Banana Chocolate Cookies

Banana is not a normal ingredient for a biscuit! I had never heard of it before but I had some bananas that needed to be used so Mum and I whipped these up over the weekend. With the dark chocolate in them they are super rich and the banana makes them moist. Really tasty little biscuit!

Dad tried one though and said that Grandma used to add nuts when she made them, (the ones that look like little brains apparently (lol!), which we decided were walnuts) so next time I make them, I will be trying that variation. I think that would add a lovely texture to them.

125g dark cooking chocolate

125g (1 cup) plain flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

¼ teaspoon salt

60g (1/4 cup) butter or margarine

90g (1/2 cup) brown sugar

Egg, beaten

1 banana, well mashed

Melt chocolate in the top of a double-boiler over gently bubbling water. Sift flour with baking powder and salt on to a sheet of greaseproof paper. Cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add egg and beat well. Fold in half the flour mixture, then mix in mashed banana and melted chocolate. Fold in remaining flour.

Drop rounded teaspoons of mixture on to greased baking trays, allowing room for spreading. Bake towards the top of a hot oven at 200°C for 10-12 minutes. Cool on a wire cooling tray.

Makes approx. 20

Printable Recipe

Coconut Orange Creams

My parents have a rural weekender property (the farm) and we decided to spend this weekend up there. It was a lovely relaxing weekend spent cooking, crocheting and helping put the new kitchen together (it's going to look so nice!).

Mum and I had fun baking a couple of Grandma's recipes. This biscuit is so cute and my Dad said that Grandma used to make it in both lemon and passionfruit as well (passionfruit would be super yummy I reckon!). Grandma hasn't noted how she did those variations but I have made a note below the recipe on how I would imagine the variations would be done.

Biscuit Ingredients:

6oz butter or margarine

1/3 cup sugar

2 egg-yolks

Grated rind of 1 orange

1 ½ cups S.R Flour

1/2 cup coconut

Egg white

Extra coconut

Filling Ingredients:

1 oz butter

1 dessertspoon orange rind

1 cup sifted icing sugar

 Method:

Cream shortening and sugar. Beat in egg-yolks and rind. Fold in sifted flour, then coconut to make a fairly stiff paste. Roll into small balls. Place on greased biscuit tray, flatten with a fork. Brush top with a fork. Brush top with lightly beaten egg-white and sprinkle with extra coconut. Bake in moderate oven 15 minutes. Cool on rack. Just before serving join together with orange butter cream. 

Variations: 

For Lemon: swap orange zest in both biscuit and filling for lemon zest. 

For Passionfruit: Use either lemon or orange zest in biscuit and then add some passionfruit pulp to the filling mix. Add extra icing sugar until filling is thick enough to hold its shape as the biscuits should not slide off one another when stuck together.