How You Can Turn A Simple Banana Into Chocolate Chip Cookies

If you buy bananas by the bunch, you may know that it always contains a catch-22 in addition to the fruit. A bunch allows you to have a solid amount of fruit in one purchase, but you have to eat through them quickly. If not, you're bound to let one or more ripen too much.

Banana bread can be so good that you can consider it cake — but now it's time to consider it cookies. With just one overripe banana, you can yield a batch of chocolate chip cookies. In addition to their sweet and earthy flavor, they are simple to whip up.

For banana chocolate chip cookies that resemble the texture and flavor of typical cookies, mix a mashed banana with standard cookie ingredients like an egg, brown sugar, flour, and (of course) chocolate chips, and then bake until golden. Just as you can take your banana bread to the next level with add-ins like various nuts, you can toss the same additions into banana chocolate chip cookies as well.

While there are ways to make banana chocolate chip cookies that closely resemble traditional cookie recipes, a too-ripe banana's consistency and chemical makeup make it an easy substitute to many other ingredients. You can leverage this to make three-ingredient, quick-to-mix cookies.

All you need for these cookies is to mix two large bananas with oat flour and chocolate chips. They are super speedy to whip up and only need a few minutes in the oven. They are also gluten-free, and can be dairy-free and vegan.

Because they are easy to make and require minimal ingredients, these cookies may feel a bit one note. Martha Stewart feels the same about banana bread, so her magic ingredient for banana bread is a bit of sour cream to impart a denser texture and more decadent flavor. Adding just a touch of sour cream to the cookie batter will have a similar effect on the cookies, yielding a rich and chewy bake.