These Zucchini Bread Breakfast Cookies are filled with plenty of good-for-you ingredients to start your day with, like oats, nuts, zucchini, and flax seed. Made to taste like Zucchini Bread, these cookies also have cinnamon, a little nutmeg, and some chocolate chips! 🙂
You’re probably here because you have extra zucchini, huh?
Either that or it just feels good to have a vegetable in your breakfast – and hey, what the heck, why not have some chocolate in there too for balance? 🙂
I’m WITH YOU. If I can squeeze some veggies in my breakfast I’m one happy gal, and I’m even happier if chocolate is involved. Both? YES, I’M SO THERE.
I had some extra zucchini AND I had a hankering for breakfast cookies recently. Add two and two together, and you get these beautiful Zucchini Bread Breakfast Cookies. I actually made these last year and almost totally forgot about them (whaaaat?!)… it’s been a busy year!
So, here I am now, ready in full force with the recipe for these healthy Zucchini Bread Breakfast Cookies. Gluten-free, refined sugar-free (sweetened naturally with honey instead of sugar), with a dairy-free option… and chocolate chips (if you desire!) these cookies are the real deal.
In case you’re wondering: My 3 year old got about half way through one when he realized there were “green things” in it. After telling him what the heck they were, he moved right along and finished his cookie.. and then asked for another.
I’m just saying – cookies for breakfast are breakfast magic to kids. Whether there’s “green things” in them or not! 😉
Now, onto the important questions:
Zucchini: To squeeze or not to squeeze?
Squeeze that zucchini, friends, to get the excess moisture out of it. It’s more reliable to use the same amount of liquids in a recipe, and remove most of the moisture in the zucchini, so I like to squeeze it out.
I put my zucchini in between two paper towels, or in a clean dish towel, and just lightly squeeze it. You don’t need to go crazy here, just get a majority of the moisture out. If you’re using paper towels, you may wanna squeeze it over the sink!
What’s the best nut butter to use in this recipe?
I recommend almond or cashew butters because they are the most “neutral” (aka boring) tasting nut butters. Peanut Butter will clearly give you an edge of peanut (hey, sounds tasty!).
Cashew butter is really the most neutral, but I tend to have more almond butter in my pantry so that’s what I use most. No need to get complicated here. You’ll want a nut butter that’s not too oily and drippy – if you have a really drippy nut butter then you may need to add a little more oat flour.
On the flip side, if your nut butter is really thick your cookie batter may be hard to stir, but your breakfast cookies will be just fine.
“Do I have to use ….?”
- Chocolate Chips? Nope, but I would recommend them 🙂 bonus points if you use dark chocolate chips (my fave!). You can also use dairy-free chocolate chips too!
- Nuts? No, but they do provide extra bulk and health benefits, so I do recommend them.
- Flax seed? Nope. You can use chia seed instead, if you prefer it, or you can just omit them from the recipe entirely. You can also reduce the amount from 1/4 cup to 2 tbsp.
- Oat flour? You can use all-purpose flour instead (gluten-free or not). Oat flour is not a must have, it’s just my preferred flour of choice.
- Egg? You can sub a flax egg to make these breakfast cookies vegan too! This will produce a little bit more of a soft cookie, though.
I like this breakfast cookie recipe because it’s loaded with fiber from the oats, flax seed and nuts – my favorite additions for one loaded, healthy cookie. With extra cinnamon, a hint of nutmeg and chocolate chips, these Zucchini Bread Breakfast Cookies are flat out delicious.
I hope you and your family enjoy these Zucchini Bread Breakfast Cookies as much as my family does. I mean, a cookie for breakfast?! The best! 🙂
Want other healthy, gluten-free breakfast cookie ideas? Check out my Chocolate Banana Breakfast Cookies (double the sweetness!), Peanut Butter Coconut Breakfast Cookies (sweet and salty!), or Chocolate Peppermint Breakfast Cookies (minty and sweet!).
- 1/3 cup oat flour (certified gluten-free)
- 1/2 cup oats (certified gluten-free)
- 1/4 cup ground flax seed
- 1/2 cup walnuts, finely chopped
- 2 tsp cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp nutmeg
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/3 cup almond butter or cashew butter
- 3 tbsp honey (maple syrup, if vegan)
- 1/2 tsp vanilla
- 1 egg (flax egg, if vegan)
- 1/3 cup chocolate chips (dairy-free, if vegan or needed)
- 3/4 cup shredded zucchini (squeezed to remove excess water)
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To begin, preheat your oven to 375 and line a pan with parchment paper.
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In a large mixing bowl, add your dry ingredients and stir them together (oat flour, oats, flax seed, walnuts, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking soda and salt).
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In a small mixing bowl, add your wet ingredients and whisk them together till completely combined (nut butter, honey, vanilla, egg).
