One of our friends, who had helped us in everything for the last 9 months of our stay here, has been admitted to the hospital due to an emergency. It was heart breaking to see him lie down in the hospital. He is a very cheerful and happy-to-be-around kind of guy. We were with him and his family all the weekend and we visit him daily now. So I wanted to take something for him yesterday and I remembered he loved the cakes that I prepare. But instead of cakes, I thought these cookies would be best thing to take to the hospital. He and his family loved it very much. I hope he gets well soon.
Aruna mailed me this recipe many days back. Here is what she has to say about it “These are moist and flavorful like little cakes. This is from the sugar packet I purchased. The product name is Bayview and this recipe was posted on it. Since you received request to post such quick recipes, I thought I should send it to you. What I am writing to you is exactly what is written on the cover. I used half of the proportion they mentioned. It turned out to be excellent. Should stay good outside at least for 3-4 days. My son who is a cocoa fan, and generally does not like things without cocoa, liked it very much. Do give a try. Hope you try in half the quantity, in case they turn out to be more also you can freeze the same and microwave the same at the time of eating.”.
Thanks Aruna for the recipe.
Ingredients:
Granulated sugar 1 1/2 cups
Shortening 2/3 cup
Vanilla extract 1 tsp
Eggs 2
Mashed ripe banana 1 cup (3 to 4 medium)
All purpose flour 2 1/4 cups
Baking powder 2 tsp
Salt 1/2 tsp
Baking soda 1/4 tsp
Chopped nuts (optional) 1 cup
Cinnamon powder 1/2 tsp
I prepared only half the quantity. Reduced the banana to 1 because I don’t like the heavy banana flavor. I did not use baking soda. I didn’t use nuts.
Method:
Preheat oven to 400 F.
Grease cookie sheets. In a large bowl, beat 1 1/4 cups sugar, shortening and vanilla untill fluffy. Beat in eggs, then bananas.
Combine flour, baking powder, salt and soda. Beat into sugar mixture. Stir in nuts.
Chill 30 minutes. Drop by teaspoon 2 inches apart on cookie sheets.
Combine 1/4 cup sugar and cinnamon, sprinkle over cookies.
Bake 10-12 min or untill lightly browned.
Makes 5 dozen.
Preparation time : 10mins (excluding the baking and ‘standing’ time)
Since I like slightly hard cookies, after the first batch, I added 1/2 cup flour and 2 tea spns of sugar to make a thick dough. The cookies became hard(the way I like them).
In the above picture, the left cookies are the one with the above recipe and the right ones are hard(with my twist).
Wow Shilpa….this is my elder sons favorite. I have tried it a couple of times and they have been superb. My younger one calls all cookies as Banana cookies after I made this for the first time. Thanks for sharing and posting.
Really wow….banana should give good flavor and smell…wil try it out soon
Very nice looking cookies…shall try them provided you tell me what I can substitute for the shortening….I don’t think we get that in Mumbai
Wow, cookies look yummy
http://hyderabadi-kitchen.blogspot.com
You are welcome Aruna. Thanks for the recipe.
Anjali let me know if you like the cookies.
Varsha, shortening is partly hydrogenated vegetable oil. It is used in the bakery products instead of butter. You can see this chart for the substitution. The closest thing we get in India is Vanspati ghee. But I read somewhere that since vanaspati has a granular structure, it does not give very smooth texture to bakery products. So use the chart and substitute it with butter+water.
Thanks Hyderabadi.
I check the blogs only when my daughter let me do, and she hardly does that! I miss a couple of your previous posts as u post recipes on a daily basis. And when I came to check today, there is this special cookie that I never heard of. Nice recipe. Thanks shilpa.
