The hottest day of the year yesterday and today? Pah. Gloomy, murky, rainy! What the dickens is going on? It’s July for goodness sake. Well there really was little else for it we needed to bake today and something comforting on this warm/cold/murky/grey July day. Happy British Summertime.
Like many of our forays into the kitchen I looked in the cupboards, saw what we had, and googled the ingredients for inspiration. That’s when I found this recipe over at the awesomely name Yammie’s Noshery. The beautiful photos won me over and I just had to give them a go.
So I got the bowls out, called Oscar over and told him to get get a chair to stand on. And he did! Lets just take a moment there to marvel at that fact. Ahhhhhh. Right, so anyway the cookies, yes?
Peanut Butter and Banana Cookies
These were great to make with the boy as unlike recent attempts in the kitchen they required no melting or hob work. Perfect for little hands who just love to dump stuff in a bowl and mix.
Ingredients
The original has these in cups, but I’ve converted to grams, cos I’m super nice like that. I’ve also made a few tweaks, including using gluten free flour as usual. Should you prefer standard flour then just omit the Xanthan Gum
- 130g peanut butter (I used crunchy which I think works amazingly, but smooth would be good too, particularly if these are for small children)
- 50g softened unsalted butter
- 220g soft brown sugar
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 large ripe banana
- 200g gluten free plain flour
- 1/4 teaspoon Xanthan Gum
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- Granulated sugar for rolling (I used caster, but any kind would be good)
Apologies for the lack of photos of the boy helping me. I promise you he did, but I’d left my phone in the other room and you know how they are once they start something!
Method
- Preheat the oven to 180c or Gas Mark 5.
- Mix the peanut butter, butter and sugar together.
- Mash the banana. Add to the butter mix along with the vanilla extract and stir well.
- Add the dry ingredients and mix until combined into an easy to work dough.
- Take walnut size pieces and roll into balls. Roll each ball in the granulated sugar and place on a baking sheet covered in baking parchment.
- Press lightly with the prongs of a fork to make the chequered pattern. The cookies will spread, so don’t put too many on a tray or too close together. I used two baking sheets to make 19 cookies.
- Bake for around 10-15 minutes or until golden.
- Leave to cool on cooling racks before snaffling greedily behind the kitchen door so the children don’t see you.

I am totally going to have to make these again (not that the waistband on my jeans wants me too – they’re so good). The boy loved mixing the ingredients and the mixture is so tactile. Rather like very soft play dough. And so quick. From ingredient to grateful munching in around 20 minutes. I can see them being really good with added cinnamon and rolled in demerara sugar closer to Christmas.
So next time you have a friends coming over and there’s a gluten free eater among them, whip up a batch of these. Everyone will be grateful you did.
