My daughter complained that my Chocolate Banana Oatmeal Cookies were too chewy, so for this iteration I tried to lighten things up a bit. I had on hand 2 over-ripe bananas and 1 very juicy mango. Since mango is quite sweet, I eliminated the maple syrup from the original recipe. To help the cookies rise and be more fluffy and less chewy, I added an egg, increased the baking powder, and cut out some of the flour.  Since the mango was very juicy, I eliminated the yogurt and added granola to absorb some of the liquid. I increased the amount of cranberries a bit. I was out of fresh ginger, so I did without. I forgot to add the cinnamon to the cookie dough, so I sprinkled it over the cookies just before baking.

Even with no added sugar, the cookies are plenty sweet. A serving of 3 cookies packs 26 grams of sugar. The mango and banana account for 8 of those grams (fruits don’t count against “sweets” servings in the DASH diet). It’s very difficult to find unsweetened dried cranberries without paying a fortune, but if you do (maybe at a health food store?), you can cut 4 sugar grams off each serving (and 24 calories). The granola I used contributed 4 grams of sugar per serving — next time I may replace it with chopped nuts and extra oatmeal. The other major source of sugar is the chocolate chips: eliminate those, and you cut 6 grams of sugar out (and 3 grams of fat, and 53 calories)… but then you have to ask yourself: what’s the point of cookies without chocolate chips?

Banana Mango Cookies

Makes about 24 cookies

Ingredients

• 2 over-ripe bananas
• 1 very ripe mango
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup oat flour
• 1 cup old fashioned oats
• 1 cup  Open Nature Dark Chocolate Hazelnut Heaven granola or other low-sodium granola
• 1 tbsp low sodium baking powder
• 3/4 cup dried cranberries
• 6 oz semi-sweet chocolate mini morsels
• 1 tbsp cinnamon

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 375. Line cookie sheet(s) with parchment paper.
2. In large mixing bowl, mash the bananas and the mango pulp. (If the mango is not ripe enough to mash, you may need to use the
3. Mix in the eggs.
4. Stir in the oatmeal flour, the oats, and the baking powder.
5. Stir in the cranberries, chocolate morsels, and granola.
6. Drop spoonfuls onto parchment paper lined cookie sheet. (Makes about 2 sheets of 12 cookies each).
7. Sprinkle the cinnamon on the cookies.
8. Bake at 375 for 30 minutes.

Servings:	8	Serving size:		3 cookies
DASH Food Groups per Serving
Grains	Vegetables	Fruits	Milk Products	Lean meats, fish, and poultry	Nuts, seeds, and legumes	Fats and oils	Sweets and added sugars
1 1/4	–	3/4	–	1/4	–	–	1
Nutrition
Calories		Sodium		Fat grams		Sugar grams
333		33 mg		9		26

Françoise

Related articles

• Dashing Cookies (dashingfoodie.com)
• Chocolate Banana Oatmeal Cookies (dashingfoodie.com)