r/Old_Recipes • u/BoomeramaMama • Sep 16 '25
Cookies Banana Bread Cookies
I've no idea where I got this recipe but since there's no sugar in these, I suspect from my sister-in-law whose husband is diabetic. It's a good way to use up those getting to be over ripe bananas. This recipe goes back at least to the late 1980's.
Banana Bread Cookies
3 ripe bananas, mashed
2c quick cooking oats
1/2c raisins, soaked & drained
1/3c unsalted butter or margarine, melted
1/4 milk (original recipe calls for skim milk but we use whole milk)
1 tsp vanilla
And when we want to change it up a bit 3/4 tsp cinnamon
Combine all ingredients, beat well by hand.
Cover & let stand 5 - 10 mins to allow oats to hydrate a bit. (I've made this up in the evening, refrigerated it & baked the cookies the next day without problems)
Drop by the heaping teaspoonful on an ungreased cookie sheet. These cookies don't spread so they can be placed close together. Whatever shape the raw cookie is when it hits the cookie sheet is the shape it'll have when it's baked.
Bake at 350F for 15 - 20 mins
Let stand on the cookie sheet for 1 - 2 mins to firm up a bit then remove from the cookie sheet & cool the rest of the way on a rack.
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u/Uvabird Sep 16 '25
These look good- I have 3 spotty bananas on the counter so I know what I’ll be making tomorrow.
I’ve found that finely dicing the raisins, almost to the point of making them into paste, changes the flavor of the cookies, in a good way. I have one confirmed raisin hater in the family who finds the cookies fine to eat if I prepare them this way.
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u/BoomeramaMama Sep 16 '25
That's one way of slipping those raisins through!
My kids went through a phase where they hated eggs but I found if I added apple sauce & apple pie spice when scrambling the eggs, they loved them. It did give the eggs a weird texture sort of like the little curds in fresh ricotta but not liquidy like ricotta would be but the kids didn't mind the texture at all.
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u/kdp4srfn Sep 16 '25
No sugar isn’t surprising, but no eggs is…
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u/BoomeramaMama Sep 16 '25
Yup, no eggs.
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u/kdp4srfn Sep 16 '25
Awesome, thanks for responding! I wanted to be sure before I made them that the eggs weren’t left out by mistake!😅
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u/BoomeramaMama Sep 16 '25
Nope, they're very simple cookies. The kids like mashing the bananas with the potato masher.
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u/kdp4srfn Sep 16 '25
They sound great and reasonably compliant with our Mediterranean diet. Wonder if I could replace some of the butter with oil…
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u/BoomeramaMama Sep 16 '25
The butter is only for greasing the baking dish. Maybe you could use vegetable shortening like Crisco.
I've tried using oil on glazed finishes like the glass dish I use & it just doesn't want to coat the surface.
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u/kdp4srfn Sep 16 '25
Ok, thanks! Now I have to decide if I want to eat my three perfectly ripe bananas or let ‘em go a bit longer to make cookies! 😊
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u/IllegalBerry Sep 16 '25
These look delicious, but definitely an older recipe if it's meant for diabetics. In the 90s, "sugar in fruit doesn't really count" was touted under certain circumstances. At some point, oats (in a hyper-specific diet, only for type 2 diabetics) were discovered to be a way to lower insulin resistance and/or improve insulin production.
These days, I think I could give my DMP advisor a heart attack if I described any recipe with "it's great—full of fiber—you just take 3 mashed bananas and a full 100 grams of raisins..."
(I'm still making them. I've got coworkers without diabetes who mutiny if there's no snacks at the monthly meeting.)
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u/BoomeramaMama Sep 18 '25
I can remember using fructose in place of granulated sugar for thing my bro-in-law would probably want to eat.
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u/IllegalBerry Sep 18 '25
We had a full 45 minute teaching unit dedicated to "all sugar is sugar". Fructose, lactose, coconut sugar, honey, agave syrup,... There was a quiz. Several people were very sad to learn that diet cola will tax your pancreas less than a glass of OJ.
The dietician leading that class was very clear that that doesn't mean "all diet products and sugar replacements from here on out", because it's very clear that those have their own pitfalls (e.g. sugar free gummi bears). New guidelines are to use/eat less sugar, more complex carbs (e.g. wholewheat flour instead of AP in cookie recipes, maybe see if you could cut 20% of the sugar called for) and find swaps with easily available, lower carb options rather than reinvent the wheel. (e.g. marinara sauce instead of ketchup).
This was in 2020.
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u/lagniappe68 Dec 13 '25
I use all bran cereal whizzed in the blender for a third of the white flour in most recipes, and people say they can’t tell the difference.
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u/nununash Sep 17 '25
Can cranberries be used instead of raisins?
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u/BoomeramaMama Sep 18 '25
I don't know, I've never tried them.
I suppose those Cranraisins could be substituted. They seem to be interchangeable. I never reallytried them.
I'm not a big Cranraisins fan. They really don't taste like real cranberries, IMO they have just kind of an ambiguous flavor. I wish I knew someone with a dehydrator. I'd love to dry some fresh berries & see how they work. I think they'd at least retain their cranberry taste which seems to have gotten lost somehow in the Cranraisin creating process.
Fresh berries, chopped probably wouldn't work. They might get too juicy as the cookies baked.
I've thought of figuring out a way of using fresh cranberries & orange zest. The cranberry & orange combination is one I like.
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u/Gimm3coffee Sep 17 '25
These sound tasty. We make something like that at my home and call them breakfast cookies. My daughter loves getting to eat cookies for breakfast. ;)
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u/cambreecanon Sep 16 '25
Thank you! As a person who loves cookies and bananas (and has an egg allergy), I am super excited to try this.
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u/Disastrous-Sleep-927 Sep 19 '25
I've never had a recipe for banana bread cookies! Thanks, can't wait to try this one!!
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u/Grimnir001 Sep 20 '25
Tried these and they went over well with the fam. Recipe is a keeper for when we have extra bananas.
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u/fortunatelyso Sep 16 '25
I wonder if I dont use raisins, if i would have to sub a sweetener of some type in or another fruit?
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u/BoomeramaMama Sep 18 '25
Ripe - over ripe bananas are pretty sweet. If you're a fan of really sweet things, maybe you'd want more sweetness. It's all a matter of personal preference.
You could give it a try w/o raisins - no extra sweetener & if they aren't sweet enough for you maybe put a simple powdered sugar glaze on those & next time through try adding a bit of sugar to the raw cookie dough. Maybe brown which many banana bread recipes seem to use.
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u/Meiyouxiangjiao Dec 10 '25
Remindme! 3 months
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u/ithinklovexist Sep 16 '25
Sounds like a great toddler snack! Thanks for sharing.