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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I appreciate you so much!
1,879 Comments on “Lactation Cookies.”
These are my favorite! I substitute white chocolate chips and some mexican chocolate to sweeten it up a bit and get away from the bitterness of the yeast. I make these for all of my nursing friends :)
I can’t yet speak to the efficacy of these cookies since I just made them this morning, but they are incredibly tasty! I found all of the “special” ingredients, including the brewer’s yeast, at Whole Foods for a decent price. Will definitely be sharing this recipe with other mom friends!
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I just made this and they turned out AWESOME!!!! I followed every steps except the brewer yeast since the one I found at the stores here are not halal certified and I also used chocolate chunks, So I left the yeast out and replaced it with more flax seeds. Going to make more for my friend who just gave birth recently. Thanks for sharing the recipe!!
– B from Malaysia
I’ve made a few batches of these now and can attest to their absolute yumminess! Thanks for such a great recipe – I’ve searched high and low the last few weeks and have found a clear winner. I did reduce the sugar by 1/2c (I do well with low sugar sweets, though) and substituted chopped dried cherries for some of the chocolate, and added a little dried unsweetened coconut just for fun. A definite keeper, and my milk supply thanks you!
I have been sick with a stomach bug and my supply is really low, so I am doing anything and everything I can to get my milk back up. I just made these and they are so good!!! Better than my regular cookie recipe. Thank you!! If I have to eat for the cause, then so be it!
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These cookies are excellent. The only changes I made was using two large eggs, two cups of chocolate chips and only baked the cookies for 9 minutes. They weren’t dry at all.
OK, so lots of comments about how great these TASTE, but anyone care to comment on if they actually improved your milk supply? :-)
Oh! My! Goodness! These are amazing! My husband agrees, they’re fantastic! I made 3 batches! One with chocolate chips, one with raisins and one without either. All are scrumptous! I also made a batch without the brewers yeast for the hubs and kiddos to eat. They tasted exactly the same! Yummy!
Quick Notes: Brown Sugar helps keep these moist. I like the texture whole wheat flour added, breawers yeast debacle… more below
My wife asked me to make these for her and since I like creaming butter so much, it was a no brainer… :-D
My comments on the recipe:
1: Tough to find brewers yeast, but was able to get it in the GNC section of Rite Aid. They only had tablets so I ground them up into a power using a Nutribullet with the mill blade (i used the recommended amount from the recipe so not sure if the tablets are denser than the powdered version of brewers yeast).
2. I wasn’t sure if “Organic Cane Sugar” meant white granulated but whenever I do chocolate chip cookies I usually use significantly more brown sugar than white. So in this case I did 1 cup of organic brown sugar and 1/2 cup of white granulated sugar. Since brown sugar is higher in residual molasses it tends to be more hygroscopic (water holding) than white sugar. Keeping cookies moist and chewy! Plus you get that mellow sweetness rather than bright, sugary sweetness of white sugar.
3. My wife likes coconut so going with raw unrefined coconut oil was a plus since it adds a hint of coconut on the nose
4. My wife doesn’t like her cookies overly sweet, so doubling the salt made the cookies a bit more savory.
5. I didn’t catch the note at the bottom of the recipe about substituting whole wheat flour for AP. So I used the full amount from the recipe of Whole Wheat and we like the texture and nuttiness that whole wheat lends. No grittiness as at all!
Question for the group, will the oats lose their lactation benefits if toasted? Just thinking that if the old fashioned oats were toasted it would add another layer of flavor.
Thanks!!!
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I have made these several times and they have always turned out AMAZING. they also freeze extremely well so I will usually only bake half a batch at a time and freeze the other half for later. I have made a couple small tweaks- one of them is subbing in a 1/2 cup brown sugar because I ran out of white sugar the first time I made these and it worked beautifully so I have made them that way ever since. The other tweak is adding in some butterscotch chips because i think it goes well with the oats and flax. I shared the link to these delicious cookies on my site for giving gifts to new moms. Thanks for a great recipe :)
I just made these and they smell awesome. Can’t wait until they cool off so I can eat them.
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How many cookies should you be eating a day to boost supply? Thanks!
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These are delicious! I can’t say yet whether they boost milk supply but I made a batch today and they are SO GOOD.
The only issue I had was my dough balls didn’t settle into cookies very much… If that makes sense? I am think my eggs were too small? So I should’ve used an extra one. They were more medium/small size, would that be the culprit you think?
Mine did the same thing. From my experience with other cookies, it’s because there is not a lot of fat and it is a stiffer dough. From her picture, it seems hers stayed in balls and did not flatten out either.
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I have made many variations of lactation cookies, and I always just “wing it” on the recipe, and they come out different but good every time. I am getting ready to make some now so I see your recipe just popped up at the top of my Pinterest search, and I really like this recipe, so this time I’m going to use it. But I thought I would let you know, (and, I’ve seen other recipes with the same issue), that cinnamon does the opposite of what you are going for (it’s a diuretic,). The oatmeal, yeast, flax and things like almonds or peanut and other common ingredients in lacation recipes are things that make the milk flow (galactagogues), while cinnamon has a drying effect, so does walnut, in case you are substituting nut choices in your recipe. Just though I would let you know, but otherwise this recipe looks like it’s going to be a good one, can’t wait to try it!
