Soft banana oat cookies
Soft baked cookies made from ripe banana and blended oats, with no added sugar or salt. They stay soft enough to squash, unlike shop-bought cookies. If oats are new, offer them on their own first.
- From
- 6 months
- Time
- 30 min
- Makes
- About 14 small cookies
No top allergens
Ingredients
- 2ripe bananasyellow with plenty of brown speckles, about 200 g (7 oz) peeled
- 100 g (1 cup)plain rolled or quick oatsno added sugar or salt
- 1 tbspvegetable or olive oilplus a little for the tray
Steps
- 1Wash your hands. Heat the oven to 180°C (350°F), or 160°C fan, and line a baking tray with baking paper brushed with a little oil. Rinse the banana peels under running water before you peel them.
- 2Blend the oats in a blender or food processor until they look like fine flour, with no whole flakes left. Whole dry flakes can bake hard.
- 3Mash the bananas in a bowl until smooth, then stir in the blended oats and the oil to make a soft, sticky dough. Don't add sugar, honey, syrup or salt: the banana makes them sweet enough.
- 4Scoop tablespoons of dough onto the tray and press each one flat, about 1 cm (just under ½ inch) thick. For a young baby, shape a few into fingers about 6–8 cm long and 2 cm wide (2½–3 × ¾ in) instead.
- 5Bake for about 12 to 15 minutes, until set and just golden underneath but still soft on top. Take them out before the edges turn brown or crisp.
- 6Let them cool on the tray for 10 minutes. Break one open and squash it between your thumb and finger: it should flatten easily, with no hard or crumbly bits. If a batch comes out crisp, don't give it to your baby, and bake the next one for less time.
How to serve it by age
6 months+
Once your baby has had oats on their own, offer one finger-shaped cookie, or half a round cookie cut into a strip about the size of an adult finger. Check that each one squashes easily first. The CDC lists cookies as a choking hazard because most are hard or crumbly, so only offer these when they're soft all the way through.
9 months+
Break cookies into pieces no bigger than about 1 cm (just under ½ inch) for pincer-grasp practice, or keep offering soft fingers to bite.
12 months+
Serve a whole soft cookie or bite-sized pieces about 1 cm (just under ½ inch) with soft fruit, or with plain yogurt once dairy has been introduced on its own, as part of a meal or snack.
Leftovers and the rest of the family
Storing it
Keep cooled cookies in a covered container in the fridge for 3 to 4 days, or freeze them for 3 to 4 months (freeze them in a single layer, then pack them together once frozen). Reheat from frozen or thawed, only once, until steaming hot, 165°F (74°C), then let them cool. Squash one again before serving: if it has dried out or turned crisp, don't give it to your baby. Throw away anything left in your baby's bowl. Don't leave cookies at room temperature for more than 2 hours, or 1 hour if it's hotter than 90°F (32°C).
For the grown-ups
Older children and adults can eat these too. For children over 1, you can stir chopped raisins into a separate batch. Save chopped nuts for adults and children aged 4 and over: the CDC lists chopped nuts as a choking hazard for young children. Keep both out of your baby's cookies.
Foods in this recipe
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