Can you imagine dunking pancakes in a tall glass of ice-cold milk? And having a mountain of cookies ready in 10 minutes? A popular Instagram video promises just that, and it's catchily named “Pookies”!
With over 15.5 million views and 400,000 likes in just two weeks, Kayou Kitchen's Pookies appear to be a huge hit. TKTK Stats
“Kayou” is a coined term by blog founders Katya and Yousef, who, a la Sonny and Cher, asked to be referred to only by their first names. “We both love to cook, but we also love to eat,” Katya told me. “I'm the type who is fast and efficient, and Yousef likes to enjoy the process and perfect it.” Their year-old blog features recipes adapted from snacks and dishes from around the world, and for good reason: Katya is from Germany but has lived in nine countries, and Yousef is of Moroccan and French descent. Some of their most popular recipes include a three-ingredient Basque cheesecake and several delicious variations on two-ingredient palmier cookies.
Katja loves cookies and wanted to come up with an easy banana cookie recipe that anyone could make. “If I'm told it requires more than 10 ingredients or takes more than 30 minutes, I look for an easier way to make it, with fewer ingredients, fewer dirty dishes, and faster,” she says. “In that sense, I'm a lazy cook.” She blended the bananas with sugar, flour, baking powder, chocolate, and eggs so the only thing to wash was the bananas. She then formed the thick batter into cookies on a baking tray and baked them at 350 F for 8 minutes.
But it didn't turn out the way she originally thought it would: “I realized the texture was more like a pancake than a cookie,” she says. Yousef loved it, but said, “This isn't a cookie. This is a pookie — a pancake cookie!”
It certainly sounds promising, but I've failed at recipes touted as easy on social media before. And I'm not the only one. Several people who commented on the post asked for feedback from others who have tried making Pookie. Is it really that easy to pull off? I asked Katya if she had any tips or tricks. “There aren't any tricks, that's it, really,” she says.
And guess what happened?
The only additional tip I'd offer is that I measured things out, because European-style recipes that are in grams can be tricky if you don't have a kitchen scale. In addition to the banana, egg, and 1 teaspoon of baking powder, you'll need about 3 tablespoons plus 1 heaped teaspoon of sugar (50 grams), 3/4 cup flour (about 100 grams), and 1/3 heaped cup of chocolate chips (about 60 grams). I also added a pinch of salt.
I mixed these ingredients in a food processor for about 30 seconds and prepared to struggle to shape the dough into cookies, but when I dropped six scoops onto parchment paper, the dough spread just fine. In my oven, they took 10 minutes to brown properly. I was worried they'd unfortunately fuse into one giant cookie or stick to the pan like an angry limpet in a tide pool, but rather than puffing up while baking, they peeled easily off the paper after a few minutes of cooling. Parchment paper or a silicone baking mat is probably key, but in general, these cookies are self-care.
Now it's time for the best part – the tasting! Katia says that many commenters have pointed out that banana cookies are called puukis, but the recipes for those usually include butter and/or rolled oatmeal, which give them a very different texture. These puukis are unique and, as Kayo Kitchen puts it, are somewhere between a cookie and a pancake in texture. They're light and crisp on the edges, soft in the middle, and a bit sticky and sweet on top. They're a bit like a muffin top, except a muffin has a better hold together.
They hold surprisingly well, better than cookies, and contain less oil than regular pancakes, so they don't wobble when you hold them in your hands. I think they taste best at room temperature or warm, but toasting them for a minute in the toaster oven makes them perfect for dipping again the next morning. It's easy to substitute nuts or add a bit of dried fruit, and even kids can make them with very little help.
You can also eat it in the car without getting syrup on your seatbelt.
