These Peanut Butter Banana Cookies are easy, healthy 4-ingredient cookies with a delicious peanut flavor and 7 grams of protein per serving.
I love making simple peanut butter cookies (use the search to see all my different variations!) but these ones are probably the easiest I’ve ever done! While I’ve put the full recipe just below, don’t miss my ingredient selection tips, baking tricks, and step-by-step pictures further down!
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Peanut Butter Banana Cookies
These Peanut Butter Banana Cookies are easy, healthy 4-ingredient cookies with a delicious peanut flavor and 7 grams of protein per serving.
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Servings: 12 cookies
Calories: 164 kcal
Ingredients
- ⅓ cup Mashed Banana - 1 small ripe banana (note 1)
- ⅓ cup Peanut Butter - (note 2)
- 2 tablespoons Maple Syrup - (note 3)
- 2 cups Almond Flour - (note 4)
Optional for extra flavors
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
- ½ teaspoon Cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon Salt
Instructions
- In a mixing bowl, mash the banana, pack in a measuring cup to make sure you get 1/3 cup not more. Return to the bowl.
- Stir in the peanut butter, maple syrup, vanilla extract if used until creamy and smooth.
- Fold in the almond flour, salt, and cinnamon if desired.
- Stir until it forms a thick, sticky cookie dough. Press and stir firmly to bring all the ingredients together.
- Lightly oil your hand and roll 12 cookie dough balls.
- Place the balls onto the prepared baking sheet leaving an inch between them.
- Oil the back of a fork, and press each cookie dough ball with the fork to form a crisscross pattern on top of the cookies.
- Bake the cookies for 12-14 minutes at 350 °F (180 °C) until lightly golden brown on the edges.
- Let the cookies cool down for 10 minutes on the baking sheet then gently transfer to a cooling rack to fully cool down.
Notes
Note 1: Make sure you pack the mashed banana in a measuring cup, if you add too much, the batter will be too wet. Freeze any extra mashed banana to use in a smoothie later.
Note 2: Natural peanut butter has no added sugar and no added oil. You can swap it for sunflower seed butter for a nut-free option or almond butter or cashew butter.
Note 3: Any liquid sweeteners works like agave syrup or brown rice syrup.
Note 4: For a nut-free option, try sunflower seed flour or sesame flour. Cashew flour works as well. You can probably use oat flour, but you will need way less as oats contain more fiber and the cookies would be super hard and dry if you used the same amount.
Storage: Store the cookies in the fridge in an airtight container for up to 4 days.
Nutrition
Serving: 1ball | Calories: 164kcal | Carbohydrates: 9.3g | Protein: 5.6g | Fat: 12.9g | Saturated Fat: 1.4g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 0.9g | Monounsaturated Fat: 1.8g | Sodium: 79.6mg | Potassium: 71.2mg | Fiber: 2.5g | Sugar: 4.2g | Vitamin A: 4.2IU | Vitamin C: 0.5mg | Calcium: 47.6mg | Iron: 0.9mg | Magnesium: 14.6mg | Phosphorus: 25.7mg | Zinc: 0.2mg
Ingredients and Substitutions
This paragraph gives you all my tips about picking the right ingredients. For the full recipe with measurements, scroll to the recipe card at the bottom of the post!Go to Full Recipe
You only need 4 ingredients to make these delicious cookies. Here’s how to pick them.
- Mashed Banana – The natural sweetener and binder. Be precise in measuring, as too much banana can make the dough too wet. If you have extra mashed banana, freeze it for smoothies. Measure after mashing!
- Peanut Butter – To add richness, protein, and healthy fats. Use natural peanut butter (no added sugar or oil) for the best results. Swap with almond butter, cashew butter, or sunflower seed butter for a nut-free option.
- Maple Syrup – Lightly sweetens the cookies while keeping them refined sugar-free. You can replace it with agave syrup or brown rice syrup.
- Almond Flour – The base flour that gives the cookies a soft, slightly chewy texture. For a nut-free version, use sunflower seed flour or sesame flour. Cashew flour also works well. Oat flour can be an alternative but requires a much smaller amount, or the cookies may turn dry and hard.
How to Make Peanut Butter Banana Cookies
This recipe is really easy to whip up, here’s how in pictures.
Mash the banana in a mixing bowl before measuring the quantity needed.
Add the other ingredients and stir the mixture with a spatula until sticky.
Roll 12 cookie dough balls and place them on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
Flatten the cookies dough balls with a fork in a crisscross pattern and bake them for 12-14 minutes at 350 °F (180 °C) .
Carine’s Baking Tips
Let me share a few more tips for perfect cookies.
- Use the right peanut butter texture – Natural peanut butter can sometimes be very runny or too dry depending on the brand. Stir well before measuring, or if it’s too thin, refrigerate it for a few minutes before using.
- Avoid overmixing the dough – Once the almond flour is added, mix only until combined. Overmixing can lead to denser cookies.
- Chill the dough if too sticky – If the dough feels too soft to shape, refrigerate it for 10-15 minutes before rolling. This makes handling easier and helps maintain the cookie shape while baking.
- Measure banana precisely – Too much banana makes the cookies overly soft and sticky. Make sure to pack the mashed banana into the measuring cup, scraping off any excess.
- Experiment with mix-ins – Stir in ⅓ cup mini chocolate chips, chopped nuts, or dried fruit for extra texture and flavor.
- Make thicker or crispier cookies – For a softer cookie, keep them thicker when flattening with a fork. For a slightly crispier cookie, bake for an extra 2 minutes.
- Don’t skip cooling – Let the cookies rest on the baking sheet for at least 10 minutes before transferring them to a rack. They’re delicate when hot and firm up as they cool.
- Boost the protein – Mix in a tablespoon of hemp seeds or chia seeds to increase the protein content without changing the texture much.
- Use parchment paper – This prevents sticking and ensures even baking. Oiling the pan is unnecessary with these cookies.
These make for sure a delicious snack packed with protein! And they are so easy to make! Plus, we get to use that lonely, ripped banana looking at us from the fruit basket!
These are fantastic. I had to hide them from my husband.
Thank you !
My family loved this!
I do not have gluten issues. Could I use all purpose flour in this recipe?
Almond flour doens’t have the same properties as flour, it has more fat, almost no starch so you can’t swap it for all-purpose flour with a 1:1 ratio. It will be a new recipe to create, and the texture will be hard and crunchy with flour compared to almond flour.