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.
Here I am “late to the table” as this recipe has been out there for about two years! But the were so good I am just glad I found them. Thank you for the great recipe. After reading the recipe and comments I made my first batch this morning. My favorite part is the “toasted” peanut taste the cookies have. Unfortunately, crumbling was a problem. But this will not keep us from making them again!
I’m so happy you enjoyed these Heather!! Thank you for the comment 🙂
Just made a batch of these and they were delicious! My 17 year old loved them too. Will definitely be making them again…and not just for breakfast. ; )
So happy to hear that Vivian! (And we snack on them all day long haha!) Thanks so much for the comment 🙂
I tried this recipe yesterday.. they’re soooo good!! Thanks for sharing!
So thrilled to hear that!! Thank you Denise!
OH MY GOSH ….. deliciousness. Will be making these often. Thanks for a wonderful, amazing, & healthy choice!
So happy you enjoyed these Jeannie! 🙂 Thanks for the comment!
Hi! Can you, please, let me know could I use extra honey instead of sugar in this recipe? Would it change texture or something? I’m not a experienced baker so I don’t like to make substitutions without checking first! Thank you!
Well, honey and sugar is not a 1:1 substitution. I’m not sure how much you would need to add to omit the sugar and it would change the texture of the cookie. Without further recipe testing, I really can’t say what all would happen. Wish I could be of more help!
Hi, Instead of using Sugar, it can be substituted with Dates or Stevia. I’m not sure of the ratio, but if you were to Google sugar replacements in baking, I’m sure you could find some very useful information!!
Thank you so much Brenda! 🙂
You’re welcome, This recipe looks absolutely yummy, by the way! I will be trying these soon.
These are absolutely delicious – a must try!!!!
Do you have any idea how many calories are in one cookie?
Hi! I love these cookies! I want to make a big batch for a group of friends before a big race we have coming up. Do you know if they would freeze well? Thanks!
I’m sorry I’ve never tried freezing them so I can’t say for sure, but I don’t see why they wouldn’t work being frozen. Wish I could be more help!
I would like to have a nutrition info on this and other healthy recipes ( as being diabetic I have to watch carbs & sugar ).
Hi. I wanted to let you and your readers know that we made these cookies Sunday night, and oh-my-gosh they were awesome! My household (minus my stubborn son) has been trying to eat a cleaner diet. I know these cookies aren’t 100% clean but so close and were a great, healthy treat for those of us experimenting with healthier ways to satisfy a sweet tooth! We did use crunchy natural PB and only the chocolate chips (not the PB ones) because that’s what we had on hand, but I can’t imagine that made a big difference in the outcome. They were delicious and even better the following day! They were great tasting and had no weird texture to them. I would eat these whether my intention was to eat healthy or not.
Yay! That is so exciting and so great to hear! I am thrilled these were so well enjoyed! Thank you for the comment!