To start off pajama party week, Caroline posted some whole grain restaurant style pizza yesterday. It’s pretty easy to make and most definitely worth the wait that’s required for the dough to rise. Go check out Caroline’s site for the recipe!
And we all know after pizza you have to have dessert! So we went with healthier sundaes.
First we made these super tiny and cute 100% whole wheat peanut butter cookies. It was my first time using white whole wheat (we don’t have it over here) and I love it! You can expect to see quite a few recipes calling for white whole wheat flour in the next few months because I brought back a ton with me.
So. These cookies. After the first batch, Caroline said, “I’m so over these cookies.” She had a point. They take a lot of time to scoop, roll into balls, and then to add chocolate chips to the top. I think we’re both in agreement that it’s easier just to make normal sized cookies. But for the sake of cuteness, we continued with the super tiny cookies.
And we had to make ice cream. But healthy ice cream! I’m sure most of you already know about the whole frozen banana ice cream thing, but if not – the recipe is below! In your Blendtec or food processor, you blend the frozen bananas, milk and peanut butter and then eat immediately as soft serve or freeze for a while like we did. I think we’re both in agreement that peanut butter always = better.
By the way, when I looked in Caroline’s freezer for the first time, I was shocked by the amount of bananas in there. She’s serious about her nightly peanut butter banana smoothies. I had one on my last night there for dessert and it was so much more filling than a regular smoothie! The ice cream recipe in our sundaes was also based off of this recipe.
If you freeze the ice cream for more than four hours or so, it will become hard. Like rock hard. Just let it sit at room temperature for 10 minutes until it’s easy to scoop out what you want and return the rest to the freezer. But my favorite way to eat this is straight from the blender when it’s all soft and melty. The only problem that just doesn’t make for pretty sundaes. ;)
And the cookie yield doesn’t match the ice cream yield. That’s because you’re going to want lots of these as leftovers! They stay good for days. They’re soft, chewy, and peanut buttery.
For the chocolate sauce, I used store bought stuff but if we would have had time, we would have made this Greek yogurt chocolate ganache.
Be sure to check out Caroline’s site tomorrow for our next pajama party recipe!
Healthier Sundaes (Whole Grain Peanut Butter Cookies + Peanut Butter Banana Ice Cream)
- Prep Time:
- Cook Time:
- Ready in:
- Yield: 11 large cookies + 2 servings of ice cream
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup regular peanut butter (the kind with added fat and sugar - the kind with just peanuts and salt probably won't work here)
- 1/2 cup butter, room temperature
- 1/2 cup unrefined sugar
- 1/2 cup light brown sugar
- 1 egg
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 1/4 cup white whole wheat flour
- 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup mini chocolate chips
- 2 large bananas, cut into 1" chunks and frozen for at least 4 hours
- 1/2 cup milk
- 3 tablespoons peanut butter
- chocolate sauce
For the cookies:
For the ice cream:
Directions
- With a hand mixer, beat peanut butter, butter, unrefined sugar and light brown sugar until fluffy.
- Add the egg and vanilla and stir.
- Add the white whole wheat flour, baking soda and salt and stir until well combined.
- Add 1/4 cup of mini chocolate chips and stir.
- Roll into 1/2" sized balls (for countless mini cookies) or, for a more practical version, roll into 2" balls.
- Sprinkle the remaining 1/4 cup of mini chocolate chips on top.
- Bake the 1/2" balls for 4 - 6 minutes or the 2" balls for 12 - 15 minutes.
- In a Blendtec (or another high powered blender) or food processor, blend all of the ingredients until completely smooth.
- Eat immediately for soft serve or freeze for at least two hours for the ice cream to be scoopable.
For the cookies:
For the ice cream:
Cookie recipe adapted from: Peanut Butter Cookies – Simply Fresh Cooking, as seen on Chocolate Dipped Peanut Butter Cookies – Chocolate & Carrots. Ice cream adapted from Peanut butter banana oatmeal smoothie – Chocolate & Carrots
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50 comments on “Healthier Sundaes (Whole Grain Peanut Butter Cookies + Peanut Butter Banana Ice Cream)” — Add one!
Cuteness is very important-I want you to know these sweet little cookies are much appreciated by me and with the chocolate waffles and these healthier sundaes-I say..let the party begin-everything looks amazingly good ;-)
Aww, thank you Patty! What a nice comment. :) And yes, we have everything we need to party now. Pizza, 2 desserts, and chocolatey waffles. Heh! Strange that it’s coming from two “healthier baking” bloggers. ;)
So cute! I know the tiny cookies were a lot of work but they really are so cute :D And I’m so excited to see you using white whole wheat :D Yay!
Yay is right! YAY! :D
And thanks for appreciating our cookies’ cuteness. :)
I have been wanting to try the banana ice cream method – but I am not a huge fan of banana flavored things. Wonder if the addition of the peanut butter would make me like it?
