Friday
26Dec2008
Bananarama: Chocolate Frosted Banana Shortbread Cookies
Friday, December 26, 2008 
'Twas the day after Christmas,
And when we did rise,
Inside the kitchen
Was an awful surprise:
Not a cookie remained;
The plates were all bare
So we pushed up our sleeves
And made cookies to share.
It's true; when we woke up this morning, we had the horrific realization that all of our Christmas cookies had been eaten. No, seriously. and the only sources of sweetness in the house were an overripe banana and some leftover chocolate frosting. Getting a bit crafty, we altered a classic old fashioned sugar cookie recipe by upping the butter and adding aforementioned banana to the batter; once out of the oven, we topped the cookies with a dollop of chocolate frosting for a delectable bit of added richness. The finished product was a moist, cakey, shortbready cookie which tasted even better as they cooled and the banana flavor developed. We decorated a couple like anthropomorphic Hostess cupcakes, for no particular reason, but aren't they kinda cute? What a sweet and unexpected post-Christmas miracle.
Here's how to make 'em:
- 1 stick unsalted butter, room temperature and cut into chunks
- 1 super-ripe banana (same ripeness you'd use for banana bread), cut into chunks
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 3/4 teaspoon salt
In a large bowl stir together the butter, 1 cup of the sugar, the egg, banana and the vanilla. Into the bowl sift together the flour, the baking soda, and the salt and stir the mixture until it forms a dough. Chill the dough, covered, for at least 2 hours or overnight (Note: we only let ours cool for about 30 minutes; your finished cookies would probably be smoother and better-looking if you allowed the dough to cool longer, but try telling that to the cookie-hungry masses.)
Preheat the oven to 375°F. Roll rounded tablespoons of the dough into balls, and arrange them 3 inches apart on lightly greased baking sheets. Either leave as balls for fat cookies, or use cookie cutters or flatten slightly for cookies with a more uniform thickness. Bake the cookies in batches in the middle of the oven for 8 to 12 minutes, or until they are pale golden. Transfer the cookies to racks and let them cool. The cookies keep in an airtight container for 1 week.
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