Adventures in Baking Quarantine Edition: Banana Chocolate Chip Cookies

I love baking, but in the last few years I have not done a lot of it.  You know, life gets in the way.

I've made pies: apple and pumpkin.  I've made cranberry tarts.  I've made chocolate chip cookies (some were rocks... but that's another story) and macaroons.  I made soda bread once upon a time.  My favorite were the Cranberry Chocolate Chip Scones (hence why there's a post about it!).

Far and few between.  With work and life, I just couldn't get back into making baking a regular habit.  But most everything I made was generally delicious (apparently, even the rock cookies... Baros and Burak ate them all.. and no broken teeth).

In the last few weeks, since the quarantine started I have baked once or twice a week.  It's been refreshing and relaxing.

I've made:

Banana Chocolate Chip Cookies  (and banana pancakes! not baking but I made them and they were delicious)
Soda Bread (twice in one day because the cat decided to play hockey with the first loaf)
Lemon Brownies
Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
Sponge Cake (a little dense)
Banana Coffee Muffins

So I'd like to share a couple of the recipes and adventures I've tried and adapted during this quarantine.

cherry Blossoms during the Quarantine

I hate quarantine and baking is one of the things helping me keep my sanity and relax at least some of the time. That and walks.  I love taking walks with Baros.  I love cooking and trying new ways to prep things.  On sunny days, I love setting the table on the deck and eating all of the delicious with Baros.

Spinach and Turkey omelette with fresh Guacamole

Eating our red pepper omelette, feta cheese and fresh salsa outside

One of the first things I decided to make was Banana chocolate chip pancakes because we had some over ripe bananas chilling in the kitchen.  However, I made my pancake decision at around 11 pm... Not the best pancake time...

here are my Beautiful banana pancakes!

That being said, I was still feeling snacky. So I opted to make Banana Chocolate Chip Cookies.  I was inspired by the recipe created by Lil Luna.

I tweaked her version slightly because we wanted a less sweet cookie.  Baros doesn't love super sweet American style desserts and I've been trying to watch how much sugar I consume, since I seem to be particularly effected by things like sugar and caffeine.  I did add some extra vanilla extract and a little bit of cinnamon to add some complexity to the flavor.

As this was this first time I've baked in a while I also forgot how important it is to follow directions.  When the recipe calls for softened butter, you should make sure it's softened, not melted...  We created a mini burner, and put hot water in a small bowl and a second bowl on top with a stick of butter in it.... It.... kind of worked.

I only have ONE picture of these and I don't know why!!

Banana Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients:

• 6 tbs butter, room temperature (take it out of the fridge in advance)
• 1/3 cup sugar (next time I'm going to use our dark brown sugar as I think this will add to the color and flavor)
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup mashed ripe banana
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 1/4 cup flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/8 tsp baking soda
• 1/3 tsp salt 
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 -1 1/2 cups semi sweet chocolate chips 

1.  Preheat the oven to 350° F
2. In a medium bowl, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.  (Choose a deep bowl so you don't shoot sugar and butter all over the place...  This can also be avoided by actually using room temperature butter).
3. Mix the egg, banana and vanilla into the creamed butter/sugar mixture thoroughly.
4. Slowly sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt into the creamed mixture. Mix gradually.
5. Stir in chocolate chips.  I like to use a lot of chocolate, so I definitely put in closer to a cup and a half of chocolate!
6.  Refridgerate for an hour or so (if you can wait that long!).  It helps the flavors merge together and also really helps the bake if you want a soft cookie!
7.  Scoop onto a baking sheet lines with parchment paper.  Bake for 12-16 minutes or until the edges take on a light brown color.

The cookies came out wonderfully.  They were banana and chocolate heaven!  Please check out Lil Luna's original recipe as I tweaked here and there to get the cookie Baros and I would really love.

Next time, I'll switch over to dark brown sugar because I think it'll add some wonderful color and flavor.  I think it'll also change the texture a little, so I'm excited to try it out again... That is... Once I can get back to the grocery store because I'm out of chocolate chips!

I miss Pre-Quarantine days when I could just go to the grocery whenever I wanted to get whatever I needed at pretty much any hour of day.  However, in Quarantine, we're going to the grocery store once a week sometimes once every two weeks if we can manage.  I wish I was better at making grocery lists!  I always forget something, but then I don't want to go back out again and we live without it!  And all the stores around here are closing at 8:30pm so when I want to bake at 11pm, I literally have to use whatever we have because nothing is open...

Oh well.  I'm just happy that I can bake and destress!


UPDATE:  Add some cocoa powder for some double chocolate chip banana cookies that are amazing!!