Banana Bread Seitan Cookies

If you haven’t tried a dessert seitan recipe yet, this is your sign! These Banana Bread Seitan Cookies are super quick and easy to make, and are excellent for meal prepping since they make 20 servings. I like to have them around the house for a high protein snack and they’re also perfect for a pre or post workout snack! Someone on reddit came up with the excellent name of Gorilla Cookies (because they’re high protein and made with bananas)! I’m not sure how to get that searched for on Google, but I will definitely be calling these Gorilla Cookies at my house! 🙂

Vital Wheat Gluten is typically used in savory applications, but honestly, I love baking with it. As long as you add the right ingredients to it, and don’t over-work it, it stays soft and fluffy and is nothing like seitan meat replacements. I like using vital wheat gluten because it’s cheap, and doesn’t really have it’s own flavor. I also rarely use protein powders in my cooking, mostly because I don’t want people to feel like they have to buy very specific and sometimes expensive protein powder flavors just to make my recipes. And also because honestly, I usually hate protein powder in foods (not to say I will never use it, but it’s rare and you’re not going to be able to tell it’s there).

If I have convinced you to give dessert seitan a go, you should also check out my pumpkin spice seitan, chocolate seitan, and cinnamon sugar donut hole recipes! If you have any other seitan recipes you’d like to see from me, send me a message or hit me up on socials; I’m most active on instagram @proteindeficient.vegan!

Ingredients

• Bananas – I used three medium bananas, around 135 grams each, for reference. They were also very ripe, which I highly recommend because you will end up with sweeter, softer and less chunky banana bread seitan cookies.
• Vital Wheat Gluten – this is the main protein source for these cookies. It’s typically used to make meat replacements, but damn dude, I really love using it in desserts, despite how weird it sounds. As long as you couple it with the right ingredients, and don’t over-mix, it comes out soft and pillowy – and a little chewy, but not like your typical seitan level chew. You can find vital wheat gluten at most grocery stores, and since it’s shelf-stable, you can also buy it online.
  • Side note, please weigh the vital wheat gluten when you make this. It’s a very dense powder, and if you’re only using measuring cups, it’s very easy to add more than you think you are.
• Light Brown Sugar – if you’re on a cut or really watching your calories, you can definitely sub this out with any zero/low calorie sweeteners that are suitable for 1:1 replacement, like monk fruit.
• Vanilla Extract – good luck trying to stop me from adding vanilla to baked goods.
• Baking Powder, Baking Soda – don’t skip these; they help push the banana bread seitan cookies away from your typical, very chewy, seitan texture and more into a soft dessert.
• Salt – adjust to taste.
• Cinnamon, Nutmeg – I think both of these add some nice warmth to the cookies, but if you really hate one of these ingredients, feel free to leave it out.
• Powdered Sugar – this is optional, but I did include it in the calories/macros shown on the recipe card. I also really recommend it. Before these go in the oven, I like to dust them in powdered sugar. It really helps hold in the moisture, making these even softer and more dessert-y.

Instructions

• Pre-heat the oven to 350 F (177 C).
• Mash the bananas REALLY well. You don’t want these to be chunky at all, more like a puree. You can use a food processor if they’re not soft enough to mash well with a fork. Mine were pretty ripe, so I was able to more or less liquify them with a fork (liquification by fork could be a good band name).
• In a large mixing bowl, mix together the mashed bananas, light brown sugar, water, vanilla extract, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg. I like to do this before add the vital wheat gluten, so that the smaller ingredients like baking soda, baking powder and the spices are well-dispersed without over mixing the gluten.

• Now, add the vital wheat gluten. It’s important to mix as little as possible. Over-mixing can result in a chewier texture; we want to keep these soft and pillowy!
• The dough should look like the picture shown below – still moist, but not sloppy and wet. You should be able to form cookies with it. If you’re dough is too wet, add a little more vital wheat gluten until it looks like this. And if it’s too dry, add a teeny bit of water until it looks like the picture.

• Measure out the powdered sugar into a bowl.
• With a 2 tbsp scooper, make your little dough balls. You should end up with around 20 cookies (the calories/macros listed are assuming that one serving is 1/20 of the entire recipe).
• Roll the dough into balls, and toss in the powdered sugar. You don’t want a thick coating of powdered sugar, just a dusting. This step is optional, but I think it helps keep the banana bread seitan cookies moist and soft.
• Place the cookies on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet (or something similar).

• Cook for 17 – 19 minutes. I usually cook mine around the 17 1/2 minute mark, but you know your oven better than I do.
• Here’s a close-up of the inside so you can see what they look like!

Silly Little Haiku

Gorilla Cookies

Thank you marilynsrevenge

Shit is bananas