As mentioned in my last post, I have been utilizing cacoa nibs in a number of recipes. (Please check out Fresh Mint Ice Cream with Cacao Nibs.)
Today, I present Banana Cookies with Cacao Nibs from an old revisited recipe from 2011.
The original recipe for Banana Cookies Brown Butter Frosting can be found here.
As with a lot of my recipes, I often don’t revisit them after they are posted. There are a few exceptions like spice rubs, canning and preserve recipes, and most definitely my roasted tomato sauce. You see, I like to experiment with new recipes and so the old ones sometimes are lost in the archives. The Hubs likes to say, “Mmmm…this is really good. I guess we’ll never have it again.”
After a weekend of working in the yard, I found two gnarly bananas on our counter that needed to be put out of their misery. I didn’t want to mess with making and frosting cookies, so I experimented and tweaked the old recipe just a bit.
Banana Cookies with Cacao Nibs
3/4 c. butter
3/4 c. firmly packed dark brown sugar
1 c. ripe mashed bananas, 2-3 depending on size
1 egg
1/2 t. pure vanilla extract
1 c. all-purpose flour
1 c. whole wheat flour
1/2 t. baking powder
1/2 t. baking soda
1/4 t. ground ginger
1/4 t. salt
1/3 c. cacao nibs
turbinado sugar for sprinkling (May substitute sparkling sugar.)Heat oven to 350°F. Combine butter and brown sugar in large bowl. Beat at medium speed, scraping bowl often, until creamy. Add bananas, egg, and vanilla; continue beating until well mixed.
In a separate mixing bowl, combine dry ingredients and mix with a hand whisk.
Reduce speed to low; add dry ingredients (flours, baking powder, baking soda, ginger, and salt). Beat until incorporated. Add cacao nibs and mix until just combined.
Drop cookies onto a lined baking sheet using a cookie scoop (about 1 ½ tablespoons full) and place 2 inches apart. Sprinkle with turbinado sugar. Bake for 10-15 minutes or until edges are lightly browned. Cool completely on wire racks.
These are a cake-like moist cookie and the cacao nibs and turbinado sugar give them texture and a bit of crunch.
Somewhere I recently saw a recipe for something like “Triple Chocolate Cookie Overload” (or something similar) that called for cacao nibs to be added to a chocolate cookie dough. I really thought it was one of Johnny Iuzzini’s but when I went back through Sugar Rush, I could not find it. I had initially thought I would make these great sounding cookies instead.
Oh, well. A new cookie is born in the kitchen of EE.
“Mmmm…these are like a banana bread cookie,” munched The Hubs when I took him a fresh one. “Guess we’ll never have these again.”