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!
2,113 Comments on “Lactation Cookies.”
This is a good preparation for pregnant women
These cookies are great for breastfeeding mothers! They are moist and super yummy and they help boost and/or maintain milk supply. And yes, husbands can eat them too! I have to hide these from my hubby when I make them! The brewers’ yeast, wheat germ, flax seed, and whole oats are why these cookies help with milk supply for lactating mothers. Don’t skip those ingredients!
I don’t see wheat germ in this recipe. Am I missing something?
Same. I halfed the brewers yeast and added wheat germ as I found 5tsp of brewers yeast (debittered) still tasted mildly bitter. The second batch I made I swapped out the chips for cranberries, pumpkin seeds and mini white chocolate chips. Added coconut to my dry mix. And swapped out the vanilla extract w lemon and they are So good – basically a super delish breakfast cookie.
Hello, Thank for your recipe. I have never expressed so much! with a cookie it feels so good. I like how they are easy to find. Thanks A lot
Honestly I think these have a very odd after taste. Or maybe I didn’t make them right but I did try them twice.
12 Tbs of butter??? Why can’t you just put a weight down?! How much does 12 Tbs weigh?
Not sure where you’re from but the author probably didn’t put a weight because it’s not standard to put a weight in the US? The majority of us don’t own a good scale. But I understand being frustrated if it’s not what you’re used to. I get the opposite frustration when people only listI it’s 6oz or or 156.5g. I hope this helps. I just looked at the butter stick to translate. Around here they have all measurements on the sticks. I hope this helps.
Amazing! Thank you so much. I’m in NZ so don’t use sticks…I can understand people using their country’s measurements, but when you’re publishing to the world, all options should be given, I feel! Thank you again for your help.
I was surprised to the 12 too I ended up doing half butter and the rest coconut oil. Worked great
I followed the recipe to the T. No subs, or changes. This is my first attempt at any lactation cookie. They came out good and moist. Held together perfectly.
Because in the US, that’s how we measure things.
You can probably google it and find out.
Same here! For me it is odd but I get we all have different ways of measurement. I just googled 12tbsp of butter and it gave me a conversion of 170gr butter so that’s what I put.
Is Cane sugar the as turbinado or sugar in the raw? Also how many do you eat each day as a serving size
Can I find the nutrition facts for this recipe anywhere?
Really like these! Baked a whole batch and froze half – I just took out a cookie or two a day and they tasted just as fresh as when I first baked them! Trying this recipe again, this time adding some shredded coconut.
Thank you.
Amazing .I left mine in for 5 extra mins and they came out drier, but like biscuits! Just the way I like them and perfect with a cup of tea! I also only used half a cup of brown sugar with half a cup of monk fruit (with erythritol) sweetner. They came out perfectly sweet!
I just made this one!! And it was the yummiest lactation cookie recipe i tried so far out of the 4 recipes i tried…
I did’nt have vco so i replaced it with laurin coco mct oil and since i love cinnamon i made it 1tsp and also added some chia seeds :)
I formed the dough into balls and chilled it in the freezer for 30 mins before i baked them… and the cookies turned out crisp on the outside but chewy on the inside! It was soo awesome!! 😍😍😍 thank you for sharing this recipe!
Has anyone tried baking these as bars?
I didn’t bake as a bar, but I feel it would have been great especially if adding more butter or taking out some oatmeal. Is it just me or did they come out dry? They took longer than 14 min to bake because the color didn’t turn until after that.
Mine came out dry as well. I was surprised since there’s a decent amount of butter.
So yummy! We all enjoyed them! ! The Brewers Yeast we found, at a local beer supply store, was expensive. Would love to have info on were to shop for that, but am making my second batch. This time trying White Chocolate and Craisens…with toasted walnuts including a dash of turmeric enriched orange juice, mixed with the liquid ingredients…will let you know how that works out!
I bought my Brewer’s yeast on Amazon
What brand did you by?
I found my brewer’s yeast at a vitamin shop. Only paid $17 for a 14 oz bucket.
