Breakfast Cookies with Oats and Nut Butter
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Yes, you can eat cookies for breakfast! I’ve made this recipe with breakfast in mind – so you can feel good about eating a quick treat as you head out the door. Let me share the secrets to the ultimate busy-morning hack!
This grab-and-go breakfast option is the result of hours spent perfecting a flourless cookie recipe made with whole grains and naturally sweet ingredients like oats, nuts, bananas, coconut, and raisins. I’ll show you how to make soft, hearty breakfast cookies that are easy to pack, easy to eat, and loved by the whole family.
If you like oatmeal raisin cookies, you’re going to love these. They’re wonderfully soft yet filling, made without refined sugar, oil, or butter, and come together in one bowl with no mixer required. It’s a very forgiving recipe, too, so you can easily customize it with your favorite add-ins. Yes, you can eat cookies for breakfast—and feel really good about it.
Key ingredients
- Bananas: I use medium-sized ripe bananas. Frozen (and thawed) bananas work, too!
- Peanut butter: Natural peanut butter works the best.
- Honey: You can substitute maple syrup to make these breakfast cookies vegan.
- Oats: You can use either old-fashioned rolled oats or quick oats. Avoid using steel-cut oats as the texture isn’t right for these cookies.
- Walnuts: I like to toast the walnuts for the best flavor.
- Unsweetened coconut: This can be omitted if you’re not a fan of coconut.
- Raisins: Small raisins work best in these cookies. Dried cranberries are a great substitute!
- Dark chocolate chips: This is an optional ingredient and really makes the cookies taste like a treat.
These cookies are very easy to customize. Here are a few ideas to get you started:
- Nut butter – instead of peanut butter try almond, cashew, pecan, pumpkin seed, or even tahini.
- Go nut-free by using sunflower seed butter.
- Use maple syrup or agave instead of honey.
- Instead of walnuts, try pecans, peanuts, chopped almonds, or pumpkin seeds.
- Raisins can be swapped for cranberries or another small dried fruit.
When storing your oatmeal breakfast cookies, let them cool completely before transferring them anywhere (including into your mouth)! This gives them a chance to firm up. Once they’re cooled, transfer them to an airtight container. You can keep the container on your counter for up to five days.
If you wish to keep them longer, you can freeze them. Store them in a freezer-safe container or bag for up to three months. Thaw them by putting them out at room temperature for about 30 minutes.
Breakfast Cookies with Oats and Nut Butter
Ingredients
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, mash the bananas. Add the peanut butter, milk, honey, vanilla, cinnamon, and salt and mix well.2 medium bananas, 1 cup natural peanut butter, ½ cup milk, ¼ cup honey, 1 teaspoon vanilla, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, ½ teaspoon salt
- Stir in the oats, walnuts, coconut, raisins, and if using the chocolate chips. The batter will be thick and sticky.2 cups rolled oats, 1 cup walnuts, 1 cup unsweetened shredded coconut, 1 cup raisins or cranberries, ½ cup dark chocolate chips or chunks
- Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Drop ¼ cup mounds of the cookie dough onto the baking sheet and press down the tops lightly. Bake for 14-16 minutes then let them cool completely.
Video
Nutrition
We have thoroughly tested this recipe for accuracy. However, individual results may vary. See our full recipe disclosure here.
How much pumpkin purée could I add to the recipe?
Are you wanting to replace the banana? 1 mashed banana typically = ½ cup. I’ve never made that substitution so I don’t know if it will work out or not. Also, keep in mind that most of the sweetness comes from the bananas, so if you replace them, the flavor will be quite different. If you decide to experiment, I’d love to hear the results!
Im wondering what I could add to boost the protein in these cookies? Has anyone tried protein powder – does it change the taste & consistency a lot? Any other ideas? Hemp hearts maybe?
You could definitely try some protein powder, or even collagen as I do in my banana walnut pancakes. Hemp hearts or chia seeds will work well, too!
These come out perfect for me! I follow the recipe exactly but usually use pumpkin seeds instead of walnuts. I use a muffin scoop and then flatten them. We absolutely love this recipe!
I’m so happy that you love the recipe!!
There is something wrong with this recipe. It was soupy mess that took over 20 minutes at convection bake at 325 to cook thru, and by then the raisins, nuts were burnt tasting. Please fix this before more people waste ingredients. I’m going to try to fix remainder with flour, egg, sugar….turn it into a cookie maybe?
I’m confused about why the batter turned out soupy for you. You can see in the pictures and video that it usually is quite thick and sticky. Did you add all of the ingredients listed? And did you measure or eyeball them? I’m assuming something was omitted or maybe you accidentally added fewer oats than the recipe calls for. Either way, I hope you were able to fix them in the end.
I agree. I’ve made these cookies numerous times and the batter was never soupy, always thick and gooey. They are spectacular and my girls love 💗 them!
What a great recipe. We were looking for snacks for the grandkids, and we discovered we loved these as well. I love the fact it used walnuts and oats instead of flour.
These were raw inside after I baked them for 15 minutes. I made them smaller than 1/4 cup (maybe about 3 tbl each). I also put in the 1 cup chocolate chips that was optional. 1 cup was too much. It was a weird combination of flavors, too. I would probably not make these again.
Can you make this lower carb?
You could omit the chocolate and the raisins to reduce the carbs a little. But bananas, oats, and honey are all higher in carbs so this is never going to be a low carb cookie recipe.
These are so easy and make the perfect snack – plus it’s fun coming up with new variations on all the add-ins! The first time I made them, I found the cookies a bit crumbly and effortful to chew through. For my second attempt, I used dessicated coconut, chopped the nuts more finely, and added an egg to hold it together a bit better. Worked perfectly!
These are delicious! I didn’t have bananas so I used 1 cup applesauce and put cut up apples into the mix.
Just made these cookies for our family’s Thanksgiving vacation next week. They are delicious.
How long do they last? Could I freeze them? Or best to keep in a sealed container.
thank you
They will last for several days in a sealed container. But I would pop them into your freezer so they’re fresh for Thanksgiving!
These are really tasty! This was my first time making it so I didn’t know what to expect. The banana makes these really soft and almost doughy in the middle (which I normally love with traditional sweet cookies), but I think next time I’ll bake a bit longer than the recommended 14-16 minutes. Can’t wait to try these again with some of the suggested variations!
Can I leave out the coconut in this recipe?
You sure can! No need to replace it with anything, just omit it 🙂
I have some road trips coming up, these sound perfect for eating while driving up the Coquihalla. 🙂
They would definitely be great road trip cookies! Have fun on your holiday. I’ll cross my fingers that you won’t find snow on Coquihalla!
I substituted sun sweet and a bit of olive oil for the butter and used earth’s pride all natural Black Forest blend chopped up in the blender (3c) instead of the nuts and raisins and trader joes chocolate bar for the chocolate. Delicious!
This sounds fabulous. I love cookies anyway but if they are good for you it’s even better. Thank you for the recipe.
Susan
Do you know how many calories are in each cookie?
Sorry Bethany but I don’t know. I think there are some sort of calculators out there though that you can plug in the information and they will tally up the calories for you 🙂