BANANA OAT COOKIES

I promised myself that I wouldn’t bake as often during the week as I get home quite tired after work and I wake up quite early in the morning (you kind of grow old on the bus through the City at rush hour). But then, two things happened. Firstly, the two bananas I bought some day last week turned worryingly black. With worryingly black, I mean too black to be eaten by human beings, and possibly any creature populating the earth. But definitely not too black to use in baking (eeh, you see where this is getting). Secondly, this book arrived at the office and it was like Christmas. I hadn’t even got to the end of it and I already decided I had to bake something as soon as I got home. The conciseness of the ingredient lists saved me from a pit-stop at the corner shop and – oh joyful day – one recipe contained the sacred words “2 small, very ripe bananas”. Banana oat cookies, you are a blessing.

Notes: I knoww I'm not very good at leaving recipes alone. I’m always adapting this and that, either because my pantry is crying to be re-filled but I’m very forgetful, or just because I like to live dangerously (ha). These cookies, however, are quite customisable, so feel free to use, say, plain white flour instead of wholemeal or replace the soft brown sugar with caster sugar, as in the original recipe. You could also pimp them up with whatever you have lying around your kitchen cupboard, like chocolate chips or nuts or dried fruit. Not that the cookies need it – they’re already the moooost delicious.

BANANA OAT COOKIES

Slightly adapted from Rabbit Food Cookbook

225g (3 cups) rolled oats

120g (1 cup) wholemeal flour

275g (1 1/4 cup) soft brown sugar

½ teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons baking powder

2 small over-ripe bananas, mashed

150g (2/3 cup) margarine, melted

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 180°C/350°F and line two cookie trays. In a large mixing bowl, combine oats, flour, sugars, salt and baking powder. In a separate bowl, mix together bananas, melted margarine and vanilla extract. Pour the wet mixture into the dry and mix until everything is thoroughly combined. Place the bowl in the fridge for a few minutes while the oven heats up. With the mixture form golf-ball-sized balls (about 40g each) and slightly flatten onto the cookie trays. Bake for 12 minutes, until cookies are pale golden brown. Leave the cookies on their trays until completely cool.