Photography courtesy of Scott Shingler Photography

Its that time of year, clean out the freezer to make space for this summers yummy concoctions. In the midst of freezer inventory I discovered I have a years supply of frozen ripe bananas. I have always fallen to the fail safe banana bread to use up my stockpile, but this year I decided to be creative and spice things up a bit. The only problem with this recipe is you’ll want to make more, and more, and more. If you’d like to make this recipe non-Vegan just substitute the flax meal and water for 1 egg, and margarine for butter. But I promise you once you’ve tried this recipe you won’t want to change it. I have entered this recipe in the Blogger Secret Ingredient Carnival hosted by The Sophisticated Gourmet a great blog worth checking out.

Makes about 3 dozen.

3/4 cup vegan margarine

1/2 cup granulated white sugar

1/2 cup dark brown sugar

1 TBS ground flax meal

3 TBL water

1 cup ripe bananas pureed

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

1/4 tsp ground nutmeg

1 3/4 cups oatmeal

1 cup of raisins (soaked for 5 minutes then drained)

1/2 cup finely chopped pecans

1/2 cup chopped semi sweet chocolate morsels. (make sure their vegan or just omit them and substitute for more nuts.

First thing you will want to do is get your raisins soaking in cold water. While the raisins are soaking in a small food processor or the like blend together the Flax meal and water.

Now in a large bowl whisk together your flour, baking soda, salt, and nutmeg, then set aside.

If you have a stand mixer follow these steps, if not substitute the stand mixer for either a spoon, hand mixer, or the like.

Using your mixer combine the margarine, flax mixture, and pureed banana. Now add the white and brown sugar, mix on low until evenly mixed.

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.

Add your flour mixture to the wet mix and blend until just combined. Now add your chocolate, drained raisins, and chopped pecans to the mix and mix for about 1 minute on low until well combined occasionally you may want to scrape the sides into the mixture.

Using either an ice cream scooper, or a 1.5 TBL measuring spoon plus a knife scoop out and drop the dough onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper be sure to leave at least 1 inch between the cookies.

Bake for 13-15 minutes (since we aren’t using eggs in this recipe the cookies will look a bit lighter than normal cookies so you will have to watch closely to see if there done.)

When cookies are done transfer them from the pan to a cooling rack, let cool for around 5 minutes (I know you don’t want  to wait the 5 minutes for these cookies but if you don’t your tongue will only taste the first cookie before its burnt).

I had my friend who is an amazing photographer take a picture of these cookies for me if your interested in his work visit Scott Shingler Photography