Besides banana bread, what do you do with the overripe bananas sitting on your counter? I’ve found the answer – banana cookies!
These Soft Banana Cookies will quickly become one of your go-to ripe banana recipes. Made with simple baking ingredients, these banana cookies taste great alone or dunked in a big glass of milk!
Am I the only one who regularly ends up with a bunch of overripe bananas on their kitchen counter? I swear sometimes bananas are a lot like avocados – they go from unripe straight to overripe, with approximately 10 seconds of the perfect level of ripe in the middle. I buy them unripe planning to eat them in a few days and the next day, they’re too ripe to just eat plain.
Luckily, there are plenty of ripe banana recipes, beyond the typical banana bread to use up all of your overripe bananas. This banana cookie recipe has quickly become one of my favorites.
The recipe to these is very similar to the recipe for delicious sugar cookies, so what you get is essentially sugar cookies with the taste of banana. Yum!
I know these soft sugar cookies are always a holiday staple but who says you can’t enjoy them year-round? No need to wait until November or December to indulge in a batch of soft sugar cookies when you can make these banana cookies.
I think these banana cookies taste like spring and summer. The flavor in them is light, not what you’d expect from a typical sugar cookie, but they’re just as soft and chewy.
They’re definitely “can’t eat just one” cookies….but, I mean, they have banana in them so that makes them healthy-ish, right? (Okay, probably not but let’s pretend anyway.)
I’ve decided that cookies make a great dessert to serve at cookouts and parties. They’re just so much more portable and mess-free than cake and pies, especially when young ones are in attendance.
This banana cookie recipe is now one of my go-tos for spring and summer get-togethers and everyone is always pleasantly surprised when they bite into them, expecting a regular soft sugar cookie but get the yummy banana flavor too. Even the kids love them!
Banana cookies are great by themselves but also yummy for dunking in a glass of milk.
Since you like this Soft Banana Cookies recipe, you may like these other easy cookie recipes:
Tools for making Soft Banana Cookies:
Stand Mixer– I lived for a long time without one. My life was changed when I finally bit the bullet and bought one. Just do it and thank yourself later.
Insulated Cookie Sheet– Insulated cookie sheets allow hot air to circulate around the entire cookie, resulting in even baking.
These Soft Banana Cookies will become your favorite thing to make with overripe bananas! They're soft, chewy and delicious - great with a glass of milk!
- 3 3/4 cups flour
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
- 1 cup unsalted butter , room temperature
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup light brown sugar
- 1 large egg , room temperature
- 1 cup ripe banana , mashed
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
In a medium mixing bowl, sift together dry ingredients including flour, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg.
In a large mixing bowl or stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together butter, sugar and light brown sugar. When blended, light and creamy, add egg, vanilla and mashed banana.
- Gradually add dry mixture to wet until fully combined.
- Cover bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate for a minimum of 2 hours.
- After dough has chilled, preheat oven to 350 degrees.
In a small bowl, mix topping ingredients, sugar and cinnamon.
- With clean hands, roll dough into 1 1/2 inch balls. Dough might be sticky and not roll well, have no fear, just plop it into the sugar and coat.
Place onto a parchment paper or silicone mat lined cookie sheet about 2 inches apart.
- Bake for 13-15 minutes or until cookie tops start to crack. Do not wait until cookies brown, they will be overdone.
- Allow to cool on cookie sheet for at least 5 minutes before carefully transferring to a cooling rack using a spatula.
- If you've tried this recipe, please come back and leave a comment to let us know how it went and if you made any modifications!
Followed the recipe as written. Mine came out a little rounder than the recipe photos—I didn’t flatten the balls at all though, and that might have made a difference. These have an interesting texture: cakey on the inside, slightly crispy on the outside. Perfect amount of banana flavor and a nice use of the two brown bananas ripening on my counter.
They are certianly more of a cake-like cookie. I would also say that the ripeness of the banana will have an impact on the fluffiness, amount of converted sugar, water level and size of bananas. Glad you liked them!