Banana Chocolate Chip Cookies

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These Banana Chocolate Chip Cookies are moist, chewy, dense and full of banana and chocolate chips! They aren’t cake-like at all – these may become your new favorite cookies!

If you love this banana dessert, you should also try my Mini Banana Pudding Cheesecake!

Banana Chocolate Chip Cookies - dense, moist and chewy cookies full of banana and chocolate chips! Not at all cakey!

The Best Banana Chocolate Chip Cookies Recipe

So I mentioned that the hubs was having his citizenship test and interview on Monday. I wasn’t there, but it doesn’t sound like it was the most fun thing ever.

It seems like the person that he ended up interviewing with wasn’t the most friendly. And she totally grilled him. They did the test early on and that was easy. He passed after the first 6 questions, so they moved on.

Then came the interview. When I say she grilled him, I mean she asked him some very similar questions over and over. The hubs said it seemed like she was trying to trip him up and scrutinizing him to see if he was lying.

His parents and sister have already gotten their citizenship and apparently they were easier on his mom and sister, but similarly more intense with his dad.

Everything seems to have gone fine, but she gave him no indication of if she’d need more information or not and when he might actually receive his citizenship. In fact, when he asked about when it might be, she seems to have gotten suspicious about why he was in such a hurry.

I mean seriously.

Banana Chocolate Chip Cookies - dense, moist and chewy cookies full of banana and chocolate chips! Not at all cakey!
Banana Chocolate Chip Cookies - dense, moist and chewy cookies full of banana and chocolate chips! Not at all cakey!

I’m not going to lie – I’ve found the whole process to be kind of frustrating. And I’m not even the one going through it. And the hubs has been here for 20 years, speaks English and is basically American just since he grew up here. He doesn’t even have an accent anymore. It’s crazy to think about how difficult the system must be for someone who doesn’t have those advantages.

It’s certainly a very interesting glimpse into the system of what it’s like for people legally trying to be in our country. Not easy.

Fortunately, making these cookies is easy. And I might just need to eat an entire batch of them. Emotional eating, you know?

The hubs and I are big fans of anything banana. It was one of the first food related things we bonded over as teenagers. Our love of banana cheesecake, in particular. I always get excited about making banana treats, because I know the hubs will love them. These Banana Chocolate Chip Cookies were no exception – he LOVED them!

Banana Chocolate Chip Cookies - dense, moist and chewy cookies full of banana and chocolate chips! Not at all cakey!
Banana Chocolate Chip Cookies - dense, moist and chewy cookies full of banana and chocolate chips! Not at all cakey!

Last year, I made these Moist and Chewy Banana Oatmeal Cookies from my grandmother’s cookbook. They’ve been a big hit, so I decided it was time to try a non-oatmeal version and add some chocolate to the mix. I have to say, I think I like these might be even better than the oatmeal ones.

It took some experimenting to get these just right. Bananas cookies, like pumpkin cookies, tend to be more cakey. I knew I wanted a dense and chewy banana cookie. The cakey ones were delicious too, just not what I was going for.

Why This is The Best Banana Cookies Recipe

You’ll notice that the recipe doesn’t have any eggs or leavening agents, like baking soda. Both of those contributed to the cakey consistency of the cookie, so I left them out. The result is a wonderfully dense cookie. It has a ton of banana flavor with a full cup of mashed ripe bananas in it. And all the chocolate chips were absolutely delicious. There were plenty of chocolate chips in every bite.

The hubs was very protective over these cookies. He did NOT want to share. There were a few people that got to taste them, but not many. He didn’t even want me to eat them. Of course, I wasn’t having any of that. Gimme! 🙂

Banana Chocolate Chip Cookies - dense, moist and chewy cookies full of banana and chocolate chips! Not at all cakey!

