Banana Oatmeal Cookies with Banana Frosting

These banana oatmeal cookies bring together two of the best uses for overripe bananas in one bite. Mashed ripe banana goes into the cookie dough for tender, cake-like texture, and more banana goes into the frosting with a splash of lemon for a tangy, bright finish that keeps the sweetness in check.

Use genuinely ripe bananas with brown-speckled skins. Underripe bananas won’t mash smoothly and don’t have the concentrated sugar that gives baked goods their banana-bread flavor. The same goes for the frosting. Speckled is the sweet spot.

Quick-cooking oats, not instant or old-fashioned, are specified for a reason. Quick oats soften in the dough and give a tender, slightly chewy cookie. Old-fashioned rolled oats stay too rigid, while instant turn to mush. Sub carefully if at all.

Lemon juice in the banana frosting does double duty. It balances the sweetness of the powdered sugar and, more importantly, it slows the banana from oxidizing and turning brown on the frosted cookies. Skip it and your cookies look tired within hours.

Cooling one minute on the sheet before transferring matters for banana cookies. They’re softer than most and need that minute to set enough to lift without tearing.

Chef Tips

• Measure the mashed banana by volume in a cup, not by counting bananas. Size varies enormously.
• Drop the dough in tall mounds (not flattened). Banana cookies spread less than standard drop cookies, and taller mounds bake into softer centers.
• Store frosted cookies single-layer in a sealed container. Stacked banana cookies stick together and lose their frosting.
• Butter works fine in place of shortening in both the dough and frosting. The cookies will spread a bit more but taste richer.

Variations

• Swap walnuts for pecans or skip nuts entirely for an allergy-friendly version.
• Add ½ cup chocolate chips to the dough for chocolate-banana cookies.
• Use dried cranberries or raisins in place of nuts for a fruit-forward version.