Disclaimer: I am not a doctor nor lactation specialist. This cookie recipe was created based on different online sources which discussed food that could possibly increase your breast milk production. I felt like these cookies – along with a healthy diet and exercise – made me feel better about my production. However, as they are not the only factor, and are probably only contributing in a minor capacity, and might just be my excuse to eat cookies!

Recipe modified from Brown Butter Oatmeal Apple Cookies by Joy the Baker
Makes 16 cookies

¼ cup (57 g) browned unsalted butter
¼ cup + 1 tb (70 g) coconut oil
½ cup (100 g) granulated sugar
¼ cup (50 g) coconut sugar
1 tsp (4 g) vanilla extract
1 large egg
1 ¼ cup (125 g) rolled oats
¼ cup (32 g) ground flax
¾ cup (96 g) whole wheat flour
1 tsp (2.5 g) cream of tartar
½ tsp (3 g)baking soda
½ tsp (3 g) salt
¼ tsp (1 g) cinnamon
¾ cup (90 g) dried apples, ripped and soaked
¼ cup (35 g) white chocolate chips
¼ cup (35 g)semi-sweet chocolate chunks
¼ cup (30 g) almonds, roughly chopped

If supplementing brewer’s yeast:
2 tb (11 g) brewer’s yeast
1 tb milk

Sugar for rolling:
2 tb granulated sugar
½ tsp cinnamon

Before making cookies, brown butter:

1. To brown the butter put unsalted butter in a small pan on medium-low heat. Cook until butter begins to change color than continue to stir and cook until the butter is a dark brown. Pour into heat proof container and allow to cool.
2. While butter is cooling allow coconut oil and egg to come to room temperature. Rip up apples, if they are not already, and put them in a small amount of water to soak.

1. Once butter has cooled to room temperature, combine browned butter and coconut oil in a bowl of a stand mixer with paddle attachment or in a bowl with an electric hand mixer. Beat on high until butter is creamed, about three minutes. Add in sugars and beat an additional two minutes until butter is fluffy. Add in egg, vanilla extract, and milk (if using brewer’s yeast) and mix until combined.
2. In a bowl, combine oats, flax, flour, cream of tartar, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and brewer’s yeast (if using). Add into wet mixture a little at a time until combined.
3. With a spatula, stir in almonds, white chocolate chips, chocolate chunks, and dried apple pieces then transfer dough to plastic wrap or wax paper and chill for at least 1 hour.
4. When ready to bake, place wire rack in top third of the oven and heat to 350° F. Line a baking sheet with silpat or parchment paper and combine sugar and cinnamon.
5. Remove dough from fridge and form into balls about two tablespoons in size. Roll each ball in the sugar and cinnamon mixture and place on baking sheet at least 1 inch apart.
6. Bake for 13 minutes, rotating and slightly banging down the baking sheet halfway through the bake. Remove and let sit for five minutes before placing on a wire rack to cool.

Ramblings:

If you haven’t guessed it by the fact that I have posted a recipe for lactation cookies, Mr. Physics and I had a baby! “The soufflé” joined us in the second half of 2021 and our lives have forever been changed. This change in our lives also means a change in the blog. I had been offline for two years but now I would like to start blogging again (she says while working a full time job and raising an infant), and in doing so also blog more home and baby content. Soufflé, as I will continue to call her here, will not appear online, but I want to write more about how our cooking, garden, home, life, etc. change because of her existence.

Through out my pregnancy and her birth I did a lot research on pregnancy, birth, and baby things that I would like to share. I certainly am no certified expert (pediatrician, doctor, PT, sleep coach, whatever) but I am a project manager who is super organized with a master degree in science who thinks a lot about, and records, everything. It would be nice to share that information with others.

The first item I am sharing is my lactation cookie recipe. Breastfeeding was probably the part of having a baby I was least prepared for. Sure I knew basically what it entailed. I also knew that at times I would need to pump and I received a free electric pump through my insurance as soon as I possibly could. But, even though I did a lot of reading, I was never fully prepared for how mentally and physically taxing it would be and how much it would take over my life. I was not prepared for staying up after my daughter went to bed to get another pump in. I was not prepared for constantly worrying about my production and if it was enough for her. I was not prepared for the cycles my breasts would go through or what let down felt like. You get the picture.

That is where this cookie recipe comes in. I have no idea how effective this recipe really was at increasing my breastmilk production but they were tasty and somewhat healthy, so for a constantly hungry new breastfeeding mother they were perfect. Plus, honestly, they taste pretty good too. Even my husband enjoyed them, though he tried not to eat too many and leave them for me. I would make a full batch and then pop the baked cookies in the freezer to grab them out as I wanted them.

Here are the ingredients that supposedly are good for breastfeeding (note that I got this information from a lot of different sources and did not link it here. I made sure to only focus on ingredients that were listed by medical sources – ie hospitals, lactation specialists, etc. I wish I had the time to read through scientific literature on the subject but, surprise, currently I do not. I did originally have fennel seed in these cookies but removed them after reading some NCBI articles on it.):

1. Almonds – All nuts really are good for, well anyone really. They have healthy fat, fiber, protein, and antioxidants. Almonds in particular are a non-diary source of calcium, which is great.
2. Brewer’s Yeast – Contains vitamin B and chromium. No conclusive evidence that it increase milk production, other than providing essential nutrients.
3. Coconut Oil – Contains lauric and capric acid which many people believe is good to pass on to your baby through breastmilk. It is not shown to increase milk production.
4. Coconut Sugar – I honestly don’t know if this makes a different but given people’s feelings about the oil I thought, why not.
5. Egg – These are really just here in the cookies as a binder but, they are great protein sources rich in choline, lutein, vitamins B12 and D, riboflavin and folate. Now there is one across 16 cookies so not a huge impact here.
6. Flax seed – Much like nuts, seeds contain healthy fat, fiber, protein, and antioxidants. Also a great laxative.
7. Oats – A good source of iron. Many women swear by oats when breastfeeding though I could not find any articles that confirmed it increased production.
8. Whole Wheat Flour – Rather than white flour in the recipe I use whole wheat for B vitamins and more complex carbs.