A black cloud in my baking repertoire is my lack of experience baking vegan. It’s my dirty little secret. Frankly, vegan baking terrifies me. I get how certain ingredients like eggs and butter work within a recipe. They’re safe and uncomplicated. But when you start replacing eggs with oils and butter with margarine, I’d rather have someone else prepare my desserts for me, which is why I started simple.

My bestie sent me this recipe a year ago, so with her seal of approval, I tried it.

Vegan Banana Chocolate Chip Cookies

adapted from this recipe; yields 24; prep time: 10 min; cook time: 13

1 1/2 cups whole-wheat all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 pinch of salt

2 large bananas

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 cup almond butter

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup sugar

3/4 cup vegan chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375.

In a large bowl, mash the bananas. Then mix in vanilla, almond butter, brown sugar, and sugar until well combined. I didn’t use an electric mixer, just the good old arm.

In a small bowl, mix flour, baking powder, and salt.

Add the dry mixture to the wet mixture a little bit at a time, until well combined. Once all of the ingredients are mixed, pour in the chocolate chips. Let’s face it, this is my favorite part.

Once they’re good and covered, time to scoop about a tablespoon of batter onto a baking sheet lines with parchment paper. You’ll have to squish them down into cookies sized shapes, since they don’t bake down or out. I baked 12 at a time. Bake for 13 minutes.

And, yum.

I was so happy with how tasty these were. And how easy the prep was – probably due to fewer ingredients.

The bananas kept these from drying out like my normal association with vegan baked treats. The original recipe called for peanut butter, which I would have preferred. But I didn’t have any, so I subbed almond butter instead. Yes, I’m the freak that has a house without peanut butter.