Chewy Healthy Peanut Butter Banana Cookies are a twist on your peanut butter cookie recipe. Made with no butter and less sugar, they make a great snack!
These Healthy Peanut Butter Banana Cookies always come in for the win over the summer month and the start of the school year.
I’m sort of obsessed with peanut butter. Whenever I have a snack craving, it is my go-to. I have worked peanut butter into some of my favorite foods, including caramel with my Peanut Butter Caramel Sauce and snickerdoodle cookies with my Peanut Butter Snickerdoodles.
My Favorite Kitchen Tools To Make This Recipe
From trusty pots and pans to handy gadgets, I’ve curated a list of products I use and love.
My obsession inspires these Healthy Peanut Butter Banana cookies with my Best Ever Soft Peanut Butter Cookies. Not only do we love that recipe for peanut butter cookies, but we also love many of you. One of my top-performing pins right now – those Peanut Butter Cookies are becoming a household favorite for many of you.
It was a reader’s comment that made me switch up the recipe for my peanut butter cookies to make these Healthy Peanut Butter Banana Cookies. They mentioned in their comments that they reduced the brown and granulated sugars, increased the peanut butter, and added a banana. I meant to follow their directions and my recipe to a T so that I could recreate and try it.
Sadly, I didn’t follow my recipe directions and unknowingly omitted the butter. Upon the first bite, I was like, holy cow, I can taste the banana. I felt like I had missed an ingredient, but they tasted more like a muffin than a cookie. But they were so soft, and the banana and peanut butter shined, so I didn’t think more about it.
Then, when I came to write the recipe, I realized I left out the butter. EEK!
But when I added the nutritional content to these cookies, they came out to only 112 calories per cookie! So I was like, heck yes, they were just right then. Making a snack that is one of my kids’ favorites without overloading them with granulated sugar in the afternoon before dinner.
My hubby tried them and liked them, but he said that they would even be better with dark chocolate. I agree. It would add the perfect touch of sweetness. Now, while these cookies are labeled “healthy,” my kids still ate them. They are perfectly served with a glass of milk to dip into a drink afterward.
Peanut butter cookie Tips
While the entire recipe only takes a little over 30 minutes from start to finish, I would rather bake a batch once a week than once a day.
So are you looking for a snack or treat, that doesn’t all the “extras” like butter and sugar? Then try these Healthy Peanut Butter Banana Cookies. They are McCollum kids approved and that in itself is a reason you should try them.
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Healthy Peanut Butter Banana Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup peanut butter
- 1/2 cup ripe banana 1 – 1 1/2 bananas
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 tablespoon vanilla
- 1/2 cup flour
- 1/2 cup instant oats
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 F.
- Mash the banana(s) using a fork or masher.
- Using an eletric mixer, beat together the peanut butter, brown sugar, and mashed banana.
- Add the egg and vanilla extract and continue to mix until well combined.
- In a small mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, oats, baking soda and salt. Slowly add to the mixer and combine with the wet ingredients.
- Use a cookie scoop to form into rounded balls and place on a parchment lined baking sheet.
- Bake for 10-12 minutes or until golden brown.
- These keep well for a couple of days in an airtight container.
I can’t say No to this! Delicious!
Enjoy!
I just love that these are healthier! 🙂 They look perfect.
Thank you, Carrie!
Nothing like the combination of banana and peanut butter! Looking forward to baking these over the weekend!
I hope you enjoy the cookies!
Can I use whole wheat flour???
Hi Lisa! Whole wheat is denser than the all-purpose flour used in the recipe. This means the cookies will end up heavier and a bit more crumbly than usual. It may also add a grainy texture. That being said, it will work, but the texture overall will be different and not preferred. If you have some to use up, you can do a mixture of all-purpose flour and wheat flour and may have better results than just whole wheat flour alone. I hope this helps! Be sure to let us know what you try.
I do love that you put banana in these! Great idea!
It’s such a delicious addition for sure! Enjoy!
I just baked these today. They came out delicious! Soft and chewy! I also added 1/2 cup chocolate chips to them. Will definitely bake again!
Chocolate chips sound like an amazing addition! So glad you enjoyed them. Thank you!
Hi, I have yet to bake these but I was wondering what you would think about possibly a honey sub for some of the sugar? would that maybe help keep some more moisture, since I’ve seen a few comments about it being rather dry…? And also! what do you think about maybe a tsp of vanilla as well? Too sweet perhaps? or the taste might not be so well? would love to hear back from you soon!
You can definitely try honey as a substitute for the sugar! Vanilla definitely wouldn’t hurt either! Sugar actually adds moisture as well, which is why in baking it’s usually included in “wet ingredients”. A lot of the dryness is caused by overbaking in peanut butter based cookie recipes. When you bake these be sure not to bake longer than 8-9 minutes. They will not look quite “done” but will set up and be perfectly soft and chewy! I hope this helps. Enjoy!
they are good but they are not what i call cookies. they are mini cakes. unless i have done something wrong. it’s not the first recipe i try which turns out like a mini cake. Another i tried had no flour but it just became a flat mess. not sure what i am doing wrong
Hi Sandy! These are softer, thicker cookies than you may be thinking of. They are not supposed to be too crunchy or flat like a gingersnap. What kind of flour are you using?
