Well…here’s a recipe I never thought I’d be posting here! I didn’t even know lactation cookies were a thing until I became a new mama. Before I lose the attention of the 99.9% of you to whom milk supply health is not a riveting and applicable topic, let me reassure you that this is a delicious recipe with AND without the active lactation supporting ingredient in it, so if you’re just looking for a healthy snacking cookie this is it! Gluten free, dairy free, and with no refined sugar added, it is nothing short of a miracle that these cookies actually taste great! The bulk of the cookie is made from oats, and it is bound together by mashed banana, peanut butter, coconut oil, and a generous handful of dark chocolate chunks.
When Hazel was born, the number one most stressful thing for me was feeding her. She was so little she had a hard time latching, which translated into lots of anxiety over my milk supply. Was I making enough food for her? Would I ever be able to nurse her like all those confident moms I see who can just whip out a boob and get the job done anywhere, anytime? As I sat there in the dark, pumping at 3 am, asking myself these questions, I turned to the Internet to learn everything I could about breast feeding and discovered lactation cookies.
Essentially, what makes a cookie a lactation cookie are a few key ingredients that are supposed to help nursing mamas boost and/or maintain their milk supply – mainly, Brewer’s yeast, oatmeal, and flax seed.
All of the lactation cookie recipes I came across were basic chocolate chip/oatmeal cookies, which sounded great, but I wanted something healthier…now that I was on the search for a semblance of a waistline again.
I turned to my favorite healthy snacking cookie – a tried and true recipe from Heidi that I’ve been making for years. It already met all the healthy requirements, so I just adapted it to my tastes and added some pro-lactation ingredients.
The Brewer’s yeast on its own can have a very bitter and astringent flavor, but I find that the combination of bananas, some peanut butter, and of course the chocolate, masks it really well. You can barely taste the yeast. Of course, feel free to omit it if you’re looking for a delicious healthy cookie recipe and don’t need the milk boost.
Now that Hazel is feeding well, I don’t have real cause to worry about my milk supply…although I feel like it is one of those things I’ll always worry about. These cookies make me feel like I’m doing something proactive about it. I keep a baked off batch of them in the freezer and just pop a few in the toaster oven to reheat whenever I want an easy snack or a quick one-handed breakfast. Plus, they just taste really good. Chocolate cake for breakfast may not be so acceptable anymore now that I’m not a pregnant lady, but who says cookies are out of the question?
I adapted my favorite healthy snacking cookie into a cookie recipe that will help nursing mamas boost/maintain their milk supply. The Brewer’s yeast is the main active ingredient that make this a “lactation” cookie. You can barely taste it. Feel free to omit it if you’re looking for a delicious healthy cookie recipe and don’t need the milk boost 🙂
Ingredients
- 3 large, ripe bananas, well mashed (about 1 ½ cups)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup coconut oil, warmed to a liquid state
- 1/4 cup peanut butter
- 3 cups rolled oats
- 2/3 cup almond meal
- 3 tablespoons ground flax seed
- 4 tablespoons reduced bitterness Brewer’s yeast
- 1/2 teaspoon Kosher salt
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 7 ounces (about 1 ½ cups) chocolate chips or dark chocolate bar chopped
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees, racks in the top third.
- In a large bowl combine the bananas, vanilla extract, coconut oil, and peanut butter. Set aside. In another bowl whisk together the oats, almond meal, flax seed, Brewer’s yeast, salt, cinnamon, and baking powder.
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and stir until combined. Fold in the chocolate chips/chunks. The dough will be a bit looser than a standard cookie dough. Drop dollops of the dough, each about 2 tablespoons in size, an inch apart, onto a parchment-lined baking sheet (the cookies won’t spread so they can be placed pretty close together). I like to use a cookie scoop so that my cookies are the same size.
- Bake for 16 - 18 minutes, until the oats are toasty. Check them about three quarters of the way through baking time to make sure the bottoms don’t burn.
Recipe Source: LickMySpoon.com.
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