The harvest keeps on coming!  Now the banana trees have decided to bless us with their bounty!  I’ve been making lots of starfruit products for the last while, as well as using them to garnish drinks and dessert plates.  Got through the starfruit crop in pretty good form.  Now, I’m back to banana products.

Here is a picture of the bunch of bananas that has been getting ripe this week.

This is just a small portion of a bunch of bananas.  I’ve already frozen the majority of this bunch.  I just slice them, spread them out on a baking sheet, freeze overnight, then break them up and put them into gallon size resealable bags.  This is what size the bunch was.

These should be getting ripe in the next week and a half or so.  You can see why, in St. Kitts, bananas are referred to as the “social fruit”.  If you don’t have a way to freeze them you really need to share them with anyone and everyone.

I’d been making a lot of banana bread and banana muffins and I wanted to try something different.  So, I browsed the internet and found a recipe here   http://www.foodbuzz.com that I’ve adapted to my taste.

Banana Cookies with Chocolate Chips and Walnuts

• 1/4 Cup butter, softened (1/2 stick)
• 1/2 Cup packed brown sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/4 Cup white sugar
• 1-1/4 Cup All purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 Cups old fashioned oats
• 1 Cup mashed ripe bananas (I used 3 of these small bananas)
• 1/2 Cup semisweet chocolate chips
• 1/2 Cup walnuts
• cooking spray

1. Place butter in the bowl of your stand mixer.  Beat with flat beater for 1 minute until fluffy.

2. Add brown sugar gradually and continue beating for another minute

3. Add egg and vanilla and beat well

4. Add white sugar and beat for 1 minute

5. Mix together flour, baking soda, and salt.  Add to butter mixture.  Beat at low speed until fully incorporated.

6. Add oats, chocolate chips, and banana.  Beat until well combined.

7. Chill dough for 30 minutes

8. Preheat oven to 350F

9. Using a spoon or scoop place tablespoon-sized portions about 2 inches apart on baking sheet that has been sprayed with cooking spray.

10. Bake for 18 minutes.  Cool for 2 minutes before removing from baking sheet.

Makes approximately 3 dozen cookies

Active prep time 20 minutes

This makes a cookie that is chewy, but light in texture.  I love these flavors together!  The bananas give a moistness to the cookie, and a tang that goes really well with chocolate.  This recipe is a nice change from banana bread and banana muffins, if you have ripe bananas you want to use.  I know I’ll be making it again!

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