3 Ingredient Banana Baby Cookies

3 ingredients are all you need to make these soft and delicious vegan banana oatmeal cookies. Made without egg, flour, dairy,  or added sugar, they are allergy-friendly and the perfect breakfast or snack for babies and toddlers!

Combining banana and oats to make no-fuss cookies is not a new concept. But the recipes I’ve tried were either too crispy or chewy. I thought they were delicious bc I love all textures, but I wanted to come up with the perfect baby cookies!

So I set out to find the perfect ratio of banana to oats and the best type of oats to produce the desired soft texture for babies.

Basic Baby Cookies with Banana

Ingredients

Rolled oats: This is my favorite variety of oats for these cookies. You can also use quick oats. More on this below.

Banana: Need 1 cup mashed, about 240 grams, or 2 medium bananas. The riper they are, the sweeter the cookies will be. I personally don’t like them too ripe.

Instructions

The recipe calls for 1 cup rolled or old-fashioned oats. You’re going to pulse 1/2 cup in a food processor/blender and grind into flour. The other remaining 1/2 cup you’re going to stir in with banana along with the oat flour and cinnamon.

Tips on Achieving Desired Texture

The Different Types of Oats

Finding the perfect type of oats and how much to use are what took the most experimentation! Before I get into the nitty gritty, I know there’s a lot of confusion surrounding the different types of oats so hope this is helpful!

For more infographics like this one as well as baby/toddler feeding tips, head on over to my Instagram page @kidfriendly.meals.

Best Oats to use for Baby Cookies

Now, here’s the rundown of what I discovered:

Let’s move through texture from softest to chewiest.

Quick oats: These will soak up the banana more so will produce the softest cookies. Most ideal for babies who are just starting solids.

Rolled oats:

• Using 1/2 oat flour and 1/2 rolled oats: This produced my personal favorite texture and firmness. Will make for a great teething cookie too. You can certainly purchase oat flour but buying oats in bulk and making it yourself (super easy to do!) is more economical.
• Using all rolled oats: Perhaps you don’t have oat flour and want to skip the extra step of making it yourself. This is fine but the texture will be crispier and denser. What you can do is mix with banana and let the batter sit for at least 20 minutes or so to help the oats soften up.
• Using all oat flour: What I don’t recommend is blending the entire amount to make oat flour. You’ll end up with a sticky, gummy texture. However, it works perfectly for these banana protein pancakes!

Steel cut oats: will not work here but they’re great to have in your pantry!

Tips for Success

• No need to mash the bananas completely. You might enjoy having some chunks throughout the cookies. We sure do!
• Control how sweet you want the cookies to be by using the right bananas. The more ripe they are, the sweeter they will be. You can also use frozen bananas. Either thaw on the counter or reheat for 15-20 seconds until they’re mashable but not completely thawed.
• After you mix all the ingredients, let it sit for 5 minutes or so. This will help soften the rolled oats.
• Using a large spoon is easiest to scoop the batter and transfer to the prepared baking sheet.
• The cookies will not change shape much during baking, so create the cookie shape you desire. Don’t flatten them too much.
• The basic banana oatmeal cookies are going to be the softest. The more add-ins, the firmer the cookies will become.

Peanut Butter Banana Cookies

Peanut butter and banana. Need I say more? These are my husband’s favorite out of the 3 cookies shared here. They are more filling than the basic banana oatmeal cookies is a wonderful way to incorporate more healthy fats into your baby/toddler’s diet.

And if want to switch things up, you can swap out oats with almond flour to make the most delicious 3 ingredient almond flour peanut butter cookies!

Ingredients and Instructions

To the basic banana cookie recipe, you’re just going to add in 1/4 cup peanut butter (or any nut or seed butter of choice). Tahini would work really well here too!

Carrot Banana Oatmeal Cookies

And here’s C and my favorite version! The grated carrots add texture, sweetness, and moisture making the cookies softer, chewier, sweeter, and more nutritious!

Ingredients and Instructions

To the basic banana cookie recipe, you’re going to add 1/2 cup grated carrots, ground walnuts (or other nuts/seeds of choice. Here’s a tutorial), and vanilla extract. You can also add in some coconut if you’d like!

For older babies and children, you can add finely chopped walnuts.

As you can see, the cookies don’t spread during cooking so be sure to shape them the way you want them to come out.

How to Serve to Babies

They don’t need any teeth to enjoy these cookies. They can easily be sucked/gummed. Here’s another super soft and moist cookie to try! Sweet Potato Chickpea Cookies

I would count these cookies as a high-calorie food. Here’s how to build a well-balanced plate to help meet their nutritional needs.

For younger babies, you can start by offering 1/3-1/2 of the cookie and then serve more following your baby’s lead.

Storage Suggestions

The cookies are gorgeous when they first come out of the oven. And as they cool, will shrink and become darker in color. It’s just the nature of how the oats and banana interact with each other.

Store the cooled cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for 2 days, or in the refrigerator for up to 1 week. Once you refrigerate, the cookies will become wetter. They won’t be much of a looker at this point, just wanted to warn you ;). But still delicious!

Can also freeze for up to 3 months. Here’s how I like to freeze all my baked goods.

Other Baby Oat Recipes

• Banana protein pancakes
• Microwave Egg Oatmeals
• Vegetable Baby Oatmeals
• Healthy Baby and Toddler Muffins
• Banana Date Bread
• Zucchini Bread Breakfast Cookies
• Sweet and Savory Overnight Oats