You can’t go wrong with the classic banana, peanut butter and chocolate combo. These flavors all work together in this delicious jumbo stuffed cookie, where a creamy peanut butter is stuffed into a banana and almond flour cookie batter, packed with a handful of crunchy roasted whole peanuts. The texture’s chewy and wholesome, and it’s also gluten-free, vegan and paleo-diet suitable! I love it when my cookie recipes are actually secretly healthy 🙂
Peanut butter had always been a guilty pleasure for me… By always, I literally mean by a childhood when I knew that I was guilty of stealing the peanut butter jar from the pantry and eating it with a spoon while hiding from my mom. And the pleasure was how nutty it was, a sweet and salty concoction that melts on my tongue but sticky on the spoon. There is always at least one peanut butter jar in the house, even now. Aside from its smooth goodness, I love how peanut butter has a perfect blend of sweet and salty flavor.
Growing up, I remember eating PB & J sandwiches in a lunch box, as well as doubling the amount of peanut butter called for in the recipe when making peanut sauce to be served with spring rolls or chicken. It is so versatile that you can make a dinner out of it and right after that have a dessert of it as well. Seriously, you will never be bored of it.
In today’s recipe, I am combining my two all favorites into one… The crunchy, chewy cookie is made with bananas and stuffed with our beloved PB and is all vegan and gluten-free. Now that is what I call satisfaction to a guilty pleasure.
Each and every ingredient from almond flour to a pinch of salt in this recipe celebrate the taste and texture of the PB. Bananas cut through the extra sweetness from the cookie and work incredibly well with the smooth PB. These PB Banana Cookies are full of fiber and, of course, happiness. It will become a specialty of yours for dessert and even for snacking with tea or just the odd fashioned and notorious glass of milk.
Let’s see what Ingredients are used for this recipe!
**I’ve linked some of these ingredients to amazon.com to give you an idea of what they are, but you should also be able to find them in your local grocery store (usually, the natural & organic food section). They are also affiliate links, which means that I earn a commission as an Amazon Associate if you decide to purchase the items. The price will be the same for you, link or no link 🙂
- Almond flour – I used blanched almond flour. But you can also make your own by blending raw or blanched, slivered almonds in the food processor and sifting them through a sieve.
- Coconut flour – Coconut flour does not substitute well, and I can’t recommend swapping coconut flour with other ingredients unless you absolutely had to (2 Tbsp coconut flour = ½ cup almond flour). Unfortunately, you probably won’t get the same texture or mouthfeel as the original recipe.
- Mashed Banana – best ripe
- Salt – Pink Himalayan salt is what I have at home, so it’s what I use, but you can use any kind for this recipe.
- Maple Syrup – I used maple syrup for this recipe but you can use other liquid sweeteners of choice like honey, agave syrup, or liquid stevia
- Coconut Oil – You can use regular coconut oil, but I like to use refined coconut oil, like this one, because there’s less coconut flavor/scent. But for this recipe, you can also try using olive oil, avocado oil, or regular canola oil. You can also use plant-based, dairy-free butter or regular butter instead.
For the Filling, I used:
- Honey roasted peanut butter
- Roasted peanuts – lightly or non-salted
More Recipes Using Banana (HERE)
Recipe Variations and Optional Add Ins:
- Chocolate! Just add 2 Tbsp of cocoa powder and fold in some chocolate chips to the batter. You could also use chocolate spread instead of peanut butter, such as Nutella as the filling.
- Do you like coffee or mocha flavored desserts? Add either a teaspoon of coffee extract or espresso powder to the batter.
- With natural flavoring / extracts. Feel free to add a teaspoon of vanilla extract (I didn’t feel like it was essential so I left it out in this recipe), or other flavorings or extracts such as cinnamon.
- Feel free to experiment on using different nut butter. Instead of peanut butter you can also use almond butter, pecan butter, walnut butter, cashew butter, mixed nut butter, or seed butter like sunflower or pumpkin seed butter.
- You can also bake these cookies unstuffed and in smaller sizes.
How to Make this Healthier
- Make this even healthier by adding a handful of nuts, seeds and old-fashioned oats to add texture and nutrition.
- Did you know that cinnamon, is a good source of antioxidants? Add a teaspoon or two into the batter to make this recipe even better for you!
- Looking to lower calories? You can reduce the sugar by half (to make this less sweet), or substitute the sugar with a sugar-free substitute. You can also use reduced-fat peanut butter, such as this brand.
How to Store
- You can store these cookies covered at room temperature for up to 48 hours. For longer storage, you can place them in the fridge for up to 7 days, or freeze up to 4 months.
Final Tips
- This is the way I make it easier stuffing the peanut butter into this cookie: I drop a large dollop of peanut butter onto a small square of parchment or wax paper. Top with roasted peanuts, then put in the freezer while prepping the batter. This keeps the filling firm and reduces the mess of trying to fill the peanut butter into the cookie batter (see photo below)
- Also, baking time (as well as serving size) will vary based on the size of your cookie, the material (silicone vs metal) of the pan, and amount of filling! Bake the cookies until the color is slightly golden-brown on the top
More Cookie Recipes (HERE)
Peanut Butter Stuffed Banana Cookies (Made with Almond Flour!)
Ingredients
BANANA COOKIE DOUGH:
- 1 cup almond flour
- 2 Tbsp coconut flour
- 1/8 tsp salt
- 3 Tbsp maple syrup*
- 1/4 cup banana mashed
- 1/4 cup olive or melted coconut oil
FILLING:
- peanut butter** I used honey roasted
- roasted peanuts
CHOCOLATE DRIZZLE:
- melted chocolate chips optional
- chopped peanuts
Instructions
- First, prepare the filling by dropping a large dollop of peanut butter onto a small square of parchment or wax paper. Top with roasted peanuts, then put in the freezer while prepping the batter.
- Next, mix all the dry ingredients (almond flour, coconut flour, salt) together.
- Add the wet ingredients into the bowl (mashed banana, oil, and maple syrup) and mix until the ingredients are well incorporated.
- Take out the frozen peanut butter dollops. They should cleanly peel off the parchment (if not, freeze some more).
- Scoop about 2 tablespoons of the banana cookie dough onto parchment-lined cookie pan, flatten like a disk, then top with the prepared peanut butter filling. Cover filling with 2-3 tablespoon of cookie dough (also flattened like a disk) and press around the edges of the cookie to seal.
- Bake the cookies in an oven 350F for about 13-15 or until slightly golden with browned cookie base.
- While the cookies cool, melt some chocolate chips in the microwave (in 15-20 second increments).
- Drizzle the chocolate onto the cookies and sprinkle some chopped nuts before the chocolate hardens.
Notes
Seems like a decadent treat, Bora!
Thanks so much!