Brown Butter Banana Bread Chocolate Chip Cookies
Two of my favorite recipes in one- brown butter cookies and banana bread. This recipe is a take on my brown butter chocolate chip cookies with a bit of banana added that gives them that chewy texture and banana flavor, in cookie form!
Prep Time: 2 hours (includes chill time)
Cook Time: 15 minutes
Total Time: 2 hours 15 minutes
Yield: 24 1 tbsp scoop cookies, 18 2 tablespoon scoop cookies
Ingredients
1 1/4 cups bread flour (spooned and leveled)
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled)
1 teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon fine sea salt
1 cup (two sticks) unsalted butter
½ cup granulated sugar
1 ¼ cups lightly packed brown sugar
2 large eggs, room temperature
2 medium very ripe bananas, mashed (about 3/4 cup)
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
2 cups of chocolate (I like to use a bar / 8 squares of chopped semisweet Ghirardelli baking chocolate and 1 cup of Ghirardelli semi-sweet chocolate chips for variety of taste and texture)
¼ cup of old-fashioned oats (optional)
Flaked sea salt for finishing (optional)
Instructions
In a medium sized bowl, whisk together dry ingredients (bread and AP flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt). Set aside.
In a heatproof mixing bowl, add the brown sugar and granulated sugar.
In a medium sized saucepan over medium-low heat, brown the butter. The browning process takes several minutes so keep an eye on it and stir with a whisk frequently to prevent burning. First the butter will melt, then begin to bubble with a frothy layer on top and make a crackling sound. Once this happens, you’ll want to whisk consistently as the butter continues to brown. You know it’s done when the color starts to go from yellow to amber and small brown bits form at the bottom of the pan. Once you see the brown bits start to form, pull butter from the heat immediately. Pour butter into the heat proof mixing bowl over the sugar and whisk together thoroughly to allow sugars to start to melt into the butter, let cool for 5 minutes.
Once mixture has cooled a bit, add vanilla, mashed banana, and eggs and whisk together well.
Add dry ingredients to mixture and mix with a spatula until combined.
Fold in chocolate and if using, oats.
Cover bowl with saran wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or silicone baking mat and using a cookie scoop (or spoon), make three rows of four cookies spaced evenly on the baking sheet.
Cover within saran wrap and put cookie sheet in the fridge and let chill for at least an hour. This step is important due to the inclusion of melted butter; you need to let the butter firm back up or your cookies will spread out in the oven and be very thin and crisp.
Once ready to bake, take the baking sheet out of the fridge and then pre-heat oven to 375 °F. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until the edges are starting to turn golden brown. Once out of the oven, if using, sprinkle a few pieces of flaked sea salt over the top of the still-warm cookies. Let cool for a few minutes before enjoying. Store in an airtight container once completely cooled.
Tips & Tricks
Chilling the dough is a very important step- because the recipe includes melted butter, you’ll want the dough to chill before baking otherwise the cookies will spread out in the oven and be very thin and crisp.
The banana adds the perfect amount of banana flavor to these cookies; I like to keep all of the add-on’s that are a part of my regular chocolate chip cookie recipe (the oats, the sea salt) but feel free to omit if you’d prefer.
Make sure the bananas are very ripe! They should be a bit mushy and covered in brown spots. To speed up the ripening process, you can always bake them in the oven for about 10 minutes at 300 °F (with the skin on). This hack speeds up the ripening process. Just ensure you remove any stickers prior to baking and allow them to fully cool before baking with them.
Nutrition Facts (per 1 cookie serving)
Estimates. Will vary based on ingredients and serving size
Calories: ~290 kcal
Protein: ~3.5 g
Total Fat: ~15 g
Carbohydrates: ~36 g