Cookies for breakfast? Yes, please! These oatmeal breakfast cookies are sweet, nutty, and filled with healthy ingredients like oats, nuts, and fruit.
Here’s how much I love these oatmeal breakfast cookies: after I finish typing this post, I’m going to head to the kitchen to make more. They’re vegan, gluten-free, and dairy-free, and they have fiber from the oats and protein and healthy fats from almond butter. Thanks to maple syrup, they’re naturally sweetened too. But these breakfast cookies aren’t just good for you. They’re also delicious! The same ingredients that pack them with nutrients give them a sweet, nutty flavor and soft, puffy texture. Who wants to eat a bowl of oatmeal when you can eat a cookie for breakfast!?
Breakfast Cookie Recipe Ingredients
This breakfast cookie recipe is a revamped version of my Carrot Quinoa Oatmeal Cookies. They have been a fan favorite (and family favorite) for years now. This time, I swapped the carrots and dried cranberries for a more summery combination of blueberries and lemon zest. Here’s what else is in them:
- Ground flaxseed: It acts as a binder and adds fiber and omega-3s.
- Oat flour, almond flour, and whole rolled oats: This combination is naturally gluten-free, and it gives the cookies a soft, oat-y texture.
- Baking powder and baking soda: To help them puff up in the oven!
- Cinnamon: For warm, spiced flavor.
- Maple syrup: It sweetens these cookies naturally.
- Coconut oil and almond butter: They bind everything together and make the cookies moist and tender.
- Walnuts: They add healthy fats and a delicious nutty crunch.
- And sea salt: To make the sweet, nutty flavors pop!
Find the complete recipe with measurements below.
These cookies get lightly crisp on the bottom, but as you’ll see, they’re pretty puffy – more like a muffin top than a flat/crispy oatmeal cookie. They’re big and substantial, but not too dense and not at all dry.
Oatmeal Breakfast Cookies Tips
- It’ll be tempting to underbake them. Don’t! When you’re working with oat flour, it can be tricky to gauge when baked goods are done. These cookies might look nicely puffed and ready to eat after just 18 or 20 minutes in the oven, but in actuality, they may need a few minutes more. The best indicator here is their coloring. Make sure that they’re beginning to brown around the edges before you remove them from the oven. If the breakfast cookies are underdone, they’ll end up very soft and crumbly.
- Leave them on the baking sheet for a few minutes to cool. Like many vegan cookies, these oatmeal breakfast cookies will be delicate when you take them out of the oven. It’s tempting to reach for one right away, but if you let them rest for 5 minutes on the baking sheet, they’ll have a more cohesive texture and richer flavor. After 5 minutes, transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely.
- Freeze the extras. If you plan to eat all these breakfast cookies within a few days, store them in an airtight container at room temperature. However, they also freeze really well. I love to make a double recipe to keep on hand for a quick healthy breakfast or snack! The freezer is also a great way to hide them from Jack, who would otherwise eat one every time he walks past the kitchen counter.
Transfer the frozen cookies to the fridge to thaw overnight, or pop one in the microwave for 30 seconds when you’re ready to eat.
Oatmeal Breakfast Cookies Variations
I love the blueberry and lemon zest combination in this healthy breakfast cookie recipe, but feel free to swap in whatever mix-ins sound good to you. Here are a few ideas to get you started:
- Switch the fruit. Replace the blueberries with your favorite dried fruit. Dried tart cherries or cranberries would be great!
- Spice it up. Cardamom, nutmeg, and/or ginger are delicious in addition to the cinnamon.
- Swap the nuts. Instead of walnuts, use pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, chopped almonds, or pecans.
- Add chocolate. Nix the lemon zest, and replace the berries with chopped dark chocolate or chocolate chips.
Let me know what variations you try!
More Favorite Breakfasts and Snacks
If you love these oatmeal breakfast cookies, try one of these healthy recipes next:
- Blueberry Baked Oatmeal
- Overnight Oats, Many Ways
- Perfect Steel-Cut Oatmeal
- Savory Porridge
- No Bake Energy Balls
- Homemade Granola Bars
Then, check out this post for 60+ Healthy Breakfast Ideas and this one for 47 more healthy snacks!
