Banana Oatmeal Cookies Recipe

Some of you may already know this, but for those who don’t, let me give you a little background first: I live in Spain. Unlike countries such as Germany or Austria, where there is a large Turkish population and Turkish products are easy to find, Spain is not a place where you can easily find many Turkish ingredients. And unfortunately, it is also not a country where vegetables such as celeriac or purple carrots are readily available, as they are in many northern European countries. So from time to time, I order these ingredients from online suppliers.

A few days ago, I needed purple carrots because I wanted to make şalgam suyu, a Turkish fermented turnip and carrot drink. My usual online store was out of purple carrots, so I had to order from another website. There was a minimum order amount to qualify for free shipping, so I wanted to fill the order with fruits and vegetables I would use anyway. One of the things I bought was bananas because we had run out at home. Later that same day, I went to the supermarket and completely forgot that I had already ordered bananas. I bought some more, and only remembered my online order after I had paid. But I thought, “The order probably won’t arrive for a few more days. We’ll have finished the supermarket bananas by then,” and left the store. You know the saying, “Life is what happens while you’re busy making other plans.” Well, that is exactly what happened to me. My online order was delivered the very next day.

Long story short, a few days later I found myself standing in the kitchen, staring at five soft, darkened bananas. I actually like very ripe bananas, but my husband doesn’t, so there was no way I could eat all of them by myself. I started looking through my old recipes and came across these  3-ingredient cookies, which I used to make quite often and absolutely loved. Since the bananas I had were very sweet, they were perfect for a recipe with no added sugar. But instead of making this nostalgic recipe exactly as I used to, I decided to make it a little richer by adding some almond flour. Since this version also contains a little fat, the result is somewhat closer to chocolate chip cookies, although I wouldn’t exactly call it the healthiest cookie. I loved the flavor so much that I didn’t want to keep the recipe to myself.

The most important tip for this recipe is to use bananas that are as soft and ripe as possible. Mine were almost mushy. You may hesitate to use bananas that have reached this stage, but don’t worry. As long as they haven’t developed mold or started to ferment and taste sour, they are still perfectly fine to eat, no matter how soft they have become. Of course, they are not particularly pleasant to eat on their own at this stage, but they work incredibly well in recipes with no added sugar, such as these cookies, vegan brownies, and flourless sugar-free brownies.

I hope you give this recipe a try and enjoy it. And please don’t forget to share your experience with the recipe in the comments.

Enjoy!

Enjoy!