I created this easy protein cookies recipe back in 2012. They are high in protein, contain no flour and make great before or after workout cookies aka snack. And a great late night couch snack without the guilt.
If you ended up on this recipe in the evening looking for a healthy treat, know you probably have all ingredients on hand to make the best protein cookies in the world! I promise store bought protein bars don’t come even close. Especially in nutrition.
How Do Protein Cookies Taste?
A million dollar question.
- Cookies are sugar free and naturally sweetened with banana
- Pleasant soft texture.
- Not crunchy outside like traditional cookie because no butter baked with sugar. But…
- Even kids love these homemade protein cookies.
What Are Protein Cookies Ingredients?
- Bananas
- Peanut Butter
- Oats
- Protein Powder
How Many Grams of Protein Is in a Cookie?
Recipe makes 12 small cookies or 12 large cookies. Each cookie contains 6 grams of protein. As well as 11 grams of carbs and 4 grams of sugar. Compared to a regular cookie, these are high protein and low sugar cookies. Just think about it!
How to Make Protein Cookies
1. Mash Bananas
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line cookie sheet with unbleached parchment paper or silicone baking mat. Spray with cooking spray.
- Mash bananas with a fork.
What type of bananas are the best?
Riper the bananas, the sweeter protein cookies.
- Ripe bananas – yellow.
- Very ripe bananas – yellow with brown spots.
- Going bad bananas – brown.
Can I use previously frozen bananas?
Yes. Every time I see banana gone bad, I stick it in the freezer. It gets even more ugly and brown in there. Thaw it and use.
2. Add Wet and Dry Ingredients
Add whey protein powder, oats and peanut butter.
What whey protein powder to use?
Quality Wise
I recommend whey with minimum ingredients, at least grass-fed, preferably organic.
Flavor Wise
- Unflavored
- Vanilla
- Cookie dough
- Peanut butter
- Chocolate
In reality, any whey protein powder will work. End taste will vary slightly depending on protein’s ingredients. I used unflavored whey.
Can I use plant based protein powder?
No. Whey protein powder is made from cow’s milk and almost melts with other ingredients. It makes protein powder cookie dough runny. Plant-based protein powder is made from peas, brown rice and other plants that absorb liquids like crazy. Please do not substitute as cookies will not work.
What oatmeal is the best?
You can use quick oats, rolled oats, old fashioned rolled oats. Please do not use steel cut oats.
What peanut butter to use?
I always buy organic unsalted peanut butter. It is cheap. No hydrogenated oils. Unfortunately peanuts are heavily sprayed with pesticides. You can use any for this time but please buy good for you peanut butter next time. I recommend organic or at least natural peanut butter without additives. Ingredients should be peanuts and maximum a bit of salt.
3. Make Protein Powder Cookie Dough
- Stir well with a fork to combine.
- Dough consistency should be runny.
- Riper the bananas, more liquidy the batter.
- Add chocolate chips and give a few more stirs.
4. Bake Cookies
- Spoon mixture onto prepared baking sheet.
- Cookies don’t spread, so shape them now.
- Bake for 12 minutes if you have 12 small cookies.
- Bake for 14 minutes if you got 10 large cookies.
5. Enjoy
- Cool on a cooling rack for 5 minutes.
- Enjoy your cookies guilt-free!
Can I Freeze Protein Cookies?
Absolutely. If I have going bad bananas I use them all. I make these cookies or healthy banana muffins or healthy banana bread. Nothing goes to waste in this house.
Freeze cookies for up to 3 months in an airtight container.
More Protein Cookie Recipes
- Chocolate protein cookies – very similar in texture but all the chocolate!
- No bake protein cookies – perfect for summer plant-based peanut butter cookies.
Protein Cookies
Craving cookies? This tasty protein cookies recipe is so easy, you can make it right now. Hurry up!
- Prep Time: 5 mins
- Cook Time: 12 mins
- Total Time: 17 minutes
- Yield: 12 cookies 1x
- Category: Snack
- Method: Oven
- Cuisine: North American
Ingredients
- 2 medium ripe bananas
- 2 scoops (60g) unflavoured whey protein powder*
- 1 cup rolled quick or old fashioned oats
- 2 tbsp peanut butter, unsalted
- 2 tbsp chocolate chips, mini
- Cooking spray (I use Misto)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line large baking sheet with unbleached parchment paper or silicone baking mat, and spray with cooking spray.
- In a medium bowl, mash bananas with a fork. Add whey protein powder, oats and peanut butter; stir well to combine (batter’s consistency will be runny). Add chocolate chips and give a few more stirs.
- Spoon mixture onto prepared baking sheet (cookies don’t spread, so shape them now) and bake for 12-14 minutes (depending on size). Cool on a cooling rack for 5 minutes.
Store: Refrigerate in an airtight container for up to 1 week.
Freeze: For up to 1 month. The best way to defrost protein cookies is in a microwave. That way the moisture and softness is restored.
Notes
*You can use vanilla whey, just make sure you buy unsweetened one.
Did you make this recipe? Please give it a star rating in the comments.
How would you recommend changing the recipe around for more protein? Like if I double the protein would I just lessen the oats?
To do that, I would have to retest the recipe as adding extra protein change ingredients ratio and taste.
