Peanut Butter, Banana, Honey & Oat Chocolate Chip Cookies!
Healthy gluten-free, honey-sweetened, oat-based cookies made with peanut butter, banana and chocolate chips! Everyone loves these sweet little treats.
Updated by Kathryne Taylor on September 19, 2024
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Hello from Portland! There are quite a few states between me and the peanut butter cookies in my freezer right now, but I’m looking forward to cookies when I get home. Which reminds me, I miss my Cookie! I’ve been a little overwhelmed by all the city hustle and bustle that I have experienced over the past few days. I’m looking forward to some quality Cookie and Kate time when I get back.
I made these cookies for Jessica’s virtual baby shower. I haven’t met Jessica yet, but I feel like I know her (especially after listening to her chat with Jessica Lively!). I’ve sung her praises before so I’ll try to contain myself here. Her baby is going to have one sweet, creative and hilarious mama.
Jessica loves to “trash up” her favorite base recipes by adding about as many flavors as possible. So I went ahead and added as many of my favorite flavors to these cookies as I possibly could (plus some sprinkles for good measure!). I think Jessica will approve.
You can see the full list of goodies created by bloggers to celebrate Jessica’s soon-to-be-here babe over on Bev Cooks and Edible Perspective. Bev and Ashley know how to throw a party. Congrats, Jessica!
If we’re being honest here, I really wanted these cookies to be served as one giant skillet cookie. After my fourth skillet cookie crumbled on me, though, I said good riddance. Skillet cookies are sort of inherently exciting and celebratory and I would hate to dash your hopes with messy, crumbling slices. Lucky for me, everyone loves a good cookie, and these are some good cookies.
I hope you’ll give these honey-sweetened, oat-based, peanut butter everything cookies a shot soon, whether you need a simple dessert to bring to friend or just need a treat to satisfy your sweet tooth.
1 tablespoon cookie scoop (unnecessary but very handy for scooping out evenly sized cookies)
Nordic Ware Baker’s Half Sheet (I used two)
Peanut Butter, Banana, Honey & Oat Chocolate Chip Cookies!
Healthy gluten-free, honey-sweetened, oat-based cookies made with peanut butter, banana and chocolate chips! Recipe yields about 36 small cookies.
Ingredients
- ½ cup honey or real maple syrup
- ½ cup natural unsalted peanut butter*
- ⅓ cup mashed overripe banana (about 1 medium banana)
- 4 tablespoons (2 ounces) unsalted butter, melted, or ¼ cup melted coconut oil
- 1 large egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ¾ teaspoon fine-grain sea salt
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 ½ cups old-fashioned rolled oats, ground for 30 seconds in a food processor or blender
- 1 ½ cups old-fashioned rolled oats
- 1 ½ cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
- Optional: 2+ tablespoons sprinkles, plus more for sprinkling on top
- Optional: Flaky sea salt, for sprinkling on top
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit with two racks near the middle. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper (if you don’t have parchment paper, lightly grease the baking sheets).
- Measure out the honey and peanut butter—I found this easiest to do in a small liquid measuring cup. Add honey to the ½ cup line, then add peanut butter until you reach the 1 cup total liquid line.
- Pour the honey and peanut butter mixture into a mixing bowl. Add the mashed banana and melted butter and whisk until the mixture is well blended. Use your whisk to beat in the egg, scraping down the side of the bowl once it’s incorporated. Whisk in the vanilla, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cinnamon.
- Switch to a big spoon and stir in the ground oats, rolled oats, chocolate chips and sprinkles until they are evenly combined. Drop the dough by the heaping tablespoon (a small cookie scoop is perfect for this) onto your prepared baking sheets. I added a few extra sprinkles on top for good measure.
- Bake the cookies, reversing the pans midway through (swap the cookies on the top rack with the cookies on the lower rack) until they’re barely set and just beginning to turn golden around the edges, about 16 minutes. Remove the cookies from the oven and let them cool completely on the pans. If desired, sprinkle lightly with flaky sea salt now.
