One of my friends recently had a baby, and when I brought her dinner last week, I thought it would be fun to make her some lactation brownies for dessert! Lactation brownies are mostly normal brownies with a few ingredients that are thought to increase milk supply for some women.
The idea is to maximize the ingredients that boost milk supply while still making brownies that taste delicious.
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This recipe is based off of one Sarah Biggins wrote as part of a cookbook named More Milk Please. The website that she sold the e-cookbook from is no longer active, so I can’t link to it, unfortunately. But I had made her version of the brownies four years ago, when I was breastfeeding baby #2, and they were freaking delicious, so I was excited to try them again.
How do these brownies increase milk supply?
These brownies have three ingredients that may increase milk supply – oats, flax seed, and brewer’s yeast.
I made the brewer’s yeast optional because it’s not super easy to find in a grocery store, and lots of people are looking for lactation recipes without brewer’s yeast.
(However, if you do want to include it, your best bet is to get it from Amazon, but that requires more organization and planning ahead than I have in me some days.)
Can you substitute rolled oats, old fashioned oats, or steel cut oats?
Rolled oats, old fashioned oats, and quick cooking oats will work fine.
Steel cut oats have a different texture and nutritional profile. If you try it, let me know how it goes!
Do lactation brownies really work?
Everyone is different, but my experience has been that I would get a small boost from them, similar to what you might get from drinking Mother’s Milk Tea or eating oatmeal for breakfast.
It’s not an earth-shattering change, but it’s a nice boost, and eating lactation brownies is way more fun that drinking tea or eating oatmeal!
These were really good – my son loved them, so much so that I worried he might start lactating. Enjoy!
Double Chocolate Lactation Brownies
Ingredients
- 1 cup butter melted
- 2 cups sugar
- 4 eggs
- 1 tbsp vanilla extract
- 1/4 cup ground flax seed soaked in 1/4 cup water for 10 minutes
- 1 cup flour
- 1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 cup chocolate chips
- 1 1/4 cup old fashioned rolled oats
- 1 tbsp brewer's yeast optional
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- In a large bowl, mix together butter, sugar, eggs, vanilla, and flax seed until combined.
- Stir in flour, cocoa powder, salt, and brewer's yeast (if using).
- Fold in chocolate chips and oatmeal.
- Pour into a greased 9 x 13 pan.
- Bake for 20-23 minutes.