I made these cookies today and they tasted so good! However, I was wondering if you could recommend a way to make the cookies slightly less dense and softer in the middle. We made 9 cookies and they were relatively thick so this could be why they were so dense. Thank you!
I don’t think it’s possible just because of oats and no white flour with rising agents etc. I mean these are cookies but definitely without many qualities of real cookies. Make them smaller and maybe try adding some baking soda. 🙂
I just came across your recipe. I’m looking forward to trying it. My thought is to use Coach’s Oats, a Costco favorite of ours. Thanks for the recipe! Ttyl 🙂 Walter
Hi Walter. Yes, you can use Coach’s oats. Cookie’s texture might be more coarse but it’s OK. Enjoy!
would there be any changes for high altitude?
No. These are not traditional flour cookies.
Hey there! When you scooped the batter onto the baking sheet, did you press/flatten them or leave them as is? Or should the batter be loose enough that they spread on their own when spooned? Just want to make sure I get the consistency correct before i bake! 🙂
Just left them as is. You drop the batter, it is not thick you use ripe bananas.
Awesome recipe! I loved it mostly because how quick it is. I used vanilla isopure protein and PB2 and they turned out great. I will likely do a little less protein powder next time and a slightly shorter cooking time because they were just a touch dry. I also want to add some shredded coconut or maybe some nuts next time 🙂
Hi Olena, what a wonderful website you have 🙂 I dont know how you got it to be low calorie??? when i put the ingredients into my fitness pal the calories tell me its about 140 calories per biscuit 🙁
How many grams of each of the ingredients are in a cookie?
No idea, honestly. Just enjoy it! It’s already healthy!
Hi Stefanie. Thank you! You know, sometimes people enter wrong nutritional info for some ingredients so that could be why. I always check labels of my ingredients and other people’s already entered.
Hey Stefanie, PB2 is a great way to cut calories from the cookies since peanut butter is a large contributor. I followed the recipe exactly with Isopure Vanilla protein powder and two tablespoons of PB2 (mixed with water per instructions) and mine were less than 80 calories per cookie.
Just made these i used pumpkin spice protein powder added a tablespoon of pumpkin pie spice 2 tablespoons of coconuts and I grounded some walnuts and sprinkle them on top it was delicious i would share the photo but it wont let me
Great recipe, I added a few other ingredients, almond flakes, pumpkin and sunflower seeds, I also added some mini marshmallows my clients love them. thank you .
Great! Using my recipe for clients is an honour.:)
I made these for my boyfriend who’s into working out and having his daily dose of protein, and he absolutely loved these cookies! He was super shocked when i told him there was 6g of protein in EACH cookie. thanks so much for the recipe 🙂
You are welcome, Sum!:)
These cookies are amazing!!!! I used PC Soy Isolate Protein Powder (unflavoured) as my Whey Protein is chocolate flavoured and these taste absolutely fantastic. Thanks so much for this and all of your amazing recipes.
Really, they worked with soy protein? I tried to follow the recipe with plant-based protein powder and it didn’t work. I ended up adding way more liquid. But I know with whey they are amazing. Glad you liked them!
I too love these cookies. We use unsalted Almond Butter and they are awesome.
Hi just looking for a good protein cookie for my teenage son who wants to get in shape.He has a severe peanut butter/nut allergie and all the reciepies call for peanut butter any ideas.Thanks
Yes. You could replace peanut butter with coconut oil or any other fat.
We just made them and I absolutely loved these cookies! Great recipe. Just a question, as I might not always have protein powder on me, is there anything that could substitute for it?
Glad you liked the cookies. To answer your question, you probably could replace protein powder with almond flour (ground almonds) or hemp hearts but cookies won’t come out the same. Still good but different texture.
Hi I have read somewhere that whey protein gets destroyed on heating and I just wanted to check if the protein value is accurate and also if 6gm is per cookie or for the entire batch of cookies
6 gm is per cookie. Here is what I found: “Baking whey protein powder may denature its proteins, a process that changes the physical or chemical structure of the protein. Denaturation does not mean not nutritious. It simply means changed, and the change may be temporary or minimal.”
Read more: http://www.livestrong.com/article/288537-can-you-bake-with-whey-protein-powder/#ixzz2Z5PFSm5M
How long will these cookies stay good if not refrigerated? My husband was wondering if they could be shipped.
Hi Laura. I would say in an airtight container, for up to a week, 10 days…
Hi. I plan to use sweetend and flavored protein powder with salted peanut butter. That is what I have. Your thoughts?
It’s perfectly fine in terms of taste and baking. Just the cookies will be sweeter and nutritional info will change. 🙂
These sound delicious but unfortunately I HATE bananas! Could I substitute them for anything? Also I was thinking adding flaxseeds to the mix?
You can definitely add flax seeds but unfortunately bananas is what makes these cookies.
I love this recipe, I changed the peanut butter to PB2 and added sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds and almonds to give some crunch. Thanks for the recipe
Hi Olena ! I have so much weight to lose & am so happy to have found your blog.
I love your recipes and your right, dieting & no carbs is not the answer. I also have two kids, I want to lose the weight to be around for them, I also want to teach them how to eat healthy. Thank you, Ellen
Hi Ellen. I’m so glad to hear that. Yes, you should do it for yourself and your family. And to be healthy is actually pretty easy and the best feeling in the world. So, go for it!