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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1,875 Comments on “Lactation Cookies.”
These TOTALLY work!! I got like 16 more ounces than usual today and it totally saved my butt! Baby is going through white the growth spurt!
I made two batches. One I took out right at ten minutes (perfect!) and the others I waited til the bottoms were just gold brown and they were a little hard when cool.
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Wowwzza! Just made these cookies today and they are sooo delicious. I even let my husband have some haha. Will the recipe still be as good if I remove the brewers yeast (looking to make these non-lactating). Please let me know.
This recipe is amazing!!! Don’t even care if they increase my breastmilk or not they are tasty. I had no chocolate but used dates and almonds instead. So good
Going to make some of these and freeze them for after my baby comes in 5 weeks! (Definitely nesting here!!) Hoping freezing them after baking works well – does anyone have experience with that? Excited to try the recipe out!
I would scoop the dough into balls and freeze the dough then take out of freezer a little ahead of time whenever you want to bake them.
I regularly freeze these after baking without issue. I use a freezer safe ziploc bag. You can allow to defrost on the counter for 20 or so minutes or heat them up slightly in the oven. and, in a pinch, they’re still tasty frozen albeit a bit hard on the teeth
My little one was born 4/13 and I used a different lactation cookie recipe (just found this one today and looking forward to trying it!) and froze the cookies so they didn’t get stale. I would take one from the freezer every morning and microwave it for 5-10 seconds and it worked great!
The cookies are delicious, my kids loved them too! I changed a few things, swapped 1/2 cup flour for 1/2 cup hemp powder, added 3 tablespoons chia seed, used two whole eggs, added a few chopped dates and added some melted peanut butter at the end. If it weren’t for the peanut butter I never would have gotten cookies out of the recipe as it was super crumbly. This might be because I changed the recipe so much, I was experimenting and want sure how the hemp powder was going to affect the recipe. I froze about half of the dough to make more in a few days and when I went to make them it was way too crumbly to make cookies so I ended up crumbling the dough up on a cookie sheet and cooked for about 25 minutes to make some amazing granola! I took it out twice to mix it up so it didn’t burn. Currently eating some in my yogurt and am super happy, I actually prefer this to the cookies as I can use it in so many different things. So yummy!
I forgot, I also used 3/4c white sugar and 3/4c brown sugar.
And for supply, (I added 2 extra tbsp brewers yeast), I definitely noticed an increase in production after a couple days, but my baby seems gassy so might take the 2 extra out next time if that keeps up and see how he does.
These taste great. I just made them today so time will tell if my supply increases. My dough looked just like the video but when it came to scooping the cookies they were dry and crumbly and didn’t stay in one mound. Any suggestions?
Mine À crumbly too. I just made formed balls with my hands but pressing it in my hand so it stick together.
I tried this recipe a couple days ago and my dough was also dry and crumbly. I might have a over mixed the wet ingredients. Anyways, I added 1 tbsp of water at a time until I got the texture I wanted. You can also use breastmilk instead of water. I hope this helps.
Excellent, easy and yummy! I made them for my daughter, she loved them. I will definitely will make more!
Hi, I don’t have cane sugar, any suggestions what to use instead?
N, any sugar will work fine in place of the pure cane. Brown is a little less refined than white. Also, about 1 1/3 cup of honey will work if you don’t want to use any sugar.
These are terrific! My daughter in law is dairy free so I substituted coconut oil for all of the butter and used dairy-free dark chocolate chunks. I also added 3/4 C. Coconut.
Mine turned out super dry and crumbly.. Stayed that way even after cooking. Does anyone have any tips?
I was too lazy to separate the egg yolk out so I just used two whole eggs and they were not dry and stayed together.
Add 1 tbsp of water or breastmilk at a time until you get the texture you want. You might have over mixed the dough.
I haven’t tried them yet but I just pulled them out of the oven and they look just like the picture!
Thank you!
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What oil can I use in place of coconut oil?
These are INCREDIBLE. I tweaked the recipe by:
-omitting coconut oil
-doubling the amount of cinammon
-using 1/2 cup brewers yeast
-adding one medium size overripe banana
-using 2 whole eggs (both yolk and white)
-adding 3/4 cup unsweetened flaked coconut
The recipe made 24, 2 inch cookies. I baked 8 per tray separately, at 350 degrees for 14 minutes. Try it!!! Sooooo yummy
Cant’t wait to make these! Do you melt the coconut oil before combining with the butter?
These cookies are great and are definitely helpful in maintaining my supply. I’ve made them several times with these small modifications:
-3 eggs instead of 1+a yolk. Helps with the dryness some people have mentioned.
-a combo of brown and white sugar to make them a little chewier.
-A “1 inch ball” is the size of a bottle cap, so I’m guessing that’s a typo. I use a tablespoon to portion mine and get about 60 bite-size cookies.
