These banana oat cookies are made with fruit, rolled oats and nuts. They are a healthy alternative to shop bought cookies and are perfect to serve at breakfast or as a snack. There is no sugar in this recipe but the cookies are deliciously sweet thanks to the ripe banana, pear and cinnamon. If you want to make them sweeter you could always through some raisins into the mixture.
This cookie is easily adapted. If you don’t have ripe pear then miss it out and adjust the oats accordingly. If you don’t like almonds then substitute them for another nut or simply leave them out. There is no precise measurements!
This is a perfect recipe to get your kids into the kitchen. They can help with mashing, stirring and forming the balls. Finn loves to help make these and as there are no raw eggs I allow him to try the mixture. I just have to make sure he doesn’t eat ALL the mixture!
Banana and Oat Cookies
Ingredients
- 2 ripe bananas
- 2 ripe pears
- 1 cup of rolled oats
- 1/2 cup of crushed flaked almonds
- 1 teaspoon of cinnamon
Instructions
- Pre heat oven to 180C / 350F / Gas Mark 4
- Mash the bananas
- Peal and chop the pear and then add to the mashed bananas along with the oats, almonds and cinnamon.
- Form tablespoon sized balls (to make approx 12) (add more oats if you need to make the mixture firmer)
- Place the balls on a baking sheet and cook for approx 15 mins.
- Allow to cool
Recipe Notes
If the mixture feels a little soft then add some more oats.
Hi Amy! Looks like i’m your official recipe tester, because I have more questions, haha. (P.S. made some modifications to the raspberry balls based on your input and they turned out great!). So for these, my cookies again looked nothing like yours: How did you chop the pear…like finely diced? Do you just hand mix or process it? Did you flatten the cookies before baking? I scooped balls of batter onto my baking sheets and the cookies never spread out- they just stayed as balls with giant chunks of pear in them. Still tasty but not really cookies so much, and the pear keeps them very moist.
Hi Amy, thank you for being my official recipe tester! Glad the raspberry balls worked out in the end! I used really ripe pears so they were quite mushy and more like a puree. I just mashed them. You don’t need to use pear though, just miss it out or you could use some apple puree instead. I hand mixed the mixture and used the same Scottish porridge oats I used in the raspberry balls. I did flatten the cookies before cooking 🙂 Hope this helps and thanks for commenting and trying my recipes ?
thanks for the quick response! Can’t wait to try more recipes 🙂
Just made these – they are so yummy! Are they okay to freeze? Not that I have any left from the batch I just made an hour ago, but thinking of the next time I make them. ;o) Thanks for this recipe!
HI Annie, I’ve not frozen them before (we never have any left!) but I have frozen similar oat products with no issues. Glad you enjoyed them and thanks for letting me know 🙂
Thanks for the reply, Amy – much appreciated! ?
Thank you, Amy! These are excellent! I added some peanut butter to half the batch, which also turned out great. The latter hold their form a bit better than the others I cooked.
Hi Ann, thanks for your feedback. I love peanut butter in these cookies too! (I love peanut butter in most things!!)
Hi Amy! I really love all your recipe, it’s simple, healthy and delicious. I’ve tried to make this recipe 2 times, the taste is so delicious. But the texture is not like a cookies, it’s soft and a bit chewy inside. I did not use pear for this recipe. May I know how the texture should be? I think its because the banana is watery so the cookies cannot be crunchy. Please let me know your advise. Thanks.
Hi Christina, thanks for reaching out. This cookie isn’t like a regular cookie, it is quite soft and chewy. I’m delighted that you are enjoying the recipes and that you liked the flavour of this cookie. Hopefully the texture isn’t off putting for you.
What can you supstitute crushed alone flakes for. Thank you
Hi Katya, you can just miss them out if you wish. I make a version of this cookie a lot but never stick to the same recipe. I always add the banana and oats but switch up what I add to them.
Hi Amy I don’t have any ripe pears with me. Can I substitute with apples? Thanks.
HI Dorothy, this recipe is very flexible. I make many variations starting with banana and oats. You can add in anything extra or omit anything you don’t have.
The pear worked as it was really ripe, the apple may be a little hard as it has a short cooking time.