Lactation Cookies.
No, never did I ever think I would be typing “lactation” and “cookies” in the same sentence and especially not on my blog.
But these
are
GOOD.
Here is my take on lactation cookies: I don’t know if the COOKIES really work, but I do believe that the key ingredients (oats, brewers yeast, coconut oil, flax) work. I sort of think that the cookies are an excuse to… eat cookies? But in a good way! Also, this is why I think they are so great – in those first few weeks, and heck, even now, I was so freaking hungry, like had never been so hungry in my life. Having something quick to grab, like something even quicker than a banana and almond butter, was imperative while in survival mode. Especially in the middle of the night.
Even since having Max, I’ve developed this hangry hunger every morning, to a point where if I don’t eat something very soon after waking, I feel physically sick. Most likely because he is taking calories from me at night? I’ve never dealt with that before. So having one of these as a snack in the middle of the night or even right when I wake up is a complete LIFESAVER.
Now, these are cookies. Like actual taste-good cookies. I tried a few recipes in the last couple weeks that tasted like cardboard and were drier than dirt. I wanted to make actual enjoyable cookies, ones I wanted to eat, ones I’d be happy to grab twice a day, maybe three times.
The texture: These are thick cookies, not cakey at all, slightly crunchy, but not in a bad or stale way – they are crunchy from the crazy amount of rolled oats inside. I wrote the recipe exactly as I’ve been making them – meaning mostly organic ingredients. Feel free to use non-organic ingredients and what you have on hand.
I know you’ll probably have questions on what you can substitute, what you can leave out or add, what you can change and so on, so I’ve added some notes below the recipe. These will taste best written EXACTLY as is. But I know that sometimes you gotta make some changes! I really, really suggest leaving the amount of fat/butter in the cookies – it adds to the calorie value and new moms need those calories! It will also help the cookie to be a more filling “snack.”
If you want to gift these to a new mom, I would make a batch and bake them, then make a batch and freeze them. Or bake half a batch and freeze the other half. Deliver both. Making a freshly baked double batch isn’t great because the cookies aren’t super soft and moist and that number of cookies will dry out before eaten. Unless of course their family will eat them too. If you’re a mom-to-be, you can totally make these ahead of time – scoop the dough into rounds, flash freeze it then place them in a ziplock bag. My friend Julie has a great tutorial on freezing cookie dough!
Do you have an awesome lactation cookie recipe? If so, share below!
What the video of how I make my Lactation Cookies!
Lactation Cookies
Ingredients
- 3 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
- 1 1/2 cups unbleached organic all-purpose flour
- 5 tablespoons brewers yeast
- 3 tablespoons ground flaxseed
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 12 tablespoons organic unsalted butter
- 4 tablespoons unrefined organic virgin coconut oil
- 1 1/2 cups organic cane sugar
- 1 large egg + 1 large egg yolk
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 1/2 cups dark chocolate chips/chunks, I like ghirardelli
- feel free to add: unsweetened flaked coconut chopped almonds, 1 to 2 tablespoons of almond butter
Instructions
- Preheat the oven the 350 degrees F.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the oats, flour, yeast, flaxseed, baking powder, soda, cinnamon and salt.
- In the bowl of your electric mixer, beat the butter and coconut oil on medium speed until creamy. Add in the sugar and beat on medium to high speed until fluffy, about 4 to 5 minutes, scraping down the sides of the bowl if needed. Add in the egg and egg yolk, beating until combined, about 2 to 3 minutes. Add in the vanilla extract and beat until combined again. Gradually add in the dry ingredients, beating on low speed until just combined and mixed. Stir in the chocolate chips with a spatula until they are evenly dispersed.
- Scoop the dough into 1-inch rounds (I use an ice cream scoop so they are fairly uniform in size) and place on a baking sheet about 2 inches apart. Bake for 10 to 14 minutes, or until the bottoms are just golden. Let cool completely before storing in a sealed container.
Notes
2. You can use all butter if you don’t have/can’t find coconut oil. If you swap any butter amount for more coconut oil, the cookies will spread a bit more. If you decrease the fat (butter/oil) amount in total, these cookies will be drier. It’s up to you!
