How was your weekend? Mine was full of good eats and lots of time with Tony; it was his last weekend back home before he heads out for spring training down in Arizona. I’m amazed at how fast the off season has gone. It feels like I just moved to Chicago, but I’m so happy that it feels like home.
Yesterday we spent the day with his family hanging out and watching LOTS of TV like Nascar (don’t ask) and the Oscars. I love parties because I’m always able to bake or cook a few things that I personally want to eat myself… oops.
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I ended up making a version of my strawberry basil bruschetta with a new creamy spreadable goat cheese I found at Whole Foods. Next, I made a new version of my crunchy cashew thai quinoa salad and I’m hoping to bring that to you soon after I perfect it; it’s more of a spring salad anyway. For a dessert, I made Detoxinista’s flourless peanut butter blondies and created a new cookie recipe (you’ll see it soon!).
In the meantime, I crafted a cookie that you can eat for breakfast. I’ve been dunking these in chocolate almond milk for the past week which has led me to basically being obsessed with eating cookies for breakfast. Trust me, you will be too after baking up a batch.
At first it seemed weird, you know, eating cookies for breakfast and all. Of course I calculated the nutrition and looked at all the wholesome ingredients in this recipe and fell in love. So many good things happening in these! Let’s talk about the cookie goodness.
Why these breakfast cookies are good for you:
There’s no flour, butter, oil or refined sugars added so they won’t weigh you down in the morning. As always, they are EASY to make! Whip them up and you can enjoy them throughout the week, or as a post-workout snack. They’re crunchy on the outside and soft in the middle, just the way you’d like a cookie to be. As the days go on, they get softer. They are best kept in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 1 week; you can also keep them in the freezer and heat up when you’d like one.
These cookies are packed with omega-3s from both the chia seeds and walnuts. Omega-3s are wonderful for your brain, your heart and the immune system. Most people will fail to get enough omega-3s in their diet as we tend to not eat enough fish, walnuts, or veggies with the type of fat. You can read more about 0mega-3s here.
The benefits of healthy fats from nuts & seeds:
Walnuts are an excellent source of omega-3s but did you know that they also contain copper, vitamin e, and other anti-inflammatory properties? I’ve never been more of a fan of walnuts until now! They’re especially wonderful when toasted (which is why I did it in the recipe!). Read more on walnuts here.
Almonds give the cookies a nutty, sweet flavor. They’re also high in vitamin E, potassium, magnesium and obviously a wonderful source of healthy fats. In the recipe, you’ll roast your own almonds to increase flavor, but of course you can process them raw to preserve their healthy oils.
Chia seeds are high in fiber, protein, and omega-3s. Chia seeds expand when they come into contact with liquid, therefore they are an excellent addition to the cookies. Not only do they provide crunch, but they also help to keep you full!
If you make this recipe or anything else from Ambitious Kitchen, be sure to tag #ambitiouskitchen on Instagram so I can see your creations! To keep up to date with posts and behind the scenes info, follow AK on BlogLovin’, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest. xo!
More healthy breakfast recipes to try:
Nutrition-Rich Omega 3 Blueberry Breakfast Cookies (gluten free + vegan)
Dark Chocolate, Almond & Sea Salt Banana Baked Oatmeal
Power Flax Chocolate Chip Banana Oatmeal Muffins
Healthy Chocolate Chip Banana Bread Zucchini Oatmeal Cookies (vegan!)
Vegan Paleo Banana Muffins with Chocolate Chips
Chia Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Breakfast Cookies (gluten free & packed with omega-3!)
Ingredients
- 1 cup raw walnuts
- 1 cup raw unsalted almonds
- 2 tablespoons honey
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 egg
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup dried cherries, coarsely chopped
- 1/4 cup dark chocolate chips (or dairy free chocolate chips)
- 1 tablespoon chia seeds
- 1/2 cup gluten free rolled oats
Instructions
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Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spread walnuts and almonds over baking sheet. Toast nuts in the oven for 8-10 minutes, stirring once halfway through. Remove the oven and let the nuts cool completely. Keep heat in oven.
