Day 1: Chocolate Banana Drops

To begin my challenge, I decided to do something that wasn't too difficult, but was definitely different from what I normally made: "Chocolate Banana Drops."

This recipe comes from an old cookie recipe book called CookieMania (http://www.amazon.com/Cookiemania-100-Irresistible-Recipes-Cookiemaniacs/dp/0809245515/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1375415492&sr=8-1&keywords=Cookiemania). The name of the recipe is pretty much what it is: chocolate and banana cookies.

The Ingredients

• 2oz unsweetened chocolate
• 2.5 cups flour
• 1.5 tsp baking powder
• .5 tsp baking soda
• .5 tsp salt
• 2/3 cup butter
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 cup mashed ripe banana (2 large bananas)
  (If your bananas aren't ripe enough, stick them in a bag or covered container for an hour or two.)

Super convenient, as these ingredients are found in most kitchens. The only one that you might not have would be the unsweetened chocolate; if you only have semi-sweet, I'd suggest using a little less brown sugar.
The type of brown sugar isn't specified either; I actually ended up using dark brown sugar instead of the light pictured here.

The Process

1. Mix the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together in a small bowl.

2. Begin melting chocolate in a double boiler. While the chocolate is melting, cream the butter. (I used a
handheld mixer, and chopped the butter into smaller pieces. This however made the butter get trapped inside the whisks, so it might not have actually helped much time-wise, but reduced some spray and mess.) Add the sugar and beat until it's light and fluffy, like a little bunny. Beat in eggs, one at a time. By this point, your chocolate should be melted. Add the chocolate and vanilla, and mix it together.

3. Mash up your bananas with a fork. (This can actually be done at any time.) Mix in the bananas and flour slowly with the liquid mix. (At this point, I quit using my electric mixer, to prevent a big flour-y mess. I mixed in about a fourth of the flour at a time.)

4. Refrigerate for a minimum of one hour. I refrigerated mine for ~3.5.

Now's a good time to sample the dough!

5. Heat oven to 400F. Using a teaspoon, spoon dough onto a cookie sheet, spreading each dollop about an inch apart. The cookie sheet doesn't need to be greased (it bettuh not need to with all that buttah in it!). Bake for ~12 minutes.

6. Remove cookies from oven (duh), and wait 2-4 minutes before transferring the cookies to a wire rack to cool.

The Finished Product

Some Comments

The original recipe said this would make 60 cookies. In the end, I had 44. With this size, each cookie was about 80 calories.

I also wouldn't actually describe this as a "cookie." It actually has a texture more similar to cake! It is somewhat spongy, and definitely not dense or crunchy like most other cookies. Not necessarily a bad thing, but not what I had set out to do.

If I Could Do It Again....

If I remade this recipe, I'd definitely add nuts.

In fact, I actually did add chopped walnuts to the top of the very last few that I made.

Not only did it make it taste better, but it made it look better as well!

I'd also replace one cup of flour with whole wheat flour. This recipe seems forgiving enough that this wouldn't change the taste of the cookie.

The Final Verdict

This recipe is okay. I think that there are easier recipes out there that taste better. You can taste both the banana and chocolate. It's nice that neither flavor overpowers the other, but at the same time, both flavors are somewhat dull. Again, I would highly suggest adding nuts if you plan on making these; they enhance the flavor and add a nice crunch!

However, the recipe isn't bad. I liked that the end product wasn't actually too sweet. The recipe did suggest making a chocolate frosting, which would have made the cookie much sweeter.

Unfortunately, these cookies have no aesthetic appeal. I think they should be called "Chocolate Banana Droppings"; they look like little turds. Again, this could possibly be remedied by the addition of frosting. Possibly. Or it could make it look like diarrhea.

This is a good recipe if you have some bananas that are about to become overripe. You could also easily use frozen bananas. It's not too time intensive, the ingredients aren't bizarre, and it's not complicated at all.

With frosting, this could also make a good children's birthday party desert; it would be much faster to distribute and non-messy to eat, but still taste like cake.