3. You can use 1/2 cup of whole wheat flour with similar results – any more and the cookies with be drier and grittier.
4. You can probably decrease the sugar by 1/4 cup without issue.
5. I do not have experience in making these vegan, so I can’t say what it would be like without the eggs or with vegan butter. I also am not sure how the consistency would be with gluten free flour.
6. I personally think you can increase the brewers yeast amount by 1 to 2 tablespoons.
Did you make this recipe?
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1,698 Comments on “Lactation Cookies.”
Love these! And THEY WORK!! Our family was hit with the stomach bug while I was breastfeeding our 3 month old and my supply took a dip. I would say within 24 hours I noticed a difference. I’m not sure how many you are supposed to eat but I didn’t care! I needed the calories and the ingredients had to have helped get things going in the right direction again. This makes a LOT. I would advise on cutting the recipe in half or freezing half after you make them to use when needed.
These cookies are so delicious! They taste way better than store bought lactation cookies! I just made a second batch for my sister in law. I added 3 tbsp hemp seeds because I had them in hand. I can see the coconut flakes being delicious here as well! This recipe is definitely a keeper.
These cookies are so good and tasty. I’ve used them for my last two breastfeeding seasons and believe they help. The hardest part for me is only eating one a day.
They are crisp cookies with a bit of chew—a good amount of chocolate taste and quite enjoyable with a nice warm beverage of choice.
I see “beat the coconut oil and butter” in the instructions, but I don’t see butter on the ingredients list? How much is called for?
It calls for 12 Tablespoons of unsalted butter. I overlooked it, too!
If you are adding coconut, how much would you add? And, can you use sweetened coconut?
Love this recipe! I’ve made it a few times with a couple adjustments – only 3/4 cup sugar (I’ve done it with monk fruit and with coconut sugar – favorite is combo of the two), some extra spices like nutmeg and cloves, and about a cup of shredded carrots instead of chocolate chips – gives it a real nice breakfast cookie feel!
Oooh, I like the idea of adding shredded carrots. I’m going to make these tonight for my friend that just had her first baby last week, and I get to meet him tomorrow :-)
I absolutely love this recipe and it really does help with your supply. The best part is I have my husband make them for me so it’s a double treat all around! We (he) makes them all the time and we really enjoy them. Great and easy recipe!
If I can’t eat dairy because my son is intolerant, can I swap the butter and what would be the measurements? Thanks :)
Have you tried vegan butter? I use Earth Balance vegan spread in my vegan cookies.
I’d say use the earth’s balance vegan butter. It tastes the same and reacts the same with baking. You can use equal measurements too. That’s what I usually use anyway but I had regular butter today so I used it.
These are absolutely delicious. However. I have gall bladder disease and can’t have so much saturated fat. I tried to up the butter and remove the coconut oil but still wound up having a gallbladder attack. In my 3rd batch I did vegan butter which has slightly less sat fat than dairy butter. Same result, delicious cookies but one hurting mama. Is there another fat that can be used? Olive oil and avocado oil are really low in sat fat (under 10%) compared to butter (23-ish%) and coconut oil (65%). How do you think they would do in this recipe and what would be the measurements?
I don’t think the olive oil would taste right. However, try chilling the avocado oil for it to solidify (I’m not sure if it will or not) and use the same measurements and since you’d be using an oil vs a butter, make sure you use a chilled mixing bowl.
So I did everything right and my mixer is dry… idk werid
Same. The cookies still came out good, just a dry cookie (like crumble cookies). I adjusted the recipe on my second batch by adding more coconut oil, 3 whole medium eggs instead of 1 whole large and 1 yolk and a little bit less oats (more like 2-1/2 cups). I put my recipe adjustments above.
Well somewhere below. Looks like the newer posts are closer to the bottom.
I added maple syrup for taste as mine tasted a bit too much of the brewer’s yeast. Was a good call. Much nicer
Delicious cookies :) My dough came out a bit dry and I had to add some coconut oil in at the end to be able to form the balls. It could be fault though because my baby kept crying while I was making them and it took me over an hour! It may have just dried up in the process! But they’re very good :)) any idea how many we should eat in a day? (Or how many we shouldn’t cuz I feel like I could eat them all!)