Notes
Recipe adapted from my maple-sweetened peanut butter chocolate chip cookies.
*If your peanut butter is salted: Reduce salt in recipe to ½ teaspoon.
Make it nut free: I suspect that sunflower seed butter would work (sunbutter), although the end result will vary in flavor (for sure) and potentially in texture.
Make it gluten free: Be sure to use certified gluten-free oats and oat flour.
Make it dairy free: Substitute coconut oil for butter and use non-dairy chocolate chips, such as Enjoy Life brand.
Make it egg free: Substitute a flax egg for the regular egg.
Make it vegan: Substitute a flax egg for the regular egg, coconut oil for the butter, and make sure to use non-dairy chocolate chips, such as Enjoy Life brand.
Nutrition
The information shown is an estimate provided by an online nutrition calculator. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice. See our full nutrition disclosure here.
Turned out delicious! My toddler loved them too and had fun helping make them :) We made with coconut oil instead of butter, which worked great. We used mini enjoy life chocolate chips and put less than a cup which was plenty for us. Very simple recipe to follow!
Lucky for me, I baked these the night before I gave birth and they have been amazing to have in the freezer. I’m so glad I got to it before labor, lol! I made this vegan with flax egg and used sunflower oil instead of coconut. I can’t wait to make them again- I think this will become my go to cookie. I had to use 3 trays and I’m not mad about it :)
Hi
Could I substitute the chocolate chips in this with nuts ? If yes which kind ?
Hi V! I haven’t tried it. I would suggest chopping your nuts if you do. Let me know how it turns out for you!
I made this recipe with coconut oil and flaky salt and it was a hit with my family of picky eaters! any tips on how to make the cookie texture more crumbly?
Hi Natalie! I’m glad you liked them. You could try to leave them in a bit longer, although be careful as they do bake a little as they cool. Thanks for your review.
I found this recipe once when I was making a different cookie recipe and had a small bit of mashed banana left over and OMG. This is now our FAVORITE cookie recipe.
I make them in bigger batches (2 to 6 times the recipe) for my boyfriend who is a very picky eater and we freeze them. They stay good FOREVER and are super yummy fresh or frozen. I’ve also given them to family and they literally keep asking me when I will be making more. For the price of ingredients if you buy the honey and coconut oil in bigger containers and the store brand oats/chocolates these are like budget gourmet.
I do 1 cup of chocolate chips instead of 1.5, and I do 3 cups of quick oats instead of the mixture of rolled/ground. I like to make them a little bigger too so they can take a little longer to cook than what the recipe states. I don’t even like coconut, but what you say to use is the PERFECT amount of coconut oil.
I love how they can be altered to be more healthy by using the coconut oil/less chocolate/less honey, and I love how you can eat these as a filling snack, with coffee or as a evening sweet treat after dinner. By following your super clear & detailed instructions they come out perfect every time, thank you <3!
Thank you for your detailed comment! I’m happy to hear that, Liz. Thanks for your feedback.
Amazing recipe , such. A score with my family, they suit just about everyone . I added in a tablespoon of raw cacao powder and it gives it a choco peanut butter extra kick .
This is a really good and forgiving recipe. I had slightly less oats than needed so topped it up with plain flour. I had no butter or coconut oil so used Greek yoghurt. Turned out really well! Thank you
Would it be ok if I blend all of the oats into oat flour? I love your recipes! Thanks!
Hi Tarah, for these to turn out just right you need to follow the recipe as designed. I hope you love them!
Loved them but they were a little crumbly. Could the type of pb I use cause that?
Hi! I’m sorry to hear that. Did you use a natural peanut butter? Was it stirred well?
I’ve made them again and again and love them! So often when I make cookies using bananas they don’t have the right texture but these turn out great. Just one more thing when I make more than one batch and I choose that option on the recipe, it doesn’t translate all the portions correctly. For example— it tells me to use the same amount of oil whether I’m using the original recipe or doubling it. I didn’t know if that something you could easily change??
