Banana Cookies with Zing

Do you love Bananas? I really don't, thus they often end up highly ripened in my pantry. I was looking for ideas about how to use these ripe bananas. I was inspired by a cookie recipe from 101cookbooks, another food blog that publishes creative recipes. While I don't love bananas, per se, I do love a cookie. I mean, who doesn't love cookies.


I came up with my own version for a cookie recipe, using bananas as the base, but also incorporating some crystallized ginger, made by my mom in a way that preserves the zingy flavor of the ginger. This is the best crystallized ginger I ever had.


Also, I managed to forget to add any oil or butter to the recipe (as posted below) and they still came together and tasted great. A fat-free cookie treat.

Banana Cookies with Zing


Ingredients: 

2 large, ripe bananas, well mashed (about 1 1/2 cups)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups bran cereal (finely ground)
2/3 cup almond meal
1/3 cup crystallized ginger (finely ground)
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon fine grain sea salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/3 cup pecans (ground but not fine)

Recipe:

(1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees, racks in the top third.

(2) In a large bowl combine the bananas and vanilla extract. Set aside. 

(3) In another bowl whisk together the ground cereal, almond meal, crystallized ginger, cinnamon, salt, and baking powder. 

(4) Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and stir until combined. 

(5) Fold in the pecans. The dough is looser than a standard cookie dough, like a drop cookie. 

(6) Drop dollops of the dough, each about 2 teaspoons in size, an inch apart, onto a parchment (or Silpat) lined baking sheet. Bake for 12 - 14 minutes. I baked these as long as possible without burning the bottoms and they were perfect - 17 minutes was perfect in my oven.

(7) Allow to cool 10-20 minutes before serving (if you can wait that long).

Makes about 2 dozen bite-sized cookies.