Banana Cookies

Have you ever bought bananas thinking "oh yeah! Those are going to be delicious in my tummy." Then a few days pass, and they are slowly dying. Yep, that has happened to me! Today, in fact, I had some aging bananas giving me the stink eye for leaving them to sit. So, I decided to make something out of them, give them new life so to speak. Haha.

I didn't want to do yet another banana bread, so I went on the lookout for an alternate recipe to use my brown bananas. Well, guess what I found? *Drumroll please* a banana cookie recipe! I was very excited, I have never made banana cookies before...could it even be done? What is this sorcery?

So I set out to make them and oh my goodness! These little bite size cookies are delish! They are moist, banana-y, and very easy to make.

I found the recipe on Pots Pans & Parkers, there is even a delicious looking frosting that goes on top. I didn't want these to be too sweet so I omitted the frosting, but, head on over there if you want to try it out.

Banana Cookies
yield 45 cookies (1" cookie scoop)

3/4 cup    Shortening or Butter
3/4 cup    Sugar
1    Egg
1/2 tsp.    Vanilla
2    Mashed Bananas
1/4 tsp.    Baking Soda
2 cup    Flour

Place shortening (or butter) and sugar into a bowl.

Mix until creamy and combined.

Add the egg, bananas (as you can see I did not mash mine, they were pretty soft), and the vanilla.

Mix together, doesn't that look yummy? :P

Add in the flour and baking soda in a few additions. Mix until combined.

Using a 1" cookie scoop, I put 15 on each sheet pan (I sprayed my pans with cooking spray, feel free to use parchment). The cookies don't spread too much.

Bake at 350F for 8-10 mins. Bottoms will be golden brown, like the picture below.

Enjoy!

Peanut Butter Bars

So, I was perusing pinterest the other night and came across "lunch lady peanut butter bars" . From what i've heard school lunches use to have desserts that came with them! Unfortunately, my schools were not the kind of school that gave out delicious desserts with lunch. :,(

Now, these bars tasted great, and they even tasted better the next day! If you love peanut butter then you'll love these. I altered the recipe a bit, the original recipe was very sweet, with two types of sugar, and peanut butter in the bars, then another layer of peanut butter, then (finally) the chocolate frosting on top! Whew...they were way to sweet for me, but head on over to the original link if you like it that way.

Peanut Butter Bars

Yield 1 cookie sheet

Bars

1 1/2 cup    Flour

1 1/4 tsp.    Salt (omit if using salted butter)

1/2 tsp.    Baking soda

3/4 cup    Butter

1/4 cup + 2 Tbsp.   Sugar

1/4  cup + 2 Tbsp.    Brown Sugar

1 1/2 tsp.    Vanilla

3/4 cup    Peanut Butter (original recipe used creamy, I used crunchy)

2    Eggs

1 1/2 cup    quick oats

Topping

3/4 cup    Peanut Butter

Frosting

1/2 cup    Butter

3 1/2 cup    Powdered Sugar

2 Tbsp.    Cocoa Powder

1/4 cup    Milk (I used almond milk, you can use whatever milk you have)

1 tsp.    Vanilla

Let's get started!

Place peanut butter, sugar, brown sugar, eggs, vanilla, and butter into a bowl and mix until smooth.

*Note: as you can see above I did not use butter in this section, I used mashed banana as a substitution. If you would like to use this substitution just be aware that the bars will come out chewier. The substitution is 1:1, so use 3/4 cup mashed banana for 3/4 cup butter*

(if you used crunchy peanut it will not be smooth)

Not shown: Mix together flour, salt, and baking soda in a separate bowl.

Add dry ingredients in 3 additions, mix only until incorporated.

Fold in oats.

Spread onto a greased cookie sheet.

Bake at 350F 12-15 min (or until golden). Rotate halfway through. 

Mine took about 16 min because of the mashed banana.

Golden and delicious! Now onto the PB Spread.

All you do is place peanut butter into a small bowl and whip it until lighter in color.

When the bars have cooled for at least 10 mins. Spread the peanut butter on the top of the bars.

Next, we have the frosting!

In a sauce pan, melt the butter.

Add in the milk, and the cocoa powder.

Mix until combined, cook over medium heat until boiling, stir constantly. 

Remove from heat, mix in vanilla. Then add in the powdered sugar in about 4-5 additions, make sure you use a whisk, otherwise you will get lumps like in my picture lol. :) Stir until thickened.

Spread immediately onto the peanut butter layer.

Cool completely before cutting into them.

Enjoy!