Banana Oat Cookies Recipe To Use Up Black Bananas

Use up your black bananas with this easy banana oat cookies recipe to help cut your food waste.

I hate food waste with a passion, and over-ripened, mushy black bananas are one thing in particular that I hate throwing out. I’ve always been on the lookout for something quick and easy to make with black bananas, that isn’t banana bread. I don’t know about you, but 2020 was just banana bread overload.

Then I came across these vegan, and gluten-free banana oat cookies, using only four basic ingredients, and I was sold! They take 15 minutes to make from scratch, and I’ll bet you have many of the ingredients in your cupboard already!

They are a bit bland as a stand-alone cookie, so I use the recipe as a base for whatever other ingredients I have to hand that need to be used up.

Some dried apricots or raisins that need to be used up? Yup. Some desiccated coconut reaching its expiry date? Yup. Some chocolate chips found lurking at the back of the cupboard? Toss them in! It’s a great way to use up black bananas and all the other odds and ends that need using up too.

Whatever you’ve got to hand, these make a great zero-waste snack at any time of the day.

How To Make Banana Oat Cookies

Banana Oat Cookies Recipe

These three ingredient banana oat cookies are made using simply banana, oats and peanut butter. They’re great for when you want to use up black bananas, or simply need a sweet treat!

Print Recipe

Prep Time:5 minutes mins

Cook Time:5 minutes mins

Total Time:10 minutes mins

Ingredients

• 2 large sized black bananas the bananas pictured weren’t the ones I used – black bananas didn’t make for a nice photo!.  It’s important to use black bananas are they are sweeter than just-ripe bananas.
• 2 tbsp Peanut butter palm oil free if you can
• 240 g Oats
• Any additions you want to add (e.g. coconut, chocolate chips, dried apricots, raisins, etc).
• 1 pinch salt
• A 12-capacity muffin tray I use two 6-capacity trays (this keeps your cookies in a circular shape)

Instructions

• Preheat your oven to 200 °C
• In a large bowl mash up the peeled black bananas with a fork until it forms a paste.
• Add the two spoons of peanut butter and mix well with the fork to combine.
• Add in your oats a little bit at a time, mixing well until it’s all combined. If your bananas are on the small side you may not need to use all of the oats.
• Add in your salt and additional ingredients, and mix well.
• Spoon a little bit of the mixture into each muffin hole (to around 1cm depth) until all 12 holes are filled.
• Place in the oven for 5-10 minutes until gently browned on top.
• Remove from the oven and leave to cool before eating, or transferring to a tub in the fridge for storage for up to three days (not that they will last that long!).

Servings: 12

It’s quite easy to alter the portions depending on how many black bananas you have. Just remember that one banana requires 120 g of oats and one tablespoon of peanut butter.

Storing Bananas

If you don’t have any oats or peanut butter to hand but have black bananas you can pop your bananas in the freezer until you need them. Pop them in whole, with the skin still on. Once you defrost them they will be very mushy but that’s what you want for this recipe!

Want to know more? Here’s a handy article about everything you could ever need to know about freezing bananas.

I hope you enjoy these banana oat cookies! Looking for other ways to use up black bananas? Try this vegan banana ice cream – ready in 5 minutes!