Recipe Review: Elvis Cookies

I've seen several recipes floating around lately for cookies made primarily from fruit & oats. They're very versatile--you can really make them your own, as long as you start with those two ingredients.. I tried one with banana as the fruit, with cocoa powder & raisins, but the taste of the banana was still pretty strong.

So I thought, "If the banana is going to dominate, find something else that will really work with it, like peanut butter." And what else would you call a peanut butter & banana cookie but an Elvis Cookie, really?

I started by mashing up a banana and adding two tablespoons of natural peanut butter, an ounce of milk, half a teaspoon of vanilla, two tablespoons of brown sugar, and a few shakes of cinnamon.  I added a heaping half cup of oatmeal (I started with a level half cup, but it was too soupy) and mixed it all up. I used my mini scoop to portion them out, and got 14 out of the batch. Bake at 350 for about 15 minutes, but they stay pretty chewy, even the next day. (the picture shows them on the Silpat, after I'd moved them a little so they wouldn't stick)

Per cookie: 41 calories, 6 carbs, 2 g fat, 1 g protein, 1 g fiber.

They turned out pretty well. Sarah liked them, Lauren didn't. I liked them, but realized I kept going back to eat more. When I have a couple Hershey's Dark Kisses after lunch, I'm done.  I had four of these and still kept wandering around the kitchen with the munchies.

Will I make them again? Yes, certainly, but I'll keep tweaking them. I think it's a good start for a "breakfast cookie," which is kind of the Holy Grail for me. I might try applesauce instead of the banana (Lauren will like that better), but then I'd cut the milk to keep the moisture balance. And I might blitz some of the oatmeal in the food processor to get a different texture/consistency. Adding dried fruit, chopped nuts, or even chocolate is another option. All that would up the calories, but if I want something more substantial, that isn't a bad thing.