I find breakfast is one of those meals that’s easy to eat plant-based, but sometimes I can get into a rut. I love smoothies and oatmeal and that’s regularly what I eat. Veggie Tofu Scramble or Chickpea Flour Omelets are great choices, as well, and now we have these Tahini Breakfast Cookies.
Breakfast cookies are a little different than dessert cookies because they’re denser and are more filling. They’ll actually help you stay full from the morning until lunch. The recipe includes a ripe banana and healthy flaxseeds and chia seeds.
The fun thing about these cookies is that you can mix up the ingredients to your liking. If you happen to have pumpkin seeds, you could use those. Or you could use sliced almonds. You can also add dried fruit, but most dried fruit has added oil so I’d recommend against that.
If you don’t have cacao nibs, you can use mini vegan chocolate chips like in these photos.
These Tahini Breakfast Cookies are almost like having a complete bowl of oatmeal with nuts and berries in a cookie!
Since we eat very little or no added oils or even vegan butter on a whole-food, plant-based diet a nut or seed butter can take the place of added oils. That’s a good choice for this recipe, but we don’t want to overdo nut and seed butter either.
So for this recipe, I’ve used just two tablespoons of tahini which does the trick.
How to Make Tahini Breakfast Cookies
These tahini breakfast cookies are very easy to pull together. You can use oat flour instead of old-fashioned oats, but we want to keep a few bits of oats so the whole oats are better for this recipe. A quick blend of the old-fashioned oats and you’ll have just the right consistency.
Then, just add the rest of the ingredients to a large bowl and mix them the best you can with a spoon to start. You may need to use your hands to pull them together because they don’t have a lot of liquid.
Once the ingredients are well mixed, use a large spoon equal to about 2 tablespoons to scoop out the batter and shape it into a ball. Place them all on the parchment paper. Then use either your hand or the back of a fork to smash them down. They don’t have any leavening so they won’t raise or spread but will stay the shape you make them.
I’d love to hear your feedback for these Tahini Breakfast Cookies in the comments below! If you have a photo, post it on my Instagram page, tag me using the hashtag #plantbasedcooking in your caption, and I won’t miss it!
Tahini Breakfast Cookies
Ingredients
- 3 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
- 3/4 cup almond flour
- 1 medium ripe banana
- 5 tbsp maple syrup
- 2 tbsp tahini (toasted, hulled ground sesame seeds)
- 1 1/2 tbsp ground flax seeds
- 1 1/2 tbsp chia seeds
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/3 cup walnuts or mixed nuts
- 1/2 cup cacao nibs optional
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325°F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Blend the rolled oats in a blender for a few seconds leaving bits of larger oats.
- Mix all of the ingredients in a large bowl.
- Roll 2 tablespoons of batter in a ball and place on the parchment paper.
- Flatten all the cookies with your hand or a fork in 2 directions.
- Bake for 12-15 minutes. Cool before eating.
How many cookies does this recipe make? I don’t see it listed anywhere. Thank you.
The recipe makes 16 cookies.
In reference to Tahini, do I use raw/or roasted…or hulled or unhulled Tahini when making the Tahini Breakfast Cookies? Thank you.
Hi, I use roasted tahini. The labels on the brands I’ve used don’t say if they’re hulled or unhulled but I see references to unhulled sesame seeds as being a little more bitter than unhulled so I would recommend using the hulled version. I’ll add this to the recipe to make it clearer. Thanks for your question.
What do you recommend in place of the flax seeds and chia seeds? Are they added as a binder or for nutritional benefits? We can’t tolerate either of those ingredients so I’m trying to figure out if they are important functionally or if they can just be omitted. Thanks.
I haven’t tried this recipe without the flax or chia seeds but I think it probably won’t make much different if you leave them out. They do add moisture and flax is often used as an egg replacement, but banana can be used for this, as well. Since the recipe already has banana I think you’re good to go with the flax. Replacing the chia seeds with hemp seeds might work.
Just made them. Very tasty!! Thank you.
Glad you enjoyed them! 🙂
Is there a substitute for almond flour?
I think that any other flour would work, but I haven’t tried any other so can’t say for sure. The texture may change or the batter may be drier. Let us know if you try it.
Delicious! The mix was a little dry and it was too late to decrease the amount of Oatmeal so I added a couple tablespoons of unsweetened applesauce. Thank you!
Thanks for the tip, Angela. I may need to try the recipe again to see if it needs more moisture.