The Ultimate Healthy Breakfast Cookies
Who doesn’t want to eat cookies for breakfast? These breakfast cookies from Good For Your Gut Cookbook are vegan, gluten free, low FODMAP, peanut free, low sugar and packed with plant protein from almond meal + hemp hearts. Just 30 minutes and you’ll have a great vegan breakfast on-the-go!
Breakfast cookies have officially become a thing around here. It started with my old show The Urban Vegetarian, because the breakfast cookies became one of the most popular recipes from the show! So I wanted to see if I could top that for my new gut health cookbook, Good For Your Gut. The dietitian in me wanted them to be nutrient-dense, low in sugar, gluten free and low FODMAP for all of my gut-challenged friends. The cookie lover in me wanted chocolate, lol. Because plant-based recipes should still taste really good and be fun to eat.
I can’t believe that Good For Your Gut is here!!! I am SO freaking excited to share this book with you. This book contains 90+ plant-based recipes that are delicious and easy to prepare. They’re also designed with your gut health in mind.
The recipes are designed to Protect, Heal and Soothe. Protect recipes are all about high fibre + high in fermentable carbohydrates and prebiotics to help regulate digestion and feed the gut microbiome. Heal recipes are totally low FODMAP for my IBS friends who are doing the temporary low FODMAP diet. And Soothe recipes are gluten free and easier to digest, for those with the most irritated guts who are having difficulty eating whole plant foods. I am particularly proud of the low FODMAP recipes because plant-based low FODMAP recipes are really hard to find online!
Good For Your Gut also contains ~100 pages upfront with everything you need to know about how the digestive system works, what normal gut function looks like and what to do when something is off, whether it’s bloating, constipation or even irritable bowel syndrome.
Okay, now that’s sorted…let’s talk cookies!!
Why you’ll love these breakfast cookies
- They’re easy to make: Just stir, scoop and bake and in 30 minutes start to finish, you’ll be snacking.
- These vegan breakfast cookies are also really delicious!!! Chewy and satisfying, with a gentle sweetness and a little hit of chocolate and zingy ginger.
- They’re good for your gut: these breakfast cookies are gluten free for those with celiac disease, low FODMAP for folks with IBS on a low FODMAP diet and contain plenty of high fibre ingredients like coconut, ground flax, and rolled oats, which contain soluble fibre.
- They’re also healthy enough for an everyday breakfast option. Plenty of plant-based protein from almond flour and hemp hearts, healthy omega 3 fats, and low in added sugars. Just 2 tablespoons of maple syrup sweeten 16 cookies!
How to make these vegan breakfast cookies
These breakfast cookies couldn’t be simpler: just stir, scoop and bake! They only take about 30 minutes from start to finish and they make a great meal prep item for a busy week. They freeze well too.
- Step One: in a medium bowl, stir together the oats, coconut, almond flour, hemp hearts, pumpkin seeds, ground flax, cinnamon, baking powder and salt. Then, stir in the chocolate chips and ginger.
- Step Two: in a small bowl, mash the banana and mix in olive oil and maple syrup. Pour wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix thoroughly to combine.
- Step Three: Scoop using a 1/4 cup (60 ml) measure and place on a parchment-lined cookie sheet. Bake for 17-19 minutes at 375F (190C) until bottoms are browned.
Breakfast Cookies Tips, Tricks + Substitutions
- These cookies are not a traditional dough. So use a 1/4 cup (60 ml) scoop and wet hands to avoid sticking as you press the dough into cookies.
- These breakfast cookies won’t spread as they bake, so you can get them all onto a single baking sheet.
- You can swap the mix-ins! Sub any chopped nut or seed for the pumpkin seeds. Don’t love ginger? Add in cranberries or raisins or just extra chocolate!
- If you can, use mini chocolate chips, and be sure to finely dice the ginger. Having smaller mix-ins helps with structure in these cookies.
- You can freeze these cookies easily for a month. They’ll thaw in about 10-15 minutes so you can take them right out of the freezer each morning so no worries about waste!
Breakfast Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup rolled oats, gluten free if desired
- 1 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
- ¾ cup almond flour
- ½ cup hemp hearts
- ¼ cup pumpkin seeds
- 3 tablespoons ground flax
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ cup mini dark chocolate chips
- ¼ cup crystallized ginger, finely chopped
- 1⅓ cups mashed banana, about 3 medium
- ¼ cup extra virgin olive oil, or avocado oil
- 2 tablespoons pure maple syrup
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375˚F (190˚C). Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the rolled oats, coconut, almond flour, hemp hearts, pumpkin seeds, flaxseed, cinnamon, baking powder,and salt. Stir in the crystallized ginger and chocolate chips.
