These banana bread cookies are soft, and cakey, banana flavored cookies topped with cream cheese frosting!
These banana bread cookies are the perfect banana dessert. They’re tender, soft, and cakey cookies. They’re perfectly spiced, and so good topped with their sweet and tangy cream cheese frosting.
Just like banana bread, these cookies are even better as they sit. The cookies are super moist, and have a soft cakey texture like a piece of banana bread, or banana cake, all wrapped up in a hand held cookie.
I combined my pumpkin chocolate chip cookie recipe, and my banana bread recipe to make these cookies, and the results were even better than I hoped. These banana cookies will be a repeat in our kitchen!
Ingredients Needed to make Banana Bread Cookies:
- unsalted butter
- brown sugar
- granulated sugar
- egg
- vanilla extract
- banana
- all purpose flour
- baking powder and baking soda
- cinnamon and nutmeg
- salt
How to make Banana Bread Cookies?
In a large bowl, stir together your butter, brown sugar, and sugar until nice and smooth. Add in the eggs, vanilla extract and mashed banana, and stir them together until combed.
In another bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt.
Then dump all the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and fold them together until you have a really soft dough. The dough will be runnier than a normal cookie dough.
Carefully scoop the dough in about 1.5 Tablespoon sized scoops, onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. The cookies will spread a decent amount, so make sure to space them 2 to 3 inches apart on the pan.
Bake until the cookies are set, and the tops look baked. Then let them cool completely before frosting them.
Combine all the ingredients for the frosting and spread them evenly over the top of the cooled cookies.
Tips for making Banana Bread Cookies:
- Add chocolate chips or chopped walnuts to the batter if desired. Add up to 1.5 cup of mix ins, if desired.
- Use a cookie scoop to scoop the batter onto the baking pan, because the batter is so sticky, and thin. This will also help you get even cookies, and help to keep them mostly round. This medium cookie scoop works great, you want one that holds about 1.5 Tablespoons.
- You can squish the cookie edges in slightly with a spoon right when you remove the cookies from the oven to get a more rounded look.
- You can also top the frosted cookies with chopped pecans, or walnuts.
- The cookies are also delicious served up as cookie sandwiches. Put the cream cheese frosting in the middle of the bottom of two cookies, and sandwich them together.
- Skip the frosting if desired, the cookies are still delicious without it!
How to store Banana Bread Cookies?
If the cookies are topped with cream cheese frosting then you should store them in an airtight container in the fridge. Carefully layer them with parchment paper between each layer, or place them in a single layer if possible. They should stay good in the fridge for up to 4 days.
If you skip the frosting, the cookies are left unfrosted you can store them at room temperature for up to 4 or 5 days.
The cookies can also be frozen. I recommend freezing them without the frosting. Lay the cookies out on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper, and flash freeze them for about 1 hour. Then you can transfer them to a freezer safe container or zip top bag in layers. The cookies can be frozen for up to 3 months.
Just let them thaw at room temperature. Frost with fresh frosting if desired.
If you love bananas you will love these moist, and soft banana cookies. Especially paired with their smooth and tang cream cheese frosting. It’s a delicious flavor combo!
More banana recipes:
- Banana Cream Pie Cookies
- Brown Butter Banana Cookies
- Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins
- Banana Pudding Poke Cake
- Banana Pancakes
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Banana Bread Cookies
Ingredients
For the Banana Bread Cookies:
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter (room temperature)
- 1/2 cup brown sugar (packed)
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1 cup mashed banana (about 2 bananas)
- 1 large egg
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp nutmeg (optional)
- 1/4 tsp salt
For the Cream Cheese Frosting:
- 8 oz cream cheese (softened)
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter (1 stick, room temperature)
- 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
Equipment
- Large Mixing Bowl
Instructions
For the Banana Bread Cookies:
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Line a baking sheet or two with parchment paper or a silicone liner and set them aside.
- Add your butter, brown sugar, and sugar to a large bowl and mix them together for about a minute.
- Add in the mashed banana, egg, and vanilla extract and stir it all together.
- Dump in the flour, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda, nutmeg, and salt and stir them all together until you have a nice soft batter. Make sure to scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl as needed.
- Carefully scoop the batter (I recommend using a cookie scoop) by the 1.5 TBS of dough onto the prepared baking sheet, making sure to keep the cookies about 3 inches apart because the cookies spread out.
- Bake the cookies for 7 to 9 minutes or until the tops are set and a toothpick can be inserted in one and comes out clean.
- Let the cookies cool on the baking pan for 10 minutes, then transfer them to a cooling rack to cool completely.
For the Cream Cheese Frosting:
- Add your cream cheese to a large mixing bowl and mix it until it is smooth.
- Add in the butter and continue mixing until it is blended in to the cream cheese.
- Add in the powdered sugar and vanilla and beat them together on low/slow speed until the frosting is nice and creamy.
- Spread the frosting evenly over the top of your cookies.
Nutrition
Joane says
Made these today and they are so good. Only change I did was on the nutmeg. I used 1/4 tsp of it rather than a half. They are a soft cookie. When I scooped them out on the parchment paper I just flattened them out a dab. I used a small scoop 1 1/2 tbsp size. But cooked them 14 minutes for my stove. I put the cream cheese frosting in between two cookies. Small Whoopi Pies. Family went nuts. This one’s a keeper. Plus less messy.
Aimee says
Making sandwich cookies like whoopie pies sounds amazing! I’ll definitely do that next time!
Mike says
These are AMAZING! I replaced a half cup of flour with rolled oats, and it not only firmed up the batter a bit but it also helped them keep their form! I added a handful of chopped walnuts. I didn’t have the ingredients for the frosting (which sounds delicious), but they are good as is!
This one’s a keeper! Five stars!
Kati says
I hate to give negative reviews but I don’t want anyone else to waste their time on these. This is a bad recipe. It’s a burnt at the edges and liquid mess.
B says
why was this dough so sticky it was unmanageable?! what did i do wrong? i’m sure it’s me and not the recipe.
Aimee says
Maybe extra large bananas? It is a sticky dough, I scoop it with a cookie scoop – they are a cakey style cookie
K. says
The taste was great! My only problem was that when. I did the recipe, the cookies poofed up big so they were like domes. They were a great snack, but the recipe was followed exactly and that happened.
Aimee says
The cookies are a little more cakey than chewy, so they are a little domed. You could try lowering the flour amount if you make them again.
Jenn says
You mentioned nutmeg, but I didn’t see it listed in the actual recipe. Is this an oversight or was it intentionally omitted?
Aimee says
So sorry about that Jenn, the recipe is updated!
Lauren says
These are absolutely amazing! My family requests these regularly. I bake cookies 1-2 times a week and I always have to make a double batch of these and they still don’t last more than a few days.
Rina Reynolds says
Does the frosting dry/harden for the cookies to be stacked?
Aimee says
It doesn’t really harden, so I recommend not stacking them unless necessary. (I know I stacked them for pics, so sorry for the confusion!)