Breakfast Cookies

Cookie for breakfast? Yes, please! These naturally-sweetened, oat-based breakfast cookies are a delicious and nutritious way to start off the day. And the best part is you don’t need to go shopping for special ingredients. This recipe is flexible! You can easily mix things up with peanut butter, almond butter, or even sunflower seed butter, depending on what you have in the pantry. Prefer dried sweetened cranberries to raisins? Go for it! You can also swap in quick oats for rolled oats. And if you want to make your own oat flour, just pulse your oats in the food processor or blender, until you have a fine powder. Just make sure those bananas are really ripe. The browner the better! Enjoy a cookie or two with milk, tea, or even hot chocolate for an energy-packed breakfast that will keep you going all morning.

Makes:

Makes 8-10 cookies

Hands-on time:

30 minutes

Start-to-eat time:

1 hour

Ingredients

1 cups rolled oats
1 cup oat flour
¼ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 tablespoons ground flaxseed meal (optional)
2 medium overripe bananas (1 cup mashed)
½ cup nut butter of choice
⅓ cup maple syrup or honey
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
¼ cup raisins
⅓ cup semi-sweet chocolate chips (optional)

Kids kitchen skills:

measuring
mixing
baking

Tools:

baking sheet & parchment
measuring cups & spoons
2 mixing bowls
whisk & wood spoon
oven mitts

Step-by-step

Grown-up steps

Heat the oven to 350° F, and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
In a medium bowl, whisk the oats, salt, cinnamon, and flaxseed. In a large bowl, mix together the mashed banana, nut butter, maple syrup, and vanilla.
Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, and mix until combined. Then fold in the raisins and chocolate chips.
Use a ¼-cup measuring cup to scoop out the batter and space each cookie out on the baking sheet. Flatten each one gently with the bottom of the measuring cup.
Bake for 18-20 minutes, until the cookies are starting to brown around the edges. Let them cool for a few minutes on the baking sheet, and then transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely. Dig in!