chewy oatmeal banana-nut cookies

pure banana-nut goodness

i never buy bananas anymore, but i LOVE to keep other people's bananas from ending up in the trash. typically, i get 2 - 3 bananas, if i'm lucky, from a friend--*cough*, karen. i crave my recipe for banana-nut muffins, so i almost always make those with my trash-bananas.

with chocolate chips freckles

recently, however, my mother gave me so many bananas that i made the muffins and still had 2 bananas left over! i'm not exactly sure how my mom had so many going bad at once, but i sure do love the fact that she beaming when i last visited her and she told me she'd saved them for me. god, i love that woman.

with half-melted oreo icing

anywho...after singlehandedly eating 3/4 of a dozen delicious muffins, i couldn't bear to bake another batch immediately. however, letting the bananas (a.k.a. gold) go to waste was out of the question. so, after a futile internet search for non-cakey banana cookies, i decided to go to a reliable source for inspiration and guidance: smittenkitchen.com. *swoon* oh, and the oreo cookies i mention later are from the same site, and are worthy of their own post, which is coming soon.

so, please enjoy my adapted version of SK's deliciousness below:

CHEWY OATMEAL BANANA-NUT COOKIES

1/2 cup (1 stick or 4 ounces) butter, softened

1/2 cup light brown sugar, packed

1 medium-sized ripened banana, chopped into small bits

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

3/4 cup all-purpose flour (i used whole wheat)

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 - 1/2 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 cups rolled oats

1 cup walnuts, chopped (optional)

Handful of dark chocolate chips (optional) or smears of leftover homemade oreo filling as icing

Preheat oven to 350°F (175°C). (or don't, really, since the chilling helps the cookies stay thick)

In a large bowl, cream together the butter and brown sugar until smooth. Add in banana chunks and vanilla, and mix until incorporated nicely. In a separate bowl, whisk the flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt together. Stir this into the butter/sugar mixture. Stir in the oats and walnuts. Dough should be rather thick and sticky.

At this point you can either chill the dough for a bit in the fridge and then scoop it, or scoop the cookies onto a sheet and then chill the whole tray before baking them. You could also bake them right away, if you’re impatient, but I do find that they end up slighly less thick.

The cookies should be two inches apart on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Bake them for 10 to 12 minutes (your baking time will vary, depending on your oven and how cold the cookies were going in), taking them out when golden at the edges but still a little undercooked-looking on top. Let them sit on the hot baking sheet for five minutes before transferring them to a rack to cool. Add 3 - 4 Ghirardelli 60% chocolate chips to the tops while still hot, or ice using leftover oreo icing-- if you're lucky enough to have some in your fridge, as I did.