Fawnahareo’s Place

One day when I was doing research on baby food, I came across a simple baby biscuit recipe that stuck in my brain.  Sometimes it’s handy to have easy-to-hold finger food around.  I’ve found that sticks of banana, cooked carrots, or avocado are easy to grab, but fall to pieces when baby squishes them or bites into them.  I have yet to find store-bought baby cookies that don’t include some form of sugar, and since when do babies need sugar?  (Well, for that matter, since when do any of us need sugar?  Too bad we’re all addicted…)

I made the cookies for Halia last week and just had to share the recipe because it is so damned simple.  There are two ingredients: ripe bananas and oats.

I bet you already have those in the house, don’t you?

Oats are great for babies (unless you’re avoiding all source of gluten, that is) and did you know that they’re always 100% whole grain?  The fast-cooking ones are just rolled out thin, but none of the grain is removed.

For the cookies, all you have to do is stick a couple of handfuls of oats (I used quick-cooking ones — not instant, mind you) into a food processor and whirl them until they’re fine.  Then mash up your banana and add enough oats to make a sticky dough.

Spread out the batter onto a cookie sheet (I put mine on parchment paper) in whatever shape you like (I made mine into simple rectangles).  Bake at 350 °F for 10-15 minutes until golden.  The bars will be chewy when cool.  Try one!  The natural sweetness of the banana is so yummy.

Halia was so pleased to be able to hold and munch on her own food.  Sadly, I normally don’t give her a lot of freedom with her food because I’m terrified of the carbs getting everywhere and contaminating something Jade will touch.  I bet no baby in the history of the world has ever stayed so clean while being fed.  So getting to have her own cookie was a huge privilege for her.  Just look how much she enjoyed it:

The smile would be even bigger, but she's too busy sucking on the cookie.

I also tried freezing the bars because I figured they’d make good teething biscuits that way.  Halia enjoyed a frozen one on our way to Fox Lake yesterday.

Here’s the recipe in it’s entirety, copied directly from this page on the Homemade Baby Food Recipes site:

Baby Oatmeal and Banana Bars

This easy recipe, sent in by a visitor to our site, produces chewy oatmeal bars for babies coping well with finger foods.

1 ripe banana
handful of oats

• Preheat the oven to 350 °F (180 °C).
• Mash the banana thoroughly.
• Grind the oats in a food processor.
• Combine the banana with the enough ground oats to form a sticky dough.
• Divide the mixture into small pieces and press it into the shapes of your choice (we make simple bars).
• Bake for around 10-15 minutes until golden brown in colour – they become harder the longer they are cooked, so keep the baking time as brief as possible if you wish to retain a chewy texture.