Banana bread cookies are the perfect alternative to banana bread and a great way to use up ripened bananas. All the flavors of banana bread but in cookie form. Don't forget the addition of a sweet glaze on top to really bring this cookie to life!
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TIPS FOR GETTING THE BEST COOKIE RESULTS
There are a few steps you can take to help ensure that these are the best glazed banana bread cookies you have ever made.
You won't regret reading through these cookie tips!
- Use parchment paper on your cookie sheet or use a silpat cookie mat. This makes a big difference and there is no sticking to the cookie sheet.
- This particular cookie recipe recommends you cool the cookies on wire racks.
- Make the cookies a uniform size for even baking. I love to use a cookie scoop so each dough ball is the same size.
- Be sure to use RIPE bananas for this recipe. They add a lot of sweetness so the amount of sugar can be reduced. If the bananas aren't ripe the cookies won't be sweet enough. If you are desperate to make these cookies and your bananas aren't ready, try these ideas to ripen bananas faster.
INGREDIENTS FOR BANANA BREAD COOKIES
These delightful cookies are easy to make and use many typical cookie ingredients. You will want to make these every time you have ripe bananas in the kitchen.
- All purpose flour
- Baking soda
- Ground cinnamon
- Salt
- Unsalted butter
- Sugar
- Brown sugar
- Egg
- Vanilla extract
- Bananas
- Chopped pecans or walnuts
For the glaze:
- Brown sugar
- Unsalted butter
- Evaporated milk
- Powdered sugar
- Vanilla extract
HOW TO MAKE GLAZED BANANA BREAD COOKIES
I will admit I don't love making cookies. It is time-consuming and requires more time in the kitchen than I like to spend, LOL. But these soft banana bread cookies are worth it…you will agree after you taste them!
STEP ONE: COMBINE WET INGREDIENTS
In a large mixing bowl, combine the softened butter, white sugar, and brown sugar. Beat these ingredients on high until the mixture is light and fluffy.
Now add in the egg, vanilla extract, and mashed bananas. Beat these ingredients together for another minute.
STEP TWO: COMBINE DRY INGREDIENTS
Go ahead and add in the all purpose flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt to the bowl of wet ingredients. Fold these dry ingredients in gently.
The cookie dough will be sticky.
STEP THREE: ADD NUTS
Now add the finely chopped nuts to the bowl and fold them in.
Both pecans and walnuts taste great in this recipe. Or you can leave the nuts out totally.
STEP FOUR: CHILL THEN BAKE
A very important step for these cookies is allowing the dough time to chill for one hour.
Place the bowl of dough into the refrigerator and let it chill for an hour. It makes a huge difference in how these cookies will turn out!
Start off by preheating the oven to 350°F. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper or a cookie mat.
Once the dough is chilled, drop the cookie dough by the tablespoon onto the prepared baking sheet about 2 inches apart.
Place the cookie sheet into the preheated oven and bake for 12 minutes or until the top of the cookies is lightly browned.
When done, remove cookies from the oven and place them on wire cookie racks to cool.
STEP FIVE: PREPARE GLAZE
The cookies can be eaten without any glaze and it is a great way to save calories. BUT…they are so much better with the glaze!
In a small saucepan, combine the evaporated milk, butter, and brown sugar.
Bring these ingredients to a boil, whisking the entire time.
Remove the pan from the heat and add the vanilla extract.
Now add in 1/4 cup of powdered sugar at a time and whisk it until you reach the desired consistency that you prefer.
The glaze will thicken as it cools! Usually, 1 cup of powdered sugar is just about right.
STEP SIX: GLAZE COOKIES
The last step is to add glaze to the cooled banana bread cookies.
The glaze will harden as it cools on the cookies!
Serve these with milk, if desired.
PRINT THE BANANA BREAD COOKIES RECIPE BELOW
You can print off the complete ingredients and instructions for these delicious banana bread cookies with glaze on top via the recipe card below.
If you make these and love them, I would really, really appreciate if you could leave a 5-star rating on the recipe!
Soft and flavorful banana bread cookies are a great way to use up ripe bananas!
- 3/4 cup unsalted butter at room temperature
- 1/4 cup sugar white, granulated
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup bananas ripe, mashed (about 3-4 bananas)
- 2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon ground
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup pecans finely chopped (walnuts are fine too)
- 6 Tablespoons brown sugar
- 4 Tablespoons evaporated milk
- 4 Tablespoons unsalted butter at room temperature
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup powdered sugar
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In a large bowl combine the softened butter, white and brown sugar. Beat on high till the mixture is light and fluffy.
