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5-ingredient, 100% flax breakfast cookies are a perfect, portable choice, year-round! Vegan, oil-free and grain-free, they are crispy, chewy, nutty, and made with ease in a muffin tin. A keto option is available, too!
I was enjoying a stint of green breakfast smoothies to celebrate several sunny mornings (spring comes early to East Texas), but it all came to a screeching halt. The arrival of a cold weather front this week had me pulling out various bins of hot cereals—multigrain, buckwheat, quinoa, and my ubiquitous oats– to fill me up and take away the morning chill.
Table of Contents
- Healthy Cookies for Breakfast
- How to Make 100% Flaxseed Breakfast Cookies
- The Health Benefits of Flax
- How to Make Keto 100% Flax Breakfast Cookies
- Can I Make these Cookies without Nut Butter or Seed Butter?
- Do I Have to Add Raisins to the Recipe
- More Easy & Delicious Vegan Flax Baked Goods:
- 100% Flax Breakfast Cookies {grain-free, vegan, oil-free, paleo, keto option} Recipe
Healthy Cookies for Breakfast
But shall I tell you what I want, what I really really want? Cookies.
I have no problem justifying an occasional oatmeal cookie at breakfast for myself, but I decided to come up with one that I felt equally at ease serving to my 7-year-old at the start of the day.
I used flaxseed meal as my inspiration because…after cleaned out the refrigerator, I discovered I had three bags-full! Just like bah bah blacksheep, except these have imminent expiration dates. It was time to throw caution to the wind caution to the wind and figure out an all-flax, nut butter cookie.
They are so good!
You need to make—and eat—a batch asap.
How to Make 100% Flaxseed Breakfast Cookies
These cookies are a 1-bowl, super-cinch to make. In a medium bowl, combine all of the ingredients: flaxseed meal, nut butter (I used almond), nondairy milk, maple syrup, and raisins.
Next, divide the batter between 12 greased or sprayed muffin cups and bake in a 325F oven for 19 to 22 minutes, until golden brown. This is the result:
The Health Benefits of Flax
Do not hesitate to savor these cookies, often! You have likely heard all about the health benefits of flax, but there’s nothing wrong with a brief recap: they are high Omega-3 and Omega-6 fats, vitamins E and B, and essential minerals such as iron, potassium, zinc and selenium. It also happens to rival SNL’s colon blow cereal in the fiber department.
But what about the benefit to the cookies? It’s an equally interesting, as well as delicious, area of inquiry.
What makes flaxseed meal a welcome variation from flour in these cookies has to do with fat: although the meal has a powdery, flour-like appearance, it is rich in plant oils, all of which translates to a cookie that’s crispy at the edges, but gooey-chewy in the middle. Yes, please!
How to Make Keto 100% Flax Breakfast Cookies
If you are following a ketogenic diet plan, you can easily adapt these cookies for your needs. Simply swap out the maple syrup for an equal amount of keto-friendly liquid sweetener. Additionally, either omit the raisins or swap them our for an equal amount of nuts, seeds, or sugar-free chocolate chips.
Can I Make these Cookies without Nut Butter or Seed Butter?
Yes! In place of the nut butter or seed butter, use an equal amount of coconut butter. You can make it in minutes, with little money, with unsweetened coconut flakes/shredded coconut. Here is the link to my recipe: DIY Coconut Butter.
Coconut butter is not the same thing as coconut oil.
Do I Have to Add Raisins to the Recipe
I get it, not everyone likes raisins as much as I do. So the good news is that you do not have to follow a keto diet to leave out the raisins :). Omit them, or sub in some other dried fruit (that you do like), chopped nuts or seeds, or chocolate chips.
Happy baking!
More Easy & Delicious Vegan Flax Baked Goods:
- Almond Flour Flax Biscuits
- 2-Ingredient Flax Sandwich Bread
- Oat Flax Skillet Bread
- Banana Flax Almond Mini Muffins (4 ingredients)
- 100% Flax Chocolate Cookies
- 4-Ingredient Vegan Flax Muffins
- 2-Ingredient Quinoa Flax Bread
- 2-Ingredient Lentil Flax Bread
- White Bean Flax Biscuits
100% Flax Breakfast Cookies {grain-free, vegan, oil-free, paleo, keto option}
5-ingredient grain-free, vegan, oil-free and paleo breakfast cookies made with 100% flax (no other flours or meals)! They are crispy, chewy, nutty, and made with ease in a muffin tin. A keto option is available, too!
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup (125 mL) unsweetened natural nut butter (e.g., almond, cashew, peanut)
- 1/3 cup (75 mL) nondairy milk (I used almond milk)
- 1/3 cup (75 mL) maple syrup (see notes for keto)
- Optional: 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- Optional: 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 2/3 cup (80 g) flaxseed meal
- 2/3 cup (100 g) raisins (omit for keto)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 325°F (160°C). Grease or spray the cups of a 12-cup muffin pan with nonstick cooking spray.
