Last Updated on June 12, 2026 by Janell

If you are tired of baking the same old classic chocolate chip cookies or standard peanut butter cookies every single week, it’s time to mix things up. We all love a reliable, easy chocolate chip cookie recipe, but sometimes you just need a unique cookie recipe that completely steals the show at the dessert table.

Enter these incredible Banana Pudding Cookies.

They have all the nostalgic, comforting flavor of a traditional Southern banana pudding—creamy banana flavor, white chocolate chunks, and real Nilla Wafer pieces—packed into a soft, chewy texture. It is easily one of the best cookies to make when you want something fun, fast, and entirely different.

Why You’ll Love This Recipe (No Chill Time!)

The absolute best part about this cookie easy recipe? There is no waiting around.

Most of the best cookie recipes out there make you let the cookie dough rest in the fridge for hours before you can even think about turning on the oven. Who has time for that? With this recipe, we are skipping the fridge entirely. You just mix the dough, scoop it out, and bake cookies immediately.

By using a box of instant banana pudding mix as our secret shortcut, you get incredibly buttery cookies with perfectly chewy centers and slightly crisp edges in just 10 minutes.

Simple Ingredients for Better Baking

You don't need a fancy kitchen scale or hard-to-find ingredients for these decadent cookies. Just a few baking staples and some grocery store favorites:

• Room Temperature Butter & Eggs: For the best results, make sure your unsalted butter, large egg, and extra egg yolk sit out on the counter for a bit. Room temperature ingredients emulsify much better, giving you a smooth butter mixture that holds its shape in the oven.
• The Sugar Mixture: We use a blend of granulated sugar and light brown sugar to keep the cookies ultra-moist. If you only have dark brown sugar on hand, that works too, but light brown keeps the focus entirely on that delicious banana flavor.
• Flour Measurement: When you're measuring your cup of flour, make sure to spoon it into your measuring cup and level it off. Adding too much flour is the number one reason people accidentally end up with dry, cakier cookies instead of a chewy texture.
• The Mix-ins: We are folding a full cup of crushed Nilla Wafers right into the dough alongside a cup of white chocolate chips. It's the ultimate combination if you love cookie recipes with white chocolate chip additions.

How to Make Soft Cookies Every Single Time

If you want to know how to make soft cookies that actually stay soft for days, it all comes down to the bake time.

Grab a standard cookie scoop so your entire batch of cookies is the exact same size and bakes evenly. Line a large cookie sheet or two large baking sheets with parchment paper to keep the bottoms from getting too dark.

Pop them into the oven at 350°F for exactly 10 minutes. When you pull them out, they might look slightly underdone in the very middle—that is exactly what you want for those perfect chewy middles. Let them sit on the hot pan for 3 minutes to finish setting up, then move them to a wire rack to cool completely.

The Pro Drizzle Tip

To give these that gorgeous, bakery-style crumbl cookie copycat look, we finish them with a quick white chocolate drizzle.

Before you even melt your chocolate, set a fresh sheet of parchment or freezer paper out on your counter and arrange your completely cooled cookies right next to each other.

Melt your remaining white chocolate chips with a teaspoon of coconut oil in the microwave at 70% power (Power Level 7). Do it in 30-second bursts and stir well. Once it’s smooth, drizzle all the cookies at a single time. White chocolate can be finicky, and reheating melted chocolate usually makes it seize up and get clumpy.

Banana Pudding Cookie

• Prep time: 15 minutes
• Bake time: 10 minutes
• Yield: About 50 cookies (using a standard cookie scoop)

Ingredients

• 1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
• ¾ cup granulated sugar
• ⅔ cup light brown sugar, packed
• 1 large egg plus 1 yolk, room temperature
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 3.4 oz package instant banana pudding mix
• 2¼ cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 1 ½ cups crushed Nilla wafers (divided)
• 2 cups white chocolate chips (divided)
• 1 teaspoon coconut oil

Directions

1. The Wet Base: In a large bowl, beat the butter, granulated sugar, and light brown sugar on medium speed for 3-5 minutes until fluffy. Beat in the egg, egg yolk, and vanilla extract.
2. The Dry Mix: In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt. Add the dry ingredients and the dry banana pudding mix to your wet sugar mixture, beating until just combined. Fold in 1 cup of the crushed Nilla wafers and 1 cup of white chocolate chips.
3. Scoop: Drop dough balls onto your prepared parchment paper using a cookie scoop. Gently press the remaining ½ cup of crushed Nilla wafers onto the top of each dough ball.
4. Bake: Bake at 350°F for 8-10 minutes (depending on your oven). Let them cool on the pan for 3 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
5. The Drizzle: Line up the cooled cookies on your counter on a piece of wax paper or parchment paper. Microwave your remaining white chocolate chips and coconut oil at Power Level 7 in short intervals, stirring until smooth. Drizzle over the cookies all at once and let set.

Storing for the Next Day

If you have leftovers, store them in an airtight container at room temperature. Because of the pudding mix in the dough, these cookies stay incredibly soft and taste even better the next day, as the flavors have time to meld together!

• Next Time Variations: If you want to switch things up down the road, this pudding-mix base is incredibly versatile. You can swap the white chocolate for milk chocolate chips or dark chocolate chips, or use the same soft-cookie technique to revamp your favorite oatmeal cookies or sugar cookies.