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Pour your wet ingredients into your dry ingredients and stir them together till well combined. Add your zucchini and chocolate chips, and gently fold them into your cookie batter.
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Scoop your cookies onto your pan, evenly spread apart, and then flatten the tops of each cookie gently (these cookies don't spread much). You can add a few extra chocolate chips on top of each cookie too if you'd like!
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Bake in the oven for 10-12 minutes, or till the tops and edges of the cookies are set.
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After cooling for about 15 minutes on the pan, remove the cookies to a baking rack to cool completely. Devour!
Store these cookies in the fridge and they will last about a week.
Yum! Made without substitutions and love them! Gonna freeze half of them for after baby comes 🙂
I clearly need to start reading through the recipe ingredients BEFORE I start baking. As I got into the recipe I realized I had no oat flour- I subbed half coconut flour and half almond flour. Then I realized I had no flaxseeds, I subbed hempseeds in equal amount. The rest of the recipe I followed. My batter looked a little dry with my substitutions so I added 1/2 T avocado oil. All of this mess and these cookies are amazing!! I thought I’d share the subs in case anyone else bakes like me, on a whim and without reading the recipe through. haha! I cannot wait to make them again with all the proper ingredients.
Hi Gail. Glad to hear they worked well, even with all the substitutions! I hope when you make them again they are just as good!
These are moist and delicious!
This looks amazing. I’m always confused as to whether you measure the shredded zucchini before or after squeezing the moisture out and same for the nuts to measure before or after finely chopping. Thanks!
Hi Vicki. I’d recommend measuring the zucchini before squeezing the moisture out. I’d also measure the nuts first, then finely chop them. Hope this helps!
First time making these and I doubled the recipe! So happy I did for these are, Oh So YUM!!! I omitted the chocolate chips, and substituted with raisins.😋 Would love the chocolate chips, but I have to stay away from chocolate. Thank you for a such a delicious cookies with such wonderful ingredients!!👍🏻
So happy to hear this, thank you Linda for leaving this comment!
Love that these are not only gf, but dairy free and sugar free.
These are really great! I’ve tried a lot of “healthy” cookies and the texture of these beats them all. I had to sub tahini for almond butter and ground chia seed for the flax (I was out of those ingredients) and I added a bit of unsweetened coconut flakes. They turned out delicious! Next I’ll try with carrots and raisins for a carrot cake version. So yummy! Thanks for the recipe!
These cookies are delicious. I omitted the chocolate chips and still love them. I will make them again.
These are delicious!!! I made them tonight so
My kids have them for breakfast in the morning. The smell… HEAVENLY! And of course I had to try one. Wow! Much rather have my kids grab one of these in the morning than high sugar artificial flavored cereals. Great recipe, thank you!
Yes!! Love to hear that Mandy, thanks for the comment!
Can you provide the nutritional information. Carbs, sugar, fat etc. Thanks
Hi Dorothy. I only calculate calories, so for 15 cookies they would be roughly 96 calories each. You can find a nutrition analyzer online and input the ingredients if you’d like to find more information about them. I hope this helps!
Could you use almond flour instead of oat flour? If so how much?
Hi Shea. I would not recommend almond flour instead. Almond flour does not convert 1:1 like some other flours. Hope this helps!
My son is allergic to nuts. What can I substitute for the almond or nut butter?
Hi Tsarai. Can your sun have sunflower butter instead? That could also work.
Tahini may work well!
How many cookies per each serving?
Hi Marlene. I figured one cookie per serving.
Can you substitute the oat flour with coconut flour?
Hi Karen. No, I’m sorry that won’t work. Coconut and oat flour are very different.
Delicious! Subbed sesame seeds for the walnuts as my toddler can’t have walnuts (so sad!) but other than that followed as written. 5 stars from SLC! These are definitely going on my Make Again list.
Awesome!! Thank you for the comment KateLynn.
OMG! Just found this recipe and was so excited bc I’m GV/V. I crossed my fingers and doubled it, hoping I would like it. I wish I’d quadrupled it! So delicious! I used garbanzo bean flour instead and they turned out great. Thank you so much for this recipe!
Your welcome! Happy to hear that 🙂
Oh my gosh!!! Soooo good!! I had to use carrots as I had no zucchini and they came out great. I also only had peanut butter which worked fine. I do want to try almond butter next time though. Cookies for breakfast! I am so happy! Thank you so much for this recipe!
So happy to hear that, Donna! Here I was going to say carrots are a great idea! 🙂 Your welcome.
I want to make these, but I haven’t any zuccini! Do you think it would work ok to leave it out? Or maybe I could shred some carrots and put those in instead? Hmmm….maybe I will try that and I’ll let you know how they turn out. 🙂
Can you freeze these cookies?
Yes! They should freeze great.
I just love zucchini bread! Looks so moist and delicious – perfect for weekend brunch!
Thank you so much Natalie!