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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1,879 Comments on “Lactation Cookies.”
Love these cookies! I have a woefully low supply of breast milk so I have tried everything! These cookies really seem to help. Doesn’t hurt that they’re also delicious! I have been substituting a half cup of flour with a half cup dark cocoa powder (I did that once when I didn’t have enough chips and wanted more chocolate and now I can’t go back!) and it’s so so good.
Sooo delicious! I switched out cane sugar for organic coconut sugar for more health benefits and they taste amazing! Will definitely be saving this recipe.
I absolutely love this. Made it so many time I lost count. The whole family is addicted especially the kids. (I no longer add the yeast). I add chia seeds and chopped dates and reduce sugar and they come out amazing. Just wondering if I can use whole meal flour instead of plan flour?
Hi! Can’t wait to try these – I make your recipes all the time :)
Question – any tips or variations your recommend for baking these in high altitude? Thanks!
I live at 7,000 ft and don’t make any changes!
I got a total of 30 dough balls out of this recipe and my SIL loves them. I froze the dough balls and delivered to her. She bakes them in small batches so she’s always got fresh cookies on hand. I’ll be making more to give as gifts to my mum friends.
These cookies are incredible. They never disappoint…
These were great! I used dairy free “butter” for my lactose intolerant baby haha. 100% recommend!!!!
Side note: I still make them now, after I’m done breastfeeding, just without the brewers yeast or flaxseed.
Just made these! Delicious! I’m not sure how they’re going to work for breastmilk supply yet. My baby is due any day now, so I saved the cookie dough so they’ll be ready. I don’t suppose you can give me a nutrition label on this recipe could you? Much appreciated thank you!
Hi there, thank you I can’t wait to give these a go! I can’t find brewer’s yeast — can I use nutritional yeast? Do I have to cut that down? Thank you
You can find brewers yeast on Amazon. That’s where I found mine!
I didn’t think these would actually do anything to my supply. I actually have a really good supply but my friend made these for me and they were suchhhhh a delicious treat I ate like 3 a day and my supply definitely increased! I’m 7 weeks postpartum and my milk felt like it came in all over again. I actually had to stop eating these cause I got such a big oversupply. I know they don’t work for everyone but definitely worth a try! They are sooooo tasty so a great snack regardless for the manic hunger of breastfeeding. Holy smokes! Obsessdd
Blew my expectations out of the water. I was prepared for a so so, yeasty oatmeal cookie. These are chewy inside, crisp outside. Full of flavor that’s somehow not too yeasty.
My substitutions. I did .5 cup chocolate, .5 cup almonds, .5 cup pumpkin seeds.
I also left out 6 grams of sugar and added 6 grams of molasses. I also added about .25 tsp of fresh nutmeg to the batter. So glad to have found this recipe! Thank you.
Okay so my supply had dropped so much due to my babies poor latch, I was in tears with how much my milk supply had dropped and baby was losing weight!
These cookies combined with power pumping sessions has really helped 🙏
These cookies are quite amazing! I’ve never made cookies this good ever. Thank you!!!
I threw yeast in the mix instead of brewers yeast… how much of a difference will that make?
Is there a limit of consumption of cookies for a day?
These are so good! I subbed half a cup of salted caramel protein powder in place of 1/2 cup of flour. Eye balled the chocolate chips and some pecans. Really great cookies!
These were good but too sweet! I only used 1 cup of cane sugar, and 1 cup of dark chocolate chunks but it was still waaay too sweet! I would use 0.5 cup sugar next time and 0.5 cup of chocolate chunks. I also used 1.5 cups of whole wheat flour and added 2 tbsp chia seeds, and they came out great – not dry at all. This is a great recipe, just have to tweak to your preference!
Do you need to soften the butter?
These taste great! I used the King Arthur Flour gluten free flour blend and they came out perfect.
How many should I eat a day and how long before I notice increase?
Love these cookies! First batch I used white sugar and GF flour, they were a bit too sweet and thought they could use a bit more of the nutty taste, so this time I again used GF flour, and used brown sugar instead of white, and used a fraction less than 1 1/2 cups, and added the extra teaspoon of brewers yeast – per recipe notes. They’re very dry and very strong taste of yeast – any tips for fixing as I haven’t made all the mix yet :)
Have you calculated the nutritional values? My daughter is a type 1 diabetic so would like to make her these, but want to make sure we know carb content. Thank you!
i made these cookies several times, love them. wanna ask should i use the convection fan?
