Banana Cookies Recipe

While you’ve obtained a bunch of bananas slowly turning spotty on the countertop, the widespread plan of action is to mash them up and switch them into banana bread, proper? However the subsequent time this occurs to you, I counsel making banana cookies as an alternative. 

I perceive why banana cookies, or bananaramas as I playfully name them, do not have the identical stage of fame as banana bread: They’re often too cakey or gluey in texture and the banana taste is so uninteresting that the fruit tastes extra like an afterthought than a showcased ingredient. Not like these subpar banana cookies, these cookies have the identical wealthy banana taste as the easiest banana bread however with a chewy, tender cookie texture that makes them excellent for dunking into a chilly glass of milk. 

After baking batch after batch of cookies with numerous bunches of bananas, I’ve developed a recipe for cookies which have a pronounced banana taste with notes of butterscotch and toffee.Additionally they have my perfect cookie texture: tender and chewy with evenly crisp and browned edges. I believe they’re excellent simply as they’re, however I’ve additionally included choices for gussying them up with coconut flakes or chocolate chips. Listed below are my suggestions for making one of the best banana cookies at house.

Key Steps for the Most Banana-y Cookies Ever

1. Use completely ripe bananas. As with banana bread, the ripeness of the fruit has a big affect on banana cookies’ texture and taste. Underripe or inexperienced bananas are so excessive in starch and low in sugar that they end in dry and cakey cookies that not solely lack sweetness, but in addition have a vegetal and barely astringent taste because of the abundance of starch. On the opposite finish of the ripeness spectrum, bananas which might be utterly black make for dense, considerably gummy cookies. So as an alternative utilizing overripe or underripe fruit, attain for yellow bananas which might be simply starting to show spotty brown. At this stage of ripening, the bananas have a mixture of sugar and starch that can produce cookies with a welcome mild texture and candy, properly developed banana taste. 

If you end up with underripe bananas, you possibly can pace ripening by a day or two by placing them in a paper bag to lure their ethylene fuel, which speeds ripening. To hurry the method much more, add a ripe banana or another ripe ethylene-emitting fruit to the bag (avocados, apples, and oranges all work properly). Or when you have no recent bananas in your counter, this recipe works properly with frozen ripe bananas. Simply make sure you thaw the bananas on the counter for about quarter-hour earlier than slicing into them.

2. Brown the butter and bananas for a deep, banana-toffee taste. Brown butter makes most baked items style higher and these cookies aren’t any exception. The important thing to the cookies’ wealthy banana-forward taste is the mixture of brown butter and caramelized bananas within the base of the dough. 

It takes only some minutes on the stovetop to do that. The three key phases to this course of are searing the bananas, browning the butter, and frying the bananas within the brown butter till it varieties a homogenous, deep brown, syrupy combination. It’s necessary to brown the butter by itself—in case you attempt to brown the butter with the bananas, the solids within the butter won’t ever brown correctly because of the moisture from the bananas. As soon as the bananas and butter are absolutely cooked, your kitchen will scent like caramelized bananas and also you is likely to be tempted to eat them proper out of the pan, however maintain out. 

3. Let the dough relaxation earlier than shaping. It’s necessary to refrigerate the dough for at the very least half-hour earlier than making an attempt to portion and form the cookies for baking. Refrigerating the dough not solely cools it all the way down to the right temperature for rolling and shaping, however—as Kenji explains in his chocolate chip cookie recipe—resting the dough additionally additional develops the cookie’s taste. So how does it work? Harold McGee explains in Keys to Good Cooking that in the course of the resting course of, each flour proteins and starches break down a bit, which ends up in extra browning and caramelization because the cookies bake. Additionally, because the dough rests, the flour within the dough hydrates, and the elements meld collectively, leading to a richer taste. Even only a 30 minute relaxation will improve the cookie’s taste, however when you have the persistence and time, I like to recommend refrigerating the cookie dough in a single day for essentially the most flavorful cookies potential.

4. Press every cookie right into a spherical disc. After the cookies are portioned and rolled into spherical balls, use moist fingers to press them into flat 3-inch spherical disks. The glue-like starches within the bananas trigger the dough to unfold lower than different sorts of cookie dough, so patting the cookies flat ensures they’ll have the precise thickness and can bake evenly.

5. Bake till the cookies are simply set. You may combine, relaxation, and manipulate the cookie dough all you need, however in case you don’t bake the cookies correctly, they’ll by no means have the right chewy texture. Pull them too early and also you’ll have a doughy mess in your palms, bake them too lengthy and they’ll dry out. The important thing to cookies that stay moist and chewy as soon as cooled is to bake the cookies till the perimeters are simply set and golden brown. The cookie facilities can be barely puffed (they’ll deflate barely as soon as cooled) and nonetheless tender when faraway from the oven. If left within the oven till the tops agency up, the cookies can be overcooked and dried out. 

6. Make the recipe your individual with add-ins and toppings.These cookies are nice as-is, however in addition they pair properly with some crunchy toasted coconut flakes or gooey chocolate chips folded into the batter. For a enjoyable ornament, attempt topping every cookie with a skinny banana spherical that’s been tossed in sugar. The sugar will evenly caramelize the banana slice whereas baking for a fairly last presentation. 

7. Let the cookies cool briefly. As soon as the cookies are baked, simply ensure that to attend at the very least quarter-hour for them to agency up earlier than biting into one, in any other case they’ll disintegrate. However they’re definitely worth the wait. I assure you will go bananas over these cookies.