Recipe: Oatmeal Chocolate Chunk (Lactation) Cookies - not just for breastfeeding mamas!

I've been fortunate to have an uncomplicated experience with breastfeeding. After my first baby, I learned about different foods to help boost milk supply and had great success. I'm not too sure how much credit to attribute to "lactation cookies", but they definitely are better tasting than mother's milk tea! I previously shared a recipe to my oatmeal cranberry white chocolate lactation cookies on this blog, but this time around wanted to try a chocolate chip version.

I found this fabulous recipe for "The Best Lactation Cookies!"on the blog "How Sweet it is" and made some minor modifications.  These aren't just delicious "lactation cookies", they are amongst the tastiest chocolate chip cookies I've baked and tried! My entire family can vouch for these cookies - they are a huge hit with my 2 year old toddler son, my husband, and the grandparents! I've already made several batches of these cookies since our second baby's birth (2 weeks ago).

I like to make my cookies bite sized, and as a consequence end up with a lot of cookies (A regular cookie serving is probably equivalent to 3-4 of my mini cookies). I halved the original recipe.   Here is the recipe I modified. Enjoy!

Oatmeal Chocolate Chunk Lactation Cookies

Ingredients:

• 1.5 cups old-fashioned rolled oats 
• 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 3 tablespoons brewers yeast (lactogenic)
• 2 tablespoons ground flaxseed (lactogenic)
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon  
• 8 tablespoons salted butter - room temp (If you use unsalted butter, add 1/8 tsp salt to recipe) 
• 3/8 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup white sugar    
• 1 large egg  
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 
• 3/4 cup dark chocolate chips/chunks

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven the 350 degrees F.
2. In a large bowl, mix the oats, flour, yeast, flaxseed, baking powder, soda, and cinnamon (*+ salt if you use unsalted butter)
3. In the bowl of your electric mixer (or by hand), beat the butter and sugar until creamy. Add in the egg and vanilla extract and beat until combined. 
4. Gradually add in the dry ingredients, until just combined and mixed. 
5. Stir in the chocolate chips with a spatula until they are evenly dispersed.
6. Scoop the dough onto the baking sheet.  For reference, I use a toddler munchkin spoon to make my mini cookies (about 1 in round)  
7. Bake until just golden ( for my mini cookies 8 min is perfect, for normal sized or larger cookies you will need to increase your baking time)  
8.  Let cool completely before storing in a sealed container.

TIPS:

• The dough can be frozen to be baked later on.  Just scoop the rounds on a baking sheet, place in freezer  until firm (about 2 hours) then place in ziplock bag. When ready to bake, place on cookie sheet and bake at preheated 350F oven for the same amount of time + 1-2 min, to your preference.
• I ordered my brewer's yeast and ground flaxseed meal online from amazon, but I think you can also find these at Trader Joe's or Whole Foods
• I always use Trader Joe's semi sweet chips or chunks for baking. In my opinion, it is the best tasting chocolate!
• I use Nielsen-Massey Vanilla for all my baking