Banana-Walnut Chocolate-Chunk Cookies

I have shared this recipe before, but not on my blog.  My husband wanted to make Banana bread this weekend with the over ripe bananas left on the counter.  Really, I think he left them there on purpose because bananas do not generally sit un-eaten in my house.  The banana bread I make usually has a lot more than just bananas ( apple/zucchini/carrot +)  and I didn't want that much work.  This recipe popped into my head and I knew it would be a better solution. 


We made them using a gluten free flour mix instead of the wheat/white flour.  They turned out so good but a little more crumbly/cakey than they might have been.  They were so crumbly that they prompted a whole song from my 6 yr. old. generally consisting of a lot of words that rhyme with crumby or crumble.  We did a first test batch and decided that we would put the rest in a pan to make bars.  I think this was a wise decision, mostly because then I only had to make one batch instead of several pans full.  It turned out very well this way and I would love to tell you how long I baked them, but I didn't pay attention.  I think it was around 15 min?  Mostly I baked until they really started to smell good and then I checked and they looked done.  My husband is always appalled that I don't use a timer all the time.   The other day he asked me how long to cook something (I don't remember what it was)  I said I don't know maybe about 'this' long.  He set the timer and was shocked that it wasn't done when the timer went off.  "Uh, I told you I didn't know for sure!"


I think this was originally a Martha recipe.


Banana-Walnut Chocolate-Chunk Cookies
 
Ingredients :
1 cup all- purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1 tsp coarse salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
1 large egg
1 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup mashed ripe banana (about 1 large)
1 cup old-fashioned rolled oats
8 ounces semisweet chocolate, coarsely chopped into 1/2 inch chunks (~224 gr)
1/2 cup coarsely chopped walnuts (about 2 ounces), toasted

Directions :
1. Preheat oven to 375 F. Whisk together both flours, salt and baking soda in a bowl.
2. Put butter and both sugars into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment; mix on medium speed until pale and fluffy. Reduce speed to low. Add egg and vanilla; mix until combined. Mix in banana. Add flour mixture just combined. Stir in oats, chocolate chunks, and walnut.
3. Using a 1 1/2 inch ice cream scoop, drop dough onto baking sheets lined with parchment paper, spacing about 2 inches apart. Bake cookies, rotating sheets halfway through, until golden brown and just set, 12-13 minutes. Let cool on sheets on wire racks 5 minutes. Transfer cookies to wire racks; let cool completely. Cookies can be stored in airtight containers at room temperature up to 2 days.
Makes about 3 dozen.

For a Gluten free version you can probably use whatever flour mix you like.  The mix we used was 
6 parts brown rice flour 
2 parts potato starch
1 part Tapioca flour


Just use 1 1/2 cups of the final flour mix.  
Also I added a teaspoon of Xanthan gum to the batter, I perhaps needed more, I don't have the whole Xanthan thing figured out yet.