Waterman Joe’s Breakfast Cookie

A few months ago, I set out to create a cookie nourishing enough to eat for breakfast. Why a breakfast cookie? We needed to expand our breakfast menu options. Breakfast boredom had slowly slithered into my menu plan.

When it was time to name my breakfast cookie, I thought of the men from my home town who make their living from waterways that weave through Maryland and Virginia.

A waterman’s daily schedule differs from that of the average person. Up at dark, the first cup of coffee chugged on the way to the dock, and the second or third sipped while navigating the open waters.

The watermen of the Chesapeake Bay start their day as early as 3 am. In the chill of daybreak, the lone waterman puts in a grueling ten-hour day. He will eat his breakfast and lunch on the deck of his 45-foot workboat. In this line of work, a convenience store is a silhouette on the horizon.

My Watermen Joe Breakfast cookies would offer him a substantial breakfast and also serve as a snack in the late afternoon.

These breakfast cookies could endure squalls, hailstorms, and heat. Best of all, they do not need refrigeration. Waterman Joe’s Cookies rely on a handful of ingredients usually on hand in the kitchen.

Waterman Joe Breakfast cookies are the granola girl’s answer to a quick breakfast accompaniment. Nutrition enhanced with just the right amount of plant-based sweetness.

When I bake these cookies, I mill soft white wheat, spelt, einkorn, or Kamut, but the recipe converts easily using gluten-free all-purpose flour.

You can be the classroom mom who inspires a breakfast food reform.

If these breakfast cookies, tasty anytime during the day, sufficed the appetite of the rugged waterman, then finicky pre-schoolers will be easy to win over.

Waterman Joe’s Breakfast Cookie Recipe

Ingredients

3/4 cup of unsalted softened butter or ghee (dairy-free option)

1 cup of coconut sugar

2 eggs

1 teaspoon of pure vanilla

2 1/2 cups of milled organic soft white wheat, spelt, einkorn, sprouted grain or gluten-free all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon each: sea salt, baking soda, and aluminum-free baking powder

1/4 freshly milled flax seed

hemp seeds or chia seeds for sprinkling

Instructions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Adjust oven rack to the middle position. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.

In a large mixing bowl, combine butter and coconut sugar.

Add eggs and vanilla. Beat on low until combined.

In a medium bowl, whisk flour, sea salt, baking soda, baking powder, and ground flaxseed.

Add flour mixture to cream mixture and beat until incorporated, about 30 seconds.

Working with 2 teaspoons of dough at a time, or use a #30 cookie scoop. Drop dough balls evenly spaced on to lined cookie sheet.

Sprinkle hemp seeds or chia seeds (or a combination of the two) on each cookie 5 minutes before taking them out of the oven.

Bake cookie for 12-14 minutes until edges are set and just beginning to brown on the edge, rotating sheet halfway through the baking time.

Let cookies cool on sheet for 5 minutes.

Transfer cooled cookies to a wire rack.

What to Partner With the Breakfast Cookie

To add protein to your meal, add a helping of nitrate-free/sugar-free bacon. Another no-fuss option would be to make housemade turkey sausage patties. You can always count on a helping of scrambled eggs.