What I love most about these 4-ingredient banana peanut butter oat cookies is not how delicious they are, or etc whole food recipe (or even the chocolate chips) but how my children can easily whip them up without my help. Thats right- they’re no fuss, plant based, gluten free, dairy free breakfast cookies that are perfect for little hands to whip up. Whoop!
I started this recipe as a simple 2 ingredient base- oats and mashed banana- and while that version was so easy it was tempting to leave as is, I wanted to perfect the recipe and fuse ease with a cookie that tastes and feels great.
Next we added almond meal into the mix to balance out the gummy texture of an oat based cookie, and things were looking and tasting great at this stage but I wanted MORE flavour.
Peanut butter (or tahini) entered recipe development next, followed by tweaking the ratios of all 4 ingredients and viola! Thus was born the 4-ingredient banana peanut butter oat cookies
You may be wondering why the 4 ingredient cookie has 5 ingredients
You may be wondering why the 4 ingredient cookie has 5 ingredientsThat would be a fair point. Chocolate is most defiantly an optional ingredient, and in fact you can omit chocolate or swap it for anything you have in the pantry- shredded coconut, chopped nuts or dried fruit. These easy breakfast cookies are totally versatile and customisable.
Banana peanut butter oat cookies ingredient list
- Bananas. You know, the very ripe spotty type that we all know (and search for baking recipes for) come the end of Summer.
- Natural Peanut butter. I like smooth, but you can use crunchy or any other nut/seed butter you prefer. Tahini works well in this recipe for a peanut butter free recipe.
- Rolled oats. Simple. If you want to make these gluten free, try these oats here.
- Almond meal. Blanched, activated, wholemeal. What you have will work just fine here.
- Additional extras are totally optional. For extra sweetness add 1 Tbsp honey, chocolate chips (I love these ones here as they have great ingredients), shredded coconut, nuts, seeds, dried fruit or chopped dates.
If you want more whole food plant based recipes you might like
- Healthy fruit nut slice
- Easy baked vegan green patties. Grain free.
- Raspberry coconut bliss balls
- No bake cherry bounty bars
Thanks for stopping by, and we hope you enjoy these healthy banana peanut butter oat cookies as much as we do. Your reviews and comments below are always appreciated and help others find this recipe too.
Banana peanut butter oat cookies
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 20 mins
- Total Time: 30 minutes
- Yield: 12 1x
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: Australian
- Diet: Vegan
Description
These 4 ingredient banana peanut butter oat cookies are the perfect healthy snack, on the go breakfast or lunch box filler (if your school is OK with peanut butter). Child friendly recipe.
Ingredients
- 170g (aprox 2) very ripe bananas
- 95g (1 cup) rolled oats (certified gluten free, if needed)
- 120g (1 cup) almond meal
- 140g (½ cup) peanut butter
- Optional extras
- 85g (½ cup) chocolate chips/chopped chocolate pieces
- 1 Tbsp honey
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 180C. Line a large baking tray and set aside.
- Mash banana in a large bowl, then mix in peanut butter and, if you prefer a slightly sweeter cookie, the honey. Once uniform and oats and almond meal and combine well.
- Add in any extras you like. Today we added chocolate chips, but you can omit or add in ½ of dried fruit, nuts or shredded coconut.
- Roll into balls around 1 heaping dessert spoon in size (This recipe makes around 12 cookies of that size). Place of the lined cookie sheet, and flatten with the palm of your hand. I find the best texture comes from when you flatten them generously- a thicker cookie can be a bit more chewy and dense. Cookies will not spread much, so you should easily fit all the dough onto one tray.
- Bake for 15-20 minutes or until lightly golden brown. We like to gently lift up a cookie and test the underside- it should be golden brown.
- Allow cookies to cool for 5 minutes on the baking tray then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
Notes
You can substitute peanut butter with any nut or seed butter. Tahini works well.
This recipe worked well for me. I didn’t include honey and used organic, sugar and salt free peanut butter. I also made sure the chocolate was as healthy as possible (pure cacao!)… And it turned out delish. The only issue was I used a block of alter eco dark chocolate which doesn’t bake very well. I would recommend baking chocolate or choc chips as they are made for baking.
★★★★★
Thank you for etc review Estelle. I love their chocolate too- but yes, it doesn’t bake the best. Who cares when it tastes so good though?
Super fast and easy to make cookies. They are DELICIOUS and gone pretty much in a day as they are so ridiculously good.
They’re a big hit on my household
★★★★★
Thank you for the lovely review. I love how easy they are too!
Made these in isolation! Had frozen bananas and defrosted them and they worked perfectly! Blended natural almonds into flour and the perfect cookie. Will try another time with tahini instead of peanut butter. However I used black sesame honey as well as chocolate this time! Perfect afternoon treat! Thanks for sharing Jade
★★★★★
Hi Elide. Your changes sound so good- I want to try black sesame honey too- yum!
Such a yummy and simple recipe to make. Whipped these up in mins with my toddler helping out. I did add sneaky choc chips & 70% dark choc bits. No added sugars. I would definitely love to make using cacao or carob chips next time or even choc free yumm!! MUST TRY!!
★★★★★
Hi Marisa. I love it when little ones can join in: such an easy recipe for them to enjoy. Love carob too, let me know how you go.
Love these! Healthy, easy, delicious- what more could you ask for? I love love savoury meal cooking, I am NOT a baker nor a snack maker. But, 2 days after demolishing these cookies, I’ll be making another batch tomorrow (this time I *might* save some for my kids!).
★★★★★
I wanted this recipe to be exactly that something everyone can make and I a so glad it found you Emma.
Made this recipe several times already! Love how versatile they’re. Got the sweetness from ripe banana. I added chopped walnut and cinnamon cardamom into the mixture and sprinkled some sea salt after. Thank you so much for sharing this recipe. Definitely a weekly staple in our family.
★★★★★
Thanks so much for the review- I love that this is a favourite Sil.
These were the perfect fix for our warm cookie craving. Even my kids loved them! We finished them off with coconut flakes and sea salt flakes as well. So so so delicious and guilt free 🙂
★★★★★
Hi Melanie. I love the addition of coconut and lovely salt- how yummy!
My favourite go to snack to make and the kids love it!
★★★★★
Awww thank you Leena- your cacao is my favourite too ❤️
HI
These look amazing – do you know if I could substitute almond meal for oat flour – severe almond allergy ?
Thank you
Karen
Hi Karen,
Yes, I think the twould work however could you do another nut or seed meal?
Super easy and super yum! I do recommend putting Choc chips in them too 👌🏼
★★★★★
So glad you enjoy these Ancuta 🙂
Love this recipe! I will do it for sure
★★★★★
Glad to hear- enjoy.
These are amazing!! Thank you so much for sharing!
Thank you so much, Jess.
Haven’t tried these yet. Tried another recipe a while back and they turned out not nice, not sure why as you’d think not much can go wrong with a recipe like this.
Also wondering if you
Have you tried Making these with millet flakes or rice flakes instead of oats? Or GF flour blend. Would they still turn out the good do you think?
Hmmm, I can’t say much for the other recipe.
I have not tried any other flakes, or any gluten free subs, but let me know how it turns out.