Banana Oatmeal Cookies

I came across a banana oatmeal cookie recipe a couple weeks back and thought that those sounded amazing! I love, love, love oatmeal cookies, and I love baking with bananas so it seemed win/win for me! I looked up a few more recipes and found one that seemed perfect and thought I'd give it a try since I have some overly ripe bananas chilling on my counter.

Banana Oatmeal Cookies
(adapted from this recipe.)

1 1/2 cups flour
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 white sugar
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) butter, softened
1 egg
1 cup banana, mashed (about 2)
1 3/4 cups old-fashioned oats

Optional:
1 cup chocolate chips
1/2 cup chopped nuts

In a bowl, combine the flour, sugars, baking soda, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Beat in the butter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Beat in egg and bananas. Stir in the oats and chocolate chips or nuts if using them.

Drop by tablespoonfuls onto greased cookie sheets. Bake at 375 degrees for 12-15 minutes, or until golden brown. Cool on wire racks.


These soft, dense, flavorful cookies are great!! Really easy to make, although the whole, combining the sugar with the flour and THEN beating in the butter, was a little weird, but whatever, maybe that is why they are kinda thick and cakey. Also, I decided to go with brown sugar instead of all white sugar, because, well, I just like it more and I think that caramel-y flavor you get with brown sugar goes perfect with bananas. Also, to the last bit of batter I added a small handful of hazelnuts to see how those turned out. I think the nuts needed to be in bigger chunks, but I like the taste and texture of nuts in oatmeal cookies.

I hope you get inspired by these delicious cookies and use up some over-ripe bananas you may have sitting on your counter.

Eat, Drink and Be Merry!

-BellaRosa

Banana Muffins with a Brown Sugar & Cinnamon Crumb Topping

My Hubsie brought me home a box filled with bananas and peaches, which I don't think I can do anything with the peaches cause they seem to be way past their prime...and they scare me. But I started looking up recipes for banana muffins, cause I really enjoy making muffins. And I found this recipe for some banana muffins with a crumb topping, which I thought would be perfect! I posted some Sour Cream Banana Muffins before but I never thought about adding a crumb topping...so these sounded good!

Banana Muffins with Brown Sugar & Cinnamon Crumb Topping
Makes 12 regular size muffins
(original recipe found here.)

1 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt

3 bananas, mashed
3/4 cup sugar
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/3 cup butter, melted

For crumb topping:
1/3 cup brown sugar
2 T flour
1/8 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 T butter

Preheat oven to 375 degrees and grease muffin pan, if not using muffins liners.

Mix together flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt in large bowl. In another bowl mix together bananas, sugar, egg and melted butter. Make sure to slowly temper the egg/banana/sugar mixture before pouring all the melted butter into the bowl to prevent the eggs from cooking. I let my butter cool a little before adding to eggs so I didn't have this problem.

Pour banana mixture into dry ingredients and mix until just moistened. Spoon batter into muffin cups.

In a small bowl mix together the brown sugar, cinnamon, and flour. Cut in the butter until it resembles a coarse meal. Sprinkle amply on top of muffin batter.

Bake muffins for 18-20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. The mini-muffins took about 8 minutes to bake.

Banana Crumb Topped Muffin...Mmmmm :)

Now of course, if you know me, then you know I had to make mini muffins, but I did make 6 regular size muffins and it then it made 20 mini-muffins after that. So it makes quite a bit! I thought these were going to have an intense banana flavor cause it seemed like a lot of banana after I mashed them, but they are nice and lightly flavored and the crumb topping gives it a nice crunchy texture without adding nuts.

Mini and Regular Banana Muffins with Crumb Topping
Makes 6 regular and 20 mini-muffins

This was a great way to use up the over-ripe bananas the Hubs brought home and I do love making muffins..so it's win/win!

Mini Banana Muffins with Crumb Topping

Eat, Drink and Be Merry...and use up that extra fruit!

-BellaRosa

Sour Cream Banana Muffins

I felt like baking today! It's was so nice out today and it made me want to do something productive. I helped out a friend (Just a Girl Baking) with some cupcakes yesterday, but I am more of a muffin-bakin' girl. I am seem to do better off making breads, muffins or doughs than cakes, so I wanted to bake! I decided to make some Sour Cream Banana Muffins, which are nice and moist and have a lovely light banana flavor.

Sour Cream Banana Muffins
Makes 12 regular size muffins

1 cup all-purpose flour
1 T baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1 cup mashed banana (about 2 bananas)
1/4 granulated sugar
1 egg
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1/4 sour cream

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease muffin tin or line with paper liners.
• Mix together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
• In another bowl beat the bananas, sugar, egg and vanilla until combined. Stir in sour cream
• Stir the banana mixture into the flour until smooth and combined. Scoop batter into prepared muffin pan.
• Bake for 10-15 mins or until toothpick inserted comes out clean and top are light-golden brown. Let cool before serving. For best lasting flavor keep stored in an air-tight container or bag overnight.

They are really easy to make, and come together in cinch. I think they could use a little bit of walnuts are pecans in them, but I have a picky hubby that doesn't like nuts in food, so I have to go without them...*sigh* I also think it would be nice to put a little texture and sweetness on the top and maybe add some crystal sugar on top, but I don't really have that, but it would be a lovely addition. I love these banana muffins and I hope you try them and I hope you love them too!

*Note: I have also made these as mini-muffins and they only bake for about 7-8 minutes and are great from breakfast with tea or your coffee! Plus everything is just so darn cuter when it's mini size!

Happy Baking & Eat, Drink and Be Merry!!

-Bellarosa