That’s right—it’s finally time to satisfy your inner child’s dream of eating cookies for breakfast.
These Breakfast Cookies are the best of both worlds: they’ll satisfy your sweet tooth and they’re nutrient-dense. Each cookie contains 5g of protein, 3g of fiber, no refined sugar or added oil and—bonus!—they’re naturally gluten-free!
With endless customization options, I encourage you to riff to your heart’s content and freeze a batch or two for mornings when you need a quick-yet-wholesome start to your day. (P.S. They also make great post-workout and travel snacks!)
In this post:
A cookie that can do it all
Let me put it this way: if this cookie had a resume, it would be impressive. I don’t know a single other cookie that thrives in so many roles:
- As a wholesome, satisfying, genuinely good-for-you breakfast
- As a pre-workout snack (true story: my marathon-running friend Joanne, of The Korean Vegan, told me these cookies powered her for a long run around Central Park)
- As a delicious travel snack (I make a batch of these whenever I travel—and I can confirm that TSA will not confiscate them!)
- As an easy, on-the-go snack for busy weeks (keep a batch in the freezer and thank me later)
One more thing: don’t be fooled by the use of the word “wholesome” throughout this post—I know this often translates to “tastes boring and healthy,” but trust me, these are cookies you will actually want to eat. (One of my favorite flavor variations includes mini chocolate chips!)
🎥 Watch the video
With over 430K views on my YouTube channel, these breakfast cookies are a massive hit with my community. I hope you love them just as much!
Ingredient notes
Rolled oats
Old-fashioned rolled oats give these cookies their deliciously satisfying chew. Don’t sub with steel-cut oats (they’ll be too chewy and won’t cook through) or quick-cooking oats (they’ll change the texture of the cookie).
If gluten-free: Oats are technically gluten-free, but to avoid contamination risk, be sure to buy certified gluten-free rolled oats!
Flaxseed meal
In addition to being a nutritional powerhouse (containing fiber, protein, and omega-3 fatty acids), flaxseed meal is a key functional component of this recipe—you’ll mix it with water and let it sit until it thickens and gels, creating a “flax egg,” which provides the binding that eggs contribute in non-vegan baked goods.
Unsweetened shredded coconut
I love the flaky texture this adds to these cookies, but coconut-haters, never fear—simply omit!
Creamy almond butter
The almond butter is the replacement for oil in this recipe, so it’s important to use almond butter with a smooth, almost runny consistency (translation: avoid the thick stuff at the bottom of the almond butter jar, as well as crunchy varieties).
Substitute: You can use peanut butter or cashew butter if you’d prefer. If you’re nut-free, try tahini or sunflower seed butter—see the first FAQ for more information on nut-free substitutions.
Maple syrup
Pure maple syrup (look for bottles with a single ingredient: 100% pure maple syrup) contributes so much more than the one-note sweetness of refined sugar—it adds caramelly, woodsy layers, building the depth of flavor of these cookies.
And since these cookies don’t have added oil, the liquid consistency helps bring the dough together.
Step-by-step instructions
Prepare your flax egg. Whisk together the ground flaxseed meal and water and set aside for 15 minutes to gel up.
In a large bowl, stir together the dry ingredients: oats, coconut, salt, baking powder, baking soda.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the liquid ingredients until smooth and thick: almond butter, maple syrup, vanilla, and prepared flax eggs.
Combine: Pour the wet ingredients over the dry. Use a silicone spatula to combine the ingredients until it resembles cookie dough.
Add desired mix-ins (chopped nuts or seeds and dried fruit or chocolate chips) and hemp seeds.
Stir to evenly incorporate the mix-ins.
Scoop about 3 tablespoons of dough onto parchment paper-lined baking sheets and lightly flatten.
Bake at 350ºF for 18-20 minutes, until lightly golden on the bottom. Cool the pans on a wire rack for 5 minutes, then transfer the cookies directly to the wire rack.
How to customize these cookies
Substitutions
Not a fan of coconut or allergic? Omit the shredded coconut and just add more oats.
Don’t have hemp seeds? My first suggestion is to get some hemp seeds. Seriously, they’re protein-packed game-changers. My second suggestion: omit, or add more shredded coconut.
Allergic to almonds or don’t have almond butter? Use any nut butter you like, such as cashew butter or peanut butter (they will taste like peanut butter cookies). Just be sure to use a smooth—not crunchy!—variety, as the nut butter is the replacement for oil in this recipe.
If allergic to all nuts, use tahini. Or, an unsweetened sunflower seed butter (note: sunflower seed butter might tint the cookies a green-ish color).
Get creative with the dried fruit/seed/nut mix-ins. You could really use any variety you like!
- Dried fruits: I’ve used raisins, currants, finely-chopped apricots, finely-chopped dates, and dried cranberries (use juice-sweetened cranberries to avoid refined sugar)
- Seeds & nuts: Pepitas, sunflower seeds, and all kinds of nuts work well. Just thoroughly chop them so you don’t get large pieces.
