Banana Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies — These cookies are soft, moist, and oh-so chewy. They taste like banana bread and chocolate chip cookies rolled into one dessert! Hundreds of 5-star reviews for a reason – they are just SO AMAZING! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Table of Contents
These chocolate chip banana oatmeal cookies are my holy grail of desserts rolled in one. They have the flavor of banana bread, the chewy texture of oatmeal cookies, and the soft and gooey factor of chocolate chip cookies.
They’re soft, chewy, moist, and not at all cakey, which can be a problem when baking with bananas. Cookies that taste like little banana cakes instead of cookies are not my idea of cookies, and thankfully these are all cookie, zero cake.
These banana cookies are adapted from my favorite oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. I reduced the butter, added bananas, and increased the flour. Bananas contain so much moisture that more flour is needed to absorb it.
You’re going to love the bold banana flavor, the chewy oats that add so much texture, and plenty of chocolate that melts in your mouth in every bite.
Recipe Ingredients
For these banana oat chocolate chip cookies, you’ll need:
- Egg
- Bananas
- Light brown sugar
- Granulated sugar
- Unsalted butter
- Vanilla extract
- Old-fashioned oats
- All-purpose flour
- Cinnamon
- Baking soda
- Salt
- Semi-sweet chocolate chips
Note: Scroll down to the recipe card section of the post for the ingredients with amounts included and for more complete directions.
How to Make Banana Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
If you’ve ever made regular chocolate chip cookies before, you can easily make these oatmeal chocolate chip cookies with banana! Here’s an outline of the recipe steps:
- Whip together the wet ingredients (because of the bananas, the mixture won’t look light and fluffy at all).
- Stir in the dry ingredients and carefully fold in the chocolate chips.
- Scoop the cookie dough onto a parchment paper-lined baking tray and chill for at least 2 hours.
- Pop the chilled cookie dough balls into a preheated oven and bake until the edges are just set. You don’t want to over bake the cookies — remember that they’ll firm up as they cool on your counter.
Recipe FAQs
You can use your favorite chocolate chips (or chunks!) in this banana cookie recipe. Personally, I wouldn’t recommend using white chocolate chips since I think they’d make these cookies too sweet, but use whatever flavor of chocolate chips you like.
No, quick and steel cut oats will not work for these banana oat cookies. Rolled (old-fashioned) oats are a must for these banana oatmeal chocolate chip cookies.
Yes! The banana oatmeal chocolate chip cookie dough is soft, loose, moist, and must be chilled before baking or the cookies will spread into thin, flat pancakes.
Your bananas should be nice and ripe, but not black. If the bananas are very overripe (black), the cookies won’t be quite the right texture or taste.
Recipe Tips
Adding the bananas: When I add the bananas to the wet ingredients, I add them in whole and don’t pre-mash them. Your mixer should do all the hard work for you, but if you’re making the cookie dough by hand it might be helpful to pre-mash the bananas.
Cinnamon: The cinnamon is optional but recommended. Adding 1/2 teaspoon doesn’t make the cookies taste overly of cinnamon, it just adds some warmth to the cookies.
Bake time: Because bananas have differing levels of moisture and no two are exactly alike, baking times could range. Don’t get too hung up on what the clock says and bake until your cookies are done.
Make-Ahead Instructions
You can actually make the banana chocolate oatmeal cookie dough ahead of time and freeze it for later. Just scoop out the dough as if you’re going to bake the cookies immediately, but freeze them instead of placing them in the fridge.
You can bake the frozen cookie dough as is, but you may have to leave them in the oven for an additional 1 to 2 minutes.
Storage Instructions
Room temperature: Let the cookies cool completely, then store in an airtight container or zip-top bag. The cookies will last up to 5 days.
Freezer: Store in an airtight container and freeze them for up to 6 months.
Recipe Video Tutorial
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Chocolate Chip Banana Oatmeal Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 large egg
- 2 small/medium or 1 extra-large ripe bananas, about 1/2 heaping cup mashed banana
- ½ cup light brown sugar, packed
- ¼ cup granulated sugar
- ¼ cup unsalted butter, softened 1/2 of 1 stick
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 ½ cups old-fashioned whole rolled oats*
- 1 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
- ½ to 1 teaspoon cinnamon, optional
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 ¼ cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
Instructions
- To the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment (or large mixing bowl and electric mixer) combine the egg, bananas (I leave them whole and don’t pre-mash them before adding to bowl), sugars, butter, vanilla, and beat on medium-high speed until well combined, about 4 minutes. The mixture won’t be smooth, fluffy, or ‘creamed’ like traditional cookie dough and will have small chunks of bananas present and it’s on the runnier side.
- Stop, scrape down the sides of the bowl, and add the oats, flour, cinnamon, baking soda, salt, and beat on low speed until just combined, about 1 minute.