The only brewers yeast i was able to find was at a beer brewing supply store in town. It is refrigerated, do i have to have it at room temp before using or can i use it cold?
Thank you for posting this recipe. You are a trusted source for cookies. My favorite ever are your fat fluffy snicker doodles. They make an appearance every Christmas season! That said I know these will turn out perfectly. That piece of mind is something to look forward to with all the unknowns coming my way. I’m due early September and these will be ready in my freezer when the need arises.
Baked up 4 dozen before realizing I made some mistakes, but they still turned out great. Here’s a tip – if you double the batch, don’t forget to double the eggs, and do not overcook them! And FYI, the double batch will NOT fit in a 5 qt Kitchenaid! 4th dozen is in the oven now, with an extra egg added, and the rest of the dough is going in the freezer for later. Thanks for the recipe, I’ll be making it again, hopefully with less mistakes!
Oh the cookies are so delicious. Normally I don’t like sweet cookies and prefer plain salty biscuits instead. But this cookies smells so nice with the coconut oil aroma. It was so crunchy. It made me eating more than one each time. Sometimes I dipper it with my fish milk to balance off the sweetness. Sometimes I just sneaked into the fridge and took one of these cookies and eat as a snack. It is always so good. I stored it in the fridge to keep it longer. I am going to finish these cookies soon and going to bake double of these cookies as it was too delicious.
I just made a batch and they are sooo good! I read on another site that you can add some ginger to help if you have a slow let down so I added a half teaspoon of that. I also added two tablespoons of peanut butter. I hope these help with my milk supply, but even if they don’t who cares because they really are just that good! Thanks for the recipe.
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Question… Can I use refined coconut oil since that’s what I have? And what about granulated or brown sugar vs cane?
Thank you!
I used 1 cup of brown sugar (squished down into the measuring cup) and 1/2 granulated and they are so good!
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These tasted great but came out pretty dry. Any advice? We’re yours dry? Not sure if I missed something. Should I soak the oats first?
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I just made these and they’re delicious! If you want to cook them the full 14 minutes, they’re lovely and crispy. Or, bake them less for the soft chew. Thanks for another great recipe (and an excuse to eat cookies in the middle of the night during feedings!)
These are absolutely delicious! I ate one batch already and about to make another! I am also going to make a batch to take to a friend once her little one arrives! I have no idea if they made a difference but either way I’ll eat em!! Hubby even loved them and was disappointed that I wouldnt let him eat anymore than one “boobie cookie” :)
I did make a couple changes… I only had AP flour and I used 1 c brown sugar with 1/2 c white sugar (no cane). I love Enjoy Life chocolate chunks so I used one bag of those. Baked these bad boys for 9 min only and they were nice and chewy soft! It made 50 cookies… Mmmmm good!
Just made these cookies! So yummy… And so much better than other recipes I’ve tried. However I made two versions… Chocolate pecan on one….. And then cranberry orange walnut on the other…. I just added a tablespoon of grove stand orange juice. And they are soooo much better than the chocolate pecan even! Thanks for the recipe.
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These are so good! I found the batter a bit dry so I added 1 extra egg. We also did half cranberry walnut and half chocolate chip. Yum yum yum! I’m definitely going to have to make a 2nd batch soon!
These cookies were horrible! I’ve always used the same recipe for months and the one time I wanted to try something different…it failed! These cookies were ridiculously dry and crumby. After I rolled the first ball I knew that it wouldn’t turn out right. I stayed up late thinking I would be benefiting myself and my baby by making lactation cookies, but I was disappointed to find that not only did I waste my time, but all the expensive ingredients it takes to make lactation cookies :( I’ve also tried to “fix” the batter after the first batch and it was STILL horrible! Do not try this at home!
I made them and found that if they were dry I would use another TBSP of Coconut Oil and they turned out just fine. Freeze well and my daughter who these were for just LOVES THEM.
These are amazing and they WORK!!! I was barely making enough for my daughter the first week and now I’m making more than enough I am starting my freezer stash. Yay thanks for the recipe.
I loved these cookies! They are so so good. I did add unsweetened organic coconut flakes and slivered almonds. I can’t stop eating them, thank goodness milk production requires a lot of calories! ?? TIP I did add an egg to the recipe, made them soft and spread a bit. I used extra large eggs. Such a delicious recipe THANK YOU THANK YOU
I estimate the cookies to be around 270 calories a piece.
Just made these to prep for Baby #2! I had to try one fresh out of the oven and they are amazing. It’s going to be hard not to tea a dozen a day ;)
These are the most delicious cookies ever!!! I can’t get enough :)
Am I the only one who can really taste the brewer’s yeast? I used 5 T. as called for, and they taste bitter and beery! Maybe it’s the brand I have (Now Foods). Do you know if I can add some peanut butter or something to mask the flavor? Thanks!
Just make sure you use the full amount of sugar, that is what covers the bitter brewers yeast!
I put my oats in the food processor before adding them to the mix. I think it helped make them more cookie like. I don’t like chewing into those whole, hard oats. I too found the dough a little dry and I even added an extra tablespoon of coconut oil. My husband said they looked like meatballs when they came out of the oven, :/ Next time I will add an extra egg and maybe extra butter.
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I used milk chocolate and caramel filled morsels, and extra vanilla. This recipie is SO yummy and does help with lactation. Bravo!