This week has been my first week working from home, so I have been trying to adjust to a new routine. Funemployment brought out my lazy, indulgent side; whipping myself back into shape has proven a painful process.
I’ll share a glimpse of working from home soon, and discuss my frustrations with modern life in the digital age and the challenge of setting realistic expectations. All in due time, my friends.
Today we will talk about cookies. Cookies make everything better. These cookies are extraordinary for two reasons:
- They are crazy delicious.
- They are significantly healthier than the average chocolate chip cookie. They are significantly less unhealthy than most chocolate chip cookies.
Let’s call them reasonably healthy cookies. Why?
- These cookies call for only two tablespoons of butter, whereas an equal-sized batch of classic Tollhouse cookies would require an entire stick of butter. That’s a 75% reduction in butter, and you would never guess it!
- They are 100% whole grain, made with whole wheat pastry flour and old fashioned oats. Do we need to discuss the benefits of fiber?
- Make them with dark chocolate chips, and you’ve incorporated some antioxidants.
- Banana. Cinnamon. Yum.
The recipe is a combination of Gina’s recipes for Low Fat Chewy Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies, which uses applesauce in place of most of the butter, and Chewy Low Fat Banana Nut Oatmeal Cookies, which calls for mashed banana instead of applesauce. I thought, wouldn’t banana taste great in chocolate chip cookies? And can I trade all-purpose flour for wheat? Success!
PrintLow Fat Chocolate Chip Banana Cookies
- Author:
- Prep Time: 10 mins
- Cook Time: 12 mins
- Total Time: 22 minutes
- Yield: about 30 cookies 1x
- Category: Cookie
- Method: Baked
- Cuisine: American
- Diet: Low Fat
These delicious, chewy banana chocolate chip cookies are, coincidentally, low in fat and made with 100% whole grains! No one will even notice! Recipe yields about 30 cookies (roughly 1 tbsp each).
Ingredients
- 1 cup whole wheat pastry flour or whole wheat flour
- 2 cups oats (the original recipe called for quick oats, but I used old fashioned oats with great results)
- 1 tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp baking soda
- ½ tsp salt
- ½ tsp ground cinnamon
- 2 tbsp unsalted butter, room temperature
- ½ cup turbinado/raw sugar (or regular sugar)
- ½ cup unpacked Muscavado sugar or brown sugar
- 1 large egg
- ⅓ cup mashed banana, which is a almost one whole banana, OR same amount of unsweetened apple sauce (see footnote)
- ½ tsp vanilla extract
- ¾ cup dark chocolate chips (Ghirardelli 60% cacao chips are my favorite!), OR walnuts, if you’re into that.
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line baking sheet with parchment paper.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, oats, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon.
- In a large bowl, cream together the butter and the sugars. I used an old-fashioned egg-beater but if you’re lucky enough to have an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugar on medium speed.
- Add the egg, followed by the mashed banana and vanilla extract.
- Working by hand, stir in the flour mixture and the oats until just combined.
- Stir in the chocolate chips.
- Drop heaping spoonfuls onto baking sheets, flattening each cookie slightly. Bake for about 10-12 minutes, or until cookies become light brown at the edges. Do not overbake these cookies!
- Let cool on baking sheet for 3 or 4 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
Notes
Note on apple sauce, added 5/20/11: I just tried these cookies with apple sauce instead of mashed banana. While they are tasty, they seem a little more like reduced fat cookies. The banana cookies have a fluffier texture, with a higher rise and softer insides. Final verdict? I’m sticking with banana.
Make it egg free: Though I haven’t tried, readers report that their cookies turn out well when they replace the egg with some additional mashed banana or a flax egg.
Vegetable enthusiast. Dog lover. I'm probably making a big mess in my Kansas City kitchen right now. 
Danielle (elleinadspir)
Yummy. I love banana and chocolate together.
