Healthier Peanut Butter Banana Cookies

{post-edit 3/4/13: Sincerest apologies to anyone who tried this in the past two days and ended up with gooey cookies (I'm looking at you, Justin!). I have now re-tested the recipe and adjusted the amounts accordingly. It's perfect now, I promise!}

Now that I'm on this 'healthy cookie' kick, I've been experimenting in the kitchen. I came up with this recipe today and thought it was worthy of sharing.

These cookies are a little higher in calories, fat and sugar than the ones posted below, but that is only because of the addition of peanut butter. You could make them quite a bit healthier by using almond butter. So I know they're still cookies, and are a treat, but if compared to a traditional peanut butter cookie, which is full of butter, sugar, and refined flour, this is leaps and bounds healthier. These are whole grain, have no refined sugar and no butter, and the only sweeteners are banana and honey. So it's kind of like eating a peanut butter and banana sandwich, but with less bread...? Just make them, they're guilt-free cookies!

Healthier Peanut Butter Banana Cookies

1 1/4 cup quick oats
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
3 ripe bananas
1/2 cup peanut butter (I prefer crunchy)
1 1/2 Tbs honey
1/2 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 350, and spray a baking sheet with cooking spray (or line with parchment paper, my favorite). Mix dry ingredients in a bowl, set aside. Mash up bananas with a fork and stir them until smooth with few lumps. Stir in peanut butter, honey and vanilla until mixture is smooth. Stir in dry ingredients. Batter should be moist and sticky (this is more of a batter than a hard dough), but not runny. Drop by rounded tablespoonfuls onto prepared baking sheet, flatten out slightly with your fingers. Bake for 11-12 minutes.

I like to sprinkle with a little kosher salt as soon as they come out of the oven. These are delicious served warm, but after a few hours the flavors meld together and they're still really tasty! They should keep just fine in the fridge for a few days.

makes 20 cookies