I have made this cookie recipe twice now in the last week. The first time I made it exactly as written. I will say that the flavor of these cookies is absolutely fantastic. They are a drier, crunchy cookie, which is fantastic for having with milk or my personal favorite, hot cuppa coffee. That said, since I typically eat these overnight while nursing and I personally am more of a chewy cookie person, made a couple modifications which I feel has made these perfect for me.
Use 6T brewers yeast, 4T flax meal, add 2 additional egg yolks, and swap one cup of the white sugar for brown sugar. I skipped the coconut this time and instead added in white chocolate chips, and Craisins (keeping the semi sweet chocolate chips too). I also added a few splashes of oat milk to moisten the dough a bit and let it rest for an hour before scooping and baking. This allowed me to add a couple more splashes of oat milk and I feel this step really contributed to a soft chewy cookie by hydrating the flax. The cookies spread a bit more, but still retain a great shape.
Hello!
Is it okay to use steel cut oats instead of rolled oats?
These are so good! I was worried to try them because I’m a picky eater and the yeast and flax do not taste great. Instead of trying to make something yummy with them, I’d rather choke down something “healthy” overall. But these did the trick!
Unfortunately, to no fault of the recipe’s creator, one of these cookies sent me into a gallbladder attack 7 weeks postpartum. I ended up having surgery to remove my gallbladder. My supply dwindled while I was in the hospital, and so I’m trying these cookies again to see if they’ll help my supply again.
While in the hospital, my husband brought these to eat and my FIL, who was babysitting at the time, also ate them. Both men didn’t realize they weren’t regular chocolate chip cookies and said they were excellent 😅
I made these today. It was a process because I didn’t want to take out my mix master.
I used wholemeal flour because that’s all I had and left it in the oven about 5mins longer as they were very pale and I prefer crunchy oat biscuits.
After all of the effort put into these biscuits they ended up being really good. I’ve had four already and they’re not small (well, mine weren’t). They definitely spread out. I could only get six on a large baking tray at a time.
Next time I make these I am putting in dried apricots and walnuts, instead of choc chips. Mmmm yum!
OH MY GOD. These are so good and I definitely saw in increase in my milk production. I have made these several times and I will continue to do so. I tweaked a little just to my taste. I cut back sugar to one cup and I make bars instead of cookies (I have to bake them longer) but that’s just for my preference. LOVE LOVE LOVE this recipe!! Thank you for sharing!!
These cookies are very good and I totally missed a step! Lol I forgot to add the sugar until the end! I thought they wouldn’t be good because how dry the mix was… I literally had to squish the cookie ball together to keep it together. I baked it for 10 mins then squashed it down because it didn’t flatten and baked another 4 mins. Very yummy! My husband even likes them. They are on the drier side, but I like them like that anyway.
Amazing! They taste so good. Not sure if they help with my milk production, but I like to think it does. haha
Tastier than the Franjo’s choc chip cookies I tried purchasing. Made around 40. Nice texture, like an oatmeal biscuit, crispy, soft and chewy at the same time. Moorish!
Id like to make these and send them to my friend across the country, how best to store and send?
Delicious, moorish, addictive. I made the mistake of calculating calories and if you divide by 20 each cookie is about 280 calories. Half the sugar and replace half the chocolate with cranberries and it goes down to 190 and I actually prefer them a bit less sweet. Milk output definitely increased within a few days of eating too many a day. Highly recommend if you don’t mind the calories!
These are delicious and I do feel like they helped my supply. For anyone short on time, I decided to just press the dough into a 13×9 pan and make them into bars and it turned out perfectly! I store them in the freezer and pull out for a quick snack. Thanks for the great recipe!
These would have to be the best tasting cookies EVER! I do believe they’ve helped with my milk production. I’m made them 3 times already and just about to put the 4th batch in the oven.
I’m obsessed!
My daughter just became a mom for the first time. She has a lot of milk, and I don’t know if it is because of the cookies, but she loves them. Because she doesn’t have so much time to eat she munches on them regularly. I had to add milk to help the dough come together, but maybe it’s because of our South African weather. Thank you for a wonderful recipe.
