I love when I can bake up yummy big cookies and they are nice and low in points! Using bananas in baking recipes is a great way to keep points down. These banana snickerdoodle cookies were something I just winged one day and the end result was one delicious soft (and large) cookie. Win win 🙂 Go bake up a batch today and you will love them. 2 Points each. I called them banana bread snickerdoodle cookies at the time, because that is exactly what they taste like, a thick slice of banana bread with a cinnamon sugar top.
There is no rolling and no chilling here. The dough is closer to a stiff banana bread batter than to a classic snickerdoodle, so you drop it by spoonfuls, sprinkle the cinnamon sugar over the top and bake. Ten minutes in the oven and you have twenty big, puffy, soft banana cookies.
One mashed banana and a quarter cup of unsweetened applesauce do the work a lot of butter would normally do, which is why they stay tender for days and why each one is only 2 Points. You will find them with the rest of my desserts.
Why you’ll love these banana snickerdoodle cookies
- Soft and cakey, not crisp. Banana and applesauce keep the crumb tender, more like a little round of banana bread than a crunchy cookie.
- Big cookies for 2 Points. Twenty large spoonfuls from one bowl, with just 2 tablespoons of butter in the whole batch.
- One bowl, no mixer, no chilling. Whisk, stir, drop, sprinkle, bake. Ten minutes of prep and ten in the oven.
- Warm spice two ways. Nutmeg in the dough, cinnamon, sugar and a pinch of allspice on top.
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 10 minutes
Total Time: 20 minutes
Servings: 20 cookies
Serving Size: 1 cookie
2 WW Points Per Serving. You can view the recipe on the WW App here. (WW login required.)
Ingredients
For the cookies
- 1 1/4 cup flour
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp nutmeg
- 2 Tbsp melted butter
- 1/4 cup unsweetened apple sauce
- 3 Tbsp sugar
- 1 banana, mashed
- 1 egg
- 1 tsp vanilla
For your topping
- 1/2 Tbsp sugar
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp all spice
Use a ripe banana, the kind with brown spots you would save for banana bread. It mashes smooth and it is where most of the flavor and moisture come from.
The applesauce has to be unsweetened, or the Points go up.
Allspice is the little twist in the topping. If you do not have it, use all cinnamon and they are still very good, just a bit less banana bread-ish.
How to make banana snickerdoodle cookies
- Preheat and line. Preheat the oven to 375F and line a large cookie sheet with parchment paper.
- Mix the wet ingredients. In a bowl whisk together the egg and sugar, then mix in the mashed banana, applesauce, melted butter and vanilla.
- Add the dry ingredients. Stir in the flour, baking soda, baking powder and nutmeg until no dry streaks remain.
- Drop the cookies. Drop by large spoonfuls onto the parchment, 20 in all. They spread a little, so leave some room between them.
- Top and bake. In a small bowl or a ziplock bag mix the 1/2 Tbsp sugar with the cinnamon and allspice. Sprinkle it over all 20 cookies and bake for 10 minutes, until puffed and just set on top.
They come out pale gold with a speckled cinnamon top rather than deep brown. Give them a few minutes on the sheet before you move them, they are very soft while hot.
Tips and substitutions
- Do not overbake. The tops look matte and the bottoms lightly golden. A few extra minutes turns a soft cookie into a dry one.
- Keep the spoonfuls equal. A heaping tablespoon of dough per cookie gets you close to 20, which keeps every cookie at the 2 Points listed. Fewer, bigger cookies means more Points each.
- Sprinkle, do not roll. A dough this soft cannot be rolled in cinnamon sugar like a classic snickerdoodle, so shake the topping from a ziplock bag over the whole sheet. Some lands on the parchment, and that is fine.
- Add-ins. A tablespoon or two of mini chocolate chips folded in is lovely, just run the change through the app before you count it. If chocolate and banana is the craving, my Double Chocolate Peanut Butter Banana Cookies start from the same mashed banana.
- Two bananas? Do not double the banana in one batch, the dough gets too wet to hold any shape. Double the whole recipe instead, or put the spare banana into my Mini Banana Nutella Muffins.
Storing
These are soft, moist cookies, so they do not keep on the counter the way a crisp cookie does. Keep them in a sealed container in the fridge and they will last about 4 days. Let one sit out for a few minutes, or give it 10 seconds in the microwave, and it is as soft as the day you baked it.
They freeze well too. Layer them between parchment in a freezer bag for up to 2 months and thaw at room temperature.
Big, soft and 2 Points
Cinnamon sugar on top, a banana bread middle, and a cookie you can actually hold in your hand. That is the whole idea. Bake a batch, break one open while it is still a little warm, and let me know how yours turn out 🙂
Soft Banana Snickerdoodle Cookies
Ingredients
For the cookies
- 1 1/4 cup flour
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp nutmeg
- 2 Tbsp melted butter
- 1/4 cup unsweetened apple sauce
- 3 Tbsp sugar
- 1 banana, mashed
- 1 egg
- 1 tsp vanilla
For your topping
- 1/2 Tbsp sugar
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp all spice
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375F, line a large cookie sheet with parchment paper.
- In a bowl whisk together your egg and sugar, mix in your mashed banana, apple sauce, melted butter and vanilla.
- Stir in your flour, baking soda and powder and nutmeg.
- Drop by large spoonfuls onto parchment paper.
- In a small bowl or a ziplock bag mix your 1/2 Tbsp sugar with 1/2 tsp cinnamon and 1/4 tsp all spice. Sprinkle over your 20 cookies and bake in oven for 10 minutes.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
I definitely need to try these! I love cinnamon. I love snickerdoodle. These sound super easy to make. Saving this recipe for sure!
They are super easy!! Hope you enjoy Marsha 🙂
Can one use an egg substitute or egg whites, eliminate the butter and increase the apple sauce? I would like to get the recipe as “fat free” as possible so that my brother can have some of these as well. My brother (due to medical issue w/pancreas) can’t have anything with fat in it – butter would prevent him from enjoying these.
I think you could eliminate the butter and still have them turn out and taste good, I would up the apple sauce and maybe egg whites slightly .. Hope he enjoys them 🙂
I have a question. I added the recipe to my recipe builder on ww, and when I made the cookies I made 24. The points value changed to 1 sp per cookie. Does that seem correct?
Hi Jennifer, yeah that could be right and if the App is saying that then sure you can go with it 🙂