Healthy Peanut Butter Breakfast Cookies
Peanut butter breakfast cookies are hearty and wholesome, packed full of whole grains and nut butter, and lightly sweetened with bananas. Fresh from the oven or made-ahead for a busy morning, you’ll love having a nutritious meal to start your day.
Cookies for breakfast? Yes, please!
Great as a grab-and-go option for a busy morning on-the-run, or for a slow Saturday morning with an extra cup of coffee, these breakfast cookies are an easy way to fill up on whole grains, nut butter, and your favorite add-ins.
This recipe is also highly adaptable, so let your creativity fly! Load them up with fruits and nuts, or try them with seeds (like pepitas!), or go full-on dessert mode (highly recommended!) with chocolate and chopped candies.
Peanut butter oatmeal cookies are soft and chewy, thanks to the rolled oats and peanut butter, and are bursting with the fragrant flavors of vanilla, cinnamon, and honey.
This recipe uses banana and honey in place of granulated sugar and plain, unsweetened yogurt instead of butter or oil, so you can control how much added sugar you want to include.
You’re going to want to make this one of those go-to recipes you keep on hand, because you can transform it a hundred different ways, and you probably have all of the ingredients in your house already.
One of the best things about this recipe is that it starts with a healthy cookie base, and then you add in your favorite combination of flavors. That means you can make a few different varieties each time you mix this recipe together!
Adding dark chocolate chips is the classic take on these chewy oatmeal cookies, because who doesn’t like to sneak a little chocolate into breakfast?
These cookies are also delicious with white chocolate chips and dried cranberries.
Or a combination of milk chocolate and peanut butter flavored chips.
Or how about raisins and walnuts?
You get the idea.
These cookies are also the perfect way to use candy that you have around the house. Around Halloween or whenever we have extra candy in the house, I like to sneak some of it into the freezer. Out of sight, out of mind, right? This cookie recipe is the perfect place to unload extra candy when you’re looking for a treat. The protein from the nut butter and the whole grain oats will fill you up, while adding chopped candies will make your sweet tooth happy.
Not just for breakfast, these cookies are great for a morning coffee break, an after-lunch treat, or a bedtime snack. There’s really no wrong time to eat a breakfast cookie.
These breakfast cookies have so much goodness packed into them, and they’re endlessly customizable to your likes and dislikes!
- rolled oats
- whole wheat flour
- baking soda
- ground cinnamon
- salt
- peanut butter (or another nut or seed butter)
- plain yogurt
- bananas
- honey or maple syrup
- egg
- vanilla extract
- add-ins (this is the fun part! Chocolate, coconut, dried fruit, seeds, nuts, etc!)
These are great to prep ahead! On the night before you want to eat them, combine dry ingredients in a bowl.
In a blender, blend peanut butter, yogurt, banana, honey, egg, and vanilla.
Stir the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients until everything is moistened, and fold in any add-ins you like (read on for ideas!).
Pop the whole thing in the fridge overnight.
In the morning, all that’s left do is scoop them out and bake them for 8-10 minutes.
Enjoy with coffee, milk, or orange juice. Or whatever your morning beverage of choice is…that part is up to you.
- While the recipe calls for 1 cup of mix-ins, you can divide your batter and make several varieties at the same time. For example, you can make half of the batter with a ½ cup total of chocolate chips and chopped peanuts, and then make the other half with a ½ cup total of dried cranberries and chopped walnuts.
- To keep this recipe low in sugar and high in protein, use whole grains and chopped nuts.
- No honey in the house? No problem. Just use maple syrup.
- No rolled oats on hand? You can definitely substitute quick oats. Just add them in right before you bake the cookies, rather than letting the oats sit overnight. Easy!
- You can use any nut butter you have, including peanut butter, almond butter, or a hazelnut spread.
- If you’re looking for a vegan take on these breakfast cookies, you can use flax eggs, maple syrup, and soy yogurt.
- If you don’t have plain yogurt, Greek yogurt will also work.
- Easy mix-in ingredients include chocolate chips, dried fruit, chopped nuts, coconut, seeds, and chopped candies.
- You can also swap out the cinnamon for nutmeg, pumpkin pie spice, allspice, or whatever ground spices you prefer.
- You can double the recipe to keep extra healthy breakfast cookies in the refrigerator or freezer (see below for storage tips).
Make-Ahead and Storage Tips
- Store these breakfast cookies in an air-tight container at room temperature for up to 2 days or up to 4 days in the fridge.
- You can also freeze them for up to 3 months and thaw/warm in the oven when ready to eat.
FAQ: Do I have to make the batter the night before? Can I bake them right away?
- You can cook these right away if you desire. The cookies may be slightly more dense and chewy than if they are allowed to rest for a time.
- We recommend letting these sit overnight in the refrigerator so you can pull them together quickly in the morning, but also so the rolled oats will soak up extra moisture to make them less dense.
- You can substitute quick oats for the rolled (or old-fashioned) oats if you want to bake these immediately. The texture will be slightly less thick.
Get the Recipe: Peanut Butter Breakfast Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup rolled oats
- ¾ cup whole wheat flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- ¾ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup peanut butter
- ¼ cup plain yogurt
- 2 ripe bananas
- ¼ cup honey or maple syrup
- 1 egg
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1 cup add-ins – any combination totaling 1 cup: mini chocolate chips, coconut flakes, dried fruit, seeds, nuts
Instructions
- The night before: In a large bowl, combine dry ingredients – oats, flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt.
- In a blender, add peanut butter, yogurt, banana, honey, egg, and vanilla. Blend until well combined.
- Pour wet ingredients into dry and mix with a spoon or spatula until all dry ingredients are moistened and it is well combined. Fold in the add-ins.
- Cover bowl and place in fridge overnight.
- In the morning, preheat oven to 375°F and line baking sheets with parchment or foil. Remove batter from fridge. Scoop into balls of dough and place 2” apart on cookie sheet.
- Bake in preheated oven for 8 to 10 minutes. Allow to cool on sheet for 5 minutes before removing to cool.
- Enjoy with your morning coffee or milk and fruit!
Notes
- High-altitude baking adjustments (above 5000’): decrease baking soda to ½ teaspoon; bake at 385°F for 8 to 9 minutes