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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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.
It’s like banana bread meets cookie! Absolutely delicious, moist, and full of flavor. Very very impressed and happy with this recipe!
Thanks for the 5 star review and I’m glad you are very happy with the recipe!
Made these last night, I actually had to hide 3 cookies to save them for my girls because my husband and 2 brother in laws in inhaled the whole batch! My husband has already gone to the store this morning to get more bananas so I can make more today! Thank is for this amazing cookie recipe.
Thanks for the 5 star review and I’m glad these were loved (and inhaled) by all!
Hi— I absolutely loved the cookies when I made them. Quick question, does one need to include flour or is it possible to bake without it?
Yes you need to use flour in this recipe.
I’m just about to put these in the oven! Although I would have been just as happy eating the dough – raw egg and all! I notice now that you say to make 14 portions to refrigerate but you put 8 on each baking sheet… should I have made 16 equal portions before refrigerating?
p.s. I have been VERY happy with every recipe that I’ve made of yours, Thank you!
These cookies are sooooo good. Just a hint of banana and the texture of oatmeal with chocolate, ohhh yea. I had one right out of the oven and thought I was in heaven! I am thinking they are a good on the run breakfast cookie too. Thanks for the recipe. This one is a keeper.
Thanks for the 5 star review and glad this is a keeper for you!
These really are perfect. My son and I love them so much that I always make extra dough to keep in the freezer to bake some when we need them! They turn out great every time!
Thanks for the five star review and I’m glad that you always keep extra dough stashed in the freezer!
I was looking for a recipe to use over ripe bananas and found this online. These cookies are amazing. What I love about them is that they are big and chewy and you can really get away with eating one cookie and feel like you’ve had two or three. Great recipe!!
Thanks for the 5 star review and glad they turned out amazing!
I hate to say it, but I’m sick of banana bread! This is a refreshing change. I made some modifications for my taste – super black, ripe bananas, no cinnamon, coconut sugar instead of brown sugar, and I did a mix of peanut butter chips and chocolate chips. With that said, the foundation of this recipe is solid.
Thanks for the five star review and I’m glad these were a refreshing change!
I made these with coconut oil instead of butter and my daughter said it was like eating mini banana breads (she is 28) my extremely picky eater granddaughter loves them ❤️ I will make lots of these cookies 🍪 thank you for a great recipe
Thanks for the five star review and glad that coconut out worked well and that that they were a hit with your daughter and granddaughter!
Can this be made into crunchy cookies? I’ll be making this for a friend and he prefers it crunchy.
This recipe is anything but crunchy since there’s banana in it, making them soft and chewy. Select another recipe and overbake it if you want more crunch is my advice.
Ok Averie, you have done it this time with this recipe, now Averie Cooks is THE PLACE to come for the best recipes! Have a great weekend!
Thanks for the 5 star review and thanks for the compliments :) Have a great weekend as well!
These are my favorite cookies of all time.
Thanks for the 5 star review and glad these are your fave cookies of all time!
Any advice on making these with NO added sugar.
I’ve only made the recipe as written so really can’t give advice if you deviate.
These cookies are amazing! I’ve made them at least a half dozen times since discovering this recipe and for my family, I don’t even add any sugar. Plus, last night I used quick cooking oats in place of the flour and they’re still delicious. So much yum!
Thanks for the 5 star review and glad these come out great for you even without sugar and with quick oats!
I broke the rules! I used the quick oats. I also substituted butterscotch chips and made them unchilled in 9×9. Results? Fabulous!!! More like banana bread but I love them. Definitely a favorite!
Glad they still turned out amazing even with breaking some rules :) And yes I can see them more like banana bread than cookie-texture by using the quick oats.
Today is my second time making these cookies and they are delicious! My husband could not get enough of them last time. I wanted to note– I did follow the instructions completely the first time and found these cookies to be super fluffy and questioned whether or not the dough actually needed to be chilled. Today, while making, I decided to cook 6 cookies using just mixed, unchilled dough and to be honest they came out just as beautiful as they had when I had chilled the dough for 2 hours! SO just FYI for those on a time crunch– these can be baked immediately and you *should* have similar results.
Thanks for the 5 star review and glad you love the cookies and that you were able to bake them successfully without chilling the dough!
What if I put cornstarch in it?
Have not tried but will probably be fine.