My Favorite Lactation Cookie Recipe – The Yummy Way To Increase your Milk Supply
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The best easy and great tasting lactation cookie recipe! Perfect for increasing your supply if you are struggling with supply or just need a quick nutritious snack. They taste AMAZING, are quick to make and can be made dairy-free and soy-free!
I’ve mentioned this lactation cookie recipe a few times on different boards and Facebook groups, so I thought it was time to add it here for easy access!
When I was nursing, these lactation cookies were a lifesaver! There were many times when I could quickly get a good meal or feared that my supply was dropping, and in both cases, these cookies always seemed to come to the rescue! I tried many recipes but this is my all-time favorite!
Here’s the thing though… I can’t take credit for the recipe! I got this off of All Recipes website here. If you read the reviews on the website, I think you’ll see that I’m not the only one that raves about this recipe! It’s amazing! So thank you AllRecipes.com for sharing this amazing recipe!
Usually, I modify recipes I find online pretty drastically, but in this case, I actually left them as is. The recipe is amazing! The only thing I did differently is in the preparation. So here you’ll see the ingredients found on the AllRecipes.com website, followed by my method for preparing it.
According to the AllRecipes.com page, this makes about 36 servings at 158 calories each (but it never made that many for me! I think I made them much bigger than they called for!).
Okay so here goes…
Ingredients for Lactation Cookie Recipe as shown on AllRecipes.com:
- 2 tablespoons flax seed meal
- 1/4 cup water
- 1 cup butter, softened
- 1 cup white sugar
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 3 egg yolks
- 1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/4 cup brewers’ yeast
- 1 tablespoon wheat germ
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
- 2 1/2 cups old-fashioned oats
- 1 cup chocolate chips
These ingredients make a whole lot of sense because ingredients like Brewer’s Yeast, Flax Seed, Oats, and Wheat Germ are all said to help with milk supply! So don’t omit these ingredients if you’re a nursing mom and trying to boost your supply.
My Preparation Instructions (slightly different):
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees (F)
- Melt or soften the butter and mix in the sugar (white and brown) and the egg yolk until the sugar dissolves (but let’s face it, this doesn’t need to be perfect!)
- Add everything else to the mixture EXCEPT the rolled oats and chocolate chips and mix with a wooden spoon or by hand.
- Then pour in the oats and chocolate chips (sometimes I included extra chocolate chips because.. why not?)
- Grab a 9×12 baking dish and line with parchment paper or spray liberally with cooking spray (I prefer the parchment paper).
- Pour the dough (which may be a bit crumbly depending on how well mixed it is) into the dish and spread as flat as you can.
- Bake at 350 for about 15 minutes but keep an eye on it starting around 10 minutes to make sure it doesn’t burn. This cooks fast!
- Once you remove from the oven, pull out the parchment paper and let the sheet of cookies/bars cool.
- Once cooled, cut into squares or bars and enjoy!
This recipe is super forgiving and some days I mixed it really well and even “creamed the butter” and other days I just barely mixed it together while holding a baby in one arm and it still came out great! In fact, my husband and brother-in-law started eating these for breakfast they were so good!
A note about Brewers yeast… Lots of brands have a TERRIBLE after taste but I found one that doesn’t! If you’re going to make this recipe, then this brand of Brewer’s Yeast is a must and it will last you for SO long!!
As I said – two grown men were eating these for breakfast and never complained!). Here’s a link to the brand I ordered.
If you like these, here’s an obvious but worth noting tip! When you make a batch, double it and then free half of the uncooked dough!
I did this often because I was making so many and it saves so much time! You can even then ask your spouse to pop them in the oven for you if you’re little one is going through a growth spurt and you can leave your couch!
Also, you can absolutely make these in cookie form like they say on AllRecipes.com. I switched to bar form because I was making a batch of these at least once a week and the bars were easier. I also found that the bars were more moist and more forgiving.
If you give these a try, I’d love to know what you think! Post a comment below and let me know what you think of the recipes or if you have another recipe you prefer! I’d love to see it!
Looking for more related to breastfeeding? Check out my 2 part post with nursing tips!
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Why only egg yolks? Can you use whole eggs instead and if so how many?
Hi Emmy! Great question. This recipe is EXTREMELY forgiving so making changes doesn’t affect the outcome all THAT much. Just this morning I made it by melting the butter completely because I was in a rush and they came out great! I have made the recipe with the full egg before … Since the yolk is where the the fat is, by using only egg yoks the cookies end up much richer and softer. If you add the full egg instead, the cookies will still taste good but they come out a little bland tasting as compared to the cookies that you get with just the yolk. If you put the full egg, you may want to add extra vanilla and maybe cook it a bit less to avoid over drying it. I hope that helps and that you love the results! I end up making so many in my house because everyone here eats them too and I’m constantly running out!
Just made a half batch to try…IT IS DELICIOUS!! Definitely going to make again, full or double batch!
Question: how much is suggested for a daily serving?
I’m so happy to hear that you like them!! I eat them daily right now!
Daily serving? That’s actually a great question! I’ve never thought about that and I’m not sure that this is a specific daily serving. I should research that! In the meantime, I can tell you that I eat 1 or 2 of these cookies/bars a day without any bad reaction for what that’s worth! I typically cut a 9×12 pan into 15-20 pieces.
I hope that helps! Enjoy!
(P.S. If you like butterscotch, these taste greate with half chocolate chip and half butterscotch chip! That’s my new favorite!)
These look soooo good!!! I have baby due next month and am trying to preprep some things. If I freeze the dough so I defrost and cook following original instructions?
Absolutely! That’s what I did before my third baby was born. I made multiple batches and out them in aluminum pans and then froze them. Then I had my husband bake them for me when I was in the hospital (he went home a few times to see our other kids). You can definitely freeze the dough that way!
How much did your milk increase by?
Probably by about 1-2 ounces per pumping session – but I did it in conjunction with the occasional power pumping session too. As my baby got older, I found that I occasionally had a hard time pumping enough and would be a couple ounces short at the end of the day. Then I started eating these regularly and I was able to start adding to my freezer stash again. Ultimately I had enough in my freezer that I was able to stop pumping a few weeks prior to my son’s first birthday and still send him in with enough breastmilk at daycare! Sorry I can’t be more specific than that. This time around, I started eating them as my breakfast right away! Good luck! If you’re still struggling after adding lactation cookies (or similar recipes) to your diet, it could be your pump! If after you pump, you can still hand express quite a bit, your pump isn’t emptying you well enough and that’s signaling to your body to make less milk because you don’t need it all. Check out my post on Breast Pumps for some other pump options you may want to try. https://www.theanalyticalmommy.com/bpcompare. Good luck!!
Once these are cooked, how long are they good for? And should they be refrigerated or are they ok at room temperature?
I can’t say for sure but personally, I leave them in the fridge if I think they are going to last more than a couple of days. In my house they rarely last that long because everyone else eats them like they are chocolate chip cookies!
I love these! I added about 2 tablespoons of peanut butter, as requested by the husband lol. It is even better! I think maybe about a 1/4 cup would be best!
Oh that sounds yummy! So funny that your husband loves these too! Who would have thought! I’m actually trying to wean at the moment so I’ve had to stop making them and we all miss these cookies! I’m sure I’ll restart once the weaning process is done and I’ve dried up though! So glad you like them!
Can I make these using steel cut oats instead of regular rolled oats?
Unfortunately I don’t think they will work since they cook differently then rolled or quick oats. I suspect that they’d end up undercooked and too crunchy but that’s just a guess. I’ve never tried. I do love steel cut oats though! Maybe if you precooked them?