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Next, place the cooled, toasted nuts in the food processor. Process until completely smooth and very creamy similar to peanut butter; this should take about 5 minutes.
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Add honey, vanilla, egg, baking soda, cinnamon and salt to processor and process again until well combined, about 2 minutes.
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Transfer to a medium bowl and fold in cherries, chocolate chips, chia seeds and oats. Use a small cookie scoop to drop cookies and roll into balls. Place on cookie sheet then slightly flatten with the palm of your hand.
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Bake for 7-9 minutes or until edges are slightly golden brown. Allow to cool on cookie sheet for 10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to finish cooling. Makes 15 cookies.
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Store in an airtight container - cookies will keep well for 3-5 days.
Recipe Notes
Feel free to add or subtract ingredients. These cookies are versatile and I love using what I have available.
Try use maple syrup instead of honey. You can sub any kind of dried fruit for the cherries, or leave them out completely.
103 comments
I can basically FEEL the healthy running through my veins as I read the ingredients…and it’s a COOKIE! That I can eat FOR BREAKFAST. These are ah-may-zing. Pinned!
Yum yum! Can’t wait to try these!
Love these healthy cookies girl!!! I want to make these stat.
I’d crumble these cookies up and dunk them in almond milk. Healthy cookie crisp!!!!!
These look amazing! I just made a batch of banana bread for breakfast this week, but this is my next breakfast recipe to try!!
Oh my gosh this is just plain amazing. Seriosuly Monique all your recipes are SO inspiring and everytime I see a new post from you I just think “yup this is so my style” and it gets pinned. Can not wait to make these!! 🙂
I have all the ingredients on hand, or most of them anyways, so I might have to try this out as a late night snack 🙂
Wow! You are killing me with your healthy cookies! I want to make them all!
Hi Monique!! Happy national cupcake day!! Next year you should participate to raise money for the humane society too! I’m sure you’d make awesome cupcakes for it!! Great looking cookies by the way- hoping to make them soon!
Michelle
What a fantastic breakfast cookie. I’ve recently been obsessed with brownies for breakfast, so a cookie is right up my alley!! Thanks so much for sharing!
Love your recipe! I am always up for a cookie I can feel good about eating!
So basically you’re making an almond-walnut butter at first, then adding the rest of the goodies in, right? Sounds easy, I love it!
My daughter loved the cookies. Should I have let the nuts cool before processing because the chocolate chips melted. But they still were delicious.
Hi, this recipe looks great! I can’t wait to try it out! I was wondering if I could use it on a blog post I am writing about healthy peanut-free snacks. I would only be using a photo and will link back to this post for the recipe.
Thanks!
Yep, that’s fine!
I just found your blog and am so thrilled. I made these cookies last night and they are so yummy! I will making them again, often! Thanks for the recipe.
These sound wonderful! I love the addition of the dried cherries…will definitely need to try!
Hi Monique,
I just tried to make these but must have done some thing very wrong. The nuts seemed hot when I added them to my cuisinart, but I blended for 5 minutes and added the honey, egg, and vanilla. Once I did that the mixtures turned into a hot oily puddle in my cuisinart. Not sure where I went wrong. I’ve had such success with you recipes in the past. I am trying to add almond flour to salvage what I have. Any suggestions?
Michelle
I had the same issue. Were you able to ever figure out how to make the recipe so that it doesn’t do that. I baked mine in a bar, but it was not a recipe I would ever do again or recommend to someone.
This happened to me too!
Me too!! The flavor is delicious but I cannot get it to a dough consistency at all. It just crumbles. Please help!
Me too! Please help. I can’t get it to form into a ball. It just crumbles.
I had the same issue – great taste, but unable to make a cookie or a bar out of thee – just too crumbly. I’d love to solve this!
