banana nut cookies

I have arrived at a simple conclusion - bake crunchy cookies and the cookies will be an all-time favourite of everyone.

Although chewy cookies are common in western countries, I have realised that Asians tend to prefer crunchy cookies. Each time I bake chewy cookies, the cookies are not very popular with the people whom I share the cookies with. However, when I bake crunchy cookies, the cookies tend to fly off the shelves before you can even blink your eye.

As such, the moral of the story is... stick to baking crunchy cookies!

This is a simple recipe for banana nut cookies that I created one saturday afternoon when Da and I had leftover overripe bananas. I had already used some of the bananas to bake a banana butter cake and jemput-jemput (that is, banana fritters) and we still have several bananas left. I toyed with the idea of baking a banana tart but I felt that the bananas were too soft for the tart.

What better way to use up the leftover bananas than to mash them and add them to your cookie dough?

INGREDIENTS

1 3/4 cups plain flour
1/2 cup corn flour
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
125g butter (softened)
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp banana essence
2 medium overripe bananas (mashed)
1 cup chopped almonds

METHOD

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees celsius.

2. Sift the plain flour, corn flour, bicarbonate of soda, salt and ground cinnamon in a bowl. Set aside.

3. Cream the butter and brown sugar in a mixing bowl using an electric mixer until light and fluffy.

4. Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing well with each addition.

5. Add the banana essence, mashed bananas and chopped almonds and mix well.

6. Fold in the flour mixture using a wooden spatula and stir until blended.

7. Drop by teaspoonful onto a baking tray that has been lined with baking paper.

8. Bake for 20 minutes or until the cookies are golden brown.

9. Let the cookies cool thoroughly before storing them in an air-tight container.