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.
We love these breakfast cookies and had a fun time baking them for the first time. I was wondering if you have any
nutritional information for them such as number of calories, but also number of proteins, carbs, fats, etc? I am most interested in the calorie count for them.
So glad to hear you enjoyed these 🙂
I can’t ensure that these facts are completely accurate as many online calorie counters can be off, but here is one label generated online:
Nutrition Facts
Serving Size 1 Recipe total Servings 16
Calories 158
Total Fat 8.82 g
Saturated Fat 2.65g
Monosaturated Fat 4.36g
Polysaturated Fat 1.8g
Total Carbohydrate 14 g
Fiber 1.6 g
Sugar 8.4 g
Protein 5.8 g
Cholesterol 13.02 mg
Calcium 18 mg
Iron 0.64 mg
Potassium 144 mg
Sodium 185 mg
Zinc 0.7 mg
Thiamin 0.05 mg
Riboflavin 0.04 mg
Niacin 1.67 mg
Vitamin B6 0.1 mg
Vitamin B12 0.03 Ug
Vitamin A 19 IU
Vitamin E 1.47 mg
Vitamin D 0.1 Ug
Points 4
Points Plus 4
*The nutritional values are determined by the total ingredients divided by the number of servings for each recipe. Serving sizes may vary. The formula used here for points was obtained from public sources and is an empirical match to Weight Watchers calculators, but it is not an “official” Weight Watcher’s calculator.
These look delicious! I was wondering, do you think I could substitute Almond Butter for the Peanut Butter? my daughter is allergic to PB, but not almonds…. what do you think? Thanks!
I don’t see why not! 🙂 the flavor will be a bit different but should still taste good! I would just recommend a creamy store bought version as natural almond butters can be a bit different
Thanks!… yes, I was thinking the flavor will probably be a bit different… and good tip on the store bought creamy… I will try it…. thanks! I guess I could try it with sun butter or that cookie butter maybe, that might not have a strong of a flavor as almond…
although, may have to sneak a batch with PB for me and the husband! I bet they are amazing with the PB!
I tried it with Almond Butter….it was the organic type with just a little bit of oil floating on top. I stirred it well prior to starting recipe. It turned out great! I also substituted my organic brown coconut sugar ( same amount as the brown sugar called for in the recipe). I baked around 8 minutes. I didn’t add any additional “add-ins”. I shaped the cookies with my hands ..first into tight balls, then flattened down a bit as Chelsea suggested. What a great and flexible recipe!!! Thank you Chelsea!!!
You are so welcome! 🙂 I’m thrilled you enjoyed these and were able to adjust them to your liking 🙂
I just made these! They are so delicious! My husband loved them too, and kept asking how I made them haha.
I actually used my homemade peanut butter, and they turned out just fine 🙂
thank you so much for sharing the recipe!
So glad to hear it!! Thank you for your comment Karen!! 🙂 And I am so happy to hear you used homemade peanut butter with no problem – I am sure that will be very helpful for other readers.
These look so good! I’m also super happy that it’s all easy ingredients that I always have in my pantry. Thanks so much for this great recipe!
I hate having to go to the store just for 1 or 2 ingredients!! Glad you had everything 🙂 Thanks for the comment!
These look so amazing!!! Im so exited to try them! But do you have a good idea for a substitute for the PB chips??? Thanks!!!
Yeah just regular chocolate chips will work fine. I would do dark if you like them since those are healthier 🙂
Just made these this evening and they are GREAT! Thanks for the recipe! I used Earnest Hot & Fit cereal (because I hated eating it as hot cereal) and so it included a little quinoa, sunflower seeds and chia seeds. I threw in semi sweet choc chips and toasted pecans. They were so easy to make and I am super excited to eat them for breakfast!!
LOVE hearing what you added and changed! So glad you enjoyed these and thanks for the comment 🙂
May I just say I love the size of these cookies? I made them and they grew to about the size of my palm! So satisfying compared to the other healthy cookie recipes I’ve tried that are barely the size of a normal cookie. I used all natural-non creamy peanut butter in the recipe ( to cut back on sugar and added oils) and it gave the cookie a nice complex texture and eliminated the crumbly-ness, although they were a bit flatter and didn’t have the nice cracked surface yours do. If you do this I would recommend doubling the salt because most all-natural nut butters don’t have much added salt 🙂
Isn’t the size of these cookies so awesome?! 🙂 And thank you so much for commenting about using natural non-creamy pb – this is so helpful for other readers and I really appreciate your experimentation! Thanks for the comment 🙂
These were AMAZING! Love, love, love them. Even my super-picky son loves them. After I actually convinced him to taste one, I know have to guard them with my life!!! After a test batch, I made a HUGE batch and then froze them individually wrapped in wax paper. So easy to take one out and enjoy whenever you like! Thank you so much for the recipe. It is a WINNER!
Thank you so much for your comment Michelle! I am so, so happy to hear you both like these cookies 🙂 Love that tip about freezing these!!
I never ever ever comment on blogs but I have to. These are AMAZING. One of the best cookies I’ve ever had. Thanks so much!
Oh I am so, so happy to hear you loved these!! Thanks for your comment 🙂
These look and sound so yummy! They seriously don’t look healthy at all, I’m excited to make some for my little ones this week.
Hope you all love them 🙂