If your kids (or yourself!) love Dare's Bear Paws, give this recipe a try. These are a moist and cake-like cookie. Great for putting in kids' lunches.
1 cup butter-flavoured shortening (I used 1/2 c marg. and 1/2 c shortening)
1 cup white sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 bananas, mashed
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
2 cup flour
Preheat oven to 350F. Cream together shortening and sugar. Add eggs one at a time. Add vanilla and bananas.
In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, salt and spices. Add dry ingredients to banana mixture. Drop by teaspoonfuls onto baking sheets and bake for approximately 8-10 minutes or until golden brown. Keep them in a tightly sealed container to keep them soft otherwise they'll go quite hard (if you have any left by that time!).
Tip: Try adding various “Bear Paws” ingredients (ie. chocolate chips or apples and raisins, cocoa with a bit of mint extract…).
Hi Laurie.
ReplyDeleteHave used your recipe and love it.... bit I'm a very health conscience mom. I used unsweetened apple sauce instead of butter, but having a hard time tweaking down the sugar content. Any suggestions? Also, have you tried anything other than bananas? I have one child who doesn't care for that flavor. Thanks so much!
Hi!
ReplyDeleteI will often use unsweetened applesauce for 1/2 of the butter in a recipe but never totally substitute it (you need some fat in baking).
As for sugar substitutes? You could try thing like agave nectar, maple syrup (although that's high in sugar too) or possibly extra banana since they're sweet (except that you have a non-banana lover).
I've only ever tried these with banana (and haven't made them in awhile). You could try pumpkin, mashed sweet potato, applesauce (add some cinnamon and nutmeg too!) ... You want to make sure you have something with a similar consistency.