Heather
I just finished lunch and now I want some of your cookies! Considering how often you make cookies, I’m not surprised by your little guy’s name. Even though you’re working from home now, don’t work too much this weekend! Have a good one!
kate
You’re right, I have been making lots of cookies lately! I saved a few of these for me and put the rest in the freezer for when I have company. I feel like my grandmother when I do that, but it’s so much easier to resist temptation that way! She’s a smart lady.
Gina @ Skinnytaste
Oh boy, now I have to try your version!!! Glad you liked them!!
Xiaolu @ 6 Bitterswe
Mmm these look yummy! Love banana in baked goods!
Rob Casavant
Ohh wow! I have been trying to eat healthier with more nuts and oatmeal type stuff and this is right down my alley. Awesome job, I am trying them this week!
Karla
Yep, I’m making these tonight!
*stares evil brown banana down*
kate
Hooray! Please let us know how they turn out!
Karla
Well, I made them and they are awesome. I accidentally veganized them as I realized had no butter or eggs in the house, but they still turned out really great (although I’m new to photography so maybe they don’t LOOK great). They sure didn’t taste vegan at all. Thanks for the recipe!
My banana is much happier :-D
kate
Good to know! I never would have guessed they would turn out well without eggs or butter. I wish I hadn’t eaten all of mine already!
dana
Those look stinking DELICIOUS! And oh so wholesome and healthy. Thanks for sharing! I’ll be trying these out soon.
Alison
I just made these– so good! I added a little more vanilla extract, but they came out spongy and delicious.
kate
So glad to hear it. Thank you for letting me know how they turned out! :)
Sam
Definitely making these today! :)
Erica
I made these last night and they are spectacular – probably one of my new favorite cookie recipes because it combines my fave things into one: choc chip cookies and banana bread!
I made a few changes. Instead of one ripe banana, I used 2 since I had them. This created a more gooey cookie – which is NOT a bad thing. If you like them more dense, just add more flour. I used the Turbinido raw sugar which I found in the store, no problem. Great discovery from a baking perspective; can’t wait to use it again, even for sprinkling on cakes and breads. And if you use more banana, you can eliminate some sugar since the natural sugar in the fruit makes it sweet enough. For a final touch, I added 1/2 cup coconut into the batter, which gave it a little more crunch.
Consensus: YUMMY!
Thank you Kate, love your recipes!
Kara
Despite how much I messed up the recipe, I made these tonight and they are AWESOME!!
Thanks for sharing!
Jana
Hmmm, they are in the oven right now. I only added one tablespoon peanut butter (I loove peanut butter), and the dough was the best cookie dough I ever ate! Oh, I veganised It because I’m a vegan, with an Egg-Replacer and margerine.I love oat-cookies, I love bananas, I love cinnamon, I love pb and I love chocolate!! The best recipe ever!
kate
I hope those cookies turned out as good as the batter tasted, Jana! I am definitely going to add some peanut butter to mine next time around. Yum!
Jana
They are great. Taste good like banana and like oats, and the cinnamon and the peanut butter perfect the taste. I made half with chocolate chips and half without, and even I love chocolate, these without taste even better to me! Thanks for this recipe!!!
kate
Oh, I’m so glad! I might have to make another batch just so I can try them with peanut butter. Yum.
Althea
Amazing cookies! Made the cookies last night and I am in love. Thanks for the the recipe! :)
Shira
Hi there,
Just wanted to say that these were delish! I added a handful of sliced almonds and a tablespoon of almond butter to replace some of the butter….worked like a charm. Thanks for the awesome recipe :)
Ashley
these are sooooo good! i did half whole wheat half all purpose to use up my all purpose flour and actually omitted the butter and used 2 mashed bananas and they were really good! and no butter! it actually creams just like the butter with the sugars : )
thanks for the recipe! my best friend is hooked and i am making them again tonight for our company coming for dinner!
kate
Thank you for commenting, Ashley! I’m so glad you enjoyed the cookies. I’m glad to know that they’re great without any butter at all!