- Stop, scrape down the sides of the bowl, and add the chocolate chips, and beat on low speed until just combined, about 30 seconds.
- Using a large cookie scoop, 1/4-cup measure, or your hands, form approximately 14 equal-sized mounds of dough.**
- Place mounds on a large plate or tray, cover with plasticwrap, and refrigerate for at least 2 hours, up to 5 days. This is a wetter, looser dough and isn’t suitable for baking until it’s been chilled. Do not bake with unchilled dough because cookies will bake thinner, flatter, and be more prone to spreading.
- Preheat oven to 350F, line a baking sheet with a Silpat or spray with cooking spray. Place dough mounds on baking sheet, spaced at least 2 inches apart (I bake 8 cookies per sheet) and bake for about 13 minutes (for very soft cookies, longer for more well-done cookies), or until edges have set and tops are just set, even if slightly undercooked, pale, and glossy in the center; don’t overbake.
- Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet for about 10 minutes before serving. I let them cool on the baking sheet and don’t use a rack.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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Even More Oatmeal Cookie Recipes:
ALL OF MY OATMEAL COOKIE RECIPES!
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One-Bowl, No-Mixer, No-Chill Oatmeal Cookies — An incredibly FAST and EASY recipe that produces perfectly thick cookies with chewy edges and soft centers!! One bowl to wash, no mixer to drag out, and no waiting around!!
Peanut Butter Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies — 3 favorite cookies combined into 1 so you don’t have to choose!! Easy, no-mixer recipe, and always a hit!
Soft and Chewy Pumpkin Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies — These pumpkin oatmeal cookies are bursting with chocolate chips in every bite! They’re thick, hearty, perfectly chewy, and not at all cakey.
Soft and Chewy Oatmeal Scotchies Cookies – My favorite classic oatmeal cookie base loaded with sweet butterscotch chips! A classic cookie that you’ve just got to try!
Oatmeal Coconut Chocolate Chip Cookies — These oatmeal coconut chocolate chip cookies are packed with oats, shredded coconut, and semi-sweet chocolate chips. Sure to be a new favorite recipe!
Salted Oatmeal Chocolate Chunk Cookies — Soft, chewy, loaded with chocolate, and the flaky sea salt adds the PERFECT touch!! If you’re an oatmeal cookie fan, these will become your new FAVORITES and they’re so EASY to make!!
Originally published April 13, 2015 and republished April 9, 2021 with updated text.
would cookie cutters work on this? if so, at what point? im cutting it close…thinking to make for valentines day tmrw! would like to make them heart shaped. if not, do you think they could be formed into hearts by hand, and again, at what point? thanks.
https://www.averiecooks.com/2017/01/soft-frosted-valentine-heart-cookies.html Make these!
I don’t recommend making the banana cookies with cutters…I don’t think they will hold their shape.
Thank you so much for this recipe! I followed the recipe exactly, chilling for 2 hours and they turned out perfectly! I made my cookies much smaller and separated them by 1-inch on the pan and they were perfect. DELICIOUS!
Thanks for trying the recipe and I’m glad it came out great for you!
I wanted to do something other than banana bread and tried these cookies. These cookies are amazing! Thank you so much. I used dark chocolate chips and chilled the dough for about 5hrs and they came out great. I took some into work and everyone just loved them. Another great recipe Averie :-)
Thanks for trying the recipe and I’m glad it came out great for you! Thanks for the great feedback and praise :)
I made these today…Sept. 5, 2016. THESE ARE MARVELOUS!!! Followed the recipe, with a couple exceptions, I added about 1/2 cup vanilla chips with the chocolate chips. They were leftover from another time I made cookies. The other thing I did was not add as much sugar. These cookies are really flavorful with the bananas in them! The only thing I will do next time, is make the cookies smaller. Thanks for sharing your recipe, Averie!!
OH, I forgot,,, I doubled the recipe when I made these today… :)
Thanks for trying the recipe and I’m glad it came out great for you! And I love it when I can use up odds and ends from prior baking projects too :)
Hi! Going to make these this weekend but if I do use quick oats, would it be less oasta or less flour? Thanks!
Probably less flour but I haven’t tried it this way and can’t guarantee how your results will be.
Would you happen to know the nutritional value in these? I’m trying to track calories and this is my 2nd time making them, AMAZING my husband and I love these they are the best cookie recipe. I had typed a lot more but it got delted and I forgot what I said so i hope my first comment posted :/. Love this recipe. I also didnt notice I was supposed to chill the batter before baking them I get to craving them and just whip them up as fast as possible and bake right away and they are so chewy but I love it, I also only use 1 regular size banana.
I don’t know it but there are online tools that can help you figure it out. I’ve linked to some in my FAQs https://https://www.averiecooks.com/faq/
So glad you love the recipe and that it’s a keeper for you!
