Lactation Cookies - Marlie Rosenberg

Here are my lactation cookie recipe to help boost milk supply!

I have had a some requests to share my lactation cookie recipe in the past few weeks. I love to bake and cook but I rarely follow recipes so when my sister-in-law asked for this specific cookie I did some investigation baking and actually measured everything and wrote it all down.

Before I dive into the recipe and directions let me tell you what a lactation cookie is.

When I first saw a high school classmate and new mom post a photo of lactation brownies on Facebook, I thought, “Eek, did she really make brownies out of her own breast milk!?”

I thought this way for a year or two before one of my close friends was pregnant and I was looking up ideas on what to send to a new mom.

After some Googling and finding out that lactation desserts were not actually made with breast milk but made to help a new mom increase her breast milk supply, I knew this would be the perfect gesture to make and send to a new mom.

What ingredients help with lactation?

These ingredients are considered to be galactogogue (gah-lak´tah-gog), which is a fancy word meaning they help increase milk supply in a breastfeeding mother. Check out this link for more info.

Here is a great list of some galactogogue foods. For these cookies we are using the following galactogogues:

Oats (old fashioned)
Flaxseed (ground)
Brewers yeast

Now for the ingredients!

1 stick butter (1/2 cup) room temp
1 stick crisco (1 cup) room temp
1 cup brown sugar (I used dark brown because it was available)
1 cup white sugar
3 eggs room temp
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups flour*
3 1/2 cups old fashioned oats
1/3 cup brewers yeast**
1/4 cup ground flaxseed***
1 bag of chocolate chips

Other ingredients I like to add but, are optional:

2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/4 cup coconut
Chopped walnuts

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350º.
Cream the butter, shortening, brown sugar, and white sugar together for 3 to 5 minutes or until a light brown creamy consistency is formed.

Add the eggs, vanilla, baking soda, and salt. Mix together for 1 minute.
Slowly add the dry ingredients. Scrape down the sides often.
Mix in chocolate chips and other mix-ins you prefer.
* If the mixture is still really sticky you may want to add another 1/4 cup of flour. The more flour you add the more cake-like your cookies will be.
** You can add more brewers yeast to have more lactation properties, but the more you add the dryer the cookies get, in my opinion less tasty.
*** I don’t particularly like flaxseed. You can add more if you do, but I would not add more than 1/2 cup for the same reason as the brewers yeast.

You will want to cover and refrigerate the dough for at least a few hours, if not overnight.

Next, roll the dough into balls and bake for 8 to 10 minutes. Times could be longer if you are making larger cookies. I like to smash down the cookies slightly because these cookies do not disperse as well as regular cookies.

I like to pull the cookies out just as they are starting to brown on the edges, then let them sit on the baking sheet to finish the bottoms a little more.

It is also important to use parchment paper or a silpat. These cookies will stick to tinfoil or a regular cookie sheet.

These cookies go great with coconut milk! Coconut milk has also shown to increase milk production.

If you make these cookies I would love to see a picture of them! Please tag me on Instagram @MarlieRosenberg.

Happy baking!