Lactation Cookies

All breastfeeding mommies will know that we are ALWAYS hungry. I often crave for food which are buttery and sweet so I eat a lot of cookies. Recently I baked my favourite Oatmeal Cookies and have been eating a lot of that. Since the ingredients between a regular oatmeal cookie and a lactation cookie do not differ much, the idea of baking lactation cookies pops up again. I mean since I'm going to eat a cookie, might as well eat one that is a milk booster, right?

The first time I baked lactation cookies was when I gave birth to my little P. I think I only baked it once. I wasn't exactly in great need of any milk booster at that time and also because those cookies didn't taste that fantastic. It had that bitter aftertaste, somewhat like beer, which I didn't fancy at all. So this round I try to find one recipe online that will taste good. I found one that is very similar to my Oatmeal Cookies and added cranberries and macadamia nuts instead of chocolate. I also try to reduce the brewer's yeast amount for a start; I reckon the bitter aftertaste from the previous bake was due to the brewer's yeast. This time round the cookies taste so much better! The texture is slightly different from the Oatmeal Cookies as it is more fibrous (because of the flaxseeds) yet softer. I recommend to bake it longer than 12min if you prefer a drier crunchier cookie.

Recipe adapted from: Dr Momma

Ingredients:

- 140gm unsalted butter
- 50gm caster sugar
- 50gm brown sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 40ml water1
- 115gm plain flour
- 1 tbsp brewer's yeast2
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp sea salt
- 95gm flaxseeds
- 105gm raw rolled oats
- 100gm cranberries
- 100gm macadamia nuts

Method:

1. Cream butter and sugars until light and fluffy.

2. Slowly add in beaten egg and vanilla extract into butter mixture as the mixer runs.

3. Slowly add in the water.

4. Sift flour, brewer's yeast, cinnamon, baking soda and salt in.

5. Add in flaxseeds. Fold the mixture a few times.

6. Add in the oats, cranberries and nuts and fold until even.

7. Bake at 175C fan forced for 12min1, 15min if you prefer a crunchier cookie.

***********************************************

Notes:

1. The texture of the cookie is rather soft and crumbly. Almost cake-like. If you prefer a crunchier cookie, you can either reduce the water amount or lengthen the baking time.

2. I only used 1 tbsp of brewer's yeast because I want to avoid the bitter aftertaste. So far there is no such taste in this batch. I might want to increase this to 2 tbsp next round since this ingredient is supposedly a milk booster. :)

Cranberries + Macadamia Oatmeal Cookies

In the next few posts, I will be sharing a couple of my favourite cookies recipes, mostly the ones that I will make again and again and again for myself and my family. Today’s recipe is one of such; Oatmeal Cookies, except that today’s batch has some variation: Cranberries Oatmeal Cookies instead of the usual Raisins Oatmeal Cookies. The reason is simply because I ran out of raisins! LOL! Disclosure: I’m not the author of the original recipe. The original recipe was noted down by me many years back but I cannot remember where I got it from. The following recipe has been modified by me based on the original recipe.  

 

Makes about 50-60 pieces

Ingredients:

·       100 gm caster sugar

·       50 gm brown sugar

·       115 gm unsalted butter, softened

·       ½ tsp vanilla extract

·       1 egg (60gm)

·       110 gm plain flour

·       ½ tsp baking soda

·       ½ tsp cinnamon powder

·       ¼ tsp sea salt

·       180 gm raw rolled oats¹ (for this particular entry, I used baby oats. See note at the end for my review)

·       100 gm dried cranberries

·       100 gm chopped macadamia nuts 

I love eating these oatmeal cookies, knowing that compared to most cookies, these are full of healthy goodness!

 

Butter and sugars are creamed till light and fluffy

 

The dough will be stiff after all the ingredients are added in

 

Method:

1.     Preheat oven to 190^°C (fan on).

2.     Cream the sugars and butter till light and fluffy.

3.     Add vanilla extract and lightly beaten egg and mix well.

4.     Sift flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt into the butter mixture. Fold lightly to distribute the flour mixture.

5.     Add oats, raisins and nuts and fold in. I usually use my Kenwood stand mixer at the lowest speed, with paddle attachment, to fold this as the mixture will be very stiff and folding by hand might be tedious.

6.     Using a cookie scoop (size 70), drop dough on lined baking trays.  Flatten² the dough balls with a spatula.

7.     Bake at 190°C for about 9 minutes. Monitor closely towards the end.

8.     Cool the cookies on the trays for about 1-2 minutes before transferring to cooling racks to cool off totally. Cookies will harden further and turn crispier upon total cooling.

 

 Notes:

1.     I usually use raw rolled oats for my oatmeal cookies but this time round I decided to try baby oats, thinking that the more broken up oats might give me a “softer” cookie compared to regular oats. It’s a big mistake: In fact the baby oats seem to absorb moisture more hence it gives me a drier dough. Nevertheless, it still yields yummy cookies but the regular oats give me even yummier cookies!

2.     As mentioned, baby oats will give me a drier and hence stiffer dough so when using baby oats, you have to flatten the uncooked dough on the tray as it will not spread much during baking. I didn't realise that until the cookies were baked, that's why you see the round round cookies here. LOL! On the other hand if you are using raw rolled oats, the spread will be quite a lot during baking. In fact I think I will skip the flattening the next round I make this with regular rolled oats.