I recently bought Mommy Know’s Best brand on Amazon and paid $10.55 with coupon (there is currently a $1.00 off coupon with it).
I bought Now brand Brewers Yeast with reduced bitterness from iHerb.com. It is currently $7.80 per lb. I have used this site before and they are great!
These are the best cookies yet using brewers yeast! I made a few changes – swapped the oil for butter and used 2 whole eggs just to add fat. I didn’t have chocolate chips :( so I used 1tsp cinnamon and 1/2 tsp nutmeg :). I also used 6 Tbs brewers yeast and I can hardly taste it. Thank you!
I got my brewers yeast from http://www.anthonysgoods.com
so mine did not spread out , i do have to say i substituted half the butter with coconut oil , could that be why? And ended up adding coconut milk as my dough was crumbly . sigh
I love this recipe and the results! I’ve always got them on hand and truly feel like I have stronger supply while they’re in my rotation. I did make one tweak! I swapped out the regular flour for oat flour for extra oaty goodness!
Mmmm! Made these for the first time today. I was lazy, so I used two full eggs and I also fully melted the butter and did not whip the sugar in. I mixed everything by hand. The cookies were perfect.
I calculated the recipe to be 5,760 calories. I got 34 cookies from my batch, used an ice cream scooper. That equals 170 calories a cookie.
Thank you for this!
I have baked them non stop since the start of the pandemic. I just love these, they help me with my supply and keeping the hunger at bay. Great to not binge eat all the junk food!
Hubby and toddler love these too, so they never go dry!
I love these cookies! I’ve made them so many times and I’ve played with the mix ins to not get bored! And it’s like a different type of cookie every time.
I’ve tried everything from coco powder, raisins, nut butter, peanut butter, Nutella, honey (didn’t work out well), double chocolate peanut butter (made this today- best yet), cream cheese and sprinkles!
The “constant” substitute I’ve made is I’ve replaced the flour for 36g of coconut flour, with this I ended up using 4 eggs since the coconut flour requires so much moisture.
I breastfeed and I only pump once or twice a day. I pump about 4-5oz in the morning and my breasts feel fuller throughout the day. I pumped 3 oz during the few days I didn’t have the cookies.
Oops, and always put them in the fridge for 2 hours before I baked them 😊
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Anyone know how many calories per cookie please
I put the ingredients MyFitnessPal and for 20 cookies I got 784 calories with 148.6 grams of sugar each 😲
These cookie recipe is very yummy!! I tried baking these for only 12mins and they came out good. Just wondering how long before they become stale if they’re already baked?
Not a fan. The liquid to dry ratio is off and they came out really dry and crumbly. I think you could do two eggs instead of 1 egg and 1 yolk. Just needs a bit more moisture.
Has anyone tried grinding the oats into a fine flour before adding ?
In the last batch I made I used only oat flour. They were kind of dry, but still great to pull out of the freezer. I actually prefer them that way. Today, I’m doing half oats, half oat flour. I have some oat flour from King Arthur flour that needs to get used up.
How many cookies is everyone eating per day? Is there a certain amount to start having an affect?
From other recipes I have made and read- it seems the standard is one to two a day. When the recipe yields about two dozen, it sets you up with a week supply to two weeks, depending on how many you eat daily. I’m sure you could eat more, but most moms try to limit how much brewers yeast they consume a day, since it can cause tiny tummy’s to be gassy. Hope that helps.
Cool, thank you. Good tip
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Any tips on what to do if dough becomes dry and crumbly? I left it as is and refrigerated and I am having a hard time making into balls. Eeek!
This is probably a total faux pas, but the same thing happened to me so I melted some butter (about 2tbsp) and mixed it through.
I added more vanilla and it seemed to work well but I did have to kind of piece them together. The finished product was great.
I made these for a friend and my husband was eating them before I got a chance to give them to her! She said they were great though! Yay!!!!! Question for anyone who might know, when I was nursing I was told to take fenugreek. Any thoughts on adding this to the recipe and how much to add?
