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.
These were so easy (but you did warn us)! My coworkers and boyfriend would have never known they were healthy, but of course I had to tell them. They were all quite surprised. Great recipe 🙂
Chelsea, just finished baking theese cookies and they are already gone! They are sooooo delicious!! I also added a chocolate cube inside of each one, that created a sweet melted center, and covered them in chocolate powder for a crinkled top… yum!! Thank you so much for another great recipe!
Although it’s in portuguese, you can check my cookies in my foodblog: http://amor-as-camadas.blogspot.pt/2014/04/crinkles-de-amendoim-e-chocolate.html
Kisses!
Raquel
Yay! Thanks so much for your comment and for trying them out! I just checked out your post and it is lovely! My mom grew up in Brazil and speaks fluent portuguese so I sent her your post! Have a great weekend Raquel!
These cookies look amazing! Haha love that your hubby couldn’t believe these were healthy – that’s the best compliment:) I love how thick they are and yay – now I won’t have to feel guilty for having cookies for breakfast 🙂
These cookies look delicious and I know my kids will devour them pretty quickly.
Thanks Sandi! 🙂
These gluten free cookies look so delicious! Saw your link over at The Weekend re-Treat Link Party and had to stop by and check our your post 😉
Love these babies!! I can just smell them:))
Pinning and sharing!!
OMG is there “breakfast” and “cookie” in the same title??? So I can have these FOR BREAKFAST?! Yes freaking yes!
These look fantastic! I would totally eat these for breakfast, lunch, and dinner!
Get out of town! These look incredible! Gluten-free and peanut buttery chocolatey goodness? SO so in love. 🙂 Pinned!
Just for you Erin 😉 Thanks and thank you for pinning!
Pinning and making! I love adding pb chips to my cookies… such a wonderful addition!
Thanks Kim! I hope you love them! And thanks for the pin 🙂