LOVE the idea of this cookie, with nuts being the base of it. Just made em, and it might be my fault but mine turned out kinda dry… However, I didn’t have rolled oats so I used oat flour. that might have dried them out some… not sure. I will try with rolled oats next time, or may also try adding some applesauce or banana puree. I felt that my batter could have been more moist. One other comment–I doubled the sweetener to 4 Tb maple syrup, but they were still only lightly sweet. Just mentioning this because I”m trying to come up with a “healthier” cookie for my children…they are comparing to “regular” cookies, so next time I will have to up the sweetener a bit more. THANK again for this recipe, what a healthy easy idea!
The cookies were most likely dry because you used oat flour. Otherwise I’m glad that you enjoyed them. Also honey is naturally sweeter so I might recommend using that instead of maple syrup!
Did not know that about the honey, good suggestion. I’ve been meaning to find a local source of organic honey. And I bet you’re right about the oat flour… it likely absorbed the moisture/oil too much. (Overcooking can do that, but actually I didn’t do that this time. Whew!)
Um, yes, these are DELICIOUS! Seriously, Monique, you’ve got awesome skill in creating healthy yet TASTY cookies! I usually feel like cookies are one way or the other, but never both! I didn’t roast the nuts in the oven because I’m lazy; and, I didn’t have the patience for the walnuts/almonds to fully reach “butter” consistency, so I just started throwing the egg, honey, vanilla, etc in the food processor when the nuts were almost finishing blending, and that helped it turn to a thick butter consistency faster. I made these into 12 cookies, instead of 15. They were seriously SO good! My two-year old son loved them and kept saying “oh so yummy!” Will definitely make these again.
I know why some people had problems with this recipes while others did not. The nuts really need to be cooled after toasting before they are processed into nut butter, especially if you use a high speed blender to do it. Otherwise, this turns into a hot mess of cooked egg and melted chocolate, which is what happened the first time I made this recipe. The second time, I popped the nuts into the freezer to cool for about 10 minutes before I moved on to the next step. The second batch of cookies turned out beautifully and tasted delicious!
That tip really needs to be in the recipe. I made these twice trying to figure out what I did wrong and they were a crumbly, oily mess. Yuck.
I’d like to skip the nut butter prep and just use peanut butter. How much should I use? How much do you end up with after processing the 2 cups of nuts?
I don’t have a food processor. I was wondering if I could substitute almond butter instead? Does two cups of dry nuts equal 2 cups of nut butter? Or maybe less?
2 cups of dry nuts equals approximately 1 cup of nut butter, however I did use a combination of walnut and almonds so I’m not certain it will work out the same.
I can easily eat it 5 times a day 😀
Thanks for the delicious recipe 😀
Hiya,
I was just wondering, on the nutritional information part, are those numbers for 1 cookie/serving, or for all 12 cookies? thank you! can’t wait to try these.
These look absolutely nothing like your photo. They somehow manage to be greasy and crumbly at the same time. I am completely disappointed in this recipe
Sorry that you had trouble with them. Did you follow the recipe exactly? Did you wait for the mixture to cool before adding in the egg?
Your recipe doesn’t say that you need to let it cool. That needs to be added. Wished I had read the comments before making my batch that became the oily mess that others experienced.
Same problem as so many others. Really wish I had read the comments as well. I think it’s time to add that you need to let everything cool before mixing in the egg to save people frustration, simply because they followed your instructions to a T.
Hi, Lane. So sorry for the trouble! We’ll add this into the instructions now.
You might also like this breakfast cookie recipe, which is a bit more up-to-date (I make them all the time!)
I also found the batter to be extremely greasy, and the cookies overly dry and crumbly. Not enough to bind them together. They were much darker than your photos. Fairly good flavor, though. Needs some tweeking, I think.
Sorry to hear that, it seems that either people LOVE or HATE these cookies. I think it may be due to some improperly measuring some of the ingredients. I need to retest them again soon!
These sound absolutely fabulous! I have to keep oil to a minimum due to liver issues. Any suggestions for alternatives? I WANT these!!