I have veganised them by substituting butter with vegetable spread and eggs with Chia seeds, they came out really good. I have also used coconut sugar instead of brown.
Only thing is they have a slightly bitter aftertaste. Is it the brewer yeast?
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Instead of freezing can I just refrigerate the unused batter?
Better than I thought they would taste. It taste soo good ! Followed recipe to the T. Except cooked for 10 mins longer and it was still soft in the middle and crunchy on the outside. I only made half of the batter and saved the rest in the fridge
Delicious! Made a few changes: I added about 2 tbsp of almond butter, and changed it to 8 tbsp butter and coconut oil each. I used whole wheat pastry flour because it’s what I had on hand, used two whole eggs and also added more flax. Only problem is.. is it bad if I keep eating them?! Haha they’re SO good!!
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I was wondering, I dont like chocolate chocolate, but i love white chocolate. Do you think that this could be a substitute that wouldn’t compromise the receipt?
Thank you for the recipe! These are delicious. Can’t comment on if they help with the milk supply since I haven’t started breastfeeding yet. I’m freezing them in preparation. I used half brown sugar, half granulated and decreased the amount by 1/4 cup. I will probably decrease by another 1/4 cup next time. They didn’t spread at all, so after I scooped them, I pressed them down slightly. I may experiment with adding more flaxseed next time as well. Thanks again!
I made them just as the recipe calls but with 2 eggs for fat and it was great! Now if I can just keep these away from my son. Thanks!
Goood!
These are my favorite, just one problem is that every time I make them they come out very crumbly how can I fix this? I follow the recipe to a tee. Please help :-)
They are Delicius !!! I added 1/2 c of date.
Fantastic cookies! Replaced with wholemeal flour and added a splash of almond milk. Subbed abit of coconut oil for butter as I ran out. I formed my cookies into little balls but they didn’t spread out so flattened them when they came out the oven. Will be making them again.
Is this one and and one egg yolk? Or just one egg total including the yolk? Thanks
One whole egg plus one yolk
I made them as written but reduced sugar to 1c and did 1c dark chocolate chips/3/4c chopped cherries. I had to add an extra spoon of coconut oil to get all the ingredients to combine. They’re crumbly but tasty.
Made these for my lactating sister and my goodness were these good. I used locally-sourced 70% dark chocolates here in the Philippines to add that native chocolate nutrition good for post-partum moms. I wanted to eat everything so badly HAHAHA
Oops didn’t get to rate on the original comment!
I like to do 1/2 cup brown sugar 1cup white and I bake in a 10×14 pan and cut into bars!
Followed the exact recipe and added 4 extra table spoons of melted butter as the dough was really dry after fully mixing together. Bake for 10minutes if you like soft, chewy, slightly under baked cookies. 12-13 minutes for crispy outside soft inside cookies. This recipe is by far the best tasting lactation cookie I’ve tasted and I’ve tried damn near every cookie on the market. This recipe yields tasty, soft, oatmeal chocolate chip cookies so it’s now my go to when I need some more lactation cookies. I’ll also try adding more brewers yeast to another batch to see how it tastes and affects my milk supply.
What’s the shelf life of these cookies at room temp after baking?
What if I use flaxseed ground meal? Is that the same as flaxseed ground?
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how long do these cookies stay fresh once they are baked? I;ve made these so many times, love them!
I made these for my 8 month pregnant daughter. I added a bit more cinnamon, walnuts & coconut. I told her to freeze them & eat 1 or 2 a day…she loves them! I’m making two more batches today & she asked me to add peanut butter, so I’ll try that in one batch first & post again on IF they turned out! These freeze well even after baking, she just grabs out of freezer no hassle to bake. They kinda remind me of “monster cookies”.
This cookies are so so good! I literally just pulled them out of oven and ate one slightly warm and yummy is an understatement. I made them as recipe calls it but only did 1cup sugar(I don’t like very sweet stuff). My cookies are not bitter even with yeast so Yayy!!! Thanks for this am hoping my milk will double as I head to back to work and need to pump.