After many months of baking banana bread like everyone else, I decided to put a slightly different spin on it. Also, I love bite-size desserts. So these delicious little Banana Bread Cookies from Ambitious Kitchen were perfect!
These cookies are soft, healthy, and made with a mix of almond and coconut flour to make them gluten free! They are topped with a dairy free cream cheese frosting which adds additional sweetness and texture.
NOTE: Do not let the ingredients list deter you from baking these. The prep time is about 25 minutes, with the bake time about 10 minutes. These treats are more nutritiously redeeming than your average banana cake, and I promise you will not be disappointed.
Banada Bread Cookies
SERVINGS: 12 Cookies
Ingredients:
Wet Ingredients:
2 T melted and cooled coconut oil (or sub melted vegan butter)
1/2 cup mashed ripe banana (from 1 medium ripe banana)
¼ cup organic coconut sugar or monk fruit sweetener (I love Lakanto’s Classic 1:1)
1 egg (or flax egg), at room temperature
1 tsp vanilla extract
Dry Ingredients:
1 1/4 cups packed fine blanched almond flour (do not use almond meal)
¼ cup coconut flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
For the cream cheese frosting:
½ cup powdered sugar
2 T vegan cream cheese, at room temperature
2 T vegan butter, at room temperature
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
½ tsp almond milk, if necessary, to thin out frosting
For the topping;
¼ cup chopped toasted walnuts or pecans
Directions:
In a large bowl, add the melted and cooled coconut oil, mashed banana, sugar, egg or flax egg and vanilla extract. Mix until well combined and smooth. Next add in almond flour, coconut flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. Mix until a soft dough forms. Allow dough to chill in the fridge for 5 minutes while you preheat the oven.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
Use your hands to roll dough into golf sized balls (it will be a softer dough but that’s okay.)Place on prepared cookie sheet then flatten each dough ball with the palm of your hand, but still keep the cookies nice and round. They should be about 1/4 inch thick before baking because we still want them to be nice, thick and fluffy. Bake for 9-12 minutes.
Remove from oven, allow cookies to firm up on baking sheet for 5-10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack and allow cookies to cool completely before frosting. Makes about 12-14 cookies.
For the frosting: In a medium bowl or bowl of an electric mixer, mix together the powdered sugar, cream cheese, softened butter and vanilla extract. If frosting is too thick, you can add a teaspoon of milk to make it spreadable. Frost each cookie then top with chopped walnuts or pecans. Sprinkle top of frosting with a little cinnamon for a gorgeous look. Cookies will get softer each day. Cookies can be stored in a container at room temp for a day or two, then I recommend storing them in the fridge for up to a week or freezer for up to 2 months.