- In a medium bowl, combine the nut butter, maple syrup, milk, optional vanilla and cinnamon, until blended. Stir in the flaxseed meal and raisins until combined.
- Evenly divide batter into prepared muffin cups.
- Bake in preheated oven for 18 to 22 minutes, until golden brown, the surface of the cookies appears dry, and the centers feel just firm to the touch.
- Let cool in pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Run knife around edges to loosen, then remove and place on rack to cool completely.
Notes
- Nut-Free Cookies: For nut-free cookies, use an equal amount of creamy seed butter (e.g. sunflower butter or tahini) in place of the nut butter.
- Coconut Butter Option: Use an equal amount of my DIY coconut butter (not to be confused with coconut oil).
- Storage Tip: Store the cooled cookies in an airtight container at room temperature 2 days, the refrigerator for 1 week, or the freezer for up to 6 months.
- Keto Option: Use an equal amount of keto-friendly liquid sweetener in place of the maple syrup. Leave out the raisins. The nutrition when made with natural (unsweetened) almond butter, flaxseed meal, keto-friendly liquid sweetener and plain almond milk per cookie: 119 calories, 1 gram net carbohydrate (4 g carbs, 3 g fiber) & 1 gram sugar.
- Sweetener Option: 1/4 cup coconut sugar, or brown sugar, plus 2 tablespoons water, can be used in place of the maple syrup.
Nutrition Information
Yield 12 Serving Size 1 big cookieAmount Per Serving Calories 118Total Fat 6.1gSaturated Fat 0.6gTrans Fat 0gUnsaturated Fat 0gCholesterol 0mgSodium 51mgCarbohydrates 15gFiber 2.2gSugar 10.4gProtein 2.9g
I have made this delicious recipe many times. These have become my go-to quick breakfast on the way out the door food.
I just made them in Arizona for the first time and they fell apart. How can I prevent that in the next batch. (they are now granola and still taste great).
Hi Gail! I am so pleased that you enjoy the flax cookies so much.
I have several guesses why things might have turned out differently. If this was a visit to someone else’s home, it is a different oven, perhaps a different muffin tin, perhaps not the exact same brands you have used before. The oven might be the issue (oven temps can vary, it could be a convection oven instead of a radiant oven, or the reverse). If you are from a more humid area, the arid climate might also have made a difference. Did they look over baked in any way? Or same as usual, except for crumbling?
I’ve made these cookies a couple of times, and I really do enjoy them! However, I was a little worried that I might not be getting as much out of the flaxseed from baking them, so I just roll them into balls (1Tbsp) instead and keep them in the refrigerator. Thank you for sharing your recipe.????
How clever, Betty! Thank you for sharing that time, I will give that a try!
Theses were delicious. I was concerned they would be gritty from the flax seed but the texture is normal. I baked mine on parchment paper and they turned out great! I’m exited to try other add-ins.
Excellent, Brenda! Have fun with different additions –so much deliciousness!
I am wanting to use a 9 x13 sheet pan. Can I ? How long to cook it? I’m wanting more of a granola bar.
Hi Mary,
A 9x 13 pan will be too big for this quantity. I suggest a 9×9 inch pan. You will have to play it by ear for timing, I have not made this in a pan. Start by adding 4 or 5 more minutes, watch closely. 🙂
Wow! I followed the recipe exactly EXCEPT I subbed out the raisins with 1/3 cup Trader Joe’s 100% cacao unsweetened chips and 1/3 cup chopped walnuts. ABSOLUTELY DELICIOUS! I will have them for a midmorning or afternoon snack and feel good about all the omega fats I am getting! Thank you very much for a great recipe.
Yippee!!! Wowza, that combination of add-ins sounds so good, Betsy! So glad you like the recipe 🙂
Mine never firmed up enough to remove them from the pan. I baked them longer, burned them, and still 10 min of cooling, and still mush. I checked and rechecked ingredients and I had ir right. But they never firmed up.
Hi Sherry,
Oh boy, that is definitely odd. The batter for these breakfast cookies is very thick, and flaxseed meal makes it firm. I am not sure why (or how) they would not firm up after baking for 20ish minutes. Did the batter look like my photo? Also, I want to check: these are not hard cookies, they are more like oatmeal cookies: softer at the center, crisp at the edges. When you say they did not firm up, do you mean they were not hard?
These were great! I found them because of the exact reason you mentioned….cold weather and smoothies don’t go together, but what am I going to do with all the flax, chia, and hemp hearts? I did prefer these room temp for some reason. Subbed chocolate chips for fruit and used peanut butter. Thanks for the great recipe!
You are very welcome, Elizabeth!!!
I made a savory keto version. I added 100 grams mix of hard salami and parmesan cheese (chopped into small pieces) instead of the raisins, of course left out the syrup, cinnamon and vanilla. It was delicious, thanks for the recipe!!!
How clever, Annette! I love a savory breakfast bake, that sounds wonderful!