“Elvis” cookies
Written by Cassie on December 8th, 2009I bought bananas from Your Dekalb Farmer’s Market thinking they might quickly brown with the intention of baking something with them. They were about an hour away from black death this evening so I ran by a local chain grocery to grab some pecans, and found some peanut butter swirl chocolate chips at a major discount so I was like, “OH YEAH” and made some “Elvis” cookies! (I took pics with my iPhone, so apologies for the graininess.)
I based my cookies on this recipe from Simply Recipes: http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/banana_cookies/
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup of unsalted butter, room temperature
- 1 cup of sugar
- 1 egg, room temperature
- 1 cup of mashed bananas (about 2 ½ large bananas)
- 1 teaspoon of baking soda
- 2 cups of flour
- pinch of salt
- 1/2 teaspoon of ground cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon of ground mace or nutmeg
- 1/2 teaspoon of ground cloves
- 1 cup of pecans (walnuts and chocolate chips are fine alternatives)
Changes:
Instead of white sugar, I opted for brown sugar. I didn’t make any with white sugar so I don’t have a taste comparison, but they turned out delicious so I don’t think it matters either way. I also added about half a tablespoon of vanilla because the batter tasted a little bland (yeah, I licked the spoon!) I used cinnamon, but I just used pumpkin pie spice instead of nutmeg and cloves, and I didn’t measure either the cinnamon nor the pumpkin pie spice- just eyeballed it.
I mushed up 2.5 really brown bananas. I think I smelled a little alcohol on these babies so maybe they really were a bit past their prime, but the cookies taste alright.
Excuse my gross looking bakeware- it’s on my Christmas list! These baking pans survived college and at least ten different roommates so it’s impressive that they’re still non-stick… in some parts. Anyway, I like my cookies a little puffy so I put a big dollop of cookie dough for each one. I baked a little past 13 minutes and let them rest on a plate to collapse.
Watching the magic happen…
Mmm! Couldn’t resist a taste-test from the first batch. They taste like free form banana nut muffins with peanut butter and chocolate. SUCCESS!
Yummy cookies + the Motown Christmas playlist on Pandora = a nice night at home.
On a side note, anyone out there a Dexter fan? I’ve spent the last week plowing through seasons 1-4, and last night’s episode had a little moment that made me giggle:
When Sergeant Batista shows Christine the postcards her dad sent her, he flips over this card addressed to her in Atlanta. There is no such road as “Peachtree Boulevard” in Atlanta, but there is Peachtree Street, Peachtree Road, Peachtree Industrial Boulevard, Peachtree Corners Circle, etc. But the 30326 zip code exists in Buckhead, which totally makes sense for Christine’s character to live. She’s a total “Buckhead Betty!” LOLZ!
It’s finally been cold in Atlanta (although I think we’re expecting weather in the 60s this week!) which means I get to bust out my favorite winter hat. It has a nubbin on top!
I made it with yarn from JoJoCheng’s Etsy shop last year. I’m a sucker for chunky handspun yarns and the colors are just… mmm, beachy!
I hope everyone’s have a great start to the holidays. I’m finishing finals- good luck to anyone else working on finals!
8
AM
Hey there! I’ve been reading you for a while now… first learned of you when I found your Mario Scarf project (I crochet myself, but also love gaming)… I also grew up in Atlanta, and graduated from Cross Keys High School in 89, so it’s cool to read someone still living there! (I’m in Charlotte now.)
Anyway, just had to comment on the cookies – they look delicious, and I love the way you improvised with ingredients – truly joyful baking. (I love to bake too.)
Finally, in the last of my creepy comparisons, I have just started watching Dexter via Netflix myself! I am midway through Season 2 and LOVE it. I had to skim over what you wrote since I didn’t want to spoil any surprises, but it’s intriguing to see that postcard from Atlanta, in a familiar neighborhood.
Anyway – just delurking to give you a long-winded hello.
-Erica
(snippygal on Flickr if you want to see any of my yarny things)