I first shared this recipe for Action Vietnam Cookies way back in 2008. It's been quite popular through the years, though you wouldn't know it from the way I've treated it -- bad photos, no recipe card. But people like it! The recipe is originally from a book called “Food Writer’s Favorite Cookies” where it was submitted by Betty Bernard, Food Editor for the Lake Charles Press. In her entry, Betty says that a fellow staff member baked these soft oatmeal banana and chocolate cookies for her son who was assigned war time duty in Vietnam. The cookies ship well, age well and taste great. I can attest that all of this is true.

First off, they have a lot going on -- – cinnamon, nutmeg, coconut, bananas, chocolate and uh, raisins. I personally love raisins, but they are not my favorite with chocolate. For that reason, I've been known to use dried cranberries or even prunes instead of or in addition to the raisins. Use any dried fruit you like. As for texture, they're soft on the inside and have firm, brown, crusty shells. The shortening, which is supposed to help the cookies stay fresh longer, really improves the texture. It doesn't add any flavor, but the cookies have so many other flavors you won't miss the butter. I just wish they would make shortening healthy. The good news is you can use butter instead.

Action Vietnam Cookies or Banana and Chocolate

Vegan Version

The recipe also works well with vegan ingredients. I have successfully made these with Earth Balance in place of shortening and a flax egg in place of the egg. With the vegan version, I sometimes use whole wheat flour in place of white flour. The whole wheat flour soaks up some of the moisture from the vegan butter so the cookies don't spread as much. A certified vegan shortening would also work really well.

Banana Flavor

One last thing about these cookies is that even though they have banana, they don't taste like mushy healthy food cookies where banana replaces the fat. Those kinds of soft oatmeal cookies have their time and place, but the banana in these cookies just fits right in with the chocolate, fat and other flavors. The cookies are really just another excellent way to use up very ripe bananas.

Action Vietnam Cookies aka Banana Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies

1 ½ cups all purpose flour
½ tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
¼ tsp. freshly ground nutmeg
¾ cup solid vegetable shortening (butter should be fine)
1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1 large egg
2 mashed ripe bananas (or about 1 cup mashed)
½ c. coarsely chopped, toasted walnuts
⅔ c. semi-sweet chocolate morsels
½ c. shredded coconut
⅓ c. dried cranberries or raisins tossed in 1 tablespoon flour
1 ¾ c. quick-cooking rolled oats, uncooked

Instructions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

Mix flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg together in a mixing bowl. Set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, with an electric mixer, beat together shortening and brown sugar. Add the egg and continue beating until ingredients are well blended, then stir in banana. Next, add the flour mixture and stir until it is almost incorporated, then add the nuts, chocolate, coconut, dried cranberries and oats.
Once you have a soft dough, drop from end of teaspoon onto parchment lined cookie sheets and bake for 12 minutes or until done. Makes 5-6 dozen cookies.

Recipe