Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Breakfast Cookies

When I develop a new microgreen recipe, it usually takes weeks. Like editing a book, it takes a little change here, a major change there…finally, a tasty masterpiece appears. At that point, it is a race to get photos of the new creation before it disappears!  A quick disappearance of food is one way that I know I have reached the end of the editing process. If a food hangs around the test kitchen and no one seems too thrilled to try it or eat it for a snack, I know I have to go and try again…and sometimes again, and again, and again.  The microgreen breakfast cookie was different.

Very infrequently- like almost never- a recipe will turn out scrumptious on the first try. This microgreen breakfast cookie recipe is one of those! SO good it got rave reviews as everyone had to eat more than one to ‘test’ it. In fact, I just went up to get another cookie… and they are gone! Not a single bite left for me to snack on as I work hard at the computer *sob*. I guess I will have to bake another batch! It’s a good thing they are easy and quick to make.

A Food Storage Project

This started as a food storage project. With construction completed, we finally got to move back into our house and bring our food storage back home. I joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints 38 years ago and was immediately intrigued by the recommendation to store food. Unfortunately, I didn’t pay attention to the lesson on rotating said food supply and we seem to have a lot of food that has been in storage for quite a while. Fortunately, we have a cold storage room and things stay good for decades in their sealed buckets. We had a couple of buckets of 20 yr old oatmeal that my husband was going to toss out, but not until I gave it the sniff and taste test. If it tastes good and it smells good, I’m using it!

I have a bucket of oatmeal and I needed a good recipe to use it up- and of course, figure out a way to add some nutritious microgreens in there as well. And while I am at it, I should use some of that dry milk and peanut butter to add protein- and I sure do have a lot of fresh eggs- so what better to make than cookies! Breakfast cookies that I can feel good about handing to the grandchildren, and with a bit of chocolate so that my husband will crave them. To make it healthier, I will leave out the butter and add a BIG handful of pea microgreens… yup, that is how this recipe started.

So now you know one of the processes I go through when I develop a new recipe. Have an ingredient or two and find a way to use it. ?

Making the Best Microgreen Breakfast Cookies, Ever!

To make these scrumptious microgreen breakfast cookie, I started with 4 fresh eggs. Use what you have and beat them with a teaspoon of vanilla, and a cup of brown sugar in a large bowl of a stand mixer. You can use a sugar alternative such as honey or stevia, but my aim was to use additional items from storage and sugar seems to have been a consistent purchase during the past 30 years so sugar it is. I did not put a lot of sugar in this recipe- it doesn’t need it.  The applesauce and the chocolate chips give the cookies enough sweetness.

Add the peanut butter and the apple sauce and mix them in well before you add the oats and baking soda. Mix just until it is all one big tasty mess. If it needs more bulk, add a bit more oatmeal. Use a pair of scissors or a sharp knife to cut the microgreens into 1/4 inch pieces and mix in Last of all, add the chocolate chips and stir briefly. I used an ice cream scoop to make big hand-sized cookies, but they did grow considerably so either use a smaller scoop or don’t put as many on your cookie sheet as I did.

Try Baking In The Microwave

If you have just a bit of cookie dough leftover, try baking a cookie in the microwave. I couldn’t wait to taste my new creation so I sprayed a bit of parchment paper lightly with cooking spray and scooped the last bit of dough on and popped it into the microwave for just one minute. I prefer the oven-baked method, but microwaving a cookie would be a great way to have just one fresh cookie at a time.

These microgreen breakfast cookies freeze well. Take one out and heat briefly in the microwave for that just-baked flavor of guilt-free chocolate chip cookies for breakfast. Don’t save them just for breakfast- they make great snacks and desserts as well.