The title says it all. When I got up this morning and shivered into my kitchen to make a cup of Tully’s coffee, the news in the other room announced the start of a new Ice Age and I wished I had something sweet to go with my Hawaiian brew. I had 1 1/2 overripe bananas sitting on top of my fridge, what if I made banana bread?
Forget it—no walnuts, no nutmeg and I don’t think I have enough flour or bananas. But I do have some cinammon and this handful of leftover Hershey Kisses from Christmas.
Okay, this cinammon has a “Best if Used By March 7 2001” date but it still smells cinammony. Didn’t I read about a team of archaeologists who made campfire stew using 2,500 year old spices from an Egyptian tomb? What’s 25 years compared to 25 hundred, right?
Let’s go!
All cookies start with beating 1 stick of softened butter and 1 cup of sugar until fluffy. My grandma’s Rival mixer makes a racket, but gets the job done
Now I’m beating in one large egg that I let sit out for an hour (to reach room temperature) until creamy
Chopping up those Hershey Kisses… these suckers are hard, it felt more like I was whittling soap
Sliced up those ripe bananas, sprinkled 1 teaspoon baking soda over them and then mashed them up good with a fork
Adding the molten bananas to my sugar-butter-egg mix, then beat together
Now I’m sloooowly adding 2 cups sifted all purpose flour, a hard pinch of salt and 1/2 teaspoon of 25 year old cinammon
Lastly, folding my chip-chopped chocolate kisses into the batter with a large spoon
Nine tablespoon-sized glops on my air-baking sheet. I forgot to buy parchment paper the last time I was at the store, so I put a dab of canola oil on my pan and rubbed it all over with a half paper towel. Bake at 350F for 10-12 minutes.
We’ve got cookies! These are actually VERY moist, like cookie-sized slices of banana bread, but crispy around the edges.
This recipe made 33 delicious cookies total. Time to make that coffee.
These look really good, plus warm cookies are always better. Clever!
ReplyDeleteCeci
Thanks Ceci! I wish I could share them with you 🙂
Deletenot as much as I do! And it sounds like the cinnamon worked out fine, good news because someone helping me shop recently bought a huge container of it!
DeleteCeci
Haha yes Ceci it honestly lasts forever 😄
DeleteYes, go Hawaiian all the way! Even with cinnamon that is a quarter of a century stale. Well, those cookies look GREAT! If you have eaten them all by now, then shame on you.
ReplyDeleteHaha thanks Queen Gigi. FYI, I put a dozen of the largest ones in a Tupperware container in the freezer. I don't trust myself!
DeleteI would never have thought to add bananas to cookies but it obviously works. I just made banana bread this week so I'll have to tuck this in my memory bank for another time.
ReplyDeleteEnjoy! Oh, I'd take your 8F over our -8F right now. But these temperatures are much better than the -20'sF that we experienced last week.
Thanks Maebeme, and yes try these they’re very soft though and need something like wax paper if you want to stack them. Anyway, -20? Where do you live again?? Awful 😖!
DeleteWell, Dug, you are a creative soul. Love that about cooking! Just goes to show you when there's a will, there's a way. I always have over-ripe bananas and sometimes make banana bread with them, but have never made banana cookies. Enjoy! And stay inside and warm!
ReplyDeleteThanks Rian and I was just reading about your hearing aids, I sure am happy for you! As for the cookies, I intend to make these again SOON. 😋
DeleteNo recipe and using ingredients you happened to have produced amazing cookies. You have talent and skill. I do nothing without a recipe and even with the recipe things can be questionable. I am impressed!
ReplyDeleteThanks Susan, this was much appreciated! I wondered if I should even post this as I was using 'food scraps' of everything... the next time i make these I plan to have walnuts and more chocolate on hand :^)
DeleteYou are so creative, Doug! And with the bananas in there, the cookies can be considered health food. :) You are definitely experiencing some cold temps (colder than normal?); we are over freezing now, finally. And it's raining!
ReplyDeleteThank you Anon! Haha I didn't consider these cookies might be classified as healthy, that's awesome. 😅 So who is this and where is it raining?
