Lactation cookies

This recipe may only apply to 1% of my readers (if that) but if I’m being honest, the fact that these ingredients are supposed to assist in milk production doesn’t totally matter because they taste awesome.  I mean, they are cookies.  So, duh.  And they have wholesome ingredients like coconut oil and oats so they aren’t going to make you feel gross after you binge on the whole batch.

As hippie as I am, I didn’t even know about lactation cookies until I was well on my way nursing P and I never had any issues with supply, so I can’t say if there’s any merit to the claims that these cookies actually boost milk supply for new mamas.  But since I was in food prep mode before going into labor, I decided to make a bunch of them to freeze because if nothing else, it’s amazing to have home-made snacky nutritious things when you are nursing.  It’s a pretty ravenous time after all.

You can google “lactation cookies” and find a million recipes and resources explaining the logic behind the dessert (Brewer’s yeast, oats, and flax seeds are the key components said to play a part in aiding with milk production), so rather than get science-y, I’ll just post my recipe.  It differs from others I looked at in that it’s gluten free and dairy free.  Also, it calls for ground chia seeds in place of flax because that’s what I had (and both offer very similar nutrient benefits).  I made them mostly allergen free (they do have eggs) because I know that with P, everything I ate went to him via my breast milk and so it was important for me to have safe options to snack on.  In the event that my daughter has allergies too, I knew I wanted to make a nut free, dairy free, gluten free, soy free cookie that I can eat while nursing without worrying that the eczema or regurgitation or whatever is being caused by allergens in my diet.

Allergy Friendly Lactation Cookies [gluten free, nut free, soy free, dairy free – yield 35 – 40 golf ball sized cookies]

Ingredients:

• 1 ripe banana, mashed
• 1/2 cup coconut oil, melted
• 2 eggs
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 cup brewer’s yeast
• 1/2 cup more fiber stevia baking blend
• 3 cups GF whole rolled oats
• 1 1/2 cups GF all purpose flour (I used Trader Joe’s)
• 1/4 cup ground chia + 6 tbsp water
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp sea salt

**Add ins: 1/2-1 cup shredded coconut, dark chocolate chunks, raisins, sunflower seeds, etc.

**I divided the batter in half and added coconut and chocolate to one (1/4 cup shredded coconut and ~1.5 oz coarsely chopped dark chocolate) and seeds and raisins to the other (1/4 cup raisins and 1/4 cup sunflower seeds).

Directions:

Pre heat oven to 350 degrees F.

In a large bowl combine wet ingredients (oil, banana, eggs, vanilla) and stir until well mixed.  Add in the rest of the ingredients and stir until after forms.  It will be really thick.  Let sit for >10 minutes so chia gel can completely bind dough.  Refrigerate longer if desired.

Fold (optional) add ins into the dough, scoop and roll into balls, and place on greased baking sheets.  The size of your cookies will cause variations in baking time and yield.

Bake for 12 – 15 minutes.

Notes:

If the dough seems too dry just add more water tbsp by tbsp – it could be due to the difference in size/ripeness of your banana.

If you don’t have stevia baking blend, you can sub cane sugar or coconut sugar 1:1 in this recipe.

I don’t know how it would work to make this egg free, but I imagine a flax or chia “egg” would work fine.

Ground flax can be subbed for the ground chia.

Brewer’s yeast is not the same as nutritional yeast, so no, they cannot be used interchangeably.  It’s also not the same as baking yeast.

This recipe makes a bunch but they are small and bite sized so eating a few per serving is totally expected and encouraged.