Add the egg, vanilla extract and mashed bananas. Beat for another minute.
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Add the all-purpose flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt and fold it in. the cookie dough will be sticky.
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Add the finely chopped pecans or walnuts and fold it in.
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Place the bowl of dough into the refrigerator and let it chill for 1 hour.
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Preheat the oven to 350°F. Place a sheet of parchment paper on a cookie sheet.
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Drop cookie dough by the tablespoon onto the prepared baking sheet about 2 inches apart.
Bake for 12 minutes or until top of cookies is lightly browned.
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When the cookies are done, remove from oven and place on a wire rack to cool before glazing.
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In a small pot, bring sugar, evaporated milk and butter to a boil, whisking the whole time to avoid it burning.
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Slowly add powdered sugar and stir constantly until the frosting reaches a consistency that you like. You may not need to add all the powdered sugar. You may want to use a wire whisk to stir this mixture to avoid any sugar lumps. Typcially 1 cup of powdered sugar is just right.
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Put frosting onto the tops of the cookies and allow the frosting to set up before eating.
This recipe will make about 3 dozen cookies if dropped by the tablespoonful. Serving size is 2 cookies.
If you need some more delicious recipes that use bananas, check these out:
- Weight Watchers Banana Oatmeal Cookies
- Cinnamon and Sugar Banana Bread
- Chocolate Chip Banana Bread
- Healthy Banana Bites
Be sure to PIN this for LATER and SHARE on FACEBOOK!
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I’ve been obsessed with bananas lately. Not only are they healthy, but they are delicious when paired with other foods like Nutella. I’ve also been obsessed with Nutella lately too lol. I actually did a blog post about it recently. 🙂
One of my daughters LOVES nutella! She eats it all the time!!
Yum. Thanks for sharing. I am going to try to make these this week. My grandmother makes amazingBanana bread. So I’m going to get her to try this for me
I just put a bunch of bananas in the freezer so I could make cookies or bread at a later date. Thanks for sharing this. I’ll pin for later 🙂
I’ve never heard of banana cookies only bread! I’m so excited to try these.
What a creative way to use extra ripe bananas! These sound delicious 🙂
I”ve never had banana bread cookies before in my life but they do sound delicious!!!
These look delicious. Definitely something to make with the children during our Kids and a mom in the Kitchen time. I would love for you to stop by and share on my weekly recipe linky.
http://totsandme.blogspot.com/2015/02/kids-and-mom-in-kitchen-109-race-track.html
Thanks Karen! I will stop by!
Let me know what you think!
I will have to make these for my wife. She loves banana bread, so she will love these too.
Um, how have I not heard of this before?! Seriously though… they look SO GOOD!
What are brilliant idea! My toddler loves banana bread already, so I’m sure these will be a hit! Thanks!
These look great! I bet my daughter would love them 🙂
Yes, I’ve had banana bread cookies before and they are delicious. Now I know what to do with the extra ripe bananas that we have at home 😉
I have lots of extra-ripe bananas that would be perfect for this! 😀
This is such a great idea! I actually just made banana bread tonight. Great minds!
xo katie
I never heard of these cookies. They sound yummy.
What a great idea!! Love it. Thanks for sharing 🙂
http://www.skinnybelle.com/
I love to use my ripe bananas to make bread – these cookies look yummy – I’ll have to try that next.
Looks amazing!!
Never thought of banana bread cookies, looks absolutely delish!
yum yum yum, I definitely pinned this!
Ooowweee. I have never seen anything like this before. My stomachs are very excited. hehe. Printing this recipe now. Thanks so much!
Ooh yum. I make banana bread but often but never thought of making banana bread cookies. What a yummy idea.
These look delicious! My family has a serious addiction to banana bread – mostly because of my sister. She goes upstairs late at night, we hear the blender running and then an hour later she comes down and hands us banana bread. Life is great. I’ll have to slip her this recipe.
Is there flour in the cookies?
Yes Sue there is!! I just updated the recipe to reflect that!! 🙂 When I type these up I look over them so many times…but I still sometimes miss something important…like flour!! Thanks so much!!
These look so good. I have frozen bananas in the freezer. Sounds like a good Sunday project. I love Halloween too. A good friend of mine said Halloween is too much fun for just one month so she decorated before Labor Day. Thank you for the recipe