Hi MK, Sorry that’s happening. Unfortunately, it’s not a perfect plug-in but the best option I have at the moment. Thanks for the feedback!
Another amazing recipe! I only had salted butter on hand so I decided to only 1/2 tsp salt instead of 3/4 and I think that was just enough. Thank you Kate :)
Don’t use sunbutter, it turns the cookies green…not an appetizing look!
These cookies are amazing!!! Everyone I serve them up to loves them. I used less honey 1/3C and only about 3/4C of dark choc chips!!! They are a staple in our household (that and your banana bread – so yum)!!
Thank you for your review, Abi! I appreciate it.
If you use it flour(store bought) is it still 1.5 cups?
Made these cookies for a family trip from Los Angeles to Napa this past weekend. Only three were left by the time we arrived the hotel. They were that good! Everyone was amazed at how something free from refined sugar and gluten could taste so decadent. I made this with maple syrup instead of honey. In the future, I’d probably cut the syrup back by 2 oz as the mini semisweet chocolate chips and banana are plenty sweet. The addition of salt on top was perfect to balance the flavors. All in all, a great recipe. Try it if you’re on the fence! You won’t be disappointed. :)
Made your cookies yesterday to use up some bananas- I subbed applesauce for the butter, and whole wheat flour for the oat flour. They turned out great! Brought some into my workplace for treats- they were a hit! Great and healthy recipe. Thank you!
I’m glad it turned out! Thank you for your review.
These cookies are so delicious! The recipe is easy to follow, and thank you for the tip on making my own oat flour. I wanted a cookie recipe that was free of wheat and refined sugar and this was perfect. Also was my first time using parchment paper – no stuck cookies! I’ll always use it from now on.
You’re welcome, Nonny! I’m delighted you enjoyed it.
Very delicious! Love the peanut butter and chocolate chip combination! I used avocado oil instead of butter and I added chopped pecans! Definitely making these again!
Great to hear, Rodica!
I wish you would use weights in your measurements coz i prefer that than using so many measuring tools.
Use your scale to weigh out the ingredients for yourself once, then you’ll know for future batches. Pretty simple.
If you don’t have the time to do this, or don’t want to, what makes you think that the blog writer has time to do this or wishes to do this, especially after putting together a long blog post, a recipe, and providing many substitution options for people? Especially when people such as yourself come along with a very selfish attitude.
You’re welcome, ungrateful sod.
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Thank you for the recipe Kate, very much appreciated. Making tonight to fulfill a craving for something sweet but as healthy as possible, while using up some bananas & eggs. Sounds like these would be great for breakfast as well, minus the chocolate chips.
Wow you’re the one who sounds like a sod.
I love you too baby haha :-)
I’m a very happy sod after having made this recipe LOL
Damn fine cookies, gotta say! Will be making these again & again!
For anyone who loves the addition of chocolate (I didn’t have chocolate chips) I melted some of my natural peanut butter with some dark chocolate (80%) and added a little bit of coconut sugar to that to give just a tiny bit of sweetness. I then drizzled this over each cookie, which stiffened up once cooled, kind of like a ganache.
Spectacular! Thanks again for the recipe :-)
If I need to avoid peanut butter, can I just leave it out, or do I need to find a substitute? Really want to make these for school lunch boxes, bc they look amazing, but we can’t send anything with nuts..
Hi Helen, you can use an alternative like sun butter.
I put an autumn spin on this recipe today, substituting, pumpkin for the banana, and cranberries for the chocolate chips. I upped the cinnamon, and added some pumpkin spice spice for good measure. Turned out beautifully, and definitely have that great fall flavor!
These were so tasty! I’m not eating refined sugar so I substituted cut up dates and pecans for the chocolate chips. Fair warning: I thought I was so smart when I tried using a hand mixer to mix up my peanut butter—it took half an hour to clean up the mess. Do not try.
you have 1 1/2 oats twice…does that mean 3 cups or is it an error???
Hi Mary, it is correct. The first is blended briefly and the other is not. See the notes in the list and instructions. I hope that helps!