These cranberry orange quinoa breakfast cookies are full of wholesome ingredients like oats, quinoa, almond butter, and flax, but taste like a dessert!
Even though Thanksgiving is officially behind us, it still feels like we've got a lot of the holiday season to come. Decorations are starting to pop up around the city, you can Christmas trees lit up on apartment windows, and I find myself craving cookies pretty much all the time.
I'd like to dedicate the entire month of December to cookies, but I think you might get a little tired of all the sweetness, so I promise to give you a balance of sweet and savory, all the while making sure everything is packed with nutrition. We've technically still got a few more days until it's December, but we're starting cookie season off with these Cranberry Orange Quinoa Breakfast Cookies.
When I asked in last month's post (if you haven't tried the Apple Pie Quinoa Breakfast Cookies, you MUST), this flavor won by a landslide!
By now I'm sure you know the basic formula of my quinoa breakfast cookies: flaxseed egg, nut butter, maple syrup and a fruit puree. This makes them extremely customizable and easy to change the flavors around.
If you're new to our quinoa breakfast cookie extravaganza, I'll quickly fill you in. Last year I created my first ever recipe: Toasted Coconut Quinoa Breakfast cookies. When those took off, I created another flavor, and then another flavor and by the time January of 2016 rolled around, I realized without really trying, we had created a monthly recurring theme on the blog.
So I decided to make myself a challenge: create 12 different quinoa breakfast cookie recipes, one for each month of the year.
Now that we're in November, we're almost through all twelve. It's been super fun putting all these different flavors together, getting your votes each month and seeing all your pictures on social media.
I can't say for any of you, but so far my favorite flavors have been the Chunky Monkey Quinoa Breakfast Cookies and the Chocolate Peanut Butter Quinoa Breakfast Cookies. (I kind of have a thing for chocolate in case you can't tell!)
With only two more recipes to go, as well as the fact that we're moving into Christmas cookie season, today's flavor, as well as next month's, is going to be holiday themed.
We're going with the classic combination of orange and cranberry, opting for a combination of fresh squeezed orange juice and zest to get that bright citrus flavor. For the tartness, we have organic dried cranberries, which have a lovely chewy texture and a welcome burst of sweetness with each bite.
These remind me of oatmeal raisin cookies, but better.
They're soft and chewy, with a mild sweetness and perfectly golden brown edges. They're also packed with wholesome ingredients like oats, quinoa flakes, almond butter and flax, and are rounded out with warm spices like cinnamon and nutmeg. They're the ultimate holiday cookie in my opinion; festive and easy to make, and would certainly win over the taste buds of your cookie swapping friends.
But the best part of all is that these little beauties are healthy enough for breakfast! So it makes eating cookie after cookie totally acceptable in my book 😉
Hope you enjoy them as much as I have! And make sure to check back in mid-December as I'll be sharing my last and final breakfast cookie flavor: gingerbread!
xo Alyssa
More Breakfast Cookie Recipes:
- Snickerdoodle Quinoa Breakfast Cookies
- Lemon Poppy Seed Quinoa Breakfast Cookies
- Peanut Butter + Jelly Quinoa Breakfast Cookies
- Matcha Quinoa Breakfast Cookies
- Carrot Cake Quinoa Breakfast Cookies
- Apple Pie Quinoa Breakfast Cookies
Cranberry Orange Quinoa Breakfast Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 flax egg or regular egg
- 1/2 cup almond butter
- 1 medium banana mashed
- 2 tablespoons orange juice
- 2 tablespoons maple syrup
- 1/2 cup rolled oats
- 1/2 cup quinoa flakes
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
- 1/4 teaspoon sea salt
- Zest of 1 orange about 1 tablespoon
- 1/3 cup dried cranberries preferably fruit juice sweetened
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350ºF and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Combine flax egg, almond butter, banana, orange juice and maple syrup in a large bowl. Beat together until smooth.
- Add oats, quinoa flakes, baking powder and spices and stir to combine. Fold in orange zest and cranberries.
- Scoop 1 - 2 tablespoons of batter onto the prepared baking sheet and repeat until no dough remains. Bake on the center rack for 12 - 14 minutes until the edges are golden brown.
- Cool on the pan for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack and cool completely.
Nutrition
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