Banana Cake Cookies with Chocolate, Walnuts, and Cardamom

It is that time again.....time for the members of the Secret Recipe Club to finally disclose whose blog they were assigned to make something from.  I received my assignment and was surprised to find it was a blog I have not ever seen before.  Especially since as I started to read through this blog I realized that she and I are a lot alike in our tastes.  Somehow I wonder if Amanda paired me up with her because of the booze?  ;o)

My secret that I have been keeping for the last month is the blog Jam Hands written by Ali.  I love the little quote she has on the sidebar that is the inspiration for her blog.  However, I can't give it all away to you.  You must go there to read her quote and check out all the yummines (and booziness) she has there.  This is a girl right after my own heart!

I have bookmarked several of her recipes that I plan to go back and try.  The recipe I chose to make for the SRC was the Banana Cake Cookies.  I had bananas.  I also had bananas that I had too long and desperately needed to do something with them.  I considered the Impossible Banana Ice Cream - I mean, all you need is frozen bananas and a food processor.  I will however make the ice cream too.  Imagine, ice cream I can eat without getting sick.    Ali highly recommended these cookies that she found on Allrecipes.com and she gave them 5 stars..  I also read that they were soft.  Soft cookies are always a plus when feeding cookies to Grumpy.  They can only be chewy or soft.  He will not eat crunchy, hard cookies.

Banana Cake Cookies with Chocolate, Walnuts, and Cardamon
adapted from Jam Hands and allrecipes.com

Printable Recipe

½ stick unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup packed light brown sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup mashed ripe banana
½ teaspoon cardamom
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 cups flour
½ cup chocolate chips
⅓ cup chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 350.

In a large mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar.  Add eggs, one at a time mixing until well blended after each addition.  Mix in bananas and vanilla extract.

In a separate bowl combine cardamom - flour, add to sugar mixture stirring until just blended.  Gently fold in walnuts and chocolate chips.  The batter will be some what banana bread like - only a little firmer.  Don't worry - they will not run all over your cookie sheet (at least mine didn't!).  Scoop out tablespoons of the batter and space 2 inches apart.  Bake 10-12 minutes or until no longer wet on top.

I didn't really follow the icing recipe.  I just mixed together some confectioners sugar, a little butter extract, a little rum,  a little fat free half and half and chocolate.  Sorry for no measurements, but you can find them on the allrecipes site.  🙂

If you would like to join us in the fun and join the Secret Recipe Club - make sure to visit the website and sign up!