Not a fan of dried fruit? Feel free to substitute with chocolate chips (these are my favorites)! I love the chewiness that dried fruit brings, but the chocolate chip version makes these taste more like a classic cookie (SO good).
Flavor combinations
Looking for inspiration? Below are the flavor combos we tried (and loved!) in the RPL kitchen.
My faves are anything that contains chocolate chips (duh), dried blueberries, and dried cranberries.
- Golden Macadamia: dried golden berries + macadamia nuts, chopped
- Mango Cashew: finely chop dried mango + raw unsalted cashews, chopped
- Chocolate Chip Almond: mini vegan chocolate chips + roasted almonds, chopped
- Cranberry Pecan: dried cranberries + pecans, chopped
- Blueberry Walnut: dried blueberries + walnuts, chopped
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes, they freeze perfectly! And they take just 15ish minutes to defrost, so you can enjoy them really any time. After baking, allow the cookies to cool completely.
Store them in a freezer-safe zip-top bag and label with the name and date. They should be good for about 3 months.
Yes, use seeds instead of nuts for your mix-ins and sub the almond butter with tahini.
You’ll need to use a smooth, non-bitter variety and stir well. I love Seed + Mill and Soom Foods and the Whole Foods 365 brand is pretty decent.
Or you could try Sunbutter sunflower seed butter. It will likely tinge your cookies green (that’s what happens when you bake with sunflower seeds) but the taste will be great.
That’s fine! If salted, you can use a scant 1/2 teaspoon salt in the recipe.
We recommend using a digital scale for the most precise results.
However, every time I have made this recipe, even without using a digital scale, it always yields 22-24 cookies.
It’s possible that if you live outside of the U.S., your tablespoon measures are different. For instance, in Australia, 1 tablespoon = 20 mLs; whereas in the U.S. and many other places, 1 tablespoon = 15 mLs.
Did you love these versatile, nourishing, delicious Breakfast Cookies? If so, please let me know by leaving a review and rating below 🫶🏽
Introducing
Big Vegan Flavor
Techniques and 150 recipes to master vegan cooking.
Breakfast Cookies
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons ground flaxseed meal
- 2 cups (190g) rolled oats (certified gluten-free, as needed)
- Heaping 1/2 cup (50g) unsweetened shredded coconut
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 to 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon (optional)
- 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 3/4 cup (190g) smooth, creamy variety of almond butter (can sub cashew butter) (see Note 1)
- 1/2 cup (160g) pure maple syrup
- 1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
Mix-Ins
- 1/2 cup (~75g) dried fruit (or mini vegan chocolate chips) such as cranberries, currants, blueberries (see Note 2)
- 1/2 cup (70g) pepitas or sunflower seeds (or nuts of choice, chopped; see Note 3)
- 1/3 cup (48g) hemp seeds (also called hemp hearts)
Instructions
- Prepare the flax eggs. Combine the ground flaxseed meal with 5 tablespoons water. Stir and let sit for 10 to 15 minutes to gel together.
- Arrange a rack in the top third and in the bottom third of the oven. Preheat the oven to 350ºF/175ºC. Line two large sheet pans with parchment paper.
- In a large bowl, mix together the dry ingredients: oats, coconut, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon if using.
- In a medium bowl, mix together the wet ingredients: almond butter, maple syrup, vanilla, and prepared flax eggs. Whisk until smooth and thick.
- Pour the wet mixture into the dry ingredients, using a silicone spatula to mix everything until the mixture resembles a cookie dough. Fold in your desired mix-ins (dried fruit, seeds or chopped nuts, and hemp seeds) using the spatula.If the dough is too sticky to handle, refrigerate it for 10-15 minutes to firm up slightly.
- Use a 2-tablespoon cookie scoop, small ice cream scoop, or large spoon to scoop 35 to 40g of dough per cookie onto the prepared sheet pans (that's 2 to 2.5 tablespoons per cookie).Alternatively, measure the dough out with a spoon and shape into a round using your hands. Space them about 1/2 inch apart, 12 cookies per sheet pan (they don't really spread).
- Lightly flatten the top of each cookie with your hands, then transfer the pans to the oven. Bake the cookies for 18-20 minutes, or until the bottoms are lightly golden.
- Remove from the oven and rest for 5 minutes, then use a spatula to transfer the cookies to a cooling rack. Store leftover cookies in an airtight container on the counter for 5 to 7 days, or in the freezer for up to 3 months.
Video
Notes
- It’s important to use a smooth, fairly runny variety of almond butter since there’s no oil in this recipe. Don’t use the crusty bottom of the jar! If nut-free, use tahini.
- If you want to keep these cookies entirely refined sugar-free, use a naturally sugar-free dried fruit like currants, sultanas, or chopped mango or apricots (most varieties of dried cranberries and blueberries have added sugar).
- If you want something a little more traditional cookie-like, these are REALLY good with mini vegan chocolate chips (I love the chocolate chips from Enjoy Life).