Oatmeal Breakfast Cookies
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons ground flaxseed + 5 tablespoons warm water
- 1 cup oat flour, made from 1¼ cups whole rolled oats*
- 1 cup additional whole rolled oats
- ½ cup almond flour
- zest of 1 lemon, about ½ tablespoon
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon sea salt
- ½ cup creamy natural almond butter**
- ¼ cup coconut oil, melted
- ½ cup maple syrup
- ⅓ cup walnuts
- ¾ cup fresh blueberries
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
- In a small bowl, combine the flaxseed and warm water and set aside to thicken for 5 minutes.
- In a large bowl, stir together the oat flour, the additional 1 cup rolled oats, almond flour, lemon zest, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt.
- In a medium bowl, combine the almond butter, coconut oil, and maple syrup and stir well to incorporate. Stir in the flaxseed mixture.
- Add the wet ingredients to the bowl of dry ingredients and fold in just until combined. Fold in the walnuts and blueberries.
- Scoop ¼ cup of batter for each cookie onto the baking sheet. Bake 20 to 24 minutes, or until browned around the edges. Cool on the pan for 5 to 10 minutes and then transfer to a wire rack to finish cooling. If you take them off the sheet too soon, the cookies may fall apart.
- When cookies are completely cool, they can be stored in an airtight container or frozen.
Notes
These are DELICIOUS. I had to make a few substitutions (chia egg for flax egg and cherries for blueberries), but they still turned out really good. The texture is really nice and they’re just sweet enough from the maple syrup. These are definitely going into the rotation!
I’m so glad you loved them!!
I have made double batches of this recipe three times now. I keep them in the freezer and take out a couple at a time. When I don’t feel like cooking, I’ll warm one up in the microwave and eat it with some yogurt and fruit. It is like having a treat but low in carbs and sugar for a diabetic. I usually do this for lunch or dinner rather than breakfast. LOVE THEM!
Hi Barbara, I’m so so glad you’re loving the cookies!
Made these with my freshmen Health class when we were talking about breakfast and snacks to make it through the morning. They LOVED them and want to make them again. I thought they would be freaked out by the ingredients, but they were impressed! So much fun!
Thank You
I just made these today with a few modifications based on what I had onhand. Namely, I subbed regular flour for the almond flour and sunflower seed butter for the almond butter. They turned out delicious! They are satisfying, not overly sweet, and I love that I don’t feel guilty after eating one. Thank you for the awesome recipe!
These are my absolute favorite new meal prep recipe!!!! I even shared them with a co-worker who needed breakfast and she loved them. I’ve made them with a regular egg and with the flax egg and both ways are delicious.
I’m so glad you love them! (They also freeze well!) Thanks for letting me know that the egg version worked well too.
Delicious! Made these last night and had them at breakfast and also snacked on them all day! LOVE lemon and the combo with blueberries is perfect. I’ll be making these again soon!
These breakfast cookies also double as comfort food! As an aside, I like how you photographed the ingredients in separate containers.
Have to comment bc I’ve made these 4 times now and have been recommending the recipe to lots of friends. These are amazing! I use frozen wild blueberries from Trader Joe’s and an egg rather than the flax egg replacement. Curious about trying out seasonal variations–pumpkin, apple, etc. Thanks for such a winning recipe!
Hi Kelly,
Thanks for commenting! 🙂 I’m so glad you’re loving these and thank you for all of the recommendations!
I think apple could just sub in for the blueberries with no other changes. I also really love these with dried tart cherries.
These pumpkin cookies are pretty similar:
https://www.loveandlemons.com/pumpkin-oatmeal-chocolate-chip-cookies/
These apple cookies are similar also:
https://www.loveandlemons.com/apple-oatmeal-raisin-cookies/
yeay , i can finish this homemade cookies by my self , thanks to whoever made this lovely genius recipe. i appreciate <3
I love making gluten free vegan treats for my 2 year old son, Levi and having him help me in the kitchen, too. I love the flavor profile of these–the way the tartness of the lemon cuts through the richness of the almond butter, coconut oil and walnuts and the blueberries taste really fresh and sweet. However, my cookies were really crumbly when they came out of the oven. I haven’t worked with flaxseed much and am wondering if maybe I didn’t incorporate it well enough–I did not add them last, per your instructions but had just put them in with the other wet ingredients as I was reading through the list (bad habit of mine that I have to break, especially with the rigors of baking). The other thing is we live in the Rocky Mountains outside of Aspen at 7,000 feet so baking is just tough here in general and everything goes from raw to overcooked. It’s really hard to achieve that light + fluffy thing with baked goods. I’m not vegan, so I could use eggs instead. Any advise there?
