes everything better.
PrintBanana Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 12 minutes
- Total Time: 22 minutes
- Yield: 2 dozen cookies 1x
Ingredients
- 1 cup 4.25 oz. white whole wheat flour
- 2 cups old-fashioned oats
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
- 2 tablespoons coconut oil (solid)
- 1 cup brown sugar (packed)
- 1 egg
- 1/3 cup mashed banana (about 1 medium banana)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup dark chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line baking sheet with parchment paper.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, oats, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg.
- In a large bowl, cream together the coconut oil and the sugar on medium speed.
- Add the egg, followed by the mashed banana and vanilla extract.
- Working by hand, stir in the flour mixture until just combined.
- Stir in the chocolate chips.
- Drop heaping spoonfuls onto baking sheets, flattening each cookie slightly. Bake for about 10-12 minutes, or until cookies become light brown at the edges. Do not over-bake these cookies!
- Let cool on baking sheet for 3 or 4 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
Bananas are soooo amazing– you can sub the in so many ways for moistness, texture, and downright awesomeness. I love oatmeal cookies!!! thanks for a great recipe, Rachel!
Count me among the fans of your Vegan Blueberry Muffins! I’ve made them twice and they’re absolutely delicious!! Need to try these cookies now!!
So glad you’re a fan of the muffins! They’re so versatile – I’ve been dreaming up some variations recently! :)
I completely agree – it’s all about moderation : ) I’ve started experimenting with healthier baking too – and it’s not so bad! haha PS I love that dishtowel/linen in your pictures
lol just realized my comment is the SAME as yours :)
Thanks! I picked it up at a random boutique forever ago a totally forgot about it. Isn’t it cute though?! :)
I love this idea! I’ve been experimenting with healthier baking, too, and haters gonna hate, but that just means more for me :). Also, love these photos (and that cup towel!).
I dont think many people realize how good dessert can be without adding enough sugar to fuel a crash. These cookies look amazing!
These look delicious!
These look amazing! I am all for everything in moderation. I know I could be a bit better on the sweets in moderation part, but these cookies make it seem like it would be a breeze!
I love how substantial these look! I prefer a dessert that isn’t overly sweet and these definitely pack more of a nutritional punch than your average cookie. Great recipe!
I would devour an entire plate of these cookies. But I’m not one to cringe at 3 sticks of unsalted butter. I am however a huge fan of cooking/baking coconut oil. Love this!!
It is fantastic how desserts can be made healthier, so important as a food blogger where taste testing is vital :-) These look delicious, love the banana with all the spices and chocolate!
Three things: 1. A new way to use up my brown bananas! 2. Now I can eat cookies for breakfast! 3. Yay! :)
What a perfect breakfast or snack cookie, Rachel! These look so delicious and easy to make!
These look like a great mix of healthy and indulgent.
It’s like you put all my favorite ingredients into one, I’m so happy with this recipe! Definitely will be trying, thank you!
These cookies look amazing. I also try to make my baked goods a little healthier with whole wheat flour, and cutting back on the butter. I usually alternate between one unhealthy dessert, then the next thing I bake with be healthy(er). I would definitely want to try this in my healthy dessert rotation!
I love that you make these healthier desserts that still look and sound insanely good. Good for you! :) Love that second picture!
I’ve been wanting to do more healthy baking too! It’s so hard to break away from the sugary stuff though! I totally agree on everything in moderation and that healthy really does feel good – especially long term. But dang a cake tastes good in the moment :)
These cookies look awesome!
I just made these with my boys and they are WONDERFUL! We always seem to have a too-ripe banana lurking in the fruit basket and this is a great way to make it edible. We are gf, so we simple substituted all purpose gluten-free flour and added 3/4 tsp xanthan gum. Delicious! Thanks for the recipe!
Awesome! Nice to know it works with GF flour, my sister is GF so now I know these will still be delicious if I make them for her :) So glad you all liked them.
Amazing recipe!! Thank you so much sharing with us. We love gluten-free cookies.
They sounds great, I’m intrigued by the banana in them. I’ll be featuring these on my blog, on a weekly feature that I do called Baking News which will be published nearer the weekend. Have a great day Rachel.
Eating one of these as I type. Perfect, perfect, perfect! Thank you!
Thank you, these are amazing. I added maca powder and cocoa powder to my second batch and they were even tastier. You didn’t mention yield, though. I got about 2 dozen out of your recipe.
Thanks for your feedback, Kay! Love the maca powder and cocoa powder addition too. I’ll update the recipe to include yield!
I have been making these cookies (our family version) for over 50 years! My mother first made these cookies in 1938 for my older brothers. I didn’t know anyone else in the planet had ever even heard of such a cookie.
Love that so much!!