Shilpa-
I saw this post and read the comments- these look like extremely good cookies/biscuits Shilpa and Aruna! I’ve never eaten banana cookies before, so I will add this to my pile of things to cook…
I thought I’d comment though, from a westerner’s point of view about a western cookie recipe(i hope this offends no one, because I only intend to help)….many of us don’t use shortening anymore for home cooking for two reasons: 1)it has “trans fats” which are man-made and not healthy(raises cholesterol levels in the blood) and 2) our traditional sweet recipes always used butter(some use lard) and the flavour is best this way….so my family and I always use butter now. (even Martha Stewart won’t use anything else):-) shortening was introduced here in the 1870’s and its main advantages were that it doesn’t “spread” as much/(helps the cookie hold it’s shape) and that it has a longer “shelf life” than those using butter. This is probably the reason Vanaspati was put to the market as well. Most store-bought cookies use shortening, but like i said, when we make home-made we always use butter no matter what the recipe says!! 🙂
BTW while you and Aruna were making these cookies, I was slaving away for about 5 hours(!!!) making carrot snow/gajar barfi…it turned out really well, but I can definitely see why some sweets are best left to a sweet-maker!! I thought of you with your first carrot halva and chuckled though…. 🙂 Happy Diwali Shilpa and everyone!!!
Maneka, I will go on like this for few more days as I want to post as many as possible before I become too busy again. I know it is becoming too much, I am sorry for that :(.
Thanks for that information Pelicano. When we came here, one of my friend suggested to use “Crisco shortening” instead of “ghee” in the cooking. When I used it in cooking, it gave very good results, so I continued using it. I didn’t think much about the health issues :(. Good that you commented about it here. I appreciate it. Thanks a lot.
no problem Shilpa!
Ghee is still best used in less amounts(i use ghee mixed with peanut oil for cooking, unless it’s a special day, then i use only ghee), but it is still better for you than the crisco. (The last few years it has been in the news and health magazines a lot.)
Hi Shilpa,
Banana cookies, sounds good.As my hubby takes snacks to office daily,this would be good one and hope he likes too..
Surely, i’m going to try this…Thanks for the receipe…
Pelicano …Thanks for your detail on shortening. When i was at the American store last Thursday, my hubby asked me whether i wanted to try shortening as it is used in baking. I told him no, as i always use unsalted butter or ghee and i did not want to add a big tin in my cramped kitchen. I did not know abt the trans fat in it. Initially i bought 2 bottles of ghee from the Indian store, but now i make it at home. Tastes better than the store one and saves 2/3rd of the cost too.
Hi Shilpa-
I made these cookies last night (using unsalted butter instead of shortening, as I didn’t have any) and they turned out awesome. I also used Splenda instead of sugar to save a few calories.
Brought them to the office today and they’re nearly all gone (and it’s only 10 am)!
Thanks!
-Amanda
(p.s. Hope your new job is going well!)
Hi Shilpa… i’ve been looking for new recipes for cookies… banana cookies sound great, but is there something i can substitute for eggs? Thanks a ton
Neetu, I am not sure what would be a substitute for eggs :(. When I try it next time, I will update you. I am sorry.
Hey Shilpa,
I tried these cookies today, of course I didn’t use any shortening but butter instead.
They came out like little cakes moist & fluffy, you are right about adding less banana as the flavor comes out really strong.
Next time I’ll make them a bit hard.
Thanks a bunch !!
to dear shilpa can you please try to teach me how sugar free almond cookies please thanks for your your coperation and under i would appreciate even if the recepie can be typed in under the subits comment
as soo as possible and including a diabetic chocolate cream cakes
Shilpa: Nazreena, I will post it if I get a recipe. I prefer to keep the comment section for comments related to the particular post, so if I get the recipe, I will put up a new post. Again, please leave your correct mail id, I want to send a mail to you.
Great cookies Shilpa…I tried and they came out really great. Thanks for the recipe.
I love mine with chocolate chips like my Great Grandma used to make them!
I like alll the recipes on your site. I have tried quite a few of them and they have all turned very good. This one was a real tongue teaser. Everyone at home like these cookies and it was a hit. Thanks for putting up such a good site.
Your comments on each recipe also makes the recipes interesting …
Thanks a lot for the simple recipe on banana cookies….. the christmas carol team and youngsters loved it. The banana cookies turned out great in my first attempt.