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.
Oh my. My boyfriend and I made a half batch of these tonight (we used a small egg we instead of splitting it) AND thank goodness we did! Any more and we would have eaten god knows how many cookies! 😉 Delish.
I recently came across your blog and just want to say I love your recipes – especially that you try to make them more wholesome.
So yummy! I used the all natural peanut butter and they did not stick together as well, but still tasted good!
Thanks for the recipe Chelsea!
I just made these! They came out looking more like an oatmeal cookie than a peanut butter cookie, like yours, but they are super! I just came back to the recipe, wondering why mine are so different…I somehow got confused (as can easily happen looking at phone) and only put 1/2 of peanut butter, ha! I will try it again sometime with the full cup, but for the record, it was tasty with half the amount and is a lot like a baked oatmeal bar/ball.
Haha! So glad these still worked even with less peanut butter and I’m glad the whole batch wasn’t ruined for you 🙂 Thanks for the comment!
I just made these and they are so delicious! Thank you so much for the recipe! I even added flax seeds and chia seeds to add a little more to the healthy benefits! Yum!!
Yay!! Love your healthy additions – I’ll have to try those! Thanks for your comment Stacia!
Hi! I was just wondering if you knew how many calories per cookie these were? I just made them and they are delicious!
I don’t have the nutrition facts for these, but you could put the ingredients in an online calorie calculator to find out! 🙂
Hi! Wanted to try these delicious looking cookies! I am a novice cook, so just wondered if you use parchment paper or a Silpat to line your baking sheet; also, can crunchy peanut butter be used instead of creamy? Thanks!
I didn’t, but you definitely can! No I would not recommend crunchy peanut butter stick to the creamy 🙂
Any idea about the sugar content of these cookies? I’m wondering if they are diabetic-friendly.
Thanks!
I’m sorry I have no idea!
I made a double batch of these last week to share with a friend and we are both in love with them! I am making a batch today to give to fellow members of my hand bell choir in a Valentine goody bag. This recipe is a winner, winner, winner!
Yay!! That is so great to hear! 🙂 thank you so much for taking the time to write a comment Kathy!
love them, even used all natural peanut butter
So great to hear that worked out well!
I made these last night and they taste SOOOO good. I used dark brown sugar (all I had) and they came out fine! Will definitely be making them again. Thanks for this great recipe! I will definitely be sharing it with family and friends 🙂 You rock!
Haha you are so sweet!! Thanks Lauren! So glad to hear you liked these and that the dark brown sugar worked well 🙂