Gluten-free Healthy Breakfast Cookies made with peanut butter and old-fashioned oats. There is no flour, no butter, and no oil in these cookies which can be ready in about 20 minutes!
Cookies you can eat for breakfast!
Besides this Egg Skillet (or this Egg Wrap), I tend to love sweet instead of savory breakfasts. Gimme all the crepes, pancakes, or bread pudding and I’ll be happy as a clam (with a blissful sugar coma).
So naturally, if there is an excuse to eat cookies for breakfast, you know I’m all over that! And while these cookies do have a bit of sugar in them, they’re mainly made with good ingredients — honey, peanut butter, an egg, and old-fashioned oats. I mean, depending on how much sugar you add to your bowl of oatmeal, it may even have more sugar than these cookies 🙂 Or is that just me?…
Quick Tip
These Healthy Breakfast cookies are certainly not limited to breakfast; they make a great snack or afternoon pick-me-up.
Breakfast Cookies tips
Breakfast Cookies tips- Use a one-tablespoon measuring spoon to measure equal balls of dough so cookies bake evenly.
- Slightly flatten the dough balls: These cookies don’t spread much when baking so roll the dough balls wider instead of taller.
- Make sure to use creamy–not crunchy–peanut butter for best results. I recommend using a peanut butter that you love. If you like a spoonful of the peanut butter plain, you’ll love it in these healthy breakfast cookies.
- Do not over-bake: These cookies don’t take a whole lot of baking time and will go from perfectly cooked to burned quickly. These cookies continue to firm up after being baked as they sit and cool. You’ll know the cookies are done if they don’t look gooey, wet, or shiny on top at the end of the bake time.
Breakfast Cookies Variation ideas
- The chocolate and peanut butter chips do make these more of a dessert, so to make them healthier, try dark chocolate chips. Dark chocolate has lots of healthy fats and antioxidants among other benefits.
- Instead of adding chocolate chips, try raisins, dried cranberries, dried tart cherries, or nuts instead.
- Add a sprinkle of Maldon sea salt flakes to the tops of these cookies if you’re craving a salty-sweet treat.
More healthy baked goods:
- Healthy Pumpkin Cookies no refined sugar, no flour, butter, or oil
- Healthy Banana Muffins naturally sweetened
- No Bake Granola Bars with a chocolate drizzle
- Healthy No Bake Cookies with dark chocolate
- Healthy Applesauce Muffins made with Greek yogurt
Healthy Oatmeal Breakfast Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup creamy peanut butter*
- 2 tablespoons honey
- 4 tablespoons light brown sugar lightly packed
- 1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons old-fashioned oats
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 large egg
- 1/2 cup peanut butter chips + chocolate chips Nestle has this combo
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
- In a medium-sized bowl stir together the peanut butter, honey, and brown sugar. Do NOT warm up the peanut butter or the honey.
- Add in the oats, salt, baking soda, and vanilla extract. Stir well.
- In a separate bowl lightly beat the egg and then add it to the mixture.
- Stir in desired add-ins (I used a peanut butter and chocolate chip mixture), but you can use dark chocolate chips, raisins, craisins, peanuts, etc. to make these even healthier and more breakfast worthy.
- The mixture will be thick and hard to stir. Continue stirring until combined and then use a 1 tablespoon measuring spoon to measure balls of dough. Press and squeeze the dough tightly together into a ball and then flatten the ball to form a disc.
- Place the cookie dough discs onto a cookie sheet and bake for 6-8 minutes.
- Watch the cookies closely and remove when the bottom barely starts to brown even if they don't look completely done (they cook more as they cool). I burned a few cookies by not watching them - they look underdone and 30-60 seconds later they are burned! (TIP: I also found cooking smaller batches - like 6 on a tray worked the best)
- Remove and allow to cool completely.
Video
Recipe Notes
Gluten-free: For a gluten-free version, make sure oats are certified gluten free.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
I am in love this recipe. I recently tried it out and my kids love it. Because cookies for breakfast, WHY NOT! Love, love everything about this recipe. Thank you for sharing this.
Yay! So happy you guys are loving these cookies! Thanks Monica! 🙂
I’ve made this recipe multiple times as-is with perfect results every time! Today I doubled the recipe and substituted with mostly almond butter (about 1/2 cup peanut butter), and used maple syrup and coconut sugar in place of the honey and brown sugar (so my 11 month old could try some). I wasn’t expecting them to turn out as well, but they did! And with a little less of a sugar crash! This is my go-to, and I will continue to use it! Thanks for a great recipe! ☺️
Awesome! I am so happy to hear this! Thanks for the tips! 🙂
I added ghirardelli dark chocolate baking chips and subbed organic coconut palm sugar and they are a little fragile but delicious. Have been making a variety of healthy cookies and these are currently my favorite!
Yum! So glad you’re enjoying these! 🙂
Looking for years to find good recipes
i cant wait to make this cookies for dad
I hope he loves them! 🙂
I love the recipe as is but one time I didn’t have enough peanut butter so I used 1/2 cup almond butter and was pleasantly surprised. They came out super fluffy and not crumbly.
I’m so happy you are loving this recipe! Almond butter is such a yummy substitute in these cookies! Thanks for your comment! 🙂
I’ve made these a few times now. I substitute a mix of 2/3 Trader Joes Mixed Nut Butter and 1/3 crunchy almond butter for the peanut butter. I used coconut sugar instead of brown and used only half what the recipe calls for. Then I made my own add in mix of pumpkin and sunflower seeds, dark chocolate chips and a teaspoon of hemp seeds for added crunch and protein. They turned out DELICIOUS!!
I do not EVER comment on recipes… BUT I just had to mention how unbelievably delicious these were. They were BY FAR the best cookies I have ever eaten. Amazing.
The only changes I made was I only had 3/4 cup of PB so I used 1/4 crunchy with it. And I didn’t have chocolate chips so I roughly chopped up a Hershey bar. I had no scoop so I rolled them with my hands into balls, after 7 min I peaked in and squished em a tad bit with a fork. They did not at any point get firm in the oven, but after the bottom got a bit toasty I took them out.(about 11 min)
Now they are the perfect texture, the perfect cookie all around! Thank you!!
You made my day!! So, so thrilled to hear you loved these! Thanks Lauren 🙂
We love these cookies as a healthy breakfast or snack. They freeze beautifully.
I use half traditional pb and half natural peanut butter (we buy the one from Whole Foods). Swapping to only the natural pb made things very crumbly and downright greasy when scooping.
Some made it into the oven!
Made a few adjustments based on what I had available: almond butter, maple syrup and dark chocolate chips.
Also, used an falafel scoop for perfect rounds.
Delicious!