Ellen
I picked out this recipe to try over the holidays when I home from college for winter break. I never got around to making the cookies, but to my surprise, a box arrived at my apartment this morning, it was filled with 2 dozen of these cookies!
My mom made the cookies after finding the recipe in the kitchen and remembering my excitement. The note enclosed with the home made cookies reads: “Ellen, Here are the chocolate chip banana cookies from the recipe you got from cookiesandkate.com. They turned out good! Love you, Mom xxoo.
Just wanted to share this story of love that made my day!
Dianne
I made these and did the substitution with no butter and added an extra banana. I also did 1/4 sugar and 1/4 spenda to cut more calories. They turned out great! My taste testers agreed =)
Kate
Happy with the result! I’ve tried other recipes of yours but this is my first comment. I love the banana and dark chocolate combo, but unfortunately when I got to that step, my ripe banana was missing from the basket! The compost jar held the evidence… Alas it was my last banana and I didn’t have any applesauce. So I improvised by adding mashed fresh strawberries. Wow. What a cookie! I will still try again with bananas, but the berries were a nice mistake.
kate
Kate, your cookies sound like quite a delicious mistake! I’ve been wondering lately if I could substitute mashed strawberries for bananas, so I’m glad to know that it worked for this recipe, at least! Thank you for commenting!
Ashley
I tested these out today and they were so delicious! I left out the egg and butter, upped the banana some, and actually meant to use the brown sugar but forgot it… it was still delicious! I made it using peanut butter chips, and I will definitely be making this again soon!
★★★★★
Kate
Glad you liked the cookies, Ashley!
royaltyfreemusic
Since I bake with no gluten, I’m wondering how these will turn out with gluten-free flour. Will they keep together or flatten out? I will try to make them with a mix of brown rice flour, almond flour and maybe some other kinds of gf flours to see how they turn out. If I remember, I’ll try to report back here about them. I’m allergic to bananas (darn!) so I will have to try them with the apple sauce. Otherwise, these seem like incredible cookies!
Kate
I don’t have much experience substituting with gluten-free flours, to tell you the truth. Please let us know how the cookies turn out!
Robin
Girl. Friend.These cookies look amazing! Just found you’re blog today and I LOVE your adventurous baking style. Can’t wait to try your recipes!
Taryn
Yum! Didn’t have whole wheat pastry flour so I just used whole wheat flour. Also, I added some honey which added to the taste AND made then stick easier. Turned out great!
★★★★
Lisa
I’ve been trying to coax my kids into eating “healthier”, so this recipie was perfect. Delicious! I used your recipie but changed it a bit to appeal to my fussy kids. I ground the oatmeal ( it’s a texture thing), I used 2 bananas (it made them more of a soft baked cookie), and 1/2 cup mini chocolate chips (mini chips spread further and trick the kids into eating them)
Kate
Thanks, Lisa. I’m glad you made the recipe work for your family!
Heidi
I am excited to try these! But can you tell me how many calories are in one? (OR two…) ;)
★★★★★
Kate
I estimated the calories online and it came out to 115 each. Anyone know if that’s close?
P.S. These are delicious and stay moist for days. I added 1/4c of unsweetened applesauce to mine to hold them together a bit more.
★★★★★
Kate
Thanks, Kate! Glad you enjoy the cookies. I don’t usually run calorie counts on recipes but I bet your estimate is about right.
Kate
Wow. These were even better than I expected! My husband couldn’t stay away from these…and OK, nor can I!
We were under a major fruit fly attack, so I made a double batch of the batter a few days ago to get rid of some bananas, but had no time to bake the cookies right away. I dumped the dough into some tupperware and let it sit in the fridge until this morning. Definitely didn’t seem to hurt the cookies at all.
Delish!
Kate
Thanks, Kate! Glad you both enjoyed the cookies!
Heather
These are amazing! I made them before reading the comments so will have to try without butter next time. Only problem with them is that I can’t stop eating them!! Going to have to put some in the freezer :) It made exactly 30 cookies (using a cookie scoop).
