These fantastic peanut butter banana cookies are the best banana cookies to make with your mashed overripe bananas. These cookies are soft and chewy, combining the rich flavor of peanut butter with the natural sweetness of bananas. This easy recipe is perfect for a quick snack or a fun dessert.
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In addition to being a tasty treat, they are almost healthy enough to call a snack more than a dessert. Plus, it's always awesome to have a few healthier alternatives to offer our daughter, rather than the usual decadent desserts.
🥘 Ingredients
Tasty, chewy banana cookies are just minutes away! The best part? All you need are some soft, sweet browned bananas and the usual staple cookie ingredients.
- Butter - I tend to use unsalted, but you can use salted butter just omit or reduce the extra salt from the recipe.
- Brown Sugar - I use a light brown sugar but a dark brown sugar will be good too.
- Egg - Fresh, binds the cookies.
- Peanut Butter - I go with creamy but chunky style peanut butter will be OK. You can also change the peanut butter for any other nut butter you like.
- Bananas - You will need 2 overripe mashed bananas.
- Vanilla Extract - Combines with the banana and gives an almost banana bread taste.
- Baking Powder -Leavening agent helps with the rise of the cookies.
- Baking Soda - Leavening agent, helps balance flavors.
- Salt - Regular table salt is fine here, the salt balances the sweetness.
- Nutmeg - Optional or you can use cinnamon.
- All-Purpose Flour - The base of the recipe, you can also use gluten free flour as well.
- Coarse Sugar - Or sugar crystals for the top of the cookies, this is optional but I love them with the little sugar crystals on top.
Be sure to see the free printable recipe card below for ingredients, exact amounts & instructions with tips!
🔪How To Make Peanut Butter Banana Cookies
- Preheat your oven to 350°F (175°C) and line your baking sheet(s) with parchment paper.
- In a large mixing bowl, cream together the softened butter and brown sugar until fluffy and light.
- Add the remaining wet ingredients (egg, peanut butter, mashed banana and vanilla extract) and mix until thoroughly combined.
- Add the baking powder, baking soda, salt and nutmeg then stir to combine.
- Add the flour and mix until the flour is just incorporated (do not over mix!) into the wet ingredients.
- Drop the peanut butter banana cookie dough in heaping tablespoonfuls of dough onto your baking sheet (you can roll them into 1-1 ½" balls, i just pinch the edges to form a rough ball).
- Make your criss-cross marks on the top using a fork (if desired) and sprinkle with coarse sugar or sugar crystals.
- Bake at 350°F (175°C) for 8-10 minutes or until the bottoms of your peanut butter banana cookies turn slightly golden.
- Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 5 minutes on the baking sheet (cookies will be super soft) before transferring to a wire cooling rack to cool completely.
Serve your peanut butter banana cookies up within minutes of baking with a nice glass of milk and enjoy!
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💭 Angela's Pro Tips & Notes
- These cookies don't require being chilled, and will turn out soft and moist with a somewhat cake-like texture.
- For a less cake type cookie, you can get a more chewy cookie add ¼ cup honey to the wet ingredients and continue with the instructions until your cookie dough is mixed. Chill for one hour before baking.
- A great stir in would be some chocolate chips to make this even more indulgent! Or swap out the peanut butter for nutella. Yum! 🙂
🍌 More Banana Recipes
- Banana Blueberry Muffins
- Apple Banana Muffins
- Banana Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies
- Super Moist Banana Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting
- Chocolate and Banana Marbled Mini Cakes with Peanut Butter Frosting
- Banana Bread with Streusel Topping
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📖 Recipe Card
Peanut Butter Banana Cookies
Ingredients
- ½ cup butter (room temperature)
- ½ cup light brown sugar (packed)
- 1 large egg (room temperature)
- ½ cup creamy peanut butter
- 1 cup bananas (2 medium mashed overripe bananas)
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ⅛ teaspoon ground nutmeg (or cinnamon)
- 2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- 2 tablespoon coarse sugar or sugar crystals (optional)
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350°F (175°C) and line your baking sheet(s) with parchment paper.
- In a large mixing bowl, cream together the softened butter and brown sugar until fluffy and light. Add the remaining wet ingredients (egg, peanut butter, mashed banana and vanilla extract) and mix until thoroughly combined.
