Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies for Lactation

Brace yourselves friends, I'm going to talk about breast feeding again. Just over three years ago I shared my choice to stop breastfeeding Ella when she was just 7 weeks. At the time, it felt like such a hard heavy decision and disappointment, but now that she's basically a grown up (as in she turned three last week) it seems so silly to have cried over breast milk. 

I was exclaiming to a friend recently how different the second baby experience has been than the first, to which the friend replied "Of course, its different. You're a whole other person than you were 3 years ago!" Duh. Being a mom to Ella prepared me to be a mom for Emmett. My breastfeeding experience with Emmett has also been tremendously easier. 

One thing I learned between Ella and Emmett is that there is a whole list of foods that are actually reported to increase a mother's milk supply naturally. Galactagogues are foods that naturally promote breast milk production. While little scientific data exists, anecdotal evidence suggests that consuming food such as fennel, chickpeas, or papaya will help breast feeding mothers. Oats and other whole grains and beer are also reported to have the same affect. 

There's a small niche of food companies working to full fill the needs of nursing mother's and I actually stumbled upon the idea of lactation cookies through Amazon (which has saved me too many times during these "new mom of two" times). I tried a few pre-made cookies as well as some mixes for "milk maker" cookies cookies. Whether they actually worked or there was just a placebo affect - I decided to create my own cookies.

These 'lactation' cookies are a hack of my favorite oatmeal chocolate chip cookie. Oats are regularly prescribed to nursing mamas for milk supply. Flaxseed meal and brewer's yeast are added for the same reason and both were easily found at my local Whole Foods Market (you can also order both on Amazon). I've decreased the chocolate (which can some times upset tiny tummies) and messed with the sugar ratio a bit. 

I wasn't even planning to share this recipe, but this is seriously the best oatmeal chocolate chip cookie recipe I have ever had. The edges are crisp but the rest of the cookie is pleasantly chewy, there's just the right amount of cinnamon and chocolate. And here's the thing - you can't taste the flaxseed or brewer's yeast - so unless you tell them no one would ever know that this cookie helps with lactation. 

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies for Lactation 
Makes 3 dozen cookies

These cookies are designed to help breast feeding mamas increase their milk supply. They will not introduce lactation in Dads, kiddos or neighbors - so feel free to share. If you just want to enjoy these as the best oatmeal chocolate chip cookies - omit the brewer's yeast but leave the flaxseed meal and be sure to refrigerate the dough as directed below.

1/4 cup water
2 tablespoons flaxseed meal
1 cup unsalted butter
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups all purpose flour
1/4 cup brewer's yeast
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3 cups rolled oats
1 cup mini chocolate chips

Combine the water and flax seed meal in a small bowl and set aside. Beat together the butter and sugars in until lightened and fluffy. Add the water-flax mixture, eggs, and vanilla extract and beat until well combined. Add the flour, brewer's yeast, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon and stir to combine.  Finally add the oats and chocolate chips and stir to incorporate.

Scoop the dough into 2 tablespoon sized rounds and refrigerate for at least 1 hour. Heat the oven to 350 degrees F. Bake 12 cookies at a time on parchment lined sheet pans for 8 to12 minutes. The edges should be golden brown and the middles should look slightly damp still - cool for 2 minutes on the pan. Then remove to a cooling rack.

Food Blogger Cookie Swap | Meyer Lemon Meringue Cookies

Each fall I sign up for the Food Blogger Cookie swap (hosted by Lindsay of Love & Olive Oil + Julie of the Little Kitchen) and then I promptly forget about. Then December rolls around and my first box of cookies is delivered and I immediately go into panic mode: "Oh shit, what am I going to bake?!" 

This year I totally had my act together though! I put deadlines on my editorial calendar and had a recipe written and ready before November. And then I never got around to actually running the recipe before I needed to send out the cookies. This is recipe development's form  of Murphy's law: If you are certain something will work and you never test it before you actually need it, it will fail. 

And fail that recipe did - like my two year old wouldn't even eat a cookie failed. There was some cursing. There may have been a few tears too; Because here I was on the weekend before I was required ship out my cookies and between hosting Thanksgiving and trimming the tree there really wasn't time to start over again. 

After I trashed the failed cookies, cleaned up the kitchen, and pulled myself together, I inventoried the fridge and pantry. The challenge was now to make cookies with only ingredients that were already on hand. I had wasted 3 pounds of butter on those failed cookies and there was none left in the house. There were, however, a bunch of leftover egg whites (the failures called for yolks only) and a few Meyer lemons I bought for cocktails. 

These Meyer Lemon Meringue Cookies may be the result of a failed butter cookie, but they are now my new favorite holiday cookie. They are light and delicate. You can eat a handful and not feel guilty. They're also a wonderful alternative to the heavy treats that we are surrounded with this time of year. 

These meringues would be lovely without the Meyer lemon zest or with another citrus zest. The trick is to add the zest at the end of mixing, so that the meringue can gain as much volume while mixing as possible. I'm looking forward to making a few variations on these cookies before the holidays are over. 

Oh, and my first boxes of cookies came from The Pint Sized Baker and Shake Bake and Party on the same day and my last box came from Sweet Treats and More. Be sure to stop by their blogs today to check out their cookie recipes! 

Meyer Lemon Meringues Cookies (adapted from Martha Stewart) 
makes about 120 dimes sized cookies 

3 large egg whites at room temperature
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 vanilla bean split and scraped
pinch of kosher salt
pinch of cream of tartar
1 teaspoon finely grated meyer lemon zest
Yellow gel-paste food coloring - optional 

Heat the oven to 200 degrees F. Bring a pot of water to a simmer over medium high heat. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside. 

Combine egg whites and sugar in the bowl of a stand-mixer. Add vanilla bean seeds. Set the bowl over the pot of simmering water, and whisk until sugar dissolves and mixture is warm, about 3 minutes. Add the salt and cream of tartar.

Whip the egg white mixture with the mixer on medium-high speed until stiff, glossy peaks form and meringue is mostly cooled, about 7 minutes. Stir in the meyer lemon zest.

For yellow meringues: Add a small amount of yellow food coloring to the meringue and stir gently until well combined. 

For striped meringues: Paint 3 vertical stripes of food coloring inside a pastry bag fitted with a 1/2-inch round tip. 

Fill a pastry bag fitted with a 1/2-inch round tip  with meringue, and pipe dime sized dots (they don't need to be perfect rounds) 1 inch apart on the prepared baking sheets. As you finish piping each dot, apply less pressure to pastry bag, and swirl the tip off in a circular motion.

Bake meringues until crisp on the outside but still soft inside, about 1 hour. Let cool completely on a wire rack. Store in an airtight container for up to a week. 

No Bake Granola Cookies

Life is a lot about perspective. For example, I would call this recipe a praline - a sweet, almost candy cookie, but my husband keeps referring them as "breakfast cookies. You know I can always get behind dessert for breakfast - so I don't argue. 

Peanut Butter and Chocolate Sandwich Cookies

Cookies are like the poor middle child of the dessert world; Not nearly as elegant and grand as a layer cake, or cute and charming like a pie. When asked to make something special for a celebration, I almost always rely on cake or pie. April has been such a busy, busy month filled with birthdays that I just haven't had time for my usual celebration cakes. 

Chai Spiced Snickerdoodles and the Food Blogger Cookie Swap 2012

It is officially baking season! Yes, I believe there is a season for butter and sugar. Strawberries and tomatoes get their season in the spotlight, so why shouldn't cozy spices too?