So this post is a shout out to Jill, of U-M’s Family Medicine Dept., who very sweetly gave me a book on cookies. No, no, the book on cookies. Better Homes and Gardens’ Ultimate Cookie book to be precise. 500 cookie recipes. Five. Hundred. Cookie. Recipes. Right now at this very moment, Cookie Monster himself is attempting to break down my front door. (“Cookies are a sometimes food” my butt).
So as a thank-you to Jill, I decided to (have Josh) pick a good looking recipe out of the book and make it, so that Josh could bring it in and Jill et. al could enjoy the deliciousness of the gift. And because thank-you notes are better dipped in chocolate and banana.
So the recipe that Josh picked (surprise surprise) was banana chocolate chip bars: bananas, peanut butter cookie dough and chocolate chips. With chocolate frosting. You have a little drool right there. You might want to get that.
This recipe is in somewhat new territory for me, because I didn’t have to do anything from scratch. I know that sounds backwards—to most people, making things from scratch is new territory. Not for us anymore. In fact, I’m not generally allowed to buy pre-made cookie dough or frosting. But this recipe, I had to do basically nothing except put it all in my mixer (the recipe suggests using a bag but…why would I do that? The dough is sticky. Mixer.) and then put it in the oven. Um, okay.
I mean, particularly since I didn’t even go to the store until 8pm, since I had to work late and then we had to walk the dog and then dinner was to be had. (We cheated and went out for dinner.) So this recipe is great for those last-minute baking needs, or for those of you with a particular affinity for Betty Crocker.
Banana Chocolate Chip Bars
1 18oz package of refrigerated peanut butter cookie dough (I just used a 16.5oz one)
1 c. rolled oats
1/2 c. mashed bananas (I used about 2 fairly well ripened bananas, maybe about just actually 3/4 c.)
1/2 c. mini semisweet chocolate pieces (Those who know me know that I don’t bake with semisweet chocolate. I used milk chocolate morsels, or I suggest dark chocolate for you cocoa aficionados)
1/2 c. peanuts (which I just skipped)
1 16oz can chocolate and/or vanilla frosting
Preheat oven to 350F. Grease a 13x9x2 baking pan. Combine cookie dough, oats, banana, chocolate and peanuts in a mixer and mix until well combined. (Like I said, the actual recipe suggests putting everything in a big bag and kneading it by hand to mix things together. You can do that; it’s probably cleaner, but frankly, the dough is pretty sticky due to the banana and peanut butter and mixer was just as easy. Plus, I didn’t have any bags that big.)
Remove dough from bag and pat evenly into prepared pan.
Bake 25 minutes or until golden brown.
Cool and frost with desired frosting.
Eat!
So there you all go. This post is my gift to you, and you can all thank Jill for it. 
Thanks, Jill! This looks delicious, although I’m sort of “off” processed stuff, in general.
I was thinking about this in the store last night, as I was contemplating the hilarity of the fact that I don’t think I’ve purchased pre-made cookie dough in about 6 years….however, the recipe could easily be done with your own homemade peanut butter cookie dough, and I think I might be interested in doing it again with chocolate ganache instead of frosting.
those look so good! i’m the same way, i have to learn to make things not from scratch now that i’m living in a dorm and its not really practical to buy whole bags of flour and sugar.