- Add the baking powder, baking soda, salt and nutmeg then stir to combine. Add the flour and mix until the flour is just incorporated (do not over mix!) into the wet ingredients.
- Drop the peanut butter banana cookie dough in heaping tablespoonfuls of dough onto your baking sheet (you can roll them into 1-1 ½" balls). Make your criss-cross marks on the top using a fork (if desired) and sprinkle with coarse sugar or sugar crystals.
- Bake at 350°F (175°C) for 8-10 minutes or until the bottoms of your peanut butter banana cookies turn slightly golden.
- Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 5 minutes on the baking sheet (cookies will be super soft) before transferring to a wire cooling rack to cool completely.
Diane says
I am going to make these for your Dad!
Shayne says
I had a couple of bananas left over, and I decided I wanted to try baking some peanut butter, banana cookies. This was the first recipe that I noticed when I performed a search. This was also the first time I ever tried baking. Made a double batch... Deviated from the recipe slightly, in that I used both nutmeg, and cinnamon, and I didn't have any baking soda. I also didn't use any sugar for the tops as I prefer not to add refined sugar when I can avoid it. I did add in the honey, though. They turned out so good, I couldn't believe it. Every bite tastes better than the last. Thank you for this recipe 😀
Alyssa says
My family loved them! Has anyone froze this batter? If so how did it turn out?
Tina says
I made them today and they are so delicious 😋. Thank you for the recipe. I had exactly two ripe bananas left and was looking for a cookie recipe and found yours. I’ll always go back to this. I bet it tastes amazing with added mini Chocolate Chips
Thanks again
Anita says
These are so good! Great for my little granddaughter. Thank you for such a great recipe, it’s a keeper!
Leann says
So I was really excited about these. I was surprising my husband seeing how he loves banana cookies and peanut butter. But mine came out very floury.. like stick to the roof of your mouth.. it was very weird and very dry.. I was so bummed. I followed the recipe exactly. Any idea what went wrong?
Angela @ BakeItWithLove.com says
Hi Leann, these cookies typically bake up cake-like (as seen in images) as they are healthy-ish with reduced sugar in the recipe. However, they shouldn't be that dry. 🙂 I would spoon and level the flour, you can also use large bananas to add more moisture. There's also a note to add optional honey and chill the dough for chewier cookies. Hope that helps!
Joyce says
I love this recipe! I like how the only sugar is ½ cup brown sugar. The sweetness is subtle, but enough, and I like the cake-like texture. I realize that may not be how everyone likes cookies, but I do. It said it yields 30 cookies, but I got 4 dozen. I will definitely be sharing 😊
Next time, just to try & be different, I may add some chocolate chips.
Great, simple recipe!
Anonymous says
Too much flour, only use one and a half cups.
Ember says
Baked these in Australia!
I HALVED this recipe as I only had 1 banana, and used (1 cup Self-Raising Flour + 1/4 cup Milo) instead of (Plain + Soda/Powder).
They are somewhere between a cookie and a brownie? The texture is incredible, and it's sweet but not overwhelming. Definitely more towards the banana taste, but with peanut butter taste chasing after it.
One of the best recipes I've come across for peanut butter/banana cookies in ages 🙂 Thank you!
Eddy says
Tasted like banana cake, very disappointing for a peanut butter lover. Probably needed another cup of peanut butter. Nothing wrong with the cookie but was expecting more peanut butter taste
Anonymous says
I sprinkled mini chocolate chips on them instead of sugar. Turned out great. Thank you for recipe.
Laura Doublestein says
Absolutely love these light fluffy cookies so pleased with this recipe
Heather says
I didn't care for this recipe. The cookies were more cake than cookie and more banana than peanut butter. I'm going to try again but I'll cut back on the banana and omit the baking powder. Hopefully that will allow both flavors to be present and give me a crisper cookie.
Deja says
I appreciate how the ingredients and measurements were listed in the directions so I didn't have to scroll up and down.
The cookie do not spread... I was completely unaware so the balls I made remained balls lol! I'd like them to be a lot sweeter. Can I add more sugar or will it ruin the recipe?
Anonymous says
It won't ruin it. I had to tweak the recipe myself to get it to taste how I wanted to