i've gone bananas!!!!

Another day - another cookie recipe... yes, the end is almost here, but not before this goody of a recipe gets its 15 minutes of fame. As you know, I heart 101 cookbooks. I absolutely adore Heidi's entries and recipes. Oh and the pictures... sigh. I need to start adding pictures to my blog (I know I know... I just need to get a little camera first).

But let's get back to this cookie. I was drawn in by the name, banana chip cookie recipe. Banana chips in a cookie? Why the heck not! I mean, cookies tend to be crunchy anyway, so why not add some banana to it? And why do we always use only mashed ones? So here goes (I did tweak a couple of things... less butter and two different chocolates rather than just dark).

Banana Chip Double Chocolate Cookies
ingredients:
1 3/4 c. whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 c. oat bran (the original recipe was toasted wheat germ)
1/2 tsp baking soda
1.2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp vanilla salt
1/3 c. butter, softened
1 c. brown sugar
2 eggs
2/3 c. banana chips, loosely chopped
1/2 c. white chocolate chips
1/2 c. dark chocolate chips
2/3 c. walnuts, toasted and chopped

Whisk together the flour, oat bran, salt, baking soda and powder. Set aside.

In a large bowl beat the butter until you have it light and fluffy. Beat in the sugar until it looks like thick frosting. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, incorporating each fully before adding the next one, and scraping down the sides of the bowl a few times along the way.

With a wooden spoon, stir in the vanilla. Now add the flour in two batches, stirring between each addition. You just want it to be combined, don't over work the batter. Now stir in the banana chips, chocolate chips and the walnuts - you just want everything to be distributed.

I chilled my batter for 30 minutes in the fridge (Heidi's recipe doesn't require this stage, but I think it makes the dough more manageable).

At this point preheat your oven to 375 F. Make sure that your racks are in the middle/upper of the oven. Line your baking sheets with parchment paper.

I used my ice cream scooper again to divide these cookies. Each cookie was placed about 2 inches apart (this means more baking time, but these cookies expand while baking). Bake for 8 minutes, until barely golden on top and bottom. You'll want to keep baking them - but Heidi says not too - otherwise they dry out. Cool on racks.

I was able to get 3 dozen cookies - that freeze well (after 5 different types of cookies, making at least 3 dozen each, I needed to freeze some!)

As Shauna and Amanda told me when they tried them - these cookies were made with love... :0)