I made Earl Grey-infused brownies on Sunday.  It was a spin off Gwyneth Paltrow’s fudgy brownie recipe, which calls for coffee.  I’ve made them once before and they’re actually quite good (although while moist I’m not sure I’d go so far as to call them fudgy — there’s only so much soy milk can do).  Two takeaways from my Earl Grey experiment: 1, brew the tea much, much stronger; and 2, do not sub cacao nibs for chocolate chips.  I have a feeling Earl Grey will lend a delicate layer of flavor and will complement the fall weather quite nicely.  Cacao nibs, however, lack any and all sweetness.  And even though I tried to compensate such by nearly doubling the sugar, it was to no avail.  The brownies, while moist and otherwise spot-on, were anything but sweet or decadent.  More of a cocoa-flavored loaf specked with crunchy nibs.  Disappointing, to say the least.

It may have been the first time I’ve ever seen the landlord take a bite of dessert and decline to finish the rest.  “You don’t like them.”  “Yes I do.”  “No, you don’t.”  “I’m just not in the mood for them right now.  I’ll have them with ice cream tomorrow.”  Fast forward to three days later, when he hadn’t so much as lifted the foil to reappraise them.  “Those were the worst brownies ever.”  “I knew you didn’t like them!”  “What was I going to say?  Your brownies sucked?”  Ouch.

Needless to say, I felt the need to redeem my baking skills.  Stat.

Enter Big Girls, Small Kitchen’s banana chocolate chip cookies.  I knew they had a recipe for banana chocolate chip bread, and was intent on making that (as banana chocolate chip bread is one of the landlord’s favorites), but rather than go straight to the recipe in their cookbook I perused the site for inspiration.  BGSK came through with the inspiration alright.

I’ve never thought of adding bananas to chocolate chip cookies before, probably because banana baked into anything is not my cup of tea.  But if there’s anything the landlord likes better than banana bread it’s chocolate chip cookies.  And here they are combined?  They should package these puppies and market them as relationship security.

The main modification I made was omitting the granola because I didn’t have any on hand (even if I did I could totally hear him say “why would you mess with a perfectly good recipe by throwing something screwy in the mix?”).  I also added a wee bit more flour (less than 1/4 cup) to compensate for the change in consistency.  Also, rather than white flour I subbed half spelt and half white whole wheat — a standard substitution in my kitchen.

Upon hearing “banana” and “chocolate chip cookies” in the same sentence I was thanked with “interesting.”  Interesting.  I beg your pardon?  I combine your two favorites in what could possibly be your all-time favorite dessert and you say interesting?  Have you SMELLED the deliciousness wafting through the apartment??  Would you perhaps care to rethink your word choice?  Poor form, sir.

A verbal clobbering and one bite later and I’m rewarded with an enthusiastic “THAT’S A DAMN GOOD COOKIE.”  You bet your ass it is.  You think this is my first time at the rodeo?

So we packed up two dozen or so and took them to the landlord’s niece’s first birthday party, where they were a huge hit.  It seems both banana bread lovers and chocolate chip cookie lovers alike can’t get enough of them.  Soft, chewy, sweet, chocolatey, and just a hint of banana.  Perfection.