Pretzel Banana Cookies

Long time no blog. I’ve been moving and vacationing.  In fact, I visited my friend in Toronto for whom I decided to bring homemade cookies for her birthday.  She is the only person I know whose favorite flavor is banana!  She’ll pick a banana flavored treat over anything, even chocolate!  I wanted to incorporate bananas in the cookies and I decided on banana chips for their crunch.  Plus, I’ve never seen cookies using banana chips. Hope these turn out!

Check out the verdict at the end of the post!

Pretzel Banana Cookies

Inspired from Milk Bar.

Pretzel Crunch (make ahead of time)

Ingredients (I made double this recipe and snacked on the leftovers)

1 cup mini-pretzels

2 Tablespoon packed light brown sugar

1 Tablespoon sugar

2 Tablespoon milk powder

½ Tablespoon malt powder

3 Tablespoon butter, melted

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 275 degrees F.

2. Crush pretzels to ¼ of original size and add to bowl.

3. Add sugars, milk powder, and malt powder and mix.

4. Add butter and toss.

5. Spread on baking pan lined with parchment or silicon mat.

6. Bake for 20 minutes

7. Bake apart into chunks.  Cool completely before adding to cookies.

Before baking

After baking

After breaking apart

Pretzel Banana Cookies

Makes 18 small-ish cookies.

Ingredients

½ cup salted butter, room temperature

1/3 cup sugar

1/3 cup packed brown sugar

½  egg

½ teaspoon vanilla syrup or ¼ teaspoon extract

¾ cup bread flour

¼ teaspoon baking powder

1/8 teaspoon baking soda

¾ cup pretzel crunch

½ cup crushed banana chips (put banana chips in a plastic bag, seal, and go over with a rolling pin)

Directions

1. In a large bowl, cream butter and both sugars with a beater on medium high for 2-3 minutes.

2. Add egg and vanilla, and beat for 7-8 minutes. 

3. Add flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt, and mix on low just until dough comes together (1 minute).

4. Add pretzel crunch and crushed banana chips.  Fold in with a spatula.

5. Scoop dough using a small ice cream scoop and place on a baking sheet.  Refrigerate for 1 hour or overnight.  Do not bake un-chilled dough.

Crushing bananas

Scooping out dough for the fridge

To bake:

6. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

7. Place cookie dough rounds onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper or silicone mat, 4 inches apart.

8. Bake for 7 minutes.  For bigger cookies, you’ll need to bake longer.  Cool on baking sheet before removing to a rack.

Verdict: These were surprisingly good.  I was a bit nervous about the pretzel-banana combination, but they worked well in the cookie.  My friend really liked them!  I really liked the pretzel crunch – a really addictive snack!