More Banana Recipes

Easy Banana Bread
Bananas Foster Cheesecake
Overnight Baked Banana French Toast
Mini Banana Pudding Cheesecake
Banana Pudding Puppy Chow
Blueberry Banana Mini Cakes

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Banana Chocolate Chip Cookies
Recipe

Banana Chocolate Chip Cookies

  • Author: Lindsay
  • Prep Time: 15 minutes
  • Cook Time: 13 minutes
  • Total Time: 28 minutes
  • Yield: 24-26 Cookies
  • Category: Dessert
  • Method: Oven
  • Cuisine: American

Description

These Banana Chocolate Chip Cookies are moist, chewy, dense and full of banana and chocolate chips! They aren’t cake-like at all – these may become your new favorite cookies!


Ingredients

  • 3/4 cup salted butter, melted
  • 1 cup brown sugar, lightly packed
  • 1/4 cup sugar
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1 cup mashed ripe bananas
  • 2 3/4 cups all purpose flour
  • 2 tsp cornstarch
  • 1 1/2 cup semi sweet chocolate chips

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Mix together butter, brown sugar, sugar, vanilla extract and mashed bananas until well combined.
3. Add the flour and cornstarch and mix until well combined.
4. Stir in chocolate chips. Dough will be thick and sticky.
5. Scoop 2 tbsp per cookie onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper or a non-stick baking mat. Pat scoops down a bit to flatten them out a little. They’ll spread a little when baking, but not much.
6. Bake for 12-14 minutes, until edges are lightly golden. The center will still look a little undercooked, but will continue cooking and firm up as it cools.
7. Remove cookies from oven and allow to cool for about a minute on cookie sheet.
8. Move cookies to a cooling rack to finish cooling.

Nutrition

  • Serving Size: One Cookie
  • Calories: 180
  • Sugar: 13.7 g
  • Sodium: 56.9 mg
  • Fat: 9.1 g
  • Carbohydrates: 23.5 g
  • Protein: 2.6 g
  • Cholesterol: 17 mg

Filed Under:

Enjoy!

Banana Chocolate Chip Cookies - dense, moist and chewy cookies full of banana and chocolate chips! Not at all cakey!

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59 Comments
  1. Mariam

    Best alternative for corn starch: Fine semolina 

    The recipe worked like a charm and gave me more than 30 cookies (YAY!) it was so yum even my picky hubby loved it (weird! But yay!) I replaced the corn starch with fine semolina because it is also a thickening agent. Thank you for such a creative recipe which finally made me say goodbye to the same old banana bread. Please keep those creative recipes rolling!! 






  2. Rose

    Has this recipe changed drastically since originally posted?   I made it a long time ago and they were fantastic but I know at least one change was it used to say 2 bananas and if memory serves the butter wasn’t originally melted.  I had to use almost 3 bananas to get one cup and between the banana and melted butter wound up with dough so soupy I had to add a ton more flour to be able to scoop it.  I’ve been baking for over 20 years and know all the ins and outs of measuring properly, fresh ingredients etc.  End result was my kids literally spitting them out and the entire batch going in the trash 🙁  I would love the original recipe (and yes I know this is the correct site I have it bookmarked from when I made it last) if possible.  Thanks…






      1. Rose

        Odd because even in the previous comments from 2016 there are references to “two bananas” not one cup

  3. Elise

    After trying to make the recipe you have for banana oatmeal cookies, my daughter and I tried this recipe, and I have to say I am very satisfied with the result. Unlike when we tried the banana oatmeal cookies, these cookies didn’t collapse, and had a GREAT taste! The entire batch was gone within a couple of days! Plus, now we have a great recipe to result to when we’re sick of making banana bread with our overripe bananas.






    1. Mariam

      Did you use self-raising flour or added baking soda? These usually are the culprits for nasty cookies. For cookies, only use plain or all-purpose flour and do not add baking soda. 
      As for rubbery, did you make sure you added enough butter to even out the bananas?? Hope these help because I followed the recipe and it worked really well! 

  4. Kayla

    These cookies are delicious! I made them today and substituted the butter for coconut oil and they turned out great! Thanks for the recipe!!

  5. Amy

    Hi! I was wondering what the corn starch is for in the recipe? Could it be substituted with something else? Corn is not my friend. Thanks!

