[Recipe] The No Nestle Home: Banana Cookies

Sir Snugglemuffin likes food. A lot. We don’t usually buy a lot of pre-packaged stuff but The Daddy-Man , in a well-meaning attempt to get baby something different and yummy, picked up a box of these:

Poor dearest forgot that Gerber is now owned by Nestle. We’ve been a No-Nestle household for over a decade now but it’s hard to remember and keep track of all the companies Nestle has bought up over the years.  It was  a totally understandable mistake on his part.

We would have returned the cookies to the store but Pookie was being a helpful big sister and had decided to open the box to give the baby a cookie. Really, it’s not the end of the world if a box of Nestle makes its way into our house,I suppose but the baby did not like them. I tried several times to get him to eat one but he’d take one bite and crumble the rest.

Then I decided to try them and understood why he wasn’t a fan. Dry,tasteless, blah. Not even really any banana flavor ,even. I don’t care what the ingredients say. The dried banana purée and essence of banana just weren’t coming through.

So, I did the logical thing: Waited for some  ‘naners to ripen and  made my version of Banana Cookies.

Even if you’re not into the Nestle Boycott, this is a nice corn syrup & additive  free alternative to the boxed variety. They’re just shaped like regular ol’ cookies and not like bananas but my toddler didn’t get all judgy about that.

Here’s my recipe:

 Little Monkey Cookies

2-3 very ripe bananas

½ tsp honey or agave syrup (you could even use a little less…. these were just sweet enough to my taste buds)

½ cup applesauce

1 egg

2 cups flour

1 tsp baking soda

pinch of salt

½ tsp cinnamon

Do This Stuff:

Mash the bananas with a hand masher or purée in a blender. Add the honey or agave, applesauce and egg. Mix well. Add all dry ingredients and stir.

Drop by spoonfuls  on a baking stone or cookie sheet. The mixture will be a little runny – that’s the way it should be. Just don’t place the spoonfuls of batter too close to each other or you might end up with one gigantic cookie.

Bake at 350° for 10-13 minutes, or until cookies are a light, golden color. Let cool and give to your little monkey to munch on.

See the cookie jar, I've got my hand caught in it

We made these cookies today. “PB & B Cloud Cookies” -Peanut Butter & Banana Cookies. They will not win any prizes for Nutritional Goodie of the Year but they are quite ‘lishy.

"Well, they don't look like the picture in the magazine but these are the best cookies ever" - Oldest Offspring

The recipe is from an Everyday with Rachel Ray magazine. (As you can see from the pics here,oldest son was right – mine don’t look like the picture) . At some point during the past year, my mother subscribed to it and like all magazines she subscribes to,they end up at my house. I was flipping through one (deciding whether or not to take it to the library to deposit on the magazine exchange shelf) and decided this one would be a good way to use one of those over-ripe bananas waiting to be turned into banana bread.

One problem: This recipe requires you make meringue. I have only done this w/ an electric mixer, which I no longer have one of, but I was undaunted. I successfully made meringue with a simple,manually-operated wire whisk. And may I now say, “In your face,electric mixer!”. Pffft, who needs an electric mixer.

Drawbacks To Manually-Made Meringue: Ow,my arm aches. Also, took twice as long as electrically-made meringue. By the time it was time to whisk the topping (again,says should use electric mixer), I was sick of whisking and it ended up a little runny & not as fluffy as it should have been.

Positives To Manually-Made Meringue: If I did that all the time, I’d have some killer forearm muscles. Don’t know where that would get me but just saying. Also, obviously- does not use electricity,therefore – oooh,it’s green.

Kid Help-Ability Factor: Medium to High . Kids mashed bananas, sifted confectioners sugar in as I stirred,took turns whisking, drizzled topping…ate cookies.

[Blog title from:

Lemon Meringue – Poe