Banana Nutty Cookies (With Chocolate)

So. It's time for something sweet.

A new friend of mine is vegan AND gluten-free. Crazy! I can't imagine living like that, only because I LOVE the crap out of bread.

So it was a challenge, to say the least, to make a vegan / gf treat for her.

Lucky for me, Oh She Glows is an amazing website full of good recipes for allergy-riddled friends. ;)

When I saw this recipe for peanut butter chocolate chip cookies, I was pretty intrigued.

So here I am, making a bunch of cookies.

Guess what? I DIDN'T BUY ANY FUCKING VEGAN BUTTER.

I = DUMBASS.

So instead of butter, I mashed up a banana and used that instead.

I can't even really tell you why I did that, except that I vaguely remember substituting fruit puree for oil in previous recipes.

The outcome was delectable. I win.

Here's my altered recipe:

Ingredients
1 tbsp ground flax + 3 tbsp warm water
1/2 a banana, mashed up like a motherfucker into a nice banana-butter
1/4 cup natural unsalted peanut butter
1/2 cup lightly packed brown sugar
1/4 cup turbinado sugar
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp sea salt
1 cup gluten free oats, ground into a flour
3/4 cup hazelnuts, ground into a flour
1/4 cup almonds, ground into a flour
1/3 cup allergy-friendly chocolate chips

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. In a small bowl, mix together the flax egg and set aside for 5 minutes so it can thicken up.
2. With an electric mixer or in a stand mixer, beat the banana and peanut butter until combined. Add both sugars and beat for 1 minute more. Beat in flax egg until combined.
3. Beat in the remaining dry ingredients (baking soda, baking powder, salt, oat flour, hazelnut flour, and almond flour) one by one. If your dough is dry (this could be the case if too much flour is used), you can add a splash of almond milk to thin it out. Fold in chocolate chips.

4. Shape 1-inch balls of dough (smaller than golf balls) and place on the baking sheet. If the chocolate chips aren't sticking to the dough, just press them in with your fingers. There's no need to flatten the balls as the cookies spread out a lot. Place balls 2 - 3 inches apart.
5. Bake for about 11 - 13 minutes until lightly golden. The underside will also be a rich golden brown shade. The cookies will be very soft coming out of the oven, but they will harden as they cool. Allow to cool for 5 - 10 minutes on the baking sheet, then transfer to a cooling rack for another 10 minutes. Sprinkle cookies with flaked sea salt to bring out the peanut butter flavor.

SHIT TASTES GOOD

RATINGS:

Deliciousness: 5/5
Not even a 'good for something vegan and gluten free' type delicious. Just straight up delicious. TASTES LIKE HEAVEN

Prettiness: 3/5
Whatever, they're cookies.

Ease of Preparation: 4/5
Just grindin' shit and mixin' shit.