Hi, I have been looking for a healthy breakfast (or anytime) cookie to replace my unhealthy snacks…this looks like a good one. With Christmas on the way, I know there will be lots of tempting treats around, but with my own personal stack of healthy cookies, I just might make it through the season without gaining weight.
This is one of the best cookie recipes I have ever seen.. Thank you very much for this recipe.
I happened to have all the ingredients- amazing! I made it this yesterday and it was delicious.
Has anyone tried these without the tree nuts(walnuts and almonds)? I’m looking for a substitution for them and unsure what to use. Thanks for any suggestions!
Had to comment. LOVE this recipe. I just made these for a snack or fun breakfast for my family (1 and 3 yr old boys) and they are so good. My boys and husband love them and I feel great giving it to them. Thanks for sharing!!
This looks amazing. Is it okay to omit the walnuts and double the amount of raw almonds?
These cookies fall completely apart! The taste is good, but we want them to stay together, like a cookie! What can I do to make that happen??? Please help!
I love these cookies and I want make them at school for a home economics assignment but I’m not allowed to use nuts at school. Any suggestions as to what I can use instead of the nuts?
Honestly, I’m not sure they would work well without nuts. So sorry!
Thank you for a great breakfast cookies that isn’t made with bananas!
These did not come together well. If I make them again, I will definitely not add the egg and honey to the processor along with the nut butter. It became a mess. It did not come together well and made it hard to combine the remaining ingredients. Next time, I will simply mix on the nut butter with the remaining ingredients.
In your nuts per cup measurements, are you using whole or chopped nuts? I want to make these using the chopped nuts since they are cheaper but I don’t want them to come out dry. These sound great ! My son loves the kashi chocolate chia bars and I think he will love these too
I made these yesterday with some modifications: more of chocolate chips (1/3 cup) and I also food-processed oats a bit as mine were steel-cut.
I would recommend using only liquid honey for easier combination of all ingredients. Also next time I would double the amount of honey as they were a bit under-sweetened to my taste.
I wasn’t sure at first… but the AROMA WAS AMAZING AND OML THE FLAVOR!!! I used maple syrup and 2 cups of walnuts instead of almonds and honey. I will be making these all the time
Is there a way to skip the Walnuts? My kids can’t eat them. Almonds are fine…
I just found your blog and it is the best thing EVER! I also just made my second batch of these cookies. How have I ever lived without them? This second batch I became smarter. I did make them with almonds only (no walnuts) just because. They are just as delicious. My food processor was not making a creamy almond butter, but once I added the honey and almond it blended perfectly. Just a tip for anyone trying for the first time and having the same thing happen.
To the poster that said they were greasy and didn’t look like the picture, my first batch didn’t either. I blended the nuts for too long and they were still warm. That brought out the oil and it was dripping. Second batch was perfect. I also processed the oats first so that it could incorporate easier in the dough. The dough was a little crumbly. You just need to work with it in your hands to make the cookie. Hope that helps.
I just made these and had the same problem with the oil separating out. I cooled the nuts but my kitchen was warm but not that warm – maybe 72 degrees F. Thankfully they taste delicious and I will try again.
Oooh sooo goood! Just made these. My food processor is on the smaller side and I couldn’t get the roasted nuts to become like a butter, so I offset that by not adding in oats. I doubled the amount of chia seeds (I love em) and used goji berries & dates instead of dried cherries, which I didn’t have on hand.
I would totally eat these for breakfast, dessert, or whenever I need a snack.
Thank you for sharing this delicious recipe! 🙂 🙂
I want to make these, but I’m scared about them being not sweet enough, especially since I won’t be adding the dried cherries.
Hi! I just wanted to leave a note for any high altitude bakers looking at this recipe (~6,400 feet above sea level). I cut the amount of baking soda in half to 1/4 tsp and added a tablespoon of freshly ground flax seeds (I measured the tablespoon before I ground it) to compensate for the oily nature of the fresh nut butter rather than adding something like flour. It took make 2-5 minutes longer to bake than in the recipe indicates because of the altitude. It turned out wonderfully!
