By March Twisdale
About a decade ago, I was blessed with the friendship of a wonderful Island family. Among the many amazing ways we enriched one another’s lives, we enjoyed cooking together.
Today, I share one of the best chocolate cookie recipes I’ve ever encountered, and yes, it has only three ingredients. Imagine a gooey yet crunchy, sweet and tender, mouth-watering and healthy cookie! Yes, it is sugar-free, egg-free, dairy-free, gluten-free, flour-less, salt-free, and well, you get the idea. Even more importantly, it’s simple, easy, uncomplicated and requires zero special skills or tricks. It just works, deliciously.
Ingredients:
- Raw, very ripe bananas (they should have a mottled look, with plenty of black spots, but still white on the inside)
- Rolled oats of your preference (quick, old-fashioned, extra thick, gluten-free or not)
- Chocolate chips (whatever variety you love – carob, dark, milk, white, peanut butter, you name it … or, skip the chocolate entirely, and use raisins instead)
Instructions: Peel and mush the bananas in a bowl, add oats to preferred consistency, toss in chocolate chips of any variety, and mix. Drop spoonful’s onto a cookie sheet, bake at 350 degrees for about 8-10 minutes, until the exterior of the cookie begins to look cooked (not wet and glossy). Cool and eat!
Notice there are no quantities offered? That’s on purpose. The goal is to find the consistency that is most similar to a standard cookie dough. So, play with it your first time! You can always add more oats. Start off with less and a more wet mixture, bake and taste a batch (yes, you might end up eating them all) … then add more oats, if you wish, and repeat. Everyone will have their own unique texture preference, and each batch will be slightly more or less wet, depending on the ripeness of the bananas.
Final note! This is a great base for a variety of “added bits,” such as raisins, finely shredded coconut, peanut or almond butter, chopped nuts and various spices. Bon appétit!