Hello..will it still be effective if i use non organic ingredients? it’s a bit difficult finding organic option in ourlocal supermarket .. (T ^ T)
Yes she just uses organic but she put in the story you don’t have to use organic 🙂
Seriously the best recipe! Fingers crossed they work as intended. :) I used a meatball scoop so I could make them smaller (cooking 7-8 minutes a batch).
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Hi
Can anyone convert the ingredients from cups to grams please?
Thanks
Ask Alexa or Siri or Google to convert to grams for you.
Amazing tasting cookies and they totally work, I’ve eaten 4 cookies per day for the last 4 days and my milk was flowing out of my other boob when I was feeding this morning. Thank you!!!!!!
These taste REALLY good. I was honestly scared due to the smell of the brewers yeast, a little off putting lol but they taste great! Hoping they help increase my supply.. if not they were a tasty treat if anything!
These cookies are insanely good. I’ve reduced the sugar to 1/2 cup,used 2 eggs instead of 1egg + 1 yolk and added some chopped almonds, they turned out so delicious. I’m due in a week and was planning to make and freeze them but don’t know if I won’t eat them beforehand and have to make second batch
I LOVE this recipe, it turns out great every time. I even did this to my friends who had a baby and nursing and they all loved it too. Delicious and really help to boost the milk supply. Thanks for the recipe!
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I don’t believe this cookies did anything for my milk supply but they are DECADENT!! I’d give them 15 stars if possible anyways lol.
Holy smokes. Thank you SO MUCH for this recipe!!! DELICIOUS! I might continue making them after I’m done breastfeeding haha!
I make these for my daughter and she swears by them. I follow the recipe to the T and they work very well for her. Thank you for the recipe!!
These cookies are so delicious. My mother in law tried them and said they were the best cookies I’ve ever made! Plus they did seem to help my milk supply. My baby has gone on nursing strike so I’m having the express and the amount of milk I’m getting since running out of the last batch of cookies is dropping off so I’m about to make some more. Thanks x
These are so DELICIOUS! I have been buying name brand lactation snacks at approx. $20 a pop and they don’t compare to these! I just baked them for the first time. I’m anxious to see if those key ingredients really amp up my supply. Thanks for the recipe!!!
I made up these cookies – but I added about 2/3 cup of peanut butter, changed to 2 eggs. Cooked up beautifully and delicious.
So delicious and it helped my supply. Better alternative that eating oatmeal all day! Thanks
Surprisingly DELICIOUS! Especially considering how disgusting the brewers yeast tastes I’m pleasantly surprised to have found these cookies be absolutely yummy.
These are delicious! I have only eaten them one day and I’ve noticed my supply has gone up an ounce already! Thanks for the great recipe!
Made these with King Arthur Gluten-Free flour and they came out GREAT!
I made some of these for my daughter in law who just had a baby , she loves them .
Love these cookies. Just a tad too sweet for me so I’ve experimented with the sugar amount over the many times I’ve made it. The sweet spot for me is 3/4 cup without any other changes. I really do love this recipe. So does my hubs.
Hi, is this recipe from USA.. I was wondering if you could send a recipe with weight grams of everything you use, as in Australia we have different size spoons and cups.. I made a batch but no way do they look like yours ;(
Am I using brewers yeast or is brewers yeast powder the same thing…? Does it matter?
Thank you for this recipe! My milk supply has skyrocket! Thank you thank you thank you!
I love this recipe and appreciate all the suggestions and optional ingredients. These cookies came out so delicious. I froze so many and they are ready in now time. I am about to start a second batch this week. Thank you for sharing this recipe!
I can’t say whether these actually work out not as many hasn’t come yet but these are great cookies! Just a tad bit sweet for me but that’s how I generally prefer all desserts/baked goods. I baked until the bottoms were just browned and the cookies were still nice and chewy in the center. The second batch I reduced sugar by 1/4 C, texture was the same and much more to my preferred sweetness level. Awesome recipe!
Hi. So I can use 1/2 cup of whole wheat flour instead of 1 & 1/2 cups of unbleached organic all-purpose flour?
How long can you freeze the dough for before it goes bad?
Love these! Just made them for the second time.
This time I did 8Tbs of brewers yeast (can’t taste it at all) and replaced 4Tbs of butter with coconut oil and did 8-9 minutes at 350. PERFECT chewy cookies.
They didn’t spread really at all because of the extra yeast so don’t let that fool you.
Thank you SO much for this recipe. It really helped this desperate mama ♥️
Just ate these warm from the oven. I don’t care if these work or not, they’re so good! My dough was a little dry so I did put the whole second egg and about a tablespoon of milk in the mixture. I also added an additional half teaspoon of cinnamon just because I love it.
Can these be made without Brewer’s Yeast? Or is there a substitute?
How many cookies do you eat at a time?