★★★★★
Kate
Thanks for commenting, Heather! I’m so glad you enjoy the cookies!
Britta
This recipe is EXACTLY what I was looking for. Thanks!!!
Kate
You’re welcome, Britta!
Aqui
Kate, this is an awesome recipe! Like some of the other people who commented, I substituted two bananas for butter and eggs, used 1/2 wheat and 1/2 all-purpose, and also ground the oats since I’m not a fan of the texture in cookies. Flattening out the cookies properly made them bake evenly.
Chewy, yummy cookies- thank you for totally making my weekend! :)
★★★★★
Kate
Thanks, Aqui! Glad you liked ’em!
Jessica You
Hi Kate!
I have a question, do you cook the oats first or just raw when you start mixing the ingredients?
Might be a silly question but just want to ask!
thanks!
Kate
Hey Jessica! No need to cook the oats. :)
Darien
Delicious! I made them with 1/2 cup garbanzo flour and 1/2 whole wheat, accidentally used a whole banana but an extra 5 minutes of cooking fixed the extra moisture. Thanks for the scrumptious recipe!! So glad to have come across your site, so many things I’m anxious to try :-)
★★★★★
Kate
Thanks, Darien!
Natasha
Hello,
I live in Australia and I am absolutely in love with Cookie and your recipes, I have only just come across your website.
I am wondering what else I might be able to use instead of whole wheat flour? Or is that just wholemeal flour that we have down under?
Cheers
Natasha
Kate
I believe they are the same thing, yes!
Keri and Kelsi
Terrific recipe! We used one ripe banana, 2 tablespoons light butter, 1/4 cup toasted chopped walnuts, and it tasted like banana bread but with an excellent crunch! Always looking for low-fat recipes and that’s hard to do with cookies!
Thanks!
★★★★★
Lauren
I just made this while scanning for a new ‘treat’ for lunches this week. Your recipes NEVER disappoint and always turn out perfect. I hope your cookbook is out soon!
★★★★★
Kate
Thank you, Lauren! I can’t wait for you to see the cookbook. :)
Ginny
Trying to eat healthier and was thinking about adding more fruit to sweets to cut back on sugar and I found your recipe. And now trying to bake quick, the sneak taste was delist….Oh, can you freeze the dough?
Paula
This is such a good recipe. I used ground flax and water for the egg and pureed white beans for the butter. Came out delicious.
★★★★★
Kate
Yum! Sounds delicious.
Kristin
These are sooo good! I actually made them using the applesauce and not banana since my boys are not fans of banana in baked goods. I also used Bob’s Red Mill extra thick rolled oats which gave them a nice hearty flavor. Boy did they LOVE these and so did I :) I would even consider using slightly less sugar and really like that there is little butter/oil. Thanks – these are keepers!
★★★★★
Kate
Wonderful! I’m glad your swap-out worked well.
V
Hi Kate, made this today. I made it without eggs and added a little olive oil to hold the cookies. Turned out a bit dry but tastes great!
I also love your healthy banana bread recipe. I live banana flavours in my food.
Your recipes are awesome..tasty and healthy just the way I like to cook. Thanks so much for awesome recipes.
Vibha
Ailia
I made these today. They were wonderful – so tasty! Thank you! :)
★★★★★
Kate
You’re welcome! Thank you for your review, Ailia!
Fran
HEAVEN. Made these last night and they were phenomenal! Used walnuts and choc chunks, and subbed flax egg. Thank you, time and again for your scrumptious creations :)
★★★★★
Kate
Sounds delicious, Fran! Thanks so much for your review.
Vickie
I made these today and they are delicious. They even got my husband’s 5-star seal of approval! He’s the chocolate chip cookie expert at our house. Thanks for a healthier version.
★★★★★
Kate
Love it! Thanks for sharing, Vickie!
Sandy
I tried only 1/2 batch of this recipe and substituted 1/2 of chocolate chip with dried cranberry, it turns out soooo well that I regretted that I only baked 1/2 batch!!!! Love your recipe! they never failed me.
