Lactation Cookies
Here are my lactation cookie recipe to help boost milk supply!
I have had a some requests to share my lactation cookie recipe in the past few weeks. I love to bake and cook but I rarely follow recipes so when my sister-in-law asked for this specific cookie I did some investigation baking and actually measured everything and wrote it all down.
Before I dive into the recipe and directions let me tell you what a lactation cookie is.
When I first saw a high school classmate and new mom post a photo of lactation brownies on Facebook, I thought, “Eek, did she really make brownies out of her own breast milk!?”
I thought this way for a year or two before one of my close friends was pregnant and I was looking up ideas on what to send to a new mom.
After some Googling and finding out that lactation desserts were not actually made with breast milk but made to help a new mom increase her breast milk supply, I knew this would be the perfect gesture to make and send to a new mom.
What ingredients help with lactation?
These ingredients are considered to be galactogogue (gah-lak´tah-gog), which is a fancy word meaning they help increase milk supply in a breastfeeding mother. Check out this link for more info.
Here is a great list of some galactogogue foods. For these cookies we are using the following galactogogues:
- Oats (old fashioned)
- Flaxseed (ground)
- Brewers yeast
Now for the ingredients!
- 1 stick butter (1/2 cup) room temp
- 1 stick crisco (1 cup) room temp
- 1 cup brown sugar (I used dark brown because it was available)
- 1 cup white sugar
- 3 eggs room temp
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2 cups flour*
- 3 1/2 cups old fashioned oats
- 1/3 cup brewers yeast**
- 1/4 cup ground flaxseed***
- 1 bag of chocolate chips
Other ingredients I like to add but, are optional:
- 2 teaspoons cinnamon
- 1/4 cup coconut
- Chopped walnuts
Directions:
- Preheat the oven to 350º.
- Cream the butter, shortening, brown sugar, and white sugar together for 3 to 5 minutes or until a light brown creamy consistency is formed.
- Add the eggs, vanilla, baking soda, and salt. Mix together for 1 minute.
- Slowly add the dry ingredients. Scrape down the sides often.
- Mix in chocolate chips and other mix-ins you prefer.
- * If the mixture is still really sticky you may want to add another 1/4 cup of flour. The more flour you add the more cake-like your cookies will be.
- ** You can add more brewers yeast to have more lactation properties, but the more you add the dryer the cookies get, in my opinion less tasty.
- *** I don’t particularly like flaxseed. You can add more if you do, but I would not add more than 1/2 cup for the same reason as the brewers yeast.
You will want to cover and refrigerate the dough for at least a few hours, if not overnight.
Next, roll the dough into balls and bake for 8 to 10 minutes. Times could be longer if you are making larger cookies. I like to smash down the cookies slightly because these cookies do not disperse as well as regular cookies.
I like to pull the cookies out just as they are starting to brown on the edges, then let them sit on the baking sheet to finish the bottoms a little more.
It is also important to use parchment paper or a silpat. These cookies will stick to tinfoil or a regular cookie sheet.
These cookies go great with coconut milk! Coconut milk has also shown to increase milk production.
If you make these cookies I would love to see a picture of them! Please tag me on Instagram @MarlieRosenberg.
Happy baking!
