Oatmeal Breakfast Cookies with Hazelnut & Cranberry

Oatmeal breakfast cookies with ground hazelnuts, cranberries and orange - an easy, healthy recipe with reduced sugar to start the day. Serve with clementine oranges for an extra boost to your morning routine.

Healthy Oatmeal Breakfast Cookies

Perhaps it's because I'm Scottish but I love my oats in the morning. Rushing out the door on weekday mornings, we normally enjoy a bowl of homemade maple oat granola or chocolate coconut granola with almond milk. It's usually accompanied with a large bowl of coffee, sipped slowly cupped in our hands, oh so French style. However, we also love these healthy oatmeal breakfast cookies. Oats are a good source of soluble fibre and are a good all-round healthy ingredient that is not only naturally filling but good for the stomach and digestion too.

My daughter, Lucie prefers cookies with an abundance of chocolate in them. Happiness for her are chocolate hazelnut cookies I developed using a recipe from Le Pecq Chocolaterie in our neighbourhood (best for a goûter or afternoon teatime snack).
So, when I first made these cookies without chocolate, adding oats and dried fruits instead for a healthy breakfast, they didn't quite get the same enthusiasm. Until she tried one!

Thankfully, these breakfast oatmeal cookies passed the test with flying cranberries. The hazelnuts give them that extra punch of flavour and they're low in sugar. Moreover, when it's orange season, the added zest gives us an extra boost to start the day.

Each cookie is about 172 calories, based on a yield of 12 cookies for this recipe.

Easy Recipe

The recipe for these cookies is not only easy but adaptable too.

Replace raisins if you prefer instead of cranberries. In either case, I like to make them extra moist by first soaking them in the juice of half the orange.  This not only moistens them, making the cookies beautifully soft, but adds extra flavour.

I use ground hazelnuts but you could equally replace this with either ground almonds (almond flour) or ground walnuts.

Their texture is not hard. Instead these oatmeal breakfast cookies are soft with just a slight crispiness on the outside and toasted around the edges.  Of course, if you prefer them extra toasted, leave them to bake a few more minutes in the oven.

With few ingredients (there is no banana), the oats do need a little more time in the oven. So, while I usually bake them about 18-20 minutes, you may need to bake them a few minutes longer. It all depends on your oven and breakfast cookie preferences.

How to Make Oatmeal Breakfast Cookies

This recipe is without banana. With just a few easy steps you can have cookies ready for breakfast in no time.

• Cream together softened butter (unsalted) with a little cane sugar.
• Measure out the dried cranberries (or raisins), add the zest of an organic (unwaxed) orange to the creamed mixture and add half the juice of the orange to the cranberries to soak for a few minutes.

• Meanwhile, add all the other ingredients and mix together;
• Spoon out equal quantities on to a baking tray lined with either baking parchment or on a silicone baking mat. Ensure they are spaced out and the cookies will spread a little during baking in the oven;

• Bake for about 20 minutes then leave on the counter to cool slightly (for about 5 minutes);
• Then transfer to a wire rack to cool further.

Can I Make These Cookies in Advance?

Best eaten on the day they're made, these cookies are even better still slightly warm from the oven but cooled enough to crisp up.

Easy to prepare the cookie dough the night before (cover and chill) and bake in the morning.
If made completely the night before, they're still good next morning if stored in an airtight tin or in aluminium foil once cooled.

During the festive season, why not add a little cinnamon or extra spice of your choice (pumpkin spice, all spice, French pain d'épices or gingerbread spice) - much the same way as this Christmas Granola.

Oatmeal Breakfast Cookies

Jill Colonna

Oatmeal breakfast cookies with ground hazelnuts, cranberries and orange - an easy, healthy recipe with reduced sugar to start the day.

5 from 3 votes

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Prep Time 20 minutes mins

Cook Time 20 minutes mins

Total Time 40 minutes mins

Course Breakfast, teatime

Cuisine American, British, French

Servings 12

Calories 172 kcal

Ingredients

  

• 100 g (3.5oz) dried (but moist) cranberries
• zest of an organic (unwaxed) orange and juice of half
• 80 g (3oz/ ⅓ cup) butter softened
• 50 g (1.75oz/ ¼ cup) brown cane sugar (Cassonade)
• 70 g (2.5oz/ scant ¾ cup) ground hazelnuts
• 50 g (1.75oz/½ cup) porridge oats
• 50 g (1.75oz/scant ½ cup) plain (all-purpose) flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt fleur de sel (Maldon or Celtic sea salt)
• 1 egg organic
• ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon (optional)

Instructions

 

• Preheat the oven to 180°C/160°C fan/360°F/Gas 4.
• Grate the orange zest (not the white pith underneath as bitter) and squeeze the juice from half of the orange over the cranberries to moisten for a few minutes.
• Whisk together the butter and sugar in a large bowl until a mousse forms.
• Add all the other ingredients and ensure they're mixed together.
• Line a baking tray with baking parchment or with a silicone mat. 

  Form little balls using a couple of dessert spoons, spacing them well apart (as they expand slightly during cooking) then lightly tap them down to flatten.
• Bake the cookies for about 20 minutes until golden brown.  Cool on the tray for about 5 minutes then transfer to a wire rack to cool further.

Notes

Best eaten on the day they're made, even better slightly warm from the oven. 

Storage: if made the night before, they're good next morning if stored in an airtight tin or in aluminium foil once cooled.

Measures: Please note that all my recipes are best made using digital kitchen scales in precise metric grams. Both ounces (and cups) are given as an approximate guide. 

Keyword easy oatmeal breakfast cookie recipe, healthy breakfast oatmeal cookies, oatmeal breakfast cookies, oatmeal breakfast cookies no banana

This recipe was first published 6 October 2018 but is now completely updated with new images and more explanatory text.