★★★★★
Kate
I’m so glad to hear that! Thanks so much for your review, Sandy.
Ben Noonan
I just made cookies and they were delicious! I would recommend using less chocolate though as at the moment, they are 70% chocolate and 30% cookie (although that’s not necessarily a bad thing!)
★★★★
Kate
Thank you for your review, Ben!
Valerie
These cookies are delicious! One of my personal favorites. I also tried making them using gluten free flour and gluten free oats so my gluten free friends could enjoy and they turned out great as well! The banana adds perfectly to the texture and flavor.
Thank you for this recipe!
★★★★★
Kate
You’re welcome, Valerie!
anonymous
LOVE THESE. Had an overripe banana, and it’s wise to make the maximum use out of everything laying around.
Very simple to make, soft and delicious. Followed the recipe exactly, except I used ghee, and I added a pinch of nutmeg for the hell of it.
Definitely one of my favorite cookie recipes. Making a second batch as we speak!
★★★★★
Stacey
This recipe is so good and I made it exactly the way it is written! The only change is that I cooked it for a couple less minutes but maybe my oven is strong. They are delicious!
★★★★★
Kate
Thank you for your review, Stacey! I’m happy it turned out for you.
Jacki
I made these today. I did make a couple of small changes. First, instead of 1/2 c. turbinado or regular sugar, I substituted 1/4c. Raw honey. Next I used 1c. Old fashioned oats + 1c. Minute oats then I used a fork to flatten them just a little bit. My changes were minor, so I know the cookies would have been just as delicious without the changes. Awesome recipe. Thanks!
Molly McMahon
I just made this recipe last week and oh, I think I’ve found my favorite cookie recipe. They are moist and delicious and didn’t last too long in my household! The banana really adds a lot of natural sweetness to the batter. I really think banana and chocolate is my favorite flavor combination.
★★★★★
Kate
That’s great to hear, Molly! Thank you for sharing.
shari
Love this recipe, great way to use those mushy bananas. I usually add 2 med. Also, cut out all white sugar, just using 1/2 c brown. The choc chips add any needed sugar.
Freeze great as well.
ps, also lived in Edmond!!
★★★★★
Mira
SO GOOD. I took advice from other comments & replaced the butter with an extra banana (mostly to use up my bananas that were quickly getting too ripe). I also didn’t have eggs on hand, so I [accidentally] veganized it by using a flax egg. Basically a banana bread in cookie form!!! It was a real hit in my house. Only thing is I found 3/4 cup chocolate chips to be quite a lot–2/3 was more than enough. Overall, will definitely be making this again. Thanks for sharing!!!
★★★★★
Japneet
Looking forward to making them this week, how can I substitute for eggs?
Kate
Hi there! I’m reviewing the other commenters and it sounds like these cookies have turned out well by either replacing the egg with some additional banana or substituting a flax egg.
Juanita
Hi Kate,
How do you typically store these cookies? Just made a batch and was going to keep some out in an air tight container and then freeze the rest.
Kate
Hi! You can do that, or in the refrigerator as well.
Rosie
Love all the flavor combos in this recipe! Sharing my own personal tweaks in case they appeal to anyone else – I used 2 mashed bananas instead of one since I had them on hand. I subbed coconut sugar for brown sugar and omitted the regular sugar completely. I used a flax egg and omitted the butter also. And I threw in 1 tbsp of peanut powder for a little chunky monkey flavor. A lot of small changes but still came out delicious!!
★★★★★
Kate
Thank you for sharing, Rosie!
Lauren Ritchie
Can you use steel cut oats?
Kate
Hi Lauren, since they are denser and require different cooking, I wouldn’t recommend it.
Morgana
These are seriously good All your recipes are! I added some chopped almonds in place of some of the chocolate. Looking forward to making these with my 3 year old nephew.
★★★★★
Kate
I’m glad you love these!