Have brown bananas? Skip the bread and make banana cookies! My recipe is carefully crafted to have a chewy (not cakey!) texture and rich banana flavor. Recipe includes a how-to video!
Soft & Chewy Banana Cookies 🍌
For when you’re not in the mood for another loaf of banana bread, banana pudding, or another batch of banana muffins, it may just be time to give my banana cookies a whirl. A Google search will populate dozens of tasty recipes, but almost all of them boast a soft, almost cake-like texture. I don’t know about you, but I when I want a cookie, I’m expecting it to be chewy, not cakey!
I’ve adapted my recipe to account for the extra moisture from the bananas, and the end result is a true banana cookie recipe with a classic CHEWY (not cakey!) cookie texture 🙌
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- It’s perfect for using up those last few brown bananas lingering at the bottom of your fruit basket. Some banana recipes call for a bunch of brown bananas, but this one is perfect for using up the 1 or 2 you thought you’d eat in time, but didn’t.
- No mixer needed. Since the recipe starts with melted butter (another key ingredient for chewy cookies). Using melted butter in this recipe means the dough will need to chill for a bit before baking though.
- Includes fun add-ins like pecans (or walnuts!), cinnamon, and chocolate chips. You can always leave these out if you prefer, though.
- Carefully crafted to have a classic soft and chewy cookie texture. Unlike many other recipes, my cookies are NOT cakey (we have banana cake if you’re looking to fix a cake craving!)!
Jump to:
Ingredients
- Very ripe bananas. If there’s one piece of advice I can give you for this recipe, it’s to make sure your bananas are about as old (or ripe) as possible. Ripe bananas are easier to mash and have the sweetest and strongest banana flavor.
- Egg yolk. I took a note from my equally chewy pumpkin cookies and omitted the egg white in this recipe. If included, it would add excess moisture to the dough, creating that cakey texture we are so carefully trying to avoid.
- Melted butter. Melted butter imparts a rich, buttery flavor and encourages spreading (as opposed to creaming cool butter with sugar, which would make the cookies fluffier and cakier). If you want to get fancy and make banana cookies with brown butter, hop on over to my recipe for chocolate chip banana bread cookies, which is a more gourmet version of this recipe.
- Brown sugar. I like to use a 50/50 blend of light and dark brown sugar. All light brown sugar will work if that’s all you have on hand, but I don’t recommend using all dark brown.
- Add-ins. I like pecans and a blend of milk chocolate and semisweet chocolate chips. You could always swap the pecans with walnuts, or do toasted pecans or walnuts instead! For the chocolate, really any kind will work–even peanut butter chips would be tasty here! You can also omit the add-ins entirely.
Remember, this is just an overview of the ingredients I used and why. For the full recipe please scroll down to the bottom of the post!
SAM’S TIP: For pretty cookie tops, reserve about ¼ cup of chocolate chips for pressing into the cookies just after they’ve come out of the oven. It gives them a bakery-style look!
How to Make Banana Cookies
- Step 1: Mash the banana. Use a potato masher or fork to mash the banana in a large bowl, then stir in the melted butter, sugars, egg yolk, and vanilla.
- Step 2: Combine wet and dry ingredients. Whisk together the dry ingredients in a separate bowl, then gradually add them to the banana mixture. I like to do this in 3-4 parts; adding them all at once could make the dough difficult to work with.
- Step 3: Fold in the add-ins. Add your nuts and chocolate chips, then fold them into the dough until evenly incorporated. Cover the bowl and place in the fridge to chill for at least 30 minutes.
- Step 4: Scoop & bake. Drop 1 ½ tablespoon scoops of dough onto parchment lined baking sheets. Bake for about 12 minutes and let cool completely on the baking sheet before removing and enjoying. If you wanted to add chocolate chips to the tops of your cookies, make sure to do this within 1-2 minutes of removing them from the oven; otherwise they won’t stick.
SAM’S TIP: For neater, more uniform cookies, roll the dough between your palms before baking. It might be bit sticky when you do this, but this is normal.
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes! I have instructions for freezing all types of cookie dough in my post on how to freeze cookie dough. It’s one of my favorite things to do–makes it SO easy to have fresh baked cookies on hand any time.
As long as they are in an airtight container, they’ll keep for up to 4 days. You do not need to refrigerate these cookies.