Other notes: I have a mini food processor so it wasn’t as smooth or as light colored-looking as the pictures, but the taste was perfect. Similar to a chewy oatmeal raisin cookie but with dried cherries and chocolate chips (which are definitely better!). I also made sure to cool down the nuts after toasting them, grinding them in the food processor, and then after adding the egg+other ingredients to the processor as it does all get hot while the food processor grinds it all up (at least in mine it did). The patience it takes to wait until they cool down (in the fridge) is worth it to get the cookies to turn out well. I also used my hands to combine the rest of the ingredients.
Awesome recipe!
I just made my first batch of these cookies (without the cherries) and, as I write, my 7 year old is sneaking a 3rd cookie!! My 13 year old daughter just scoffed 2 as well and asked me to save 2 for her to eat after school tomorrow (can’t take nut cookies to school) – so I’d say they are a big, delicious hit! Always on the look-out for nutritious, gluten-free, dairy-free, healthy treats! Thank you!
I like this recipe.Just made this recipe for breakfast.They are so good.
It looks so delicious. Specially those red cherries made the recipe look gorgeous. Thanks for the recipe. 🙂
We absolutely love your blog and find a lot of your post’s to be precisely what I’m looking for.
Do you offer guest writers to write content in your case? I wouldn’t mind writing a post or elaborating on a lot
of the subjects you write about here. Again, awesome blog!
I think it will be good for health.
I’ve made these so many times now! I use 1 cup of store-bought almond butter (I’ve also used almond butter & cashew butter) to save time, and it works great! I use 2 TBS cocoa powder instead of chocolate chips, and add extra chia seeds and cherries. They turn out great every time! Thanks so much for the recipe!
Looks delicious! Thanks for your nice recipe 🙂
I just made a batch of banana bread for breakfast this week, but this is my next breakfast recipe to try!!
I have celiac and can not eat oat flour. What can I substitute for it.
Hi Mary – I’ve only tested this recipe as-is. You could try a rice flour, but I’m not entirely sure what the consistency will be like!
These are so good!
I had issues making them, because my nuts wouldn’t turn into butter (i think the problem was that I made a mistake and roasted them too long at a too low temperature, which dried them out or so…)
I decides to add the honey which was not a good idea. The nuts turned into a, huge sticky ball. I added the egg and two tablespoons of water and a little oil which didn’t help much, so that I had to give up and roll the dough into balls as it was (of course with the cinnamon and the baking soda). However, I added only 1/3 cup of oats and skipped the chia seeds in order to not dry out the bather further. I baked them for 15 minutes because they were so thick and they turned out wonderful even though the recipe wasn’t the same anymore.
I call them Marzipan Cookies because they taste exactly like that and are wonderfully chewy. Furthermore I love that they are sweet enough even though I skipped the dried fruits.
I will definitely make them again, but the next time I’ll try and make them as given!;)
Thank you very much for the recipe!
Hi Anna! So sorry you had some trouble with the nut butter part, but glad you were able to adapt! Let me know how it goes next time around, too 🙂
Just made these and WOW!! This will be my go-to dessert to satisfy my sweet tooth for sure. I did not have walnuts or almonds so I substituted about 1 cup of honey almond butter and it worked like a charm. The outside was crispy and the inside was chewy. The perfect cookie! Thank you for the recipe 😋
Amazing! So glad you enjoyed these 🙂
These have been such a treat for me since cutting out a lot of sugar! Swapped honey for 2T coconut sugar and added 2T banana to replace the wet from the honey. Used stevia sweetened chocolate chips. Let nuts cool before processing as suggested in other comments…..cookies turned out great 😀 thanks for sharing the creative recipe.
Great! Glad you enjoyed 🙂
I have made these twice and they are delicious! I let the nuts cool before processing. The nuts didn’t turn into a nut butter on their own, but did nicely once I added the wet ingredients. I used lower-sugar crasins instead of dried cherries. The protein punch is exactly what I need right now, and I appreciate that these are healthful and delicious!!
