Chocolate Banana Chip Cookies

Everyone knows when your bananas start turning black, it's time to make banana bread! This time though, it was time to make banana chocolate chip cookies. These little babies are SO delicious and versatile! You could add chocolate chips, toasted walnuts, dried banana chips, etc. The original recipe is from the Golden Book of Chocolate. The only change I made was to omit the chopped dried banana chips, and use banana extract instead of vanilla extract, just to punch it up a bit.

Ingredients

• 2 1/3 cups all purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup butter, softened
• 3/4 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar (I used light brown, as it's all I had)
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract (I used 1 tsp banana extract)
• 2 large eggs
• 1 large banana, peeled and mashed
• 1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup coarsely chopped dried banana chips (I omitted)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees (I recommend convention, instead of convection. For some reason, these just don't bake as well in convection.). Butter 3 baking sheets, or line with parchment.
2. Mix flour, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl. Beat the butter and both sugars in a large bowl with an electric mixer at high speed until creamy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating until just blended after each addition. Beat in the vanilla.
3. With mixer on low speed, beat in the banana and mixed dry ingredients, followed by the chocolate and banana chips. Drop teaspoons of the dough 1 inch apart on the prepared baking sheets. (You can use a cookie scoop for standard size cookies, or an ice cream for Bickford sized cookies!! We like our cookies jumbo sized...)
   
4. Bake until just golden, 15-20 minutes. Cool on the sheets until the cookies firm slightly, about 5 minutes. Transfer to racks and let cool completely.