Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Banana Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

Looking for a healthy, tasty cookie? Look no further than the Barbershop! Okay, I'm a big dork. But it's true... If you're looking for a healthy, tasty cookie, here you are. :) A coworker of mine loves a good, solid chocolate chip cookie, and we're going over to his house for dinner tomorrow night. I gave him some of the chocolate chip cookies I made last week, so I thought it would be fun to switch it up this time around. That's where the banana and oatmeal come in!
I found this recipe online by googling banana oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. Brilliant, I know. But I did think that it would be a good combination and of course there were many recipes out there! I ended up using one from Cooking Light, here. The recipe actually only gets 3 out of 5 stars in its ratings, but when I read through a few of the reviews, many seemed positive overall about the cookie so I chose to go ahead with this particular recipe. And as I mentioned earlier, it's a bit of a healthier cookie option, which is always a good thing; the nutrition facts are listed online with the recipe, which is linked above. A couple of the reviews online led me to change a couple small steps along the way, and I'll elaborate on that in a bit!
Here's the dough after everything is mixed in, as well as a picture of a ball of dough all ready to hit the oven...mmmmm.
I have to admit that I actually think my cookies look better than the ones pictured with the recipe online...but that's just my opinion. ;-)
Here are the few changes I made. The recipes calls for 1 and 1/4 cups all-purpose flour; I chose to split that half and half with all-purpose and whole wheat flour. Additionally, I added about 1/2 tsp. cinnamon to the dry ingredients. You can never go wrong with cinnamon... Finally, because a couple of the reviews online said that the cookie was a bit dry, I decided to make the batter a bit more moist by adding some yogurt (Dannon light n' fit vanilla). I only added about 1/4 cup, but maybe it did something helpful! Also, the recipe says it makes 2 dozen cookies, but I ended up getting 30 out of the recipe.
As for the taste of these cookies, there is a definite, detectable banana flavor, although it is still fairly subtle and not overpowering, I think. The banana flavor pairs quite well with the oatmeal and chocolate! I really liked the texture of the cookie overall too. I bet microwaving a cookie for about 10 seconds or toasting it slightly would be reeeeally yummy!!
Here is my attempt at changing up the photography aspect a bit... No, despite what you might be thinking, I did not sit and eat all of these cookies on this plate with my cup of tea tonight. I managed to have some will power and only ate one. :)

4 comments:

  1. sista, I second your opinion and make it a fact - your pics definitely look better than Cooking Light's! yet another backup career option for you - food photography. :-) I like the mug/cookie plate change-up as well. And of course these sound delish! :-) Are they very banana-y? It seems like sometimes when I make things w/ banana, they're not as flavorful as I'd like.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi sista! I actually just edited the post slightly to mention what I thought of the flavor too... I totally forgot to talk about that! You can now see my thoughts on the banana flavor. :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Did you also use chocolate chunks instead of chips? The chocolate looks more substantial in yours than in CL's.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Good observation! I actually used Ghiradelli 60% Bittersweet Chocolate Chips, which tend to be bigger than others chips, such as Toll House. Nice spot!

    ReplyDelete