Tried and true, hands down, this is Gavin's favorite cookie at the castle house. And what's even better is that Gavin, almost 9-years-old now, with only a bit of guided practice, is able to make them himself. These healthy snacks come together quickly and with only a handful of ingredients, I almost always have everything in the pantry. The only ingredient that you might want to give a little forethought to are the bananas. You will need RIPE ones! This is key and is the only sweetener in the cookie dough.
There have been times when I craved these treats for my breakfast and I will make up a half batch and eat them all with a cup of hot tea. Yummers!
Easy peasy, let's get cookin'!
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
In a mixing bowl add and mix together:
2 ripe bananas (mash real good)
*1 1/2 cups rolled oats
*1/2 cup quick oats
**1 heaping tablespoon peanut butter
1 tsp. vanilla
Drop by teaspoonful onto cookie sheet. Dip your thumb into water and begin making a small depression into the top of each cookie (water helps prevent cookie dough from sticking to your skin).
Bake cookies in the oven for 12 minutes. Remove tray from oven and let cookies cool for a few minutes. Squeeze or drop scant amount of jelly onto each cookie.
*You can use all rolled oats or all quick oats. I like the texture of using some of both. And you can play with the amount of oats since the consistency of the cookies will have a lot to do with the size of your bananas. Larger bananas? More oats. Smaller bananas, less oats. Or just one banana and cut back on the oats and peanut butter and just make a smaller batch of cookies. This recipe is very forgiving and does not require exact measurements.
**You can use almond butter in place of peanut butter.
Eat up! Yummers!
