Easy delicious and nutritious ‘lactation’ cookies – free from wheat, gluten, dairy, nuts, egg and soy

These cookies are a little different from the nutty ones I shared recently. Both cookie recipes are great, I suggest you choose whichever sounds good to you – the nutty ones are a little more soft/fudge like and are quite nutty of course, and these here are designed to be safe for mums that are required to avoid one or more of the common allergenic foods/food components (wheat, gluten, dairy, eggs and nuts). 

In clinic, I see breastfeeding mums with little bubs with intolerances/allergies and the topic of snacks and baking does come up including ‘can you recommend any snack recipes that are dairy/soy/nut/gluten free?’. These cookies are brilliant – a tasty snack for mum, nutritious but also designed to support and help boost breast milk production. (Also, if not breastfeeding you can still make these as they make a superbly nutritious postnatal snack, I would just suggest omiting the brewer’s yeast as you dont need to add this)

Like the other lactation cookie recipe I’ve created (which includes nuts) these cookies contain a few galactagogues – oats, flaxmeal and brewer’s yeast. Below is the base recipe to which you can add other ingredients such as coconut, berries and/or nuts and seeds if you like. This recipe contains dairy free/vegan choc chips (which if you need to avoid dairy, I recommend adding) but if you dont need to avoid dairy then you can certainly add regular choc chips.

Note: If you have Chrohn’s Disease or Colitis I would be careful however (if baking your own I suggest not adding brewer’s yeast – just omit from the recipe – as brewer’s yeast can exacerbate symptoms). Also, if you have Coeliac Disease or are a carrier of the Coeliac gene (but don’t have Coeliac Disease as such) it’s beneficial to not use oat flour and rolled oats. While these foods can be 100% gluten free many people with Coeliac Disease and those who carry the gene experience gut symptoms when consuming all oat products. If this is you I would suggest using gluten free flour instead of oat flour and adding something else (that’s safe for you) in place of rolled oats such as coconut, nut meal or chopped nuts. 

This recipe makes enough batter for about 14-16 cookies. If trying these for the first time I would suggest making 14-16 cookies and eating 1-2 a day to see if this helps boost your milk supply. But, you can certainly make your cookies bigger or smaller.

Also, if you’re curious to make these just to try them while you’re still pregnant, I would suggest just leaving out the brewer’s yeast as you dont need this just yet. All other ingredients are perfectly safe and nutritious to enjoy while pregnant. While brewer’s yeast isn’t unsafe during pregnancy you may as well save your yeast for when you can benefit from it. Or you can make a batch, have a taste of a cookie or two then freeze them so that you have some stocked for yourself for when baby arrives.

A hot tip: if you make a batch, tell your partner/family/house members that they are for you and you only as otherwise they may disappear quickly! (they’re quite tasty).

To make, you need:

• 1/3 cup olive oil or coconut oil

• 1/2 cup coconut sugar (you can also use regular raw or white sugar)

• 1 teaspoon vanilla essence or extract

• 1 ‘flax-egg’ (to make: mix together 1 tablespoon of flaxmeal with 3 tablespoons of water, wait until this mixture becomes a little paste-like)

• 3/4 cup of oat flour (if needing to avoid all wheat and gluten then I suggest using certified wheat free oat flour)

• 1/2 cup of rolled oats (if needing to avoid all wheat and gluten then I suggest using certified wheat free oat flour)

• 1/4 cup brewer’s yeast (I highly recommend using debittered yeast, if you can source it, I find that regular brewer’s yeast does give these cookies a slightly bitter aftertaste)

• 2 tablespoons flaxseed meal

• 1 teaspoon cinnamon

• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda

• A pinch of sea salt

• A handful of dairy free/vegan chocolate chips (or you can add something else instead such as Goji berries, sultanas, chopped dates, etc.)

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 175 degrees Celsius fan-forced, and place a sheet of baking paper on a large oven tray.

2. In a bowl, add all wet ingredients (oil, flax-egg, vanilla) and sugar, and mix well.

3. Then add all your dry ingredients (except the choc chips) and mix into well.

4. Add your choc chips and any other ingredients you like to add (see ideas below) and mix in.

5. Using a tablespoon and your hands, roll mixture into balls and place on tray. You’ll need just a little less that one tablespoon of mixture per cookie (if aiming for 14-16 cookies).

6. Bake for about 8 minutes, or until cookies are a little golden. Depending on your oven they’ll need 8-10 minutes.

7. Allow cookies to cool completely before placing in an airtight container. Keep in a cool dry spot if you’re likely to consume within a week, otherwise I suggest keeping in the freezer and taking one or more out as you need them.

Other lovely additions:

• Coconut

• Chopped nuts (if you can eat nuts, e.g. almonds, walnuts, hazelnuts)

• White choc chips

• Seeds (e.g. pumpkin, sunflower, chia)

• Dried berries (e.g. Goji, blueberries, inca berries, cranberries)

• Dried fruit (e.g. chopped dates, apricots)

• Cocoa powder (to turn these into a choc chip cookie, I suggest adding 2 tablespoons cocoa powder)

• Nut butter (if you can eat nuts, add 2 tablespoons of nut butter to make these nutty and more fudge-like)