These cookies look delicious! I couldn’t help but notice you mention these are on the “healthier side”, by only having 1/4 cup of butter and oats… I know it’s very common nowadays to label everything as “healthier/skinny” but just because it has 2 healthy ingredients (bananas and oats), doesn’t necessarily make it healthy because it also has plenty of sugar and flour! Just an observation. Im sure they taste as good as they look.
I made these cookies the other day and I gotta say – WOW!! What an amazing cookie recipe!! I love the banana flavour. I’m always happy when I find a new and healthier cookie recipe that my family loves.
I have a chocolate chip cookie recipe that uses quinoa that the kids like as well.
https://doubletherecipe.com/2016/04/01/quinoa-cookies/
Thanks for sharing a great recipe!
Thanks for trying the recipe and I’m glad it came out great for you!
I just made these cookies this afternoon and they are great!! I did a couple substitutions, but they still turned out great. I omitted the all-purpose flour, and instead put in 1 cup whole wheat pastry flour and 1/4 cup ground flax seed. And for the chocolate chips, I put in half dark chocolate chips and half milk choc chips. Everything else I followed exactly as written. Well, I guess I should also note that I took the cookies out of the fridge after 90 mins because I just couldn’t wait the full two hours! They still worked great though, they didn’t flatten out or anything. These really are so tasty and the consistency is great. They’re nice and soft. My son loves them too! A great way to use some over-ripe bananas.
Thanks for trying the recipe and I’m glad it came out great for you! Glad to hear WW pastry flour and the flax worked well!
I have never felt the need to comment on anything online… But you deserve to know what your cookies are doing. I supply a type of medication to help people living with Cancer/ AIDS and Chronic Pain and the one thing they begged of me was a variety and that I make more than just those “Brownies”. Because of that I have found my own passion in making something that was already beautiful into something more beautiful and have been trolling the Internet for recipes and transformed my little kitchen into a baking machine. While I added only one thing (Traded 1/4 cup of the chocolate chips for a 1/2 cup butterscotch chips) these cookies are the best thing that has ever come out of my oven. The people that asked me for a variety now only ask me when I am bringing your cookies again… When I show up with these cookies they bring the biggest smile to the faces of many people who don’t smile very often these days. Thank you so much!
Thanks for trying the recipe and I’m glad it came out great for you! And that you’re doing such good work for others by baking for them…and that there’s now more variety than the brownies :)
I changed up the recipe a bit using 1/2 cup honey in place of sugar, used whole wheat flour instead of white flour, and added 2 tablespoons of chia seed they turned out really good… thank you for the great recipe.
Glad the honey worked and good idea to add the chia; probably thickened up the dough a bit from the extra moisture the honey added. Glad it worked great!
Hi! Could I use whole wheat flour instead???
I haven’t tried so can’t say for sure if the cookies will work out. I would make as written.
I have 3 medium size bananas I’m trying to use, how would I adjust the recipe?
You could probably double it but since all bananas vary in size, use your judgment when adding the dry ingredients to make sure it comes out to a cookie dough consistency.
Thanks for the suggestion of doubling the recipe. I chose not to do that in case the cookies didn’t come out the right consistency. I made the exactly the same except I substituted Splenda brown sugar and Splenda sugar blend so the diabetics in my household could have some. They turned out delicious!!!
Wow that’s awesome that Splenda brown and the blend worked great in these and that the texture and everything worked out for you! Thanks for sharing that info!
Hi, I just tried this recipe. After 13 minutes, the cookies didn’t really bake. I took them out of the oven after 15 minutes, still doughy, and when they cooled, they were very dry, hard, and uncooked :(
I usually get yummy cookies when I follow your recipes, but this was a failure. What could have gone wrong? The only thing I did differently was to take out egg whites, use baking powder instead of baking soda, and add a tiny bit of milk, because I like my cookies softer. I’ll appreciate your feedback!
Ok so the reason the cookies didn’t work out is because you changed THREE BIG THINGS with the recipe!
“The only thing I did differently was to take out egg whites, use baking powder instead of baking soda, and add a tiny bit of milk…” Yep, that would definitely create a mess. Follow the recipe to the letter it was written and you will have success next time.
Baked these cookies today, they are soft-moist- and of course delicious!
However they are between cake and cookie consistency-I’m okay with this and will definitely make them again.
I followed each step and refrigerated overnight, recipe was not altered.
Thanks for trying the recipe and glad you will definitely make them again! I didn’t find them to be cakey, but all bananas, brands of oats, etc. vary.
can you just put the bowl in the refridgerator for 2 or more hours or do you have to make the cookies out on the pan first?
Form the cookie balls first because otherwise it’s like trying to chisel rock hard dough from a bowl. Not so easy. So do it as written.