    1. Amy

      Well, I see now that I should have read all of the comments before I commented. : )  Do you think subbing the baking soda and baking powder for the cornstarch would work? I wasn’t sure if your previous attempt using leavening agents also included cornstarch, or if you added the cornstarch in place of those?

      Thanks again! 

    2. Lindsay

      Cornstarch is a thickener and in these cookies it helps keep them from spreading too much without having to add more flour and give you a dry cookie. You could leave it out, but the cookies would be a bit thinner after baking.

  6. Kristin

    My family begs me to make these cookies all the time. I’m pretty sure my sister purposely lets bananas go brown just so she can say they are only good for baking now. They are the perfect texture and taste amazing!

  7. Nicole

    Made these this afternoon. SO delicious! They are the perfectly soft on the inside! My husband came home saying these blew his mind! Thank you for sharing the recipe

  8. Samantha

    I was so excited to try this recipe and i finally got around to it today! I followed the recipe exactly but the dough was so crumbly!! And the cookies were baking for 15 min and still do not taste done. They are not moist. Rather dry,in fact they taste more like mini scones. Disappointed. My search for the perfect banana cookie continues..
    Thanks for sharing anyway. I’m glad the recipe worked out for others!

    1. Mariam

      I believe that you needed to add more butter as cookies love butter to become perfect ^_^ 

      As for the end result, have you flattened the cookies well before baking? I forgot to do that in my first batch and they ended up like small cakes or scones, rather tasty though. The second batch I remembered to do that and they turned out perfect. 

      Please give it another try because it’s an awesome recipe! 🙂 

  9. Fiona Saluk

    I’ve made banana cookies before and they were quite cakey – I want to try yours and see if eliminating the leavening agents and eggs makes for a denser less cake-like cookie. Your photos make them look so perfect! Thanks for sharing!

  10. Midgeka

    Baked these today as I had 2 bananas that were staring me in the face, saying use me, I’m brown. They taste kind of flour-y and I don’t get any banana flavor. Don’t know what went wrong. With all the semi-sweet chocolate they’re on the sweet side. They look beautiful but don’t taste done.

    1. Mariam

      You needed to add another banana, when I made it I needed 3 large ones and I definitely tasted the banana. 
      As for being sweet, eliminate the white sugar but keep the brown sugar.
      As for being tasted not done, every oven is different so maybe they needed more time? Mine needed almost 20min Hopes this helps! 

  11. Erica

    Made these tonight and they are so hood. I used self rising flour but it didn’t appear to present an issue. After baking on a stone I switched to a metal cookiesheet (no parchment no baking mat) and cooked at 375 for 14 min . They came out amazing. I had so much dough I added a few mini marshmallows on top of half the batch. Toasted marshmallows baked ontop of these was amazing. Great recipe.

  12. Mary-Claire

    I made a double batch of these tonight as we’ve got lots of kids. I substituted 1/2 gluten free flour blend for the flour and 1/2 the sugar with Stevia. The kids loved them. Thanks!

  13. ruby

    hey! im just about to make this but i just realized i dont have any brown sugar! would white sugar work as well? or i could do one part white sugar and one part honey?

    thanks!

  14. Allie

    I was turned onto this recipe by a food blog on tumblr. I’m wondering if there is a gluten-free version of this recipe, or if you have a suggestion as far as substituting for flour? I was hoping to make them for a party and didn’t want to exclude anyone from trying them!

  15. Ann-Marie

    Hi Jenn ~ I am a new fan of your blog! I just love it, thank you! I want to try these banana chocolate chip cookies, but I do not have cornstarch ~ and I don’t want to buy it for just one recipe. Can you recommend a sub? Please hurry as my bananas are REALLY ready to go! LOL Like in the freezer soon if I do not do something with them!
    Have a sparkling day,
    ~amt

    1. lifeloveandsugar@gmail.com

      I’m so glad you enjoy the blog! It’s hard to replace the cornstarch in these without changing the cookies. The cornstarch helps to keep the cookies from spreading too much when they bake without having to add a bunch of flour. It allows them to stay thick and chewy without firming up too much. You could just leave it out or you could try subbing in 1/4 to 1/2 cup of flour. I can’t way for sure how that’ll change the cookie though.

