Sweet - Chocolate Banana Cookies (Vegan)

My friend showed me this recipe a short while ago, adapted from a regular chocolate cookie recipe to fit his vegan diet. It results in a delicious moist chocolaty cookie with hints of banana flavour (though very subtle, I swear!) I've since forgotten the website he got it from (so...sorry) and I'm mainly working from memory with this recipe, but that's not a bad thing - I'd encourage you to mix it up as you please and try for different quantities of ingredients (within reason). For example, initially this recipe called for 2.5 cups flour, which I found to be a tad excessive. I reduced it to 2 cups, and increased the baking time from 10 to 14 minutes. The resulting cookie is a tad softer and much more moist in the middle while still crunchy on the outside - delicious!

Ingredients:

1-2 ripe bananas (depending on size and your preference - I use 2)
1 cup coconut oil (in solid form, room temp)
1 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 pinch salt
1/2 cup cocoa powder
2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
~1.5 cups chocolate chips

* this initially wasn't a vegan recipe. The original recipe called for 2 eggs (substituted for banana) and 1 cup butter room temperature (substituted for coconut oil). You may mix/choose your ingredients as you wish.

**a note on flour: to accurately (or at least attempt to) measure flour, you want to make sure the flour is light and fluffy, not packed into your measuring cup. Sifting flour before measuring is best, but when you don't want to go through the extra effort, just make sure that you're not pushing or patting the flour down as you measure, and that it doesn't go above the tip of the cup or spoon you're using. Always err on the lesser side with flour.

To Make:
about 10-15 mins

-Mix flour, salt, and baking soda in medium bowl and set aside
-Mash banana in food processor or with fork until smooth.
-Add coconut oil (or butter) and sugar, and mix until well incorporated.
-Mix in vanilla extract.
-Add cocoa powder slowly and mix well. Then begin adding flour mixture, about 2 tablespoons at a time, mixing thoroughly before each addition.
-Finally, add chocolate chips and mix until spread throughout the dough (or if you're improvising like me and don't have chocolate chips, just cut up a bit of semi-sweet or bittersweet chocolate and place it on top!)


To Bake:
14 mins

Preheat oven to 375F. Drop by rounded spoonful onto a tray lined with parchment paper or a silicone mat. Bake for 14 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a cookie comes out clean. Check around 10 mins, as ovens tend to vary.