Phoebe's Cookies with Banana, Roasted Peanuts & Dark Chocolate

I arrived to my brothers place in Schaffhausen, Switzerland at 7am after a 15 hour trip from Canada. It was my first time meeting his girlfriend Phoebe, they got together shortly after I was there the previous Christmas. I was a bit apprehensive about how the whole vegan thing would go with family dinners, and my brother (Richard) being the type to poke fun at anything and everything that doesn't align with how he thinks. Maybe Phoebe is rubbing off on him because they have been super kind and accommodating. More so than I would ever expect from anyone. When I arrived Phoebe told me she had made me some vegan cookies, that it was her first attempt baking anything vegan, and that they weren't very pretty. I tried one and I was like ughhh, why is your first attempt at vegan baking so damn good when I've made so many garbage cookies. I guess to be fair I am not always following a tested recipe but still. These were SO GOOD. I've done my best to translate the recipe from German. I haven't tested it myself yet, but I will when I'm back in Canada.

The recipe calls for egg replacement powder. I have never purchased this in Canada, as I've always used either a flax or chia egg substitute, but I'm assuming it will be available somewhere, I just haven't looked yet. Maybe a flax egg would work too, I'll have to give that a shot sometime too. 

These cookies are:

- delicious
- full of chocolate and peanuts
- crisp
- sweet and have a caramel taste, probably from the cane sugar
- my new favourite vegan cookie  

Ingredients:

•  140 grams 70% chocolate, chopped into small pieces
•  50 grams roasted salted peanuts, chopped
  
•  130 grams vegan butter
  
•  100 grams white sugar
  
•  100 grams brown or cane sugar
  
•  1 tbsp. homemade vanilla sugar
  
•  1 banana (100g) cut in small pieces
  
•  200 grams flour
  
•  1 tbsp. (15 grams) powdered egg replacement
  
•  1 tsp baking powder
  

Method:

The only instructions I was giving was to mix everything together and bake at 180C (350F)

I think I would combine wet and dry ingredients separately then combine from there. The peanuts and chocolate were chopped VERY small, and I liked it like that. 

I'm assuming they were rolled into balls and flattened before baking, but I'll have to see how wet the dough is when I try it. If it's on the wetter side it might just be a drop cookie. 

This recipe is a bit sketchy but it's not rocket science. Though sometimes vegan baking can feel that way. 

Her cookies were quite thin so I doubt they take long in the oven. They are done when golden brown.

I'll update this sometime...but I'll probably need a break from sweets for awhile before I give it a shot, as I'm starting to feel the side effects from an over indulgent holiday. 

******UPDATE I finally got around to testing this recipe. I didn't have any chocolate so just subbed extra peanuts. My cookies turned out very different. But delicious none the less. Peanut butter and banana is one of my all time favourite combinations, and that's what mine tasted like. I sprinkled the tops with sea salt before baking, which was a good idea. I would consider dipping them in chocolate ( or drizzling with chocolate). I do still want to try and see if I can reproduce the first version I ate while in Switzerland, but I'm not disappointed I discovered these either. With all that being said, I am going to write the recipe out again, I switched it from grams to cups etc to suit the way we do it here in North America. 

Banana Peanut Cookies

Ingredients:

•  1/2 cup vegan butter
•  1/2 cup white sugar
•  1/2 cup brown sugar
•  1 banana, broken into pieces
•  1 tsp vanilla
•  1 tbsp. powdered egg replacement mixed with 1 tbsp water
•  1 1/3 cup peanuts, chopped
  
•  1 2/3 cups AP flour
•  1 tsp baking powder 

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 350F
   
2. Cream together butter and sugars with your mixer
3. Add in banana and vanilla, mix in
   
4. Mix in egg replacement
   
5. Whisk together baking powder and flour and mix into wet batter along with chopped         peanuts (don't over mix)
6.