I was struggling to make any extra milk. I was freezing around 4 oz every day (on top of feeding my son.) after eating a week of these cookies I am freezing between 10-14 oz a day! These were a game changer for me. I bought other lactation cookies and cookie mixes but these helped my output the most! Thank you!
Ps. They are also yummy.
This recipe is ridiculously dry. The dough is very tasty, yes! But after the final mix-in of chocolate chips, I knew there was no way these would become proper cookies in the oven. Possibly smashing portions into muffin tins would make biscuits that would stay in one piece but who knows. I did a sample bake of six cookies for 10 minutes with the dough made exactly according to the recipe. I flattened them a bit before baking because I could tell they would not spread. They tasted great! But each cookie crumbled when I removed it from the pan. As one other reviewer remarked, they kind of looked like little meatballs.
I mixed in one more beaten egg and a tablespoon of melted coconut oil (because I was adding it in after the creaming process.) This time I baked for 12 minutes. Still very little spread, but overall a much better texture.
I was wondering if the ground flaxseed was a necessary ingredient. I have everything except this. Looking forward to trying this recipe!
Hi Kara,
I actually made these yesterday (my second batch) without the flaxseed. Not because I didn’t have it, but because I legit forgot to add it.
They came out good still. In fact, they were softer and they spreaded more. I like them both ways.
So good! My husband was eating them too!
I made these for my friend’s postpartum meal train. They are amazing! I didn’t have brewers yeast so I substituted whey protein powder with no issues. This is my new go to chocolate chip cookie recipe! It’s healthier and not overly sweet and really makes an abundance of cookies. I make two trays and then save the rest of the dough for when they are gone. Lovely, thank you so much!
Easy, convenient, and yummy!
These cookies are these good I could probably eat the whole batch in one sitting. They also seem to work pretty well.
I’ve already made three batches and will be making a lot more, fosho.
How long is the dough good for in the fridge?
Does anyone know if you should add the yeast dry or wet? The yeast I have is Traditional Active Dry Yeast and it says to mix with warm liquid and then use as directed in recipe. But I’m not to sure as this recipe combines the yeast with all of the dry ingredients. Thanks for your help!
Brewers yeast is a different kind of yeast not activated/ baking yeast it’s used to make alcohol however is a perfect milk booster !
WOW!! These are amazing! I definitely recommend adding the optional sliced almonds and coconut (I use toasted coconut chips, omg delicious) along with the dark chocolate. I can’t speak to how it affects milk output because I prepped them before giving birth and have used them ever since delivering. My output is very good though. These make an excellent middle of the night snack when you are feeding or pumping and ravenously hungry. I freeze the whole batch in balls and then cook them five at a time from frozen at 350* for 16 minutes. Perfection.
I followed directions with my first batch but I only had one large egg so I substituted the extra egg yolk with applesauce. The cookies were delicious just a little too dry for me. I did add the extra brewer’s yeast and shredded coconut so that could’ve contributed as well as the missing egg yolk. For my second batch I made adjustments. I used 2 tbs extra of coconut oil, 3 whole medium sized eggs, 6tbs brewers yeast, I had to use use packets of strawberry/banana instant oatmeal because I ran out of plain oats, added 1 cup sugar and 1/2 cup dark brown sugar, shredded coconut, chopped pecans and macadamia nuts because I had them on hand, 4 tbs of ground flaxseed and 5tbs of whole flaxseeds, and about 2-1/2 cups of chocolate chips because..I mean..it’s chocolate chips. The cookies came out softer and not dry at all. Thank you for this original recipe. I can’t tell if it’s helping with my lactation or not but baby I’m gonna make them regularly because they’re so good.
These work. I’m a man and started lactating.
These are so delicious, my kids and husband snatch them all up before I have a chance! They call them “mama’s milk cookies.” Thanks for this amazing recipe!
Made these cookies for my daughter who just had a baby boy and both my daughter and son in law loved them. Making a second batch today. Thank you for sharing the recipe.
Cookies are delicious, but my batter was very dry and crumbly as well. It was difficult to mix in the chocolate chips because the dough was so dry. I had to smash the the dough into balls and extra egg and coconut oil to help with consistency. Cookies help with milk supply!
How can you make it eggless? I usually substitute 1tbs flaxseed with 3tbs water for egg but this recipe also me thins egg yolk