Clearly I’ve just given up with trying to come up with puns for anything peanut butter related. That title is just sad. Sad like a little kid who just dropped their entire ice cream cone before they even got to take one bite. Or sad like the fact that I don’t have a Goldendoodle as a pet (yes, I mean THAT sad. Not really sure why I felt the need to add the addendum “as a pet” though? Apparently I figured you would all think I meant consuming a Goldendoodle as a BBQ side dish?).
OK, full disclosure? These were originally supposed to be straight-up “official” nutter butters. I.e. They were supposed to be peanut butter sandwich cookies filled with peanut butter frosting. After four (yes, FOUR) attempts at making peanut butter frosting and having it split. Every. Single. Time. I just couldn’t take it anymore. And yes smartypants, I know the very definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results, which is why I made changes every time too. Natural peanut butter didn’t work? OK, though I was a bit loathe to do it, I opted for your sugar laden brands instead. Still didn’t work. Then I thought maybe my addition of cashew milk was causing the issue, so I removed it entirely. Nope. Then, I switched up my ratios of peanut butter to vegan butter, but alas….no 🙁 :
After so much sadness throwing out all that peanut butter, I couldn’t take it anymore.
I was just going to leave them as failures and just consume them as straight unfilled/unfrosted peanut butter cookies (which were super delicious on their own, so not a total failure), when a brainstorm struck me. Bananas! I used to love peanut butter and banana sandwiches in their not combined with 80lbs of sugar format, so this seemed like it could be the saviour that I’m looking for. Success? Hands down, yes. I dare say that I personally like this even better than with peanut butter filling. The cookies are so rich, decadent and peanut buttery, and then you get the tongue-tinglingly refreshing hit of banana and suddenly, all things seem possible.
Bananas, the miracle fruit? (has a better ring to it than the similar sounding jingle for beans. Bananas – healthy and won’t cramp your social life 😉 ). Yes, most definitely. I now had a veritible “Banana”-za of delicious cookies on my hand. Other bonus side note? My leftover banana frosting mixed into my morning coffee was drool-worthingly delicious. Banana cream pie coffee. This needs to become the next big craze. It might sound bananas, but it’s actually….hmmm…actually, I guess it is bananas 😉 .
Yield: 2 dozen mini sandwich cookies
Ingredients
Peanut Butter Cookies:
- 1/3 cup coconut oil
- 1/4 cup vegan butter
- 2/3 cup packed brown sugar
- 1/3 cup cane sugar
- 1 egg replacer
- 3/4 cup + 1 tablespoon peanut butter
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
- 1 1/4 cups flour
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon corn starch
- pinch of salt teaspoon salt
- 1/4 cup cane sugar (optional – for rolling cookies in prior to baking)
Banana Filling:
- 1/4 cup mashed banana (about 1/2 of a medium sized banana alternatively use vegan banana pudding mix and reduce the liquid slightly)
- 1/2 teaspoon lemon juice
- 1/4 cup vegan butter
- 3 tablespoons banana liqueur
- 1 teaspoon banana extract
- 1 tablespoons maple syrup (or honey)
- pinch of salt (optional)
- 1 1/2 -2 cups icing sugar
- 1/2 cup coconut milk powder (or other non-dairy milk powder, or just use more icing sugar)
Directions
- With an electric mixer blend together in a large bowl the coconut oil, butter and both sugars. Mix in peanut butter, then the egg replacer and vanilla.
- Sift together in a medium sized bowl flour, baking soda, baking powder, corn starch and salt.
- Mix dry ingredients into wet ingredients in a couple of batches.
- Create peanut shape with cookies if desired by scooping smallish balls of cookies dough, rolling in cane sugar if desired and placing onto a prepared baking sheet (i.e. lined with parchment or silpat, or greased). create a crosshatch patten in the top of the cookie with a fork and pinch the middle slightly until it looks a bit like a peanut. Place tray in the refrigerator to chill for at least an hour.
- Preheat oven to 350F and bake for about 10 minutes or until just start to brown. Remove from the oven and and allow to cool slightly. If cookies have spread at all, at this point, before they’ve cooled completely, just pinch the middles again to give your cookies their groove back
- While cookies are cooling, make the banana filling. In a medium-sized bowl, cream together the banana, lemon juice and butter for a couple of minutes until smooth and pale in colour. Mix in the banana liqueur, banana extract, maple syrup and salt (if using). Beat for a minute. Slowly sift in the coconut milk powder and then the icing sugar.
- If filling is too thick, add non-dairy milk until desired consistency is achieved, if it’s too thin, add a bit more icing sugar or coconut milk powder.
- Chill slightly before spreading filling between two cookies.
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