These Soft Banana Oatmeal Cookies are thick, filled with oats and chocolate chips, and seriously taste like banana bread in cookie form! What more could you want?! 😉
I’ve got this thing with cookies.. some might call it an obsession.
Need a good breakfast? Breakfast cookies are one of my favorites.
Need a good dessert? What kind of cookie do you prefer? Chocolate Chip never fails, Snickerdoodle is a personal favorite, and you can’t go wrong with Soft Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies.
Want a cookie that tastes like bread? (Okay, that sounds weird, but I think you catch my drift.) Welcome to the club, Soft Banana Oatmeal Cookies.
This recipe is new to me, and I’ve already made these cookies twice in 2020! Ever since I shared my Soft Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies I’ve been wanting to make and share more soft oatmeal cookie recipes.
Ya’ll went crazy for the Soft Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies this Fall! And I’m so glad you all loved them as much as I do! They’re my favorite Fall cookie of all time.
But now, it’s January. What flavors are good in January…? Banana never fails. So I started making these cookies and I’m in love. They’re so easy to make and completely delicious.
Filled with sweet banana flavor, a little hint of extra sweetness from brown sugar, oats and chocolate chips throughout, these soft cookies are like Banana Bread in cookie form.
These cookies are also only sweetened lightly with brown sugar (only 1/2 cup!) and filled with good-for-you oats. You could even use nuts in these instead of chocolate chips (or opt for dark chocolate chips!). I’m dubbing these “healthy cookies!”
And healthy Banana Bread for dessert?! I’m in.
So, where to begin?
First, let’s talk about coconut oil. You can also use a dairy-free butter alternative stick here if you want that traditional butter flavor. And if you don’t need to be dairy-free? Go ahead and use butter if you’d like.
Either way, make sure it’s softened. Just enough so it will blend and cream well with the sugar. If it’s too soft your cookies will spread too thin. You can fix this by chilling your cookie dough, but starting with softened butter or oil is best.
Next, do I have to use brown sugar? I recommend it here. Because the sugar content is lower in this recipe, the brown sugar is really needed to give these cookies the right amount of sweetness. Without it the cookies will be more bland.
If you really prefer, you can substitute with coconut sugar instead. However, I wouldn’t recommend honey or maple syrup as a substitute. The texture of these cookies are tricky and trying to change the sugars may give you the wrong cookie texture.
What color of banana should I be using in this recipe? You want banana’s as ripe as you can get them here. Darker yellow with brown spots, super ripe, is the best. They’re the sweetest at this point and they’re also easiest to mash up too! 🙂
If your banana’s aren’t ripe enough yet your cookies won’t be as sweet. So please, I know it’s hard, but wait the extra couple days till your bananas are just right.
What type of oats should I use? Regular rolled oats in these cookies work best. Be sure they’re certified gluten-free if you need them to be!
And what about chocolate chips? You’ll need dairy-free chocolate chips for dairy-free cookies (or substitute chopped walnuts). If not, use whatever kind you would like. I would recommend milk, semi-sweet, or (my personal favorite in these) dark chocolate chips. Yum.
Last, and most importantly: If you want extra thick cookies, chill your cookie dough. About 15-30 minutes does the trick. This will help solidify the wet ingredients more so they wont spread as thin in the oven.
I like to do a “test cookie” and bake only one cookie the first time. Then I can see if my dough is to the right temperature or not by how it spreads. If I want thicker cookies, I just put my bowl of cookie dough in the fridge for a little bit. And then I scoop more and bake them.
If you love Banana Bread, chocolate chips, and oats, then these are the cookies for you.
My kids also went NUTS for these cookies! And I’m happy with that since they’re on the healthy side, for cookies! 🙂
Need more banana recipes? Check out my gluten-free Chocolate Banana Breakfast Cookies, Banana Blondies, and vegan Banana Pancakes.
- 1 cup gluten-free all purpose flour
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/4 cup coconut oil, softened (or butter)
- 1/2 cup brown sugar (or coconut sugar)
- 3/4 cup ripe, mashed banana (about 2 medium bananas)
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1 egg
- 1 1/2 cup rolled oats (certified gluten-free)
- 3/4 cup dairy-free chocolate chips (or omit or replace with chopped walnuts)
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To begin, preheat your oven to 350 and line two pans with parchment paper.
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In a small mixing bowl, add your dry ingredients and stir them together (flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt).
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In a large mixing bowl, add your coconut oil and brown sugar and cream them together with a hand mixer for a minute, or till well combined. Add your mashed banana and blend together again. Add your vanilla and egg and blend together one more time.