Fabulous! Glad you love these!
Monique,
Are the numbers on the nutritional part for 1 cookie (a serving) or for all 15 cookies?
Thanks.
For 1 cookie!
AMAZING! I’ve made these like 8 times, no joke. And will make again! 100% percent worth the extra effort of toasting nuts and hauling out food processor. I agree with everyone who advised letting the nuts cool a little while before processing.
Also used dried cranberries and can recommend.
Dried cranberries sound delicious. Happy to hear that you like these ones!
Perfect! So glad you loved them!
The roasted then blended nuts ended up clumping in a oily ball in my food processor and adding the additional ingredients did not help. The taste of the cookies (or should I say crumbles) was great, but they looked nothing like the photos. I thought maybe I misread and should have used oat flour instead of rolled oats, I see that’s not the case. The only difference was I use a flax egg instead of a real egg. But the problem of the clumping happened before the “egg” was added. Any suggestions? I’m thinking I’ll try them again in bar form with added flour and/or coconut flakes.
So sorry you had that issue. This recipe seems to be tricky for some people. It sounds like you didn’t blend the nuts long enough, because the walnut butter should be smooth! Usually it clumps up right before it’s ready to become smooth, but really it shouldn’t take long!
Would a chia egg work in replacement of the egg in this recipe?
Would not recommend, sorry!
These are PHENOMENAL! I read allll the reviews and made the following modifications which I would 100% recommend…
Used 1 cup crunchy almond butter Bc didn’t have almonds or walnuts AND skipped the whole nut processing step so that was a big time saver- yay!
Added 1/2 cup shredded unsweetened coconut just because 😋
Opted for raw organic honey which is dark amber with sugar crystals and it was perfectly sweet!
Used mini chocolate chips
Used Craisins (forgot to chop and they were fine!)
ADDED 1 mashed overripe banana 🍌 to batter at the end Bc the batter was super dry and seemed to need more moisture to bind.
Made a total of 21 cookies And filled an entire cookie sheet
Baked a little longer — for 12 minutes— un til edges were golden and toothpick came out clean.
You guys… these are ridiculously good! Omg- I ate 3 in like 2 minutes.
This recipe is yet again another keeper! Monique, you are a total recipe rockstar! Our family really enjoys them all, especially during this quarantine! Makes life that much more enjoyable so THANK YOU! Blessings to you and your family and little baby boy! So cute!
So glad you loved these and that you’re finding lots of recipe favs here! And happy to hear that those swaps worked out well.
My Cuisinart food processor is adverse to making nut butter. If I were using jarred nut butter, how much do I need? 1 cup?
Yes about 1 cup should work!
Just made a batch this morning. I didn’t have enough walnuts, so I threw in a few pumpkin seeds and cashews to top up to 2 cups. I also soaked raisins (I like them plump) and replaced the cherries with those. YUMMY! Kids say they’ll be happy to have these replace their store-bought granola bars for “emergency” breakfasts on school days. Thanks!
Are you supposed to cool the nuts? I didn’t and the oil from the nuts separated and it was very hard to shape the cookies.
Yes, cool for a few minutes until no longer hot.
These are delicious! My kids have peanut allergy, and these are the perfect protein snack for them! I used maple syrup instead of honey, and raisins in place of cherries, simply because that’s what I had on hand. Thank you!
The perfect treat or snack! Glad they love them 🙂
Worst instructions. The mix was so hot after coming out of the oven and then mixing for 5 minutes, that by the time I added the chocolate chips, they melted and created such a mess. Love the clean ingredients, but these cookies look nothing like the picture. Will have to alter next time to see if I can get the right consistency/look.
I’m pregnant, and I have GDM that’s why I’m more interested in low carb diets.
I find it more interesting all the recipes here.
My dough was just too crumbly to make cookies! I put everything then into one pan, hoping to be able to cut it up into squares after baking. Unfortunately..it still crumbles apart – too bad because the taste is perfect!
These cookies were delicious. Not too sweet and very filling and rich,