Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

This recipe is so versatile. You can swap out the chocolate chips for dried cranberries or raisins, which makes this one of my favorite “sweets” recipe. I’m all about any recipe that I can easily adjust based on the ingredients I have in my pantry. You can even make a half-batch if you only have one banana!

Ingredients

2 ripe bananas, peeled

1 tsp pure vanilla extract

1/4 tsp ground cardamom

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tbsp pure maple syrup

1 tbsp unrefined coconut sugar, maple sugar, or date sugar

1 1/4 cups old fashioned rolled oats

1/3 cup walnuts, chopped

1/3 cup mini chocolate chips, I prefer the Enjoy Life brand

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350F and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper or silicone baking mat.

2. In a mixing bowl, mash the bananas until creamy, but still have tiny pieces.

3. Stir vanilla, cardamom, cinnamon, maple syrup, and coconut sugar into the mashed bananas.

4. Add oatmeal, chocolate chips, and walnuts to the banana mixture and stir until combined.

5. Place a generous scoop of mixture onto the prepared pan and shape into a mound. I used a gravy ladle as my scooper, to take advantage of the shape it formed. Use wet hands to shape further if necessary. This mixture will be a bit crumbly but don’t worry, the cookies will firm up once baked. Form 12 cookies on your baking sheet.

6. Bake for 15 -17 minutes, until you begin to notice a little bit of golden browning. Allow cookies to cool completely on the baking sheet before removing.

   Yields 12 cookies