I just made these and shared them with my family for dessert. AND WOW. We loved them! I added a little bit of apple sauce and it brought out the moisture even further.
Thank you for sharing and for including tips ! <3
I’m so glad you enjoyed them! Adding apple sauce sounds like a great idea as well!
OMG! I just made these today and I added some chocolate chips and oh my gosh they are so amazing. I could imagine they be good with some rice krispies thrown in and I might try that next time awesome. We’ll definitely be keeping this a recipe!
Chocolate chips sound like such a delicious addition! I’m so glad you enjoyed them!
These cookies are awesome! I used all natural chunky peanut butter in mine. They have a slight banana taste, but not overpowering. And they are soft and yummy! Very easy to make and quick to bake! Definitely bookmarking this one! Thank you!
Thank you! I’m so glad you enjoyed them!
Just made these for my family! Super easy! Thank you!
So glad to hear that!
These are great. I made one change. I used 3 tablespoons each of white & brown sugar. If I’m correct, that’s 72 grams of added sugar. I got 24 cookies which is 3 grams per cookie. I like that, however, I just had 6 of them. Very good, I’ll be making these again. Thanks for the recipe.
So happy to read this! And I appreciate your suggestions. xo
Hi!! Oh wow this is a new go to for cookies! My finicky Boyfriend loves peanut butter cookies and banana bread .. SO i do believe that bringing these two yummies together will settle his debate on what to eat first LOL .. my question is … How long will they last in a seal tight container outside of the fridge or in cookie jar? Is 1 week a good guess? I plan on making lots.. also would these freeze well? thank you so much in advance 😀
These freeze very well! And we keep it at room temperature for a couple of days and then stick it in the freezer, the fridge would be fine too for a couple of days following but they won’t last that long. I’d recommend the freezer if you make a large batch or want to take them on a trip or camping.
Gave these a try- subbed white sugar for coconut sugar and added some cinnamon. I used standard JIF creamy peanut butter and white flour. I wonder if I over mixed the dough or my flour is old because the rounded dough balls did not spread as they cooked. My first tray I took out after 8 minutes and smooshed them down with a fork and cooked 2 additional minutes, and the second tray I did the standard peanut butter cookie fork marks smooshing them down and it worked a little better. Overall, the flavor was good and the cinnamon added a little something extra.
I’m glad the sugar substitute worked! It definitely does work better if you press them with the fork first. I’m glad you enjoyed them!
I was curious about this recipe. “No butter” and useing banana in cookies. I never heard anything quite like this. So I gave it a try. Unfortunately I was short on the peanut butter but you said your husband thought dark chocolate would be good, so I continued with nutella.
They turned out amazing. Thank you for sharing.
Adding Nutella to these cookies definitely does sound delicious! I’m glad you enjoyed them!
Hard to stop eating them! I only had natural peanut butter so I added about 1/3 cup of butter. Key is to thoroughly blend the butters and sugars together first, then I added the banana and egg and vanilla. Added a bit of cinnamon to the flour and added chocolate chips at the end. I found the batter very soft so put it in the fridge in between batches. My husband declared them the best cookies I have ever made! After 35 years of marriage and cookie making, that’s saying a lot! Thanks for a great recipe to use up my old bananas.
So glad to hear you enjoyed them! Chocolate chips are never a bad addition.
Tried this today to use up some overripe bananas, and it turned out well, just the right amount of sweetness!
Recipe aside, I do wish that people posting items on the internet would follow some basics of English grammar: “Also, using a rubber spatula is really helpful when removing the peanut butter from it’s jar.”…the word “it’s” is actually a contraction of the words “it is”; you should be using “its” without the apostrophe.
I made this recipe as written. I used natural peanut butter. The cookies tasted ok but were under baked at 9 minutes. I ended up at 11 minutes-which is not a big deal as everyone’s oven is different. The texture was dry-ish, not crumbly, but not pleasant. I read (after the fact) that one reviewer used natural peanut butter and added butter which by I’m sure would have improved the texture. Perhaps on the ingredient list you should specify the type of peanut butter you used. The second sheet, I added chocolate chips to the dough. It added an additional flavor to the cookies , but of course it was still overly dry. I am sure the problem was the type of peanut butter used.
I used Jif peanut butter, I will test this to see if this does impact the cookies and texture at all, thank you for the feedback. San
I made this. I’m Not the best baker but I feel I followed the instructions to a T. I did add dark chocolate at the end. But they didn’t taste very good. I used 1-1/2 banana but I think it needed 2. They don’t even taste peanut buttery. 🙁 I can taste a hint of banana but barely any peanut butter. I will make again but w butter and two bananas.
Hi Eric, this recipe was recently updated and we hope you give it another try!
These are amazing! Easy to make, much healthier than traditional cookies, soft and moist. They’re being eaten almost as fast as they’re coming out of the oven. If I had to add anything, it would be a bit of spice, like cinnamon or cardamom, for an extra little oomph. But they’re still delicious as-is!
Great recipe thanks for sharing this
Delicious cookies. Ideal when cutting down sugar and a great snack for toddlers.
Cookies were Fantastic! Thank You!
Nice! I love the addition of banana for natural sweetness to cut down on the sugar and the oatmeal for texture and fiber. These sound great!