Cookies and the Cottage

Recipe for Walnut Banana Cookies

These are vegan and I found the original recipe on Fat Free Vegan Kitchen.  They were good, but I ran out of peanut butter and liked these higher fat cookies better. They are eaten up as fast I can bake them, if you have more that 2 people eating them I would suggest doubling the recipe. It's a good way to use up those ripe bananas.

Feel free to make substitutions, if you don't have walnuts, use a nut you do have. I ground mine up coarsely in my coffee grinder I use for flax seed grinding. If you don't have any nuts, use peanut butter and cut the olive oil, or other vegetable oil, in half.  Same thing for the flour, use what you have on hand, they'll still be good.

1/2 cup of ground walnuts 

1/3 cup of olive oil or other vegetable oil

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup sugar

3/4 cup mashed banana or one and half ripe bananas

1 tablespoon of vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups whole wheat pastry flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon of cinnamon

1 pinch salt

Optional: 1/2 cup non-dairy chocolate chips or half cup of walnut pieces. Or a combination of both.

Preheat oven to 375.  Lightly rub a stick of earth balance on baking sheet.

Cream together the ground walnuts, oil, sugars, vanilla and the mashed banana. Then add the flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt. Add the chocolate chips, or walnuts if desired, and mix until well-blended, but do not over-mix.

Drop by large walnut sized tablespoons onto prepared pans.  (These cookies will not spread as they cook, so the shape they're in when they come out of the oven will be about the same as when they went in.)  Bake for about 10 to 13 minutes, until bottoms are golden brown.  Makes 25 cookies.

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I have been very happy living at the cottage in Manomet, Plymouth since Ian started banding birds in mid April. It's a magical place, a place of renewal for me. Spring is particularly exciting with new growth and baby animals. Here are some photos of the place I am very lucky to call home.

4:50am. There are so many rewards to being up early in the day.

Same morning.

Evening time.

Milo, our cat, waiting for a mouse to dart by. He caught one in that exact spot 3 years ago, and keeps hoping it will come back. The pond side growth is still dormant.

A family of geese.

A swan family with their 6 cygnets, hatched yesterday. The snapping turtles and other predators will whittle the count down to one or two cygnets in a few months.

One of my gardening spots. This will be my before photo and hopefully it will look beautiful in a few months. Gardeners are inherently hopeful people :-)

Oregano from Mary. I agree with Mary when she says sometimes when she's in the garden she's almost giddy with delight!

Being green. Hanging out my laundry makes me happy.

Asparagus and Oregano from my garden. Tomatoes from the market, too early yet for these locally.

A delicious dish I made with the above ingredients, along with some lovely beets and avocado. Add olive oil, wine vinegar, spices, salt and pepper and it's a perfect meal.