Healthy gluten-free breakfast cookies

What kid wouldn’t like a cookie for breakfast? These oatmeal and pear breakfast cookies are loaded with protein and fiber. I won’t tell the kids if you don’t!

With back to school clearly on the horizon (and even having begun in some areas!), I think almost entirely about the food (shock, I know). They tell me which teachers my kids will have. They assign the school supplies I am responsible for providing (Down to the last tissue box! What’s with all the tissues, I ask?). They dictate when my kids come (7:45 a.m.) and when they go (2:32 p.m.). Breakfast is on me.

One of my three children never met a gluten-free breakfast food she didn’t like. Breakfast quinoa? Sign her up. Hot gluten-free oatmeal? More, please! Scrambled eggs? Bring ’em on. The second of the three is almost as agreeable (no quinoa, thanks). My third? She puts me through the breakfast ringer. She will willingly green-light waffles and pancakes, but I worry that there isn’t enough protein in those. Enter these healthy gluten-free breakfast cookies! The way I like to make them, these cookies have no refined sugar, plus plenty of fiber from the oats and protein from the eggs and the Greek-style yogurt (be sure not to use regular plain yogurt, which is too wet for this recipe). And since you don’t peel the pear, there’s fiber in the fruit skin. And, um, they’re called “cookies.” Sold!

Healthy gluten-free breakfast cookies recipe

Yields 18 cookies

Ingredients:

• 2-1/4 cups all-purpose gluten-free flour (use your favorite, or my go-to blend: 1-1/4 cups superfine brown or white rice flour plus 10 tablespoons tapioca flour/starch plus 5-1/2 tablespoons potato starch)
• 1 teaspoon xanthan gum (omit if your blend already contains it)
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 3 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1/2 cup granulated coconut palm sugar (can substitute an equal amount of granulated sugar) 
• 1-1/2 cups certified gluten-free old-fashioned rolled oats
• 2 medium-sized pears, cored and cut into a 1/4-inch dice (Anjou or Bartlett varieties work best)
• 2 tablespoons honey
• 5 tablespoons virgin coconut oil, melted and cooled (can substitute an equal amount of unsalted butter)
• 1/2 cup plain Greek-style yogurt, at room temperature
• 2 eggs at room temperature, beaten
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Directions:

1. Preheat your oven to 325 degrees F. Line a rimmed baking sheet with unbleached parchment paper and set it aside.
2. In a large bowl, place the flour blend, xanthan gum, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and sugar, whisk the dry ingredients to combine well. Add the oats and stir to combine. Place the diced pear in a separate small bowl, and toss with 1 tablespoon of the whisked dry ingredients to coat. Set the pears aside.
3. To the large bowl of dry ingredients, add the honey, coconut oil, yogurt, eggs and vanilla, and mix to combine. The dough will begin to come together and will be thick. Add the diced pears plus the reserved dry ingredients, and mix until the pears are evenly distributed throughout the cookie dough.
4. Drop the cookie dough on the prepared baking sheet in mounds about 3 tablespoons each, about 1 inch apart from one another. With wet fingers, press down on and smooth the mounds of dough into disks about 1/2-inch high.
5. Place the baking sheet in the center of the preheated oven and bake, rotating once, until the cookies are puffed and lightly golden brown on top, and a bit darker around the edges (17 to 20 minutes).
6. Remove the cookies from the oven and allow them to cool on the baking sheet for at least 10 minutes or until firm before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

More gluten-free recipes

Gluten-free strawberry shortcakes
Gluten-free chocolate tres leches cake
Gluten-free sour cream cheddar cheese muffins