I have been struggling with a low supply for around a week now so I decided to try these. They taste like weed cookies and leave such a strong after taste. I haven’t tried any other lactation cookies so I’m not sure if it’s normal for them to taste like this. Hoping they will help improve my supply since the taste is not for me.
Can’t speak for if it increases supply yet, but I made these tonight and LOVE! Delicious and fairly easy to make :)
I realised I don’t like the taste of brewers yeast, I actually added a whole bunch of cocoa and turned them into double chocolate cookies and loved the taste :) be
Great recipe Jessica! I’m headed back to work tomorrow after being home with my first for four months and these are coming with me to work to make work pumping sessions more manageable! I just gifted them to my sister who just had a preemie last week and she was excited for them too. Thanks for another great recipe!
Excellent tasty breakfast or snack treat. We added nutritional yeast instead, mini m&ms and blanched sliced almonds too. Liked the freeze and bake when wanted idea.
These cookies really do work. I have low supply and try everything possible to increase it. These taste amazing and actually work! I do make it with vegan butter and cut back the sugar to 1/2-3/4cups as the yeast I can get my hands on is debittered. I think if using bitter yeast that would require the extra sugar. I have made other changes such as white chocolate and cranberries and adding nuts and they all turn out great!
Update to my review, I tried substituting the butter with unsweetened applesauce to make them slightly healthier, they turned out great, they have a chewy inside and tastes great too!
Expecting my first baby in a few weeks so I thought I’d start prepping some stuff for the freezer. The dough itself was really tasty, my husband kept stealing it out of the bowl as I prepped for the freezer. I baked a few cookies to test them out, and let me tell you, they are amazing! I have an oatmeal chocolate chip cookie recipe I am famous for, but I might like these more (though I haven’t tried them as a cooled cookie, that might change my opinion)! They melt in your mouth, have a slight crunch to them, great flavor, perfection! My husband was pretty shocked when I told them they were lactation cookies lol I will be making these again in a double batch next time.
A couple changes I made – I left out the cinnamon as I do not like it in my oatmeal cookies, and I did 1c cane sugar + 1/2c brown sugar. Delish!
Delicious cookies! I subbed 1 cup of coconut sugar for the white sugar and added in chopped dates. Will definitely be making again! Now to find out how many I have to eat/can eat to impact my milk supply!
Delicious cookies! I subbed 1 cup of coconut sugar for the white sugar and added in chopped dates. Will definitely be making again! Now to find out how many I have to eat/can eat to impact my milk supply!
How many cookies would constitute as a serving?
Hi, may I ask if you have any tips on how to make these cookies on the chewy side?
Try subbing all brown sugar and an additional egg. Mine came out chewy that way.
So good!! I used all brown sugar, 2 whole eggs and added chopped dates in addition to the chocolate chips. If they don’t increase my supply atleast they are amazingly delicious!!
Followed the recipe as written but cut out one T of brewers yeast and the flavor of it is still overpowering. None of my family can stand them. I couldn’t believe it after all the positive reviews and even the note to add MORE brewers yeast. I’m wondering if I got something particularly strong? It’s “brewers yeast powder” so maybe really concentrated? I wanted to give these to friends who just had babies and now I’m not sure.
I’ve made this recipe now maybe half a dozen times. From my own experience as well as from others in the reviews, I have perfected it IMO. This is an excellent base though, so try it first then make your own tweaks the second time. It’s very versatile and easy to personalize.
First, one review recommended subbing some flour for cocoa powder. I sub half a cup flour for cocoa. This adds a great flavor and lowers the carbs and calories a bit. I use 1/2 cup coconut sugar and sub the rest for a mix of erthryitol and monkfruit. This tastes great and lowers the sugar amount. I like to add shredded coconut. One time I ran out of old fashioned oats. I find a mix between rolled and old fashioned makes a great consistency. I love using Lily’s milk chocolate further reducing sugar. I usually get about 35 cookies and it lasts me the week. Lastly, I use the full 2 eggs. Everything else I follow exactly. Actually, I add a few tbsp of water or milk to thin out the batter, before adding dry ingredients. This makes it a little easier to mix as it is quite thick.
Does it help my supply? Not sure! But as a homeschool mama, it can be hard to get something to eat when I’m busy with a newborn and my boys, so having something quick and easy to pop in the oven is helpful. I definitely recommend!