These Breakfast Cookies are like a bowl of homemade granola in cookie form! They’re healthy oatmeal cookies that taste like your favourite oatmeal raisin cookies – but they’re refined sugar free, gluten free, and will keep you full for ages.
Copycat of the popular Muesli Cookies sold in cafes across Australia, these are a terrific make ahead breakfast. Fill a jar with to grab ‘n run!
Breakfast Cookies
The only 2 ingredients in these Healthy Oatmeal Cookies that I don’t put in homemade granola are almond meal and egg. So I’m not exaggerating when I say these are like a bowl of granola in cookie form!
These are a copycat of muesli breakfast cookies I’ve been eyeing at my local coffee shop for years, wanting to make a version that was actually acceptable to have for breakfast. I’ve tried multiple times and they’ve always been meh – the main problem being too dry and hard to swallow.
Finally, the penny dropped when I was smushing soaked dates for Sticky Date Pudding. MASHED DATES!!!! Thoroughly unappetising and sludge-like as it looks, this is the secret to sweetness, moisture, colour and terrific texture for healthy sugar-free cookies!!!
Customisable!
These Healthy Oatmeal Cookies are great for customising. It’s actually a very forgiving recipe – thanks to the mashed dates that makes a solid batter base. These are the ingredients you can customise:
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Flavourings: I’ve used cinnamon and vanilla. Try: orange blossom, almond essence, all spice, cloves – whatever takes your fancy!
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Add Ins: I’ve used coconut, almonds and raisins. Use any combination of coconut, nuts and dried fruit that you want… or CHOC CHIPS!!!
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Sweet: I use maple syrup or honey. Agave or any other liquid form of sweetness should work fine here. Sweetness can also be controlled – from a range of 1 to 4 tablespoons;
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Oil: In the spirit of keeping this healthy, I use coconut oil (most of the time). Any oil will be fine here – or melted butter or margarine;
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Almond Meal: Can be substituted with hazelnut meal / flour. I use these two interchangeably. Do not sub with normal flour – it makes the cookies dry and cardboardy.
Quick and easy
Breakfast cookies are so simple to make, you can make them today for a grab ‘n run breakfast tomorrow!! Soak dates, mash (strangely satisfying, despite how unattractive date sludge looks), mix with remaining ingredients, form cookies and bake.
No food processor, no beater – terrifically simple.
Go big or go home!
I’ve made these breakfast cookies hefty instead of wimpy little cookies because they are intended to be a breakfast. I made the mistake of having two of them when I took these photos and I was full for hours. So full for so long, I didn’t even have a full dinner that night.
Self control is a trait I admire from afar. – Nagi x
PS I don’t recommend making them normal cookie size/thickness. They are soft-chewy and lack the crispy edges you find in classic Oatmeal Raisin Cookies, I wasn’t thrilled with the texture. Best chunky and “meaty” – appropriate for breakfast!
More Make Ahead Breakfast – Grab ‘n Go!
And more cookie / cracker copycats
Other recipes I’ve created in the past for the same reason as these Byron Bay cookie copycat recipe (ie because I love ’em but they’re expensive!)
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Byron Bay Cookies Copycat White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies – big, thick, buttery cookies loaded with white chocolate and macadamia nuts. Crisp with a tender melt-in-your-mouth texture, just like Byron Bay Cookies!
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Gourmet Fruit & Nut Crackers for Cheese – homemade version of the rather expensive fruit and nut crackers to serve with cheese! Homemade is incredible – the flavour is so much better than the store bought. Plus it’s way WAY cheaper!
Breakfast Cookies
WATCH HOW TO MAKE IT
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Healthy Oatmeal Breakfast Cookies
Ingredients
Wet Ingredients:
- 100 g / 3.5 oz pitted dates (1 heaped packed cup)
- 1/3 cup / 85 ml boiling water
- 1 egg
- 3 tbsp maple syrup or honey (Note 1)
- 3 tbsp coconut oil , melted, or other plain oil (Note 2)
- 1 tsp vanilla essence (Note 5)
Dry Ingredients:
- 1 1/4 cups rolled oats
- 1/2 cup flaked almonds (Note 3)
- 1/4 cups desiccated coconut (Note 3)
- 1/2 cup raisins or sultanas (Note 3)
- 3/4 cup almond meal (almond flour) (Note 4)
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon (Note 5)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 180C/350F (standard) or 160C/320F (fan/convection). Line a tray with parchment/baking paper.
- Roughly chop dates. Place in bowl, pour over water. Cover and leave to soak for 10 minutes+.
- Mash with potato masher or fork until it becomes a paste.
- Add remaining Wet ingredients. Mix well with wooden spoon.