  16. Rainy Day Recipe: Banana Chocolate Chip Cookies - Too Damn Young

    […] I suppose it wasn’t an entirely lazy day, since I decided to try this banana chocolate chip cookie recipe from a site called Life, Love and Sugar. I found it on Pinterest when searching for banana […]

  17. Kate

    I made this recipe: I knew adding cornstarch sounded weird but did it anyway. First 4 I baked = The cookies are glossy, puffy, and weird. I then added 2 egg yolks to try to counteract the cornstarch issue, to no avail A bit better, but still rubbery. What else can I do? Add applesauce? change baking time/temp? I have only baked 4 cookies at a time as I experiment, and have a lot of dough left. I can see that you were after “puffy” here but these are just weirdly so. Anyone tweak this to go less puffy/gloss/rubber/biscuit? Thanks

    1. lifeloveandsugar@gmail.com

      I’m sorry you weren’t happy with the outcome. The cornstarch actually helps the cookies to keep from spreading too thin, keeping them thicker and chewier. If you want, in a previous version I used 1 tsp baking soda and 1/2 tsp baking powder and it was a lighter texture. You could try adding that next time.

  18. Julianne @ Beyond Frosting

    One of my best friends went through this in the past couple of years, it certainly isn’t easy but I know everything will turn out ok! I know a thing or two about protective cookies!

  19. Michelle @ My California Kitchen

    Hopefully everything turns out ok with your husband’s citizenship! Sounds like he earned himself a batch of these cookies, no sharing required 🙂 These look so tasty, I can’t wait to try them!

  20. Jocelyn (Grandbaby cakes)

    I am just like you and your husband. I’m a big fan of anything with banana. This is such a smart cookie.

  21. Jessica @ A Kitchen Addiction

    I hope he gets his citizenship soon! Good thing you have these cookies to eat while you wait!

  22. Julie | This Gal Cooks

    So sorry your husband is having to deal with that mess! Hopefully it will be over soon. 🙂

    Now can I please have some of these cookies? They look amazing, Lindsay!

  23. Rachelle

    What a frustratin experience. I hope he gets his citizenship soon and you can put all of this behind you. On a happier note — I want some of these cookies!

  24. Jen @ Baked by an Introvert

    Ugh, so sorry your hubby is having to deal with all this. It sounds like a major headache. I bet these cookies cheered him right up! I love banana cookies and these are perfect!

    1. lifeloveandsugar@gmail.com

      Thanks Jen! It’s part of the process, but it’s not a very fun one. We’ll be glad when it’s done. 🙂

  25. Gayle @ Pumpkin 'N Spice

    These cookies look perfect, Lindsay! I’ve never had a chocolate chip version before, so I’m loving these!

  26. Taylor @ Food Faith Fitness

    Tell me about it. I’ll be taking that test soon and now I am even LESS excited about it. GAH! Sorry it went so badly for the hubs!!
    At least he had these cookies to come home too. These babies would make ANYONE feel better! Pinned!

    1. lifeloveandsugar@gmail.com

      Thanks for the pin Taylor! Have you already applied for citizenship and are just waiting now?

      1. Taylor @ Food Faith Fitness

        I am a permanent resident, I can’t even apply for citizenship for 3 more years! So just waiting!

  27. Mir

    Wow. That’s crazy about grilling him so much! Asking questions is fine, but why the attitude?
    These do NOT look like any banana cookies I’ve ever seen. They look about a thousand times better! No wonder they were on limited access!

    1. lifeloveandsugar@gmail.com

      Right?! I was surprised by it and I know he was. He doesn’t easily get intimidated, but she threw him off for sure. Thanks Mir!

Lindsay
About Lindsay

I'm a wife and a mom to twin boys and a baby girl! And I've got a serious sweets addiction! Bring on the treats!

Scripture I’m Loving

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” Matthew 11:28-29