Healthy peanut butter banana cookies with chocolate chunks
Cookies are never really 100% healthy, but we’re pretty close and still 100% tasty with these peanut butter banana cookies. They make a great snack or dessert! These cookies are nice and golden brown on the outside, fluffy and soft on the inside. The peanut butter and banana flavors are light, and there are plenty of chocolate chunks for any good chocaholic. These cookies are not quite as sweet as your average cookie, which goes well with the dark chocolate and reduces the amount of added sugar.
I make these banana cookies every so often for my kids’ 4 o’clock snack. Into the school bag they go, and only crumbs return home. (Here in France, the 4 o’clock snack is a ritual for children.) Admittedly, my husband and I gladly help gobble these down for dessert, too. 😉
What makes these peanut butter banana cookies healthy?
- A goodly proportion of whole wheat vs white flour
- Wholesome oatmeal, dark chocolate, and banana
- Peanut butter and banana replace some of the butter
- Less sugar than your typical cookie
How ripe do my bananas need to be?
For this recipe, I used bananas that were just starting to get brown spots. Typically for baking, the advice is to use over-ripe bananas that are almost black. You can – it will make your cookies a bit sweeter and add a stronger banana flavor, sometimes even a slightly fermented banana flavor. A less-ripe banana will have less simple sugar and more fiber (so, less sweetening power). The choice is up to you!
Tips for making a great peanut butter banana cookie
- Don’t over mix the batter. This is the most important point when making almost any cookie. Too much mixing develops the gluten protein in the flour (like for bread), which makes your cookies elastic instead of tender.
- Follow the recipe. Measurements need to be precise in baking to get the intended results.
- Weigh ingredients like flour and butter if you have a kitchen scale. It’s so much easier. No wondering if the flour is too packed or not in the cup measure. If you don’t have a scale, scoop your flour, then level it with the back of a knife.
- When you chop the chocolate, use everything – even the fine chocolate shavings that inevitably appear. (Though I hope no one would think of trashing perfectly good chocolate!)
- I used pure, smooth peanut butter (100% ground peanuts) for this recipe, which I recommend, if you can find it, to avoid the variable amount of added sugar or salt. If you do use salted peanut butter, reduce the added salt from ¾ tsp to ½ tsp. You could compensate for the added sugar, too, but that only appears to be 2 grams difference for the brand I have at home (Menguy’s).
- Mush up the bananas before adding them to the batter. A potato masher works great.
Cookie spread: An expat problem
Anybody who has made cookies in both the US and France knows that they don’t turn the same in both countries. Take a classic American chewy chocolate chip cookie recipe, make it with French flour, and it is closer to a chocolate chip crepe. Cookies are just more prone to spreading in France, and the flour is the reason. The countries don’t use the same varieties of wheat, the flour’s protein content isn’t quite the same (higher in the US), and I suspect the flours don’t absorb moisture quite the same either. One partial fix is to reduce the amount of sugar or super-chill the dough.
To avoid over-spreading all together, I can use peanut butter. Peanut butter, with its extra protein and fiber, helps the dough keep its shape in the oven. In these peanut butter banana cookies, I use about half peanut butter, half butter, which lets these cookies spread just enough to be perfect. Of course, I don’t make every cookie with nut butter, but this one is really good!
(Disclaimer: Yes, the French do have delicious butter cookie recipes that don’t spread. They use much more flour (less butter😉) than an American butter cookie recipe.)
The bottom line here is this recipe for peanut butter banana cookies should work with both French and American ingredients. I am based in France, so I have only tested with French flour. Let me know in the comments how this recipe turns out for you!
You might also like…
If you enjoyed these cookies, try some of my other dessert recipes: lemon ginger bars with Graham cracker crust, European-style no-bake cheesecake, and for a Middle-Eastern flavor, this orange blossom rice pudding.
Peanut butter banana cookies with chocolate chunks
Ingredients
- 100 g (¾ cup + 2 tsp) flour
- 100 g whole wheat flour
- ¾ tsp salt see note 1
- ½ tsp baking soda
- 100 g (⅓ cup + 1 tbsp) smooth, unsalted peanut butter see note 1
- 90 g (6 ½ tbsp) butter softened
- 100 g (½ c) sugar
- 70 g (⅓ c) brown sugar
- 1 medium egg
- 1 ½ tsp vanilla
- 130 g (½ cup) mashed ripe banana (about 1 ½ bananas) see note 2
- 100 g (1 cup) old-fashioned oats
- 200 g (8 oz) dark baking chocolate, chopped
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 170 °C (340 °F), convection mode.
- Mix dry ingredients: Mix flours, salt, & baking soda in a small bowl. Set aside.
- Mix wet ingredients: Cream together peanut butter, butter, and sugars with electric beaters until fluffy and it turns lighter in color. Mix in egg and vanilla, then the mashed banana.
- Stir in dry ingredients: Stir in flour one third at a time, and mix until just combined. Stir in oats and chopped chocolate.
- Scoop 4 cm (about 1 1/2 -inch or golf-ball sized) balls onto an ungreased baking sheet.
- Bake 170 °C fan, 10-12 minutes.
Notes
- I used unsalted 100% peanut butter (no sugar added). Reduce salt to ½ tsp if using salted peanut butter.
- The bananas I used had several brown spots but were still good to eat, not overripe (peel not black).