It’s everything you love about chunky monkey ice cream but in cookie form! Packed with oats, bananas, butter, sugar, walnuts, and chocolate chunks, these go from oven to belly in just 30 minutes!
For more easy-to-make, delicious cookies, pop on over to my popular posts for Banana Chocolate Chip Cookies, Cherry Garcia Cookies, and Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies.
This post is sponsored by Reynolds Kitchens®. All opinions are my own.
You know how you fall in love with a dessert, and you love it so much that you wish its flavors and ingredients came in all dessert shapes and forms? That’s the position I found myself in when I was annihilating a pint of chunky monkey ice cream in a rare moment of alone time the other night.
I thought, I cannot go on like this, eating a pint of ice cream all alone. Instead, I should be eating chunky monkey in cookie form! Startling myself by this sudden stroke of genius, I jumped right off the couch, pushed the empty pint way deep down in the garbage where no one would notice it, and got to work. The result? Well, you’ll just have to make these for yourself!
As an extra incentive to make these chunky monkey cookies ASAP, Reynolds Kitchens® is hosting a Cookie Countdown to celebrate the end of the year with baking! Follow @ReynoldsBrands on Facebook in December to participate along with me!
Why This Recipe Works
It’s the next best thing to this super popular ice cream flavor, for many reasons, but here are just a few!
Bananas — You can’t have chunky monkey without the monkey part right? The bananas add just the right amount of flavor and a little extra sweetness. Plus, these cookies are the perfect way to use up all those overripe bananas you’ve had sitting on your countertop for days.
Reynolds Kitchens® Parchment Paper with SmartGrid® — If you love to bake, this parchment paper will be a total game-changer! This isn’t your typical parchment paper: it comes with a built-in gridline pattern for easy cutting to fit any size pan and to help evenly space the cookies. And it provides a non-stick cooking surface for easy cleanup. Plus, it’s reusable up to 3 times per recipe!
Easy ingredients — These are made with simple pantry and fridge staples and require no special, hard-to-find ingredients! My favorite kind of cookie!
Make ahead — If you’re thinking ahead to the holidays and want to have some cookies on hand for guests or just extra for yourself, this recipe is simple to double, and the cookies keep for up to 1 week in the fridge or 3 months in the freezer!
Here’s How you Make it
Here are step-by-step instructions on easily making these chunky monkey banana cookies!
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line a baking sheet with Reynolds Kitchens® Parchment Paper with SmartGrid®. (photo 1)
- Whisk together the dry ingredients: flour, oats, cinnamon, baking soda, salt, and nutmeg in a medium bowl, then set it aside. (photo 2)
- In a large bowl, cream together the butter and both kinds of sugar for 2-3 minutes. It should be light and fluffy. (photo 3)
- Now add in the mashed bananas, vanilla, and eggs into the butter mixture and mix until all ingredients are completely combined. (photos 4-5)
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix until combined. (photo 6)
- Then, stir in chocolate chunks and walnuts. (photo 7)
- Using an ice cream scoop, scoop dollops of cookie dough onto the prepared baking sheet, taking care to use the gridlines to space the cookies at least 2 inches apart. (photo 8)
- Bake for 10-12 minutes until browned around the bottom edges, then allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 3-4 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack and repeating with remaining cookie dough. (not pictured)
Expert Tips
- Want to make your cookies look as amazing as they’ll taste? My secret is to reserve a handful each of the chocolate chunks and walnuts then gently press them into the tops of the cookies right before baking.
- Since Reynolds Kitchens Parchment Paper already has a non-stick surface, there is no need to spray or butter the paper before baking your cookies. In fact, doing so could alter the taste of the cookies, and we don’t want that!
- You may have noticed I’m a fan of larger-than-average cookies. To keep them from baking into one big lump, I follow the gridlines on Reynolds Kitchens Parchment Paper to better space the cookies.
- If you don’t have chocolate chunks, you can use chocolate chips. No walnuts or not a fan? You can skip them all together or substitute another nut like pecans or even peanuts!
More tasty Cookie Recipes You’ll Love
- White Chocolate Cranberry Cookies
- Banana Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Peanut Butter Chocolate Chunk Cookies
- Super Soft and Chewy Snickedoodles
- Pumpkin Cookies with Brown Sugar Frosting
Did you make these totally amazing Banana Cookies? YAY! Please rate the recipe below!
Chunky Monkey Banana Cookies
Ingredients
- Reynolds Kitchens® Parchment Paper with SmartGrid®
- 2 cups flour
- 3 cups old fashioned rolled oats
- 1 ½ teaspoons cinnamon
- ¾ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- pinch of nutmeg
- 1 cup salted butter - softened
- ¾ cup packed brown sugar
- ½ cup sugar
- 3 medium bananas - mashed, about 1 cup
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 2 large eggs
- 2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chunks
- ⅔ cup chopped walnuts
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with Reynolds Kitchens® Parchment Paper with SmartGrid®.
- In a medium bowl whisk together flour, oats, cinnamon, baking soda, salt, and nutmeg. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugars for 2-3 minutes until light and fluffy.
- Add mashed bananas, vanilla, and eggs and mix until completely combined.
- Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients and mix until combined.
- Stir in chocolate chunks and walnuts.
- Use an ice cream scoop to scoop dollops of cookie dough onto the prepared baking sheet being sure to use the gridlines to space the cookies at least 2 inches apart.
- Bake for 10-12 minutes until browned around the bottom edges. Allow to cool on the baking sheet for 3-4 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack and repeating with remaining cookie dough.
- Store in an airtight container up to 3 days or in the fridge up to 1 week.
Delicious !! I’ve made this recipe twice now to give as gifts to friends in need of some love after suffering a loss. Both recipients raved about the cookies and asked me to share your recipe with them. I love your website and all your recipes are a sure win in my kitchen …Thank you from Maine
Delicious !! I’ve made this recipe twice now to give as gifts to friends in need of some love after suffering a loss. Both recipients raved about the cookies and asked me to share your recipe with them. I love your website and all your recipes are a sure win in my kitchen …Thank you from Maine
Lisa, Thank you so much for your sweet comment – having just suffered a loss of our own, I can say that the love that comes from friends in times like this is so needed and so cherished. I am honored that you used my recipe as part of your efforts to lighten the load for someone going through such a difficult time. Thanks for taking a minute to come back and share with me – it made my day. 🙂
Do you have to use oats in this recipe?
Yes, I would not skip them!
These look amazing! After dropping the dough balls onto the cookie tray, do you leave them as balls or should they be pressed and flattened?
Leave them as balls!
I made these cookies yesterday for my family and it was definitely a huge hit! The flavors everything from the bananas, to the walnuts and the chocolate…YUM!