why are there still bananas in my freezer?

I just made them into cookies!

 

I've been looking for something to do with the bananas in my freezer for a while now. No, not banana bread. That's too obvious. And not muffins either. That's just banana bread in a different form. I wanted to make them into cookies. Plus, the spoiled kids at work have been tugging at my apron strings begging for cookies.

Banana Cakies

(because although they look like cookies, they're super soft and cakey)

What you need:

• 3/4 cup butter
• 1 ½ cups sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 4 bananas
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 2 cups of flour
• 1 ½ cups almond flour
• pinch of salt
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp allspice
• 1/2 tsp cloves

What you gotta do:

Take the bananas out of the freezer. You can thaw them quickly in a bowl of warm water. In fact, you can even let them thaw while you do the next couple steps.

Cream the butter and sugar (I totally suggest replacing some or all of the white sugar with brown, I just didn't have any), and beat in the eggs and the vanilla.

In another bowl, mix together the flours, spices, salt and soda.

In a third bowl, mash your previously frozen bananas.

Taneasha and I have been discussing food that is not photogenic, and I'm thinking bananas need to go on the list. Her stuffed shells are winning at the moment though. I think they look awesome, like little brains. She thinks this is not a good thing. *shrug*

So, I was winging it with this recipe, and realized I had three bowls of stuff: a creamed butter, a bunch of dry, and a bunch of wet. This is a pretty common set up when making a cake. What the hell, lets make these cookies as if they were cakes.

Start by adding about 1/3 of the dry stuff to the creamed mixture. Stir it in completely.

Now, add 1/2 of the wet stuff (the bananamash), and stir it in completley.

Next third of the dry, the rest of the wet, then the last of the dry. Mix well after each.

If you want to fold in some chocolate chips here, I won't call you crazy.

You'll have a very soft and fluffy cookie dough. I do think it's mostly soft enough that you could spread this into a pan and make something cake-like; it's definitely thicker than your average cake batter, but it's also much softer than a typical cookie dough.

And I really wanted to make this into cookies. So I put it in the fridge.

An hour in the fridge can do wonders for cookie dough. It also gives your oven tons of time to heat up to 350.

Drop the dough by spoonfuls onto a parchment lined cookie sheet. Leave lots of room between them!

Bake them for about 14 minutes.

The dough spreads a lot, but the cookies maintain a nice puffy shape.

 They'll be super soft when they first come out of the oven, so give them a minute on the pan to cool off. Let them cool completley on a rack, but don't try stacking them. They're too soft and the tops and bottoms will stick together.

These things are perfect little mini cakes. Like the tops of cupcakes, just waiting to be frosted.

They are quite tasty on their own though, with a good bite of spice that makes them perfect to go with a cup of dark roast coffee.

The only problem is that tonight, as I was rooting through the freezer looking for dinner, I found more bananas. I think they're multiplying in there.

What's taking over your freezer??

Comments

[Taneasha]

Dude, I don't even like bananas and those look good! As for what's taking over my freezer... it's just a whole variety of things. I have two racks of ribs that are taking up more than their share, though.

[Seeley deBorn]

If you're not into bananas, you could easily do this with applesauce, or any mashed/pureed fruit. I'm thinking this would be a great way to use up overripe peaches...