- Add Dry ingredients. Mix until all flour is incorporated - should be a thick batter (see video).
- Measure out just shy of 1/2 cup (6 cookies) or 1/3 cup flat (8 cookies). Flatten to 1.7cm / 2/3" thick rounds. (Note 9) Bake 20 minutes until golden.
- Remove from oven, leave to cool on the tray.
Recipe Notes:
Nutrition Information:
Originally published December 2018, updated for housekeeping matters April 2019. No change to recipe!
LIFE OF DOZER
“C’mon, let’s play tug-o-war! I swear the rope is totally clean and slobber free!!”
These have become a staple in my freezer, I always make a double batch!! They’re delicious, healthy and freeze well.
I add chia, but change nothing else, I make the less sweet version as we get enough sugar in other foods. Also if you have a postpartum friend these are a perfect gift, a nourishing meal, which helps with the post birth toilet issues and helps with bringing in your milk, no need for expensive lactation cookies, just serve these with Milo!!
My two year old loves them!! I love them
I love these as a pre-powerhouse breakfast before a really long day hike. I found that the dates don’t mash with a fork, so I blended them with the other wet ingredients, and it works perfectly. For my 2nd batch, I omitted the maple syrup as I found they were sweet enough with just the dates. I also weigh out 100 g of dates which is less than 1 cup, and it was the perfect level of sweetness for my taste.
Love these, I add chia and flax seeds. They freeze very well
These are a winner, so delicious with a coffee. No complaints from this house. Seriously we eat Nagi, Morning, Noon and Night, can’t remember what we ate pre Nagi 😜
Horrid. All you can taste is dates. Totally wet/raw and mushy after cooking for specified time. Another total fail. I believe that 1 packed cup of dates is far too much. Were edible after more cooking but awful texture and overpowering date taste.
These were a hit! I substituted the oats with buckwheat and they worked really well. I have Coeliac disease and also react to oats. They were delicious and enjoyed by the non- Coeliacs in my family too. They go fast so make a double batch!
YUM! These are so good!!
these biscuits are really delicious, I substitute the coconut oil for butter and melt it with the honey to give them an Anzac biscuit sort of vibe, scrumptious!
Most delicious oatmeal cookie ever! PLUS healthy ingredients make it perfect for breakfast or quick snack. Thanks for sharing this awesome recipe…my new favorite! ❤️
Has anyone tried mashed banana in these as a sub for the egg??
I have tried the mashed banana substitute, it does work but they end up being a bit softer and don’t hold together as well, could taste the banana flavour so that’s a bonus. I only tried it once so with experimentation it could work perfectly.
Perfect
Very easy to make in no time and the taste is really good
These are so nice for quick breakfasts! I’ve also made them without the egg (substituting 1 T chia seeds in 2.5 T water) and they’re just as good.
Delicious!
I made mine with dates, prunes, walnuts, sunflower seeds and chia seeds. I also made it into a slice with a square pan. Got 9 very generous sized bars out of it.
They’re great straight out of the freezer.
Will definitely cut out the sweetener next time(honey, in my case), as the dates and prunes made it plenty sweet.
I made these and they turned out great. I will decrease the syrup next time as they would still be lovely with less. They ARE AMAZING. Thank you Nagi. My husband and pre-teen son love them too, so it’s a 10/10 ♥
My daughter loves these! Anyone had any luck in making them nutfree so I can make them for her lunchbox? Thanks!
My husband has a nut allergy too, but I still wanted to make these for him. I substituted oat flour for the almond meal and they came out perfectly soft and yummy
Thanks Sarah! Oat Flour sounds like a good substitute – did you just ground up rolled/quick oats? I will try it this week and let you know how I go!
Hi Grace, yep a food processor or blender should both work to make oat flour. I usually use old-fashioned (rolled) oats or quick-cooking oats. Hope this helps, & it works out for you!
I am waiting to hear from. Anyone else about this too! We did pumpkin and sunflower seeds and it was yum. Just don’t know about almond meal subs
Delicious, though I had to extend the cooking time x 5/6 minutes as I made them quite ‘hefty’.🤣🤣
Made these in a slice tin instead of separate biscuits, Cooked an extra five minutes but otherwise followed recipe.
Cut into squares and froze. They freeze well and aren’t soggy when defrosted.
My partner is taking them to work as snacks.
I’ve been making these every week with slight variations depending on what I’ve got in the cupboard and they’re great everytime! The batch I just made I completely forgot to add the egg, but they’ve still turned out fine, I was scared they’d fall apart but they’ve held their shape very well. Extremely happy with this recipe 🙂
It was sooooooo goood. i loved ittt 😀