Banana, Peanut Butter, Chocolate Chip Cookies Experiment

Tea time. I've gotten really into tea time lately. Everyone deserves a touch of caffeine and a cookie in the middle of the afternoon. We all need a respite from whatever it is that we're working on at 3 pm. In that spirit I realized that I have 2 bananas left that are as black as Santa's soot. Peanut butter, banana, chocolate chip cookies anyone? Ladies and gentlemen, start your ovens (375 degrees)

I started this by reading through my trusty Betty Crocker Cookbook peanut butter cookie recipe and making some adjustments. First off, Betty would have us use shortening. I don't ever use shortening. The transfats ya know? So instead I needed 1/2 cup of butter.

Yes, I know that's not a half cup of butter, I messed up the first few measurements by looking at the wrong side of the cookbook page. I adjusted and was able to get back on track.

Next, I went for a scant cup of brown sugar. Many cookie recipes call for half brown and half white sugar. I prefer to go with all brown most of the time. One: because brown sugar has molasses which I associate as a very fall flavor and two: because I like the chewiness from the brown sugar. Why a scant cup you may ask. Because I know two things about bananas, they're wet and sweet. I didn't think I'd need the whole cup with the sugar from the banana.

This is my awesome wet ingredient measuring cup that my mother-in-law gave me last year. She's awesome too. You need 1/2 cup of peanut butter. I used chunky because it's all we have in the house. Anything else would be sacrilege.

We're also going to throw in one egg. And of course, one banana. Mix on low to medium speed with your hand mixer until they are smooth.

Knowing that my banana was adding moisture to my dough (really, it's more of a batter) I decided to add an extra tablespoon to the amount of flour. Add one and 1/4 cup plus one tablespoon of ap flour, 3/4 teaspoon of baking soda, and 1/2 teaspoon of baking powder. I mixed these dry ingredients most of the way in and then added the good stuff.

The good stuff being the chocolate chips. I mixed on low until everything was combined. Shouldn't take too much mixing at this point.

Into the 375 degree oven they went for 9 minutes. The batter/dough was the texture of whipped cream cheese or butter, and I was nervous that the 1 tablespoon of flour wasn't going to be enough.

But it was. They were beautiful and delicious. Just enough banana flavor to know it's there but not overwhelm. They have a cakier texture than most cookies, which I happen to think goes very well with a cup of afternoon tea. Or how about some ice cream. This recipe made 3 dozen plus 2 oversized cookies that my husband and I will enjoy with ice cream on top as we laze on the couch in front of the TV tonight. Because sometimes you've just gotta make Monday night special. And by the way, a full cup of the sugar would not have hurt anything. And I apologize for not having more pictures of the final result. My battery died from taking pictures of the rain as the cookies were in the oven.