- In a small bowl, mix together the banana, olive oil, and maple syrup until well blended. Add the banana mixture to the dry ingredients, and stir to combine.
- Working with wet hands so the batter does not stick too much, scoop ¼ cup (60 mL) of the batter and pat into 2-inch (5 cm) circles. Place evenly spaced on the prepared baking sheet. If the batter starts to stick to your hands, simply rinse them off and keep working with wet hands. The cookies will not spread, so you can easily fit them on one baking sheet.
- Bake until the cookies are golden on the bottom and starting to brown on top, 17 to 19 minutes. Cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes,then transfer to a wire rack to fully cool. Store in an airtight container on the counter for up to 3 days or in the freezer for up to 1 month.
Notes
More healthy vegan breakfast ideas
- 15-Minute Vegan Apple Pie Oatmeal
- Easy Protein-Packed Chickpea Scramble
- Turmeric Ginger Smoothie with Greens
- Vegan Breakfast Sandwich with Chickpea Flour Eggs
- Healthy Vegan Black Bean Breakfast Burrito
Photo Credit: Janis Nicolay for Good For Your Gut Cookbook
16 Comments on “The Ultimate Healthy Breakfast Cookies”
Great with a bowl of yogurt on the side for breakfast or as an after school snack for the kids!
Oh love that idea! Loaded yogurt bowl 🙂
Forgot to mention – I didn’t have quite enough banana so used one cup mashed banana and 1/3 cup of apple sauce. I also used raisins in place of the ginger as I didn’t have any but would love to try that next time. Had one right after they were baked yesterday after school and then one this morning with a bowl of plain yogurt (dairy or coconut dairy free) with a drop of vanilla topped with strawberries and hemp seed.
Oh thank you for sharing that!
these look so good but i don’t use banana’s – is there something i can substitute?
thanks.
My only concern is that bananas do offer a lot of structure to this recipe, that applesauce might not. If you were feeling adventurous (if they don’t work out, you could use them as a granola??) you could try substituting 1 cup applesauce. I am thinking slightly less applesauce to keep the dough drier….
Hi Desiree!
If you wanted to make these school-safe (no nuts), what would be a good sub for the almond flour? Wheat flour (if not worried about gluten/FODMAPs)? A mix of wheat flour and protein powder if you want the extra protein the almond flour would provide? Thinking of stuff I already have in my house, too 🙂
Hi Melanie!
I haven’t tried with any subs yet, so I can’t guarantee. Do you have any sunflower seeds? If so, you could whir them into a flour with your food processor or blender and that might be the closest sub. You can try wheat flour, but if you notice the dough looks dry, add more liquid. And please let me know if a sub works for you and I will add it to the blog to help others!
Mmmm these were delicious! Both my kids gobbled them up. My daughter has an almond allergy and I happen to have some buckwheat flour. Substituted it 1:1 and turned out great! Thank you!
P.s.. What would you generally recommend for almond flour substitute in your baking recipes?!
YAY! So glad you liked them…and that buckwheat flour worked! I will add that to the blog post. I typically recommend walnut flour if not all nuts are an issue, and I’ve been suggesting ground sunflower seeds on this recipe because I think it could work too but not sure!
Is there a substitute to almond flour in the breakfast cookies ?
My daughter works in daycare where nuts, including almonds are not allowed.
Hi Annie!
So, I haven’t tested the recipe with any substitutions, but I expect that if you grind sunflower seeds and use that in place of almond flour it might work?!?
These were absolutely delicious! Any chance you can post the nutritional information?
I’m so glad you enjoyed them!! I don’t post nutritional information but if you need nutritionals for your own therapeutic reasons, Cronometer app makes it pretty easy to crunch the numbers 🙂
My new favourite breakfast cookie! Love the addition of crystallized ginger. The 1/4 cup measuring cup mold made these turn out consistently (I did need closer to the 19 minute mark using this technique). The best part is calling to my daughter to “come eat her cookie” before school 🙂
Ah, that’s so awesome!! It’s the ginger for me too 🙂