The peanut butter won’t be strong enough to overtake the banana. :( So if you don’t like banana, I wouldn’t recommend this!
This looks amazing! I am all over this come the weekend.
I hope you enjoyed it! :)
Oh, the things we do in the name of cuteness (and food photos!). :D Please save a “healthy” sundae for me!
Hehe. Here you go. Enjoy! :)
those cookies are so cute…i maybe the same way about getting tired of rolling out the cute lil’ cookie balls however eating them is the fun part.
But the danger is in the fact that the longer you work with cookie dough, the more you eat. Hence… these little cookies are evil. :D
This looks amazing Erin! Just found your link over at Marta’s website (for the chickpea chocolate chip cookies) and your site is amazing! Such gorgeous recipes, photos and stories. Can’t wait to try this recipe. The presentation is amazing, though I am sorry that you had to endure the annoyance of making the mini cookies :)Thanks!
Hi, Laura! Nice that you’re here. :) And haha… endure making cookies? Never! Except maybe these. ;) Thanks so much for your nice comment and welcome!
I am in love with those mini cookies! But I can also understand being over (making) them super fast ;) I love this pajama party week :D
Thanks, Carla! I’m happy you liked the pajama party week. Thank goodness nobody complained. :D
I love your pj party! And, the cookies…so glad you two went through the trouble of making them so tiny and cute! xoxo
Hehe. I’m happy y’all like the little cookies! Caroline knew what she was talking about when she said we should make them so small. :)
Those are adorable cookies! Only I think the small size would probably make me eat too many. ;)
That’s exactly what I did! 12 at a time. Anything else felt too few. :(
Sounds like so much fun. If I put my jammies on, can I have about 12 of these super cute cookies?
Chris, I seriously ate about 12 of those cookies at a time. They’re SO tiny. I couldn’t stop. So yes… you can have all the cookies you want! :)
Pijama party recipes – what a great idea. I didn’t have one for years. Need to visit Warsaw and organize one with my girlfriends.
Yeah, you have to do that! It’d be so fun. :D
Um… heck to the yes!!!
Haha. My thoughts exactly! ;)
These are the cutest little sundaes, love them!
Thanks, Laura! :)
Oh, heck yes! This looks incredible, Erin! Who would have thought that “healthy” would be anywhere in the title of this tasty recipe?! Amazing!
Thank you! And I know, right? Caroline knows her healthy ice cream! :)
Seriously this looks amazing! I have been dying to try the banana ice cream craze because I love bananas but I haven’t because I didn’t think any recipes sounded that great… but PB banana ice cream… SCORE! Love the mini cookies, totally worth the effort!
Yeah! Try it with peanut butter. To be honest, I think the next time I make it, I’ll double the peanut butter. :D Not so healthy then but SO yummy!
Did you create this recipe just for me??? Because it has my name written all over it! I especially cannot wait to try that ice cream recipe — definitely pinning this to my “I Love Peanut Butter” board :)
Haha. Well of course we did! After we came home from Austin, Caroline and I sat down and wondered, “What would Julie do?” And so we went with peanut butter banana ice cream! :D Thanks so much for pinning!
You ladies (and your cookies) are so cute! I definitely need to bust out this frozen banana trick and yes: PB is always a good choice!
Thanks, Erin! And yeah, you’ve got to try it. You won’t regret it. It’s not *real* ice cream but a great sub!
this looks divine!
ps. in the recipe, you may want to note that the bananas should be frozen prior to blending them. otherwise, I don’t see how you would have anything other than a delicious smoothie ;)
Oh, goodness! Fixed. Thank you so much for catching that. :)
Rolling those little mini cookies does sound slightly painful, but boy are they cute! And I keep meaning to try the banana ice cream thing for my kids.
You can have the banana ice cream, too! Can’t you? Or you just don’t like bananas? Please tell me you can have the natural sugar found in fruit! (sorry I’m being nosy ;))
Oh I seriously cannot wait to try the cookies! They are very cute and scooping cookies is one of my favorite things ;)
You won’t like scooping all these cookies! It seemed like there were hundreds (that’s a huge exaggeration) of them. It took forever!
A healthy sundae like this is the way to go! Yum!
Thanks, Katrina!
Anything with PB is good with me, and this sounds absolutely fantastic!
Thank you, Holly! And agreed. I don’t think I’ve ever turned down anything with peanut butter. :)
Love this healthier taste on a dessert. Those itty bitty peanut butter cookies are so cute too.
Thanks! And cute they are. I want to make everything teeny tiny now. ;)
I’m fairly certain that I could indulge in this sundae every single night. The three flavors that just go hand-in-hand! Come back to visit meeeee! :-)
I will! Right after you come visit me. ;) (just kidding… you know I’ll be back soon!)