{GF} Banana Oat Cookies - Baked in the BBQ!

We've been enjoying variations on this gluten-free cookie base for the past few months here in our house.  The original recipe that The Burlap Bag posted was 2 ingredients: Bananas & Oats, with the mix-ins of your choice.  The simplicity of that is nice, and a 2-ingredient cookie is a great headline on Pinterest to draw in a crowd, but I found that they were a little bland without salt and vanilla.  

Before baking

We personally think that these cookies are delicious - but the texture of these cookies is definitely different than your typical cookie, and it takes a little while to get used to that.  Don't expect them to taste like the super-chewy white flour buttery chocolate chip cookies you'll see in Pinterest.  They're chewy, but not at all buttery - and they're 'sweet', but not sweet like a regular cookie that has 1-2 cups of sugar in them.  Because the base of the cookie is so healthy, I have no  problem adding some tasty less-healthy things to them.  And, when we leave the house early in the morning, I have no problem handing these cookies out for breakfast in the van!!  They also make a great treat to take along for picnics, which we've been doing a lot of lately.

After baking on the BBQ

You'll notice that I've recently discovered baking in my BBQ - and since it was 27 (C) with our AC on the other day, I thought I'd give these a whirl - and they turned out great!  Just make sure that you don't open your BBQ once you put them in until they're nearing the end of the timer - you don't want to lose the heat!  I definitely recommend giving this a whirl on your BBQ!

Here's my base recipe:

{GF} Banana Oat Cookies

Ingredients

• 2 bananas
• 1 cup oats
• ~1/2 cup applesauce or 1 prepackaged individual serving cup
• 2 pinches of salt
• ~1/2 tsp vanilla

1. Preheat oven or BBQ to 350 degrees.  For our BBQ, it took about 10 minutes with the burners at med-low to reach 350.  If you don't have a working thermometre on the outside of your BBQ lid, place an oven thermometre inside the first few times that you bake in your BBQ so that you can get an idea of how your BBQ heats up.
2. Mash or blend bananas with a hand mixer or countertop mixer.  
3. Add remaining ingredients and mix until well blended.  
4. Add mix-ins of choice and blend well.  
5. Line baking sheet with parchment paper.  Forget diamonds - parchment paper is a girl's best friend.  
6. Drop spoonfuls of cookie batter to the baking sheet, and flatten out slightly - the cookies will not change shape or spread in the heat of the oven or bbq.  Because of this, don't be afraid to crowd your cookies on the sheet - they won't spread into eachother.  
7. Bake in oven or bbq for approx 15 min.  The cookies will look a little under done when you remove them - that's ok.  
8. Cool on the sheet for 5 min, then move to wire rack and cool completely.  But sneak one or two first.

The mix-ins that I used last time were:

2 handfuls of semi-sweet mini chocolate chips

1 handful of mini white chocolate chips

1 handful of dried cranberries

1/2 tsp of cinnamon

(I was feeling decadent.  Usually I just add 1 handful of semi-sweet & one handful of dried cranberries.)

I've also made Double Chocolate cookies, using:

1 handful semi-sweet mini chocolate chips

2 Tbsp dark cocoa

Enjoy!  If you try these out, let us know what kind of add-ins you try - I'd love to have new ideas!