Hi Ali!
First things first – I’d try baking them longer. They won’t dry out, but they’d firm up and I’ve found that oat flour cookies benefit by being baked longer than regular flour cookies. The only time I’ve had these crumble is if I didn’t bake them long enough.
I’d definitely thicken the flax and water mixture before adding. It becomes gooey and egg-like. (Alternatively, I think you could use 1 egg, but I haven’t tested this).
Third, I’ve never baked at high altitude so I’m sorry I can’t be more helpful about that!
Let me know if baking them longer does the trick. Hope this is helpful!
Would this recipe work if I used dried blueberries? They look so good!
yep! They’re good with dried tart cherries too!
That’s a great idea! Thank you. Would you use the same amount of dried blueberries?
you could do roughly half the amount since dried berries will take up less volume in the measuring cup compared to fresh – it’s all personal preference 🙂
Hi! I made these cookies the other day because I’m obsessed with anything that has both blueberry and lemon. The recipe was super simple and straightforward which makes the process that much easier and enjoyable. & they taste delicious. I’m planning on storing them to snack on throughout the week.
Thanks so much for this recipe,
Gabby K. (@gritandgratitude_)
These look delicious, I cant wait to try them!
Thank you for the recipe!
Will frozen blueberries be okay? thanks.
I think they will be fine, the cookies just might look a little more blueish since frozen berries’ juices are a bit messier. They’d also work with dried blueberries or dried tart cherries. Hope that helps!
Hi Barb,
Counting calories, etc, has led to unhealthy eating habits for me personally in the past so it’s probably not something I’m going to add here. I hope you enjoy the free recipes anyhow! There are lots of calculators online or other food blogs that provide this kind of information. Thanks for understanding.
These look wonderful! Quick question – what would you substitute if you are not a fan of coconut oil? Also, do you think any other type of nut would be good in these?
Thanks!
Hi Patricia, if you don’t like the taste of coconut, you could use refined coconut oil (vs. un-refined coconut oil). One tastes coconut-ty and one doesn’t. I think a mild/neutral flavored olive oil could work here too, or any neutral oil (sunflower, grapeseed). You could do pecans instead of walnuts, they have a similar texture. Hope that helps!
I love lemon and blueberry flavors together! Not to mention that these are made with oats and oat flour…AND freezer friendly! 🙂
Hi, these look great and I plan on making them, but just wanted to make sure: you say they’re a revamp of your carrot quinoa cookies (which I LOVE), but there’s no quinoa in this recipe. Is that correct? Or is the quinoa missing on the ingredient list? Just want to double check. Thanks!
Correct, no quinoa in these (sorry of that was confusing!) it’s just a similar style cookie 🙂
Thanks for your quick reply, Jeanine – helpful since I’ll shop for ingredients tomorrow. Once I’ve made these, I’ll let you know and rate…although, as with so many of your recipes, I know they’re going to get five fabulous stars!!
Hey there, me again. So I made these and they’re finally cool enough to taste. Just as I suspected, Jeanine, DELICIOUS!! I have to admit that I pretty much doubled the amount of blueberries because…well…BLUEBERRIES! I also left them in the oven longer than you indicated, not because they needed it, but because I prefer a more solid cookie. You’re right when you say they’re more like a muffin top. Definite keeper of a recipe. Yum! Thanks so much!
Hi Rose! Yay, I’m so glad you loved them!!!!
As a dentist, appreciate a receipt that tastes good but is healthy for the body without much hard to our teeth. Thank you.
These cookies sound very good, but for me they would have to be a snack rather than breakfast because they have nowhere near enough protein to make breakfast for me. 🙁
They’re tasty as a snack too 🙂
I thought the same thing but the fiber from the oats and fat from the almond butter is super filling!!!!
I agree! I’m eating one right now, ha ha 🙂
I wonder if you could add your favorite protein powder to add protein.