baking (chocolate chip cookies) with bananas

Last night, I really wanted to bake. I had been mentally preparing all week, thinking about what ingredients we were low on/out of and gathering them as the days passed. I had picked up chocolate chips and whole wheat flour last weekend at the grocery store. This morning, I stopped to buy eggs on my way home from taking the mister to work. Even though, we'd opened the bag of chocolate chips, there was still half a bag to work with and I had everything I needed to get baking...or so I thought.

Finally, I had a free evening at home alone. I returned some emails, even scheduled a few blog posts for the future and then I opened the refrigerator door to find we had no butter or margarine! I sighed and returned to my seat on the couch so I could quickly google "butter baking substitute." Several things came up, most of which involved oil and then I found this article from LiveStrong.com. I was somewhat skeptical, but after reading about using oil or bananas as a substitution I gave it a try. Guess what? It worked!

I liked the flavor and consistency. The batter was more sticky than usual cookie dough. Once they were baked, the cookies were soft and chewy. They weren't overly sweet (probably because I cut back on the sugar, from 1 1/2 cups to 1/2 cup plus the natural sugar in the bananas). And I don't feel guilty for eating four cookies when they came out of the oven and the chocolate chips were all melty. So, I'm sharing the ingredients and their amounts in case you want to try it out!

ingredients:
1 1/8 white whole wheat flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 bananas, mashed (1/2 cup)
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 egg
3/4 c chocolate chips
1/2 chopped pecans

directions:
preheat oven to 375*F
combine first three ingredients in bowl, stir and set aside
mash bananas in mixer (remove from mixer to measure and make sure it's 1/2 cup)
return to mixer, add sugar and blend
add vanilla and egg
remove from mixing stand and stir in chocolate chips and pecans
drop by spoonfull onto baking sheets
bake for 8-10 minutes (they won't be golden brown)
yield: 2 dozen cookies

Have you made any discoveries while baking?