Flourless Banana Chocolate Chip Cookies

I live in a house with self-proclaimed cookie monsters. Seriously, nothing brings them to attention faster than the promise of a cookie, and if it’s homemade, even better! It’s a dynamic that works well. I love baking cookies; they love eating them!

The other day I found myself with some very ripe bananas to use up, and I also happened to be very low on flour, which eliminated many of my go-to baked goods. I bake a lot with flour, and not having it around gave me the opportunity to play around with a new flourless recipe.

These cookies are chewy and rich and satisfying . The addition of seed butter adds great flavor and texture, and helps bind them. You could totally turn these into classic peanut butter chocolate chip cookies, but since I opted to include these in the kids school lunches this week, I kept them nut-free. (If you’re looking for a cleaner or less-processed nut-free option, you could also swap the seed butter for tahini.)

Chocolate chips alway wins the “mix-in” game in our house, but you could also turn these into a trail mix style cookie by swapping all (or half) the chocolate chips for dried cranberries, blueberries, currants, or any other dried fruit of choice.

Flourless Banana Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients:

1 cup whole oats (or half cup each oats and quinoa flakes)

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp cinnamon

Pinch of salt

1 overripe banana, mashed

1/4 cup maple syrup

1/2 cup sunbutter or wow butter (or peanut butter if these aren’t going to school)

1 flax egg (1 Tbsp ground flax dissolved in 3 tbsp hot water)

1 Tbsp vanilla

1/2 cup chocolate chips

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350F. Line a cookie sheet with parchment.

In a large bowl combine oats, quinoa, baking soda, cinnamon and salt.

In another bowl, whisk banana, maple syrup, seed (or nut) butter, flax egg and vanilla.

Add dry ingredients into wet, stirring until combined.

Gently fold in chocolate chips

Using a two-inch ice cream scoop, drop equal amounts of cookie dough onto baking sheet. Bake for 12-15 min or until bottoms and edges are slightly brown.

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