midweek bake

With the holiday weekend coming up I have a perfect excuse to whip up fun food!

With dishes waiting for me, I figured why not add a couple more if I'm doing them anyway. Plus, I have far too many overripe bananas in the fridge that I've been meaning to do something with.

Today's treat came in the form of Bethenny Frankel's Vegan Banana Oatmeal Chip Cookies. {though I'm now realizing I didn't read the title before whipping them up because my little modifications made a massive difference}.

Modified to:
Whole Wheat Vegan Banana Chocolate Chip Cookies
yield: 18-20 regular cookies or 10 supersized cookies {Bethenny claimed 8}

2 cup whole wheat flour {instead of Bethenny's oat flour, which I'm now thinking just meant oats - based on her picture, which I also didn't pay attention to}
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp cinnamon {my addition because I love it}

1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup overripe banana (≈1 large banana), mashed
1 cup, sugar
1/4 cup vegetable oil
2 tsp vanilla
2/3 cup dark chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350° F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Set aside.

In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. Whisk to combine. Set aside.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat together the bananas and sugar, beating until well combined. With the mixer on medium-low stream in the oil and vanilla. Gradually add the flour, mixing each addition until just combined and scraping down the bowl as necessary. Remove the bowl from the stand and fold in the chocolate chips.

Drop by heaping tablespoons on prepared baking sheet.

Bake 20-30 minutes, rotating pan halfway through, or until tester comes out clean and edges are brown...

Now I made these in 2 batches. The first I did in heaping tablespoon cookies and cooked them 30 minutes {Bethenny said 35 but they seemed well done}. I broke one open and it seemed dry, though I haven't tried them yet. I added a splash of coffee (probably a couple tablespoons) to the cookie dough before the next round. I scooped very generous tablespoons, probably equal to at least 2 tablespoons - maybe even 3. I left them in for 28 minutes and they still seemed well done but when tried were good - maybe a little dry.

If you try it, fiddle with the recipe - I know I will.

I had more banana than necessary for the recipe so I mashed the extra and threw them in the fridge for later use. Maybe tomorrow I'll whip up another round using oats instead of flour...if I do, I'll update with any progress made.

'Til then, enjoy!