With a rich banana flavor and soft, chewy texture, these Banana Cookies are a unique and fun twist on a traditional chocolate chip cookie. Recipe includes a how-to video!
Perfectly Textured Banana Cookies
Meet your new favorite cookie! These banana cookies are packed full of banana flavor, sprinkled with chocolate chips and walnuts, and baked to golden brown perfection. My other banana recipes are pretty popular around here (I’m looking at you, banana muffins and banana bread), and I have a feeling this recipe will be too.
Why You’ll Love My Recipe:
- The cookies come out soft and chewy, NOT cakey (we have banana cake if you’re looking to fix a cake craving!)!
- Comes together easily by hand–no mixer needed.
- It’s perfect for using up those last few brown bananas lingering at the bottom of your fruit basket.
- Can handle add-ins like chocolate chips and nuts, but will still bake up just fine without them.
- The dough can be made up to 24 hours in advance.
What You Need
I wanted these banana cookies to be a chewy and flavorful twist on chocolate chip cookies. Here are a few ingredients that will help us achieve that:
- 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. Not only are less ripe bananas more firm, but they are also less sweet and don’t have as strong of a flavor.
- Melted butter. Melted butter enriches the entire flavor of the cookie, but it also encourages some spreading (as opposed to creaming cool butter with sugar, which would make them fluffier and cakier).
- Brown sugar. I like to use a 50/50 blend of light and dark brown sugar. All light will work, but I’ve found that all dark brown sugar tends to be too rich and doesn’t balance quite as well with the banana flavor.
- Egg yolk. These banana cookies were inspired by my equally chewy pumpkin cookies. Like in that recipe, we’ll be using an egg yolk (no white!) for the perfect chewy texture.
SAM’S TIP: For pretty cookie tops, I like to reserve a few chocolate chips (about ¼ cup or so) for pressing into the cookies after they’ve come out of the oven. Simply let the cookies cool for a minute or two, then randomly (and gently!) nestle a few chips right in the top. It makes a noticeable difference!
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!
How to Make Banana Cookies
- Mash your very ripe bananas in a large bowl.
- Add the remaining wet ingredients and stir until combined.
- Whisk together the dry ingredients in a separate bowl, then gradually add them to the wet ingredients.
- Fold in the chocolate chips and nuts, then cover and chill.
- Scoop your dough onto a parchment lined baking sheet and bake for 12-14 minutes.
- Let the cookies cool on the sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack.
SAM’S TIP: For neater, more uniform cookies, roll the dough into smooth balls between your palms before baking. You may find the dough to be a bit sticky, but this is normal.
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes! This dough can be made 24 hours in advance. Make sure to cover it tightly in plastic wrap before chilling.
Nope! I prefer to store my banana cookies at room temperature. As long as they’re in an airtight container, they’ll keep for up to 4 days.
Brown bananas have the most banana flavor, so they’re great for baking. Besides banana cookies, you can use your brown, spotty, and mushy bananas for delicious hummingbird cake, banana nut muffins, and banana cupcakes! They’re also delicious in oatmeal, smoothies, and milkshakes too.
Enjoy!
Let’s bake together! I’ll be walking you through all the steps in my written recipe and video below! If you try this recipe, be sure to tag me on Instagram, and you can also find me on YouTube and Facebook
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.
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. 🙂