DeleteI think you did a great service for those of us who were never taught how to cook something without a recipe. I am so impressed! And I want one! Next time I'm in the neighborhood, right? :-)
ReplyDeleteThank you DJan, and TRUST ME, if you were to ever show up at my door you'd be getting something better than cookies made from kitchen odds and ends! 🙂
DeleteDoug, your cookies look and sound delicious! I love how inventive you are. I am a use it up kind of baker/cooker so I love this recipe. Wow, 25 year old cinnamon?? You have toted that around for awhile.😆 I just finished making chocolate chip cookies. Had to sample one of course for quality purposes. Take care!❤️
ReplyDeleteRobin
Thanks very much Robin! "Use it up kind of baker", yep that's me though I might've been pushing it with that ancient cinammon, haha. Well, I'm sure your chocolate chips beat mine, next time I'll use real ingredients. :^)
DeleteWow -the Father of Invention! Those cookies look and sound delicious! This weather does make one sit home and crave baked goods. I did have enough flour and made banana bread yesterday.
ReplyDeleteThanks Miss Merry and yes exactly--the weather makes one crave baked goods, haha. That's wild we were both on a banana bent, so to speak. :^)
DeleteThat reminds me, Doug, I'm overdue to make another lemon mug cake you posted about before. I can certainly use the extra calories in snow clearing. Yes indeed!!!
ReplyDeleteFlorence, you are a sweetheart thank you for remembering that! I just made one of those in November and it made me think of you, I might do another this weekend :^)
Delete7F! That’s about -10 in real degrees. I can’t remember it ever dipping into the negative around here.
ReplyDeleteI’m not a big cookie maker, indeed, I don’t think I’ve ever made any in my life. I’m a cooker of savory things.
It’s interesting, I seem to have the ingredients you lack, and am missing the once you have (except for cinnamon, an essential).
Real degrees? You mean celsius? Haha we should've converted years ago--well Peter, my next food blog WILL be a savory one, but you may cringe when you see it. I'll be looking forward to your response :^)
DeleteYou could also grease your cookie sheet with the butter wrapper. Past that, you get an A+.
ReplyDeleteHaha! Oh Joanne, you're absolutely right, what was I thinking? Darn it! Anyway, thank you just the same :^)
DeleteYes, Celsius. I believe that your country and Liberia are the only countries who use Fahrenheit.
ReplyDeleteI look forward to your next recipe. It might give me some ideas, this is the way I come up with something different.
Peter, I honestly didn't know that-for some reason I thought England & Canada used Fahrenheit too. I think I'm going to start including F and C in future references.
DeleteI have never even heard of banana cookies, so now of course I am going to have to try them for myself next time I have bananas handy. I bet the twin grand daughters would love them too.
ReplyDeleteRiver they're pretty tasty, I'm surprised this isn't more a thing? I only made cookies because I didn't think I had enough to make banana bread :^)
DeleteDoug, I am always amazed by your cooking and baking abilities! It looks and sounds delicious! I think the old cinnamon is fine other than it might not be quite as strong as fresh cinnamon. This cold weather is sure getting old for all of us! We've been in the deep freeze here now for over a week. Last Sunday we didn't even get over 0 all day.
ReplyDeletePS I have an old Rival hand mixer like yours that I have had for over 40 years and it still works great!
DeleteThank you Bonnie, I just got lucky! I think I'm going to replace that cinammon though, haha. As for the mixer, I was visiting my grandma around 1990, she was going to throw it away as she'd just gotten a new one because this one rattled a lot. I offered to take it off her hands, and all these years later... :^)
DeleteLook yummy! And another nod to your grandma, this time the mixer, the last her appearance. We keep beloved folks close in so many ways, don't we? Thanks for the post (as I sit here eyeing 2 overripe bananas on my countertop and I know there are some leftover kisses around too!). Kim in PA
ReplyDeleteKim I swear to God I was just thinking about you yesterday. Thank you for this very sweet comment -and- the chuckle, if you wind up making these please let me know. :^)
DeleteI will swap you some molasses cookies for some banana cookies. We had the same idea. It was coooooold. Good day for baking.
ReplyDeleteDebby, I wish we lived closer. I'm sure your cookies are tastier than mine! 🙂
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