Banana Cake Cookies

When fall descended upon us I had the urge to bake some delicious pumpkin recipes.  I wanted something other than muffins and pies so I came across this recipe on Pinterest from Crème de la Crumb for a pumpkin sugar cookie.  By the time I got around to making the cookies I didn't have any fresh pureed pumpkin left and I didn't really want to buy any just to make these cookies.  I started racking my brain trying to come up with something I could sub in.  I finally settled on bananas, since heaven knows I have a few dozen in my freezer, but I needed to make some tweaks to make the original recipe work.  This is what I came up with!

Banana Cake Cookies
1 cup butter, softened
2 ripe bananas, mashed
1 cup sugar
2/3 cup icing sugar
1t vanilla
2 eggs
4 cups flour
1t baking powder
1/2t salt
1t cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350°. In a mixer combine butter, bananas, sugar, icing sugar, vanilla and eggs until smooth.  In a separate bowl stir together flour, baking powder, salt and cinnamon.  Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet until well combined.  Dough will be fairly sticky.  Roll dough, or scoop with an ice cream scoop, into 2 inch balls and place them on a parchment lined baking sheet.  Bake for 10-12 minutes at 350° until the cookies are domed and start to look dry.

I am in love with these cookies, we all really enjoyed the cookies actually!  The puffiness of these cookies was actually an accident since I didn't have the cream of tartar the original recipes calls for, but I actually like the way it changes the cookie.  These cookies stayed incredibly soft even after a couple weeks on the counter in a freezer bag!

This was the first time I had Roman help me bake and it actually went better than I expected!  He added the bananas like a pro (after taking a few bites of course) and was really good at measuring out ingredients.

If a kid is going to learn anything about making cookies it's that you have to try the batter.  Yes I'm aware you shouldn't eat raw eggs, but I have done it since I was little and I survived so I'm sure he will too (he did by the way!).

On a serious note, I highly recommend designating a safe zone for the little ones for when the oven is open.  I was a little surprised when Roman actually stayed were I told him to, but he has kept it up consistently since!

Roman flaked out on me once the cookies were in the oven, other than the odd peek in to check on them, but he suddenly appeared out of nowhere like a cookie vampire once the cookies were out of the oven!