I carefully designed this recipe to make chewy cookies, so if yours are cakey, something definitely went wrong!
Two of the most common mistakes that can cause this include using a whole egg (we skip the egg white for a very important reason!), using more banana than called for, or adding too much flour to the dough. It can be VERY easy to over-measure flour; I really recommend learning how to use a kitchen scale for the most accurate baking.
More Chocolate Banana Recipes
If you love fruit-infused cookies, try my strawberry cookies or lemon cookies next!
Enjoy!
Let’s bake together! Subscribe to my newsletter to be notified of all the newest recipes, and find my free recipe tutorials on YouTube 💜
Banana Cookies
Ingredients
- ⅔ cup (185 g) well-mashed very-ripe bananas (this is typically 1 ½ bananas for me)
- 1 cup (226 g) unsalted butter melted and cooled until no longer warm to the touch
- 1 cup (200 g) light brown sugar firmly packed
- ⅔ cup (135 g) granulated sugar
- 1 large egg yolk
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 3 cups (375 g) all-purpose flour
- 2 Tablespoons cornstarch
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ¾ teaspoon table salt
- ¾ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 ½ cups (255 g) chocolate chips use either milk chocolate or semisweet, or a blend of the two!
- 1 cup (115 g) chopped walnuts optional
Recommended Equipment
Instructions
- Combine well-mashed banana, melted/cooled butter, brown sugar, granulated sugar, egg yolk, and vanilla extract and stir well until completely combined.⅔ cup (185 g) well-mashed, 1 cup (226 g) unsalted butter, 1 cup (200 g) light brown sugar, ⅔ cup (135 g) granulated sugar, 1 large egg yolk, 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- In a separate mixing bowl, whisk together flour, cornstarch, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon.3 cups (375 g) all-purpose flour, 2 Tablespoons cornstarch, ½ teaspoon baking powder, ½ teaspoon baking soda, ¾ teaspoon table salt, ¾ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- Gradually add flour mixture to butter/banana mixture until completely combined (I do this in 3-4 parts).
- Add chocolate chips and walnuts, if using, and stir until well-combined.1 ½ cups (255 g) chocolate chips, 1 cup (115 g) chopped walnuts
- Cover bowl with plastic wrap and chill in the refrigerator for 30-60 minutes (or up to 24 hours).
- Once dough has nearly finished chilling, preheat oven to 350F (175C) and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Scoop dough by 1 ½ Tablespoon-sized scoops and drop on prepared baking sheet, spacing at least 2” apart.
- Bake in 350F (175C) oven for 12-14 minutes. Allow to cool for 5 minutes on baking sheet then transfer to cooling rack to cool completely before enjoying.
Notes
Storing
Store cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 4 days. Interestingly, I’ve found that the fresher these cookies are the stronger the banana flavor is!Nutrition
Nutritional information is based on third-party calculations and should be considered an estimate only. Actual nutritional content will vary based upon brands used, measuring methods, cooking method, portion sizes, and more.
Dan
Great cookie, soft and chewy with delicious flavor.
Sam Merritt
I’m so glad you enjoyed them so much, Dan! 🙂
Jacqueline Discenza
Made these because I had 2 ripe bananas and most other recipes call for 3. They sounded good especially with chocolate chips and nuts. Took to a card game and they were a big hit. Everyone loved them.
Sam
I’m so glad they were such a hit, Jacqueline! 🙂
M. Chapman
Great cookie recipe.
Emalee
My neighbor made these and I thought they were so amazing, she gave me the recipe I immediately made them and mine also turned out cakey rather than flatter like my neighbors. I used a whole egg instead of just the yolk, but I didn’t think that would make such a difference, do you think that was it? They were still cook but not what I was hoping for.
Sam
Hi Emalee! 100% this was because you used the whole egg. Adding egg white to the recipe will make the cookie cakey, while using just the yolk will make them tender and flatter. I talk about this in the blog post and the video. Try them again as written and I think you’ll be pleased with the results.
Discgolfsarah
Cookies were delicious. However I think they’re more cakey/fluffy and not chewy which is why I picked the recipe so kinda bummed. But they’re still delicious.
Sam
I’m so sorry to hear this happened! These shouldn’t turn out cakey. Did you weigh your flour? If you accidentally added too much flour it could cause them to be cakey. 🙁 I’m glad you were able to enjoy them still. 🙂