- Nut options we’ve tried: almonds, walnuts, pecans, cashews, macadamia nuts. They all work! Just be sure to chop nuts well so you don’t get big pieces. You can keep seeds whole.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Love this? Leave a rating below!
I’ve made these twice now. They are delicious and I can’t give them enough stars! I used almond butter and chocolate chips for the first batch and sun butter with dried apricots for my second batch.
We’re delighted to hear you enjoyed the cookies, Sajida!
The dough was so delicious that I’m surprised I was still able to make 20 cookies 🙃 Anyone have a suggestion for making the dough less sticky? I put it in the fridge for 15 minutes, and it was still too sticky so I stuck it in the freezer for 15 mins. After I pulled it out of the freezer, I had to add oat flour so that it wouldn’t stick to my hands when I was balling up the dough. There must be an easier solution!
I used silicone baking mats instead of parchment paper and the cookies turned out great.
Hi Katie, did you happen to measure the ingredients using a digital scale? If not, it’s possible you either over-measured the liquid ingredients a bit or under-measured the dry ingredients. The dough should be slightly sticky, but not so sticky that you wouldn’t be able to roll it after refrigerating it. In the future, if you still have this issue, you can try using parchment paper to roll the dough, so your hands don’t get too sticky.
Made these today, subbed 6 tbsp soy milk for the water in the flax egg for extra protein. Used a mix of peanut and almond butter and reduced the maple syrup by 1-2 tbsp. Mix-ins were hemp seeds, pepitas, and Enjoy Life 70% dark choc chips.
I just used my hands to put the ‘dough’ onto the sheets. It was messy, but they came out beautifully rustic, still slightly crunchy with a nice chew. My new favorite — will definitely make again. Always delighted by RPL!
Oh.. and I added 2 tsp of cinnamon 🙂
Hi Jamie, it’s great to hear you had success with the recipe. Thanks for the review!
Hi. I like that these are made with such simple pantry ingredients. However, my cookies did not turn out super crunchy. The exterior was a bit hard, but the inside felt a little chewy. I did not add the mix-in ingredients. Also, the shape wasn’t as smooth as that in the picture. Maybe I didn’t make the balls well enough? How can I improve?
Hi Sukriti, they should be crunchy on the edges but chewy inside. It’s possible you baked them for a bit too long. Next time, I would add the mix-ins and try using a cookie scoop so you get more rounded cookie dough balls. And try baking for a few minutes less, or reduce the oven temperature by 25ºF and bake for the stated time. Hope that helps!
These were awesome, husband and 4 year old approved. There are so many recipes for breakfast cookies that are really just glorified cookies out there, and these ones are really made with tons of wholesome, fiber rich, and antioxidant rich ingredients.
I didn’t have all the ingredients so had to make some substitutions. No rolled oats but I had Coach’s Oats (quick cooking version of steel cut oats) which worked fine and made the cookies extra chewy. No almond butter so I subbed mostly peanut butter and a teeny bit of walnut butter. Tasted just fine and didn’t notice that the PB overwhelmed anything. I used walnuts for the nuts, dried cherries for the dried fruit part… and then ADDED as a mix in 1/3 cup of so chopped chocolate. Also added as a mix in 1/2 cup wheat bran I had on hand. Basically, this recipe is really forgiving and you can add in extra mix ins without much worry.
…and I appreciate that it doesn’t have any bananas in it because so many of the breakfast cookies do and the banana taste gets old!
Tip: I used my oven on convection and 18 minutes exactly was perfect. Not burned on the bottom as a few others described. Also. They are hard to shape as they’re sticky and break apart and get caught on your hands so using a spoon to scoop and shape is crucial.
Love your recipes and just bought your cookbook. Would LOVE to be a recipe tester for you so hit me up if you need anyone!
Hi Raquel, thank you so much for the lovely comment and for the feedback! We are honored you are such a fan of the recipes. You can always keep an eye out on our email list for open recipe tester positions! Cheers 🙂
Inquiring if I can sub chia seed ‘eggs’ instead of using flaxseeds?
Thank You!
Hi Maria, we haven’t tried this recipe with chia eggs, but that should work. If the chia eggs seem very thick, add a bit more water.
I was a little concerned at first with how wet these were and not really holding together (even after refrigerating). However I smooshed them together best as I could before baking. They held together well once baked and were super delicious. Paired with some fruit (and coffee) was an excellent and quick breakfast.
Hi Alicia, we’re so happy you loved the breakfast cookies! Thanks for your review!
Definitely a 5star. The cookies are the best. I plan to follow you for more recipes
Your review made our day, Kathy! Thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts and for trying out the recipe.
I make this recipe all of the time! My husband and I love these cookies!
Hi Quin, Thank you so much for such a fantastic review! Appreciate you taking the time!
Nisha these are the best breakfast cookies ever! I made a batch for travel and it couldn’t have worked out better. I really dislike airport or road food so now I’m never stuck when hunger strikes. Thanks.
We’re so happy that the breakfast cookies turned out well for you, Kathryn. Thank you for taking the time to leave a comment and for trying out the recipe!