Banana Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies

Jump To Recipe by Cindy @mycountrytable

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These Banana Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies combine three of your favorite cookies into one delicious cookie. They are soft & thick cake-like cookies and they are simply packed with flavor! They’re a great cookie for school lunches, after school snacks, or simply anytime!

If you’re ever in the mood for cookies but not which one of your favorites you’re in the mood for, you must try these Banana Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies. You’ll get three favorites in one delicious cookie.

Can you honestly say what your favorite cookie is? Your favorite texture? It’s really hard for me. As far as textures, I like all of them…chewy, cake-like, thick, gooey, thin & crispy. I think I pretty much like every flavor too, and sometimes I just like mixing things up, like this recipe. I mean how can you go wrong with these 3 combinations.

Ingredients

Okay, let’s get right to it. The ingredient list is a little long. However, you probably have all of them in your pantry. Don’t forget, we’re combining 3 great cookies into one here, so there are a few ingredients.

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 cup old-fashioned rolled oats (not quick)
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg, room temperature
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 cup mashed very ripe banana
4 ounces semi-sweet chocolate coarsely chopped into roughly 1/4-inch pieces (see notes below)*
1/2 cup coarsely chopped walnuts or pecans, toasted

Instructions

Line cookie sheets with parchment paper and set aside.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, baking soda, cinnamon, and oats, and set aside.
Add the butter and sugars to the bowl of a stand mixer (or use a hand mixer). Mix on medium speed until the mixture is light and fluffy. Add the egg, vanilla, and banana and mix to combine. Add the dry ingredients, chocolate chunks, and nuts. Mix on medium speed until all is combined and just until the flour is incorporated. Do not over mix.
Place the bowl of dough in the freezer for 30 minutes.
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Using a medium cookie scoop, (about 1 1/2 inches), drop scoopfuls of cookie dough onto the cookies sheets, spacing them at least 2 inches apart, and no more than 8 dough balls per cookie sheet.
Bake the cookies for 13 to 15 minutes or until golden brown around the edges and the centers are set. Rotate the cookie sheets about halfway through for even browning. Transfer the cookies to wire racks to cool.

Pro tips for making Banana Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies

Make sure to use ripe speckled bananas in this recipe. Ripe bananas are softer and easier to mash, and the riper they are, the more the starches convert to sugar, making them sweeter and more flavorful. Note: Do not use black bananas. Those are too ripe. Once they become black they begin to ferment.

Don’t place more than 8 cookie dough balls on each cookie sheet, and leave plenty of space between them.
Once you place the cookie dough balls on a cookie sheet, place the cookie sheet in the freezer for 30 minutes. This ensures nice thick cookies. If you opt to skip this step, the cookies will still be delicious, but they will spread more, resulting in thinner cookies.
Don’t use chocolate chips in this recipe. Use a good quality baking bar, such as Ghirardelli, and chop it into small chunks. Why? In this recipe, we want the chocolate to melt as the cookies bake. Chocolate chips have less cocoa butter than baking chocolate and they contain stabilizers that help them maintain their shape as they bake in cookies. If you want your chocolate pieces to stay stable and not melt, then you can use chocolate chips.

Make sure to measure the flour correctly. A little too much flour equals a dry cookie. Don’t dip the measuring cup into the flour to fill it. This compacts the flour in the cup, resulting in too much flour. Take a fork or spoon and fluff up or aerate the flour in your flour container. Then spoon the flour into your measuring cup and level it off with a knife.
Make sure your butter and eggs are at room temperature.
Toast the nuts if you can. Toasting brings out the nutty flavor more, and makes for a crunchier nut.

Can I use quick oats in this recipe?

You can but I don’t recommend it. Rolled oats are bigger and have a chewier texture, which I love in these cookies. Quick oats are smaller and less chewy.

Can I freeze these cookies?

Yes, you can freeze the baked cookies for up to 3 months. Place them in layers with wax paper between them, in an airtight freezable container. Thaw later at room temperature.

Alternately, my favorite is to freeze the raw cookie dough balls, and when I’m ready to bake some, I simply remove how many I want from the freezer and transfer them right to the oven and bake.

To freeze the cookie dough balls, place them on a cookie sheet first. Place the cookie sheet in the freezer for at least one hour. Then transfer the balls to a ziploc freezer bag. This way they don’t stick together. You can simply remove as many as you want when you have a sweet tooth. This is also great if you have drop in guests.

These cookies will stay fresh for up to 4 days in an airtight container.

Wanna see more thick and cake-like cookies? Check these out…

Thick & Chewy Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

Sour Cream Brown Butter Cookies

Old Fashioned Sour Cream Sugar Cookies

If you make this recipe, please rate it below and leave a comment on how well you liked it. I love getting your feedback! 🙂

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