I really wish we lived in a world where the calendar was full of Novembers. It’s my absolute favorite month of them all. The weather is perfect, the family gathers together to celebrate Thanksgiving, and all of the delicious foods that are prepared this month are amongst some of my all-time favorite foods in the entire universe.

This month is also special to me because it’s the month that I love to break out the recipe for my delicious Cranberry Banana Nut Bread. I made my first batch a few years ago when I was hosting Thanksgiving at my house. It was a little something that everyone could nibble on all throughout the day, and it could be warmed up with a slab of butter and eaten for breakfast. I remember the heavenly smell that filled my home while it was baking to perfection in my oven. As much as I love to bake pumpkin-y things during the Thanksgiving season, these are a really nice break from all of the pumpkin spice.

I always keep a bundle on bananas on hand for my toddler who eats one almost every single day. However, as most toddlers do, she seems to be going through a picky phase where she suddenly decided that she doesn’t like bananas. I’m sure it’ll only last a few days, but unfortunately, my bananas were not willing to wait that long. When you’ve got overripe bananas, the best thing to do with them is make banana nut bread!

Since I’ve been participating in the #CookieSwappinGood virtual cookie swap, I’ve been doing all sorts of brainstorming trying to come up with creative and fun recipes that take recipes or things that I already love (i.e my cranberry banana nut bread) and putting them in cookie form. After a little experimenting, I think I got the recipe just right! They’re a perfect combination of cookie and cake. They’re soft, dense and so perfect with a tall glass of milk!

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Banana Nut Cranberry Cookies

Prep Time1 hour hr

Cook Time10 minutes mins

Total Time1 hour hr 10 minutes mins

Course: Dessert

Servings: 20

Author: Southern Made Simple

Ingredients

• 2 ripe bananas
• 1/4 cup white granulated sugar or stevia
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 cup dried cranberries
• 1/2 cup chopped pecans
• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 2 Tbs corn starch
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 stick unsalted butter softened

Instructions

• In a large bowl, mash peeled bananas and beat in butter, vanilla and sugar until creamy
• Add in flour, baking soda, corn starch and salt and stir until well combined
• Add in cranberries and pecans
• Refrigerate dough for 1 hour or more
• Preheat oven to 375 F
• Grease a baking sheet with non-stick cooking spray
• Scoop a spoonful of dough into your hands and roll into a ball shape. Gently flatten a little with your hands and place them on cookie sheet
• Bake cookies for 10 minutes, or until they're lightly golden brown
• Allow to cool completely on cookie sheet or transfer to wire rack to cool
• Makes roughly 20 cookies

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I’d say that these are even totally acceptable to eat for breakfast, too. Who says you can’t have cookies for breakfast?! 😉

Once these cookies came out of the oven and cooled off a little bit, I added a few extra dried cranberries and pecan pieces on top. I cook with pecans all year round, but I especially love to during this season. Cranberries always make me think of Thanksgiving and Christmas, so I really start getting giddy when I break them out of the pantry!

For more holiday cookie inspiration, make sure you check out all of the delicious happenings over at the cookie swap!  You’ll even find my scrumptious Soft Batch Candy Corn Cookies, Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Snickerdoodle Cookies and my Oatmeal Rice Krispy Cookies, too!