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Pour your dry ingredients into your wet ingredients and stir them together till you have a smooth cookie dough batter. Add your oats and chocolate chips and gently fold them into the batter.
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*For thicker cookies, chill your cookie dough batter in the fridge for 15-30 minutes.*
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Using a small cookie scoop, scoop your dough evenly spaced apart onto your pans, with twelve cookies on each pan. Bake in the oven for 11-14 minutes, or till the edges are set and just starting to gain some color.
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Let mostly cool on the pan, and then remove to a cooling rack till all cookies are entirely cool.
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Devour!
You can store these cookies in an airtight container on the counter for 2 days, or up to a week in the fridge.
I made them just like the recipe with butter and brown sugar and regular chocolate chips. It came out great! I will make this recipe again it’s a great healthy snack without a lot of sweetness.
These cookies are incredible! Everyone that tries one loves them, and they are my go-to when bringing a dish to pass. They’re easy to make, good options for people watching their nutrition, and they’re delicious! If ya like banana bread, you will love these cookies.
I tried them, but substitued butter with vegetable oil. They taste great but they’re very cakey not cookie like. Any idea what I might have done wrong.
Thanks
Hi Sarah. They should be pretty soft – they won’t be a hard cookie. Did you use rolled oats or quick oats? That would have made them even softer. And also, did you measure your banana? That could make a difference as well.
made these, they were great. we used butter and a mixture of maple syrup and brown sugar, and added extra chocolate chips. yum. thanks for the recipe.
Great to hear, thank you for the comment!
These were sooo good! I wanted to try them with maple syrup. How much would you recommend using instead of the brown sugar?
Thanks!
Great to hear, Amy, thanks! I would say 1/3 cup of maple syrup should work. You may also have to chill the dough a little bit if it spreads too thin, from the maple syrup. I hope this helps!
This recipe looks awesome! Can I use regular all-purpose flour instead of the gluten-free flour?
Thanks,
Ken
Yes you can! 🙂
This sounds really yummy. I have coconut flour would that work?
I would not recommend coconut flour, sorry!
Can you substitute Almond flour for the all purpose flour?
Hi Rose. I’m sorry to say that I’m not sure, I’ve never tried it! Typically, almond flour needs more binders (like egg) and extra flour, to substitute for other flours. However, the banana in these cookies would help them stay together so almond flour just might work. You just may need extra flour. I’m not sure if you want to experiment or not, but I hope this info helps!
Thank you for the recipe and want to make them today! Wish me luck! 🍀🤗
Great recipe!! Used half maple syrup half sugar and they were delicious!
Thanks Lilia!
I don’t use eggs, can I sub extra bananas?
Hi Susan. I would recommend a chia/flax egg first (1 tbsp flax/chia and 2 1/2 tbsp water). I would assume banana would also work well (although I don’t know 100% since I’ve never done it, sorry). I hope this helps, and I hope they turn out great for you!
I don’t have a hand mixer could I just mix it with a spoon or whisk?
Yes, it’ll just take some muscle to get it to cream together well!
Made the cookies today. My brown sugar was hard as a rock – so I used Sugar In The Raw Turbinado Cane Sugar (it has natural molasses so it tastes similar to brown sugar). I also used Bob Red Mill’s 1 to 1 Baking Flour. The cookies are amazing! Definitely will make again. Thanks for the gluten free recipe!
Awesome! Great to hear that Tina. Thanks for the review!
You can put the brown sugar in the microwave. It softens up good.
Or put a stale piece of bread in it and will soften it.
Can i freeze the cookies?
Hi Stacy. Yeah, these cookies will freeze well. Just let them thaw in the fridge first!
Loved the cookies, I made a double batch and ended up with 54 cookies, 1/2 an hour only 22 remained!
They are so easy to make and to BBQ also!
Great to hear that Vanessa, thanks!
Delicious!
Substituted maple syrup for brown sugar and turned out amazing.
Will save and make again and again.
Thank you so much 🙂
So happy to hear that! 🙂
How much maple syrup did you use??
Very good! I substituted wheat bran as I didn’t have rolled oats and they turned out good
Hi, i noticed it says 106 kcals…is that per cookie or how many cookies is it for 106 calories?
Hi Ruby. Correct, that is roughly 106 calories per each cookie, at about 24 cookies for the whole recipe. Hope that helps!
These are delish! I added 1/4 peanut butter to the wet ingredients as well and they were fabulous!
Thank you so much for sharing this recipe.
May I share your recipe and provide credit?
Thank you Kelli! So happy to hear that. I would prefer that you would just link to my website for someone to find my recipe please. When my recipe is posted in other places it takes traffic away from me, therefore taking my income away. Thanks!