Banana & Walnut Cookies

Bananas and walnuts are simply made for each other. This Banana & Walnut Cookies Recipe is easy to bake and delicious to eat, a real treat for an afternoon snack. They are soft cookies with a walnut crunch and subtle banana flavour.

Why make this recipe?

• Fab flavour combination
• Great breakfast alternative for busy mornings or a perfect snack
• Quick & easy to bake

My top tips

• Don’t overmix the dough
• If you have the time, leave the dough to chill in the fridge for 10-30 minutes before baking to prevent your biscuits from spreading too much

Ingredients & Possible Substitutions

Bananas

It’s best to use slightly ripen bananas, as these have the best flavour. I know it’s sometimes tricky to work out how much bananas to add to the recipe as no banana is the same. If you have the really small – baby bananas – I would use 2.

If you have large bananas, use just 1.

If you are not sure, add whatever you think is right and leave some mashed banana to one side. At the end of your dough mixing you should have a fairly soft dough (but not too runny). You should be able to form a firm(ish) scoops of the dough to create your cookies. If they are too firm, you can add a small amount of mashed bananas at the end to soften the texture.

Walnuts

To prepare your walnuts, just chop them roughly to keep your cookies nice and crunchy. If you have a little less walnuts than the recipe tells, please don’t worry. Anything from 50 grams to 100 grams will give you enough flavour. If you add too much the cookies might get too dry and start falling apart, but that’s the only thing you need to worry about.

If you want to add chocolate chips to replace some of the walnuts, that would work too.

Flour

I’ve used plain flour with this recipe, but you can also use Gluten-Free or All-Purpose Flour. If you are using gluten-free flour don’t forget to add a 1/2 teaspoon of xanthan gum (unless it’s already mixed in for you in your flour mix).

Sugar

White or Golden caster sugar works best with this recipe. Anything stronger than that might overpower the subtle flavour of bananas.

Baking powder

Baking powder will give you an even rise with this recipe. If you want to keep this recipe gluten-free, just double check that your baking powder is also gluten free.

Butter

I’ve used unsalted butter, but if you use salted butter, don’t add any extra salt.

Salt

A large pinch of salt will help to balance out the flavours in this recipe.

Milk

You might need some milk to bring the cookie dough together to achieve a soft (but still firm) consistency). You can use a dairy-free milk or any kind of milk for this recipe. A watered down white yoghurt, cream or buttermilk would also work with this recipe well.

Egg

If you are after a vegan/vegetarian version of this recipe, use one tablespoon of chia seeds mixed with 3 tablespoons of water and left for about 1-24 hrs to soak up before you use it. The longer you leave the chia seeds the better, as they soak up the water and turn into jelly like consistency. You can use ground chia seeds or regular (non-milled chia seeds).

Vanilla extract

You might need to adjust the amount of vanilla extract in this recipe depending on how strong your extract is.

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How to make Banana & Walnut Cookies

• Preheat your oven to 350°F (180C for fan oven).
• Line a couple of cookie sheets with baking parchment paper.
• In a large mixing bowl measure out the flour and add the butter (cut up in to small pieces). Using your hands, work the butter into the flour until it looks like a crumble.
• Add the sugar, pinch of salt and chopped walnuts and mix well together.
• In another bowl, mash the banana with a fork.
• Add the egg and mix it into the mashed bananas.
• Add milk and vanilla esssence to the banana mixture and mix.
• Add the wet ingredients to the flour ingredients and mix them together. There is no need to cream or overmix the dough, just bring it all together. You should get a fairly soft dough.
• Using a desert spoon, scoop the dough and drop on your baking tray, making sure that you leave good space between each cookie. Use more trays if needed as the cookies will spread a little.
• Place in the middle of your oven and bake for 15 minutes or until the cookies are nicely turning golden with a lightly brown edges.
• Using the greaseproof paper, lift your cookies from the baking tray and slide them on the cooling rack. Leave to cool down completely.

Batch size

It all depends on how big you make your cookies, but I find that I usually make about 18 large cookies from this dough batch. If you are making your cookies smaller, they will bake quicker, so bake them for about 7 minutes.

Scaling up or down this recipe

You are welcome to make 1/2 the recipe (providing you have 1/2 egg – e.g. leftover from another recipe).

You are welcome to double or triple this recipe to make more cookies if you are baking for a school bake sale or planning a party. These cookies freeze well, so you can make a bigger batch and then freeze them for later.

How to store cookies

It’s best to store your cookies in an airtight container like a plastic tub, cookie jar or large glass jar. They will be also perfectly fine in a plastic bag for about 3-5 days.

You can freeze Banana & Walnut Cookies on the day you’ve made them and keep them in the freezer for up to 3 months. Defrost in a room temperature, leaving the freezer bag open to prevent the biscuits from absorbing too much moisture.

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