BIRTHDAY CAKE PROTEIN COOKIES
Cookies for breakfast? Shame on me. Well, not just any cookies… unbelievably delicious, almost sugar free Birthday Cake Protein Cookies! These are seriously wonderful. This recipe recently got a makeover with NEW photos and one small tweak! The original recipe called for a whole teaspoon of butter extract and in remaking them it tasted like a bit too much.
Anyway, these birthday cake protein cookies make the perfect post-workout or anytime snack at just 78 calories per cookie, and they taste so darn good! Think of those sugar cookies you get at the grocery store, soft yet just enough “chewiness” to feel like a cookie (versus a puffy protein “cloud”). The flavor is a rich, buttery vanilla with plenty of sprinkles!
Of course, you could leave out the sprinkles for a legit protein sugar cookie with even lower carbs! But, sprinkles are fun… so… if you’re feeling festive, I highly recommend them.
What kind of protein powder works best for baking?
The protein powder I used in this recipe is Quest Protein Powder in Vanilla Milkshake. Any whey protein should work in this recipe, but some work better than others. Whey blends combining whey isolate, casein, and milk protein work best for baking! Whey concentrate would be my second choice. Whey isolates are the absolute worst for baking! They tend to make baked goods spongey and dry because they have zero fat. This said after 5 years of baking with various whey protein brands!
Sweetener substitutions
To add sweetness without the sugar, I used an organic, calorie-free stevia-erythritol blend that’s twice as sweet as sugar. You can use any sweetener you like! Keep in mind, if using erythritol, monk fruit, baking stevia or another sweetener that measures 1-to-1 like sugar, you’ll need twice as much (half a cup). Feel free to use coconut sugar or raw sugar but this will increase the calories and sugar quite a bit.
Other substitutions
To keep the carbs low, I used coconut flour. If you choose to substitute the coconut flour with some other flour, you will want to start with twice as much since coconut flour absorbs so much moisture.
The only other ingredients in these Birthday Cake Protein Cookies are baking soda, salt, Greek yogurt, cashew butter, egg whites, vanilla extract, and natural sprinkles. Like I said, you should be able to swap out the egg whites and Greek yogurt for vegan egg replacer and dairy-free yogurt. The cashew butter can be swapped for sunflower seed butter, but most other nut butters are not neutral-tasting or smooth enough for these cookies.
You can get natural sprinkles without artificial colors on Amazon, or just use standard sprinkles if that’s all you have, or leave them out.
Here’s the printable recipe for these Birthday Cake Protein Cookies! I hope you’ll rate and comment below if you try them 🙂
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Birthday Cake Protein Cookies
Ingredients
- 80 g vanilla whey protein blend* I used Quest brand in Vanilla milkshake
- 1/4 cup calorie-free sweetener* I used one that's twice as sweet as sugar
- 1/4 cup coconut flour*
- 1/2 tsp. baking soda
- 1/4 tsp. salt optional
- 1/2 cup nonfat plain greek yogurt*
- 1/4 cup cashew butter*
- 1/4 cup (2 large) egg whites*
- 1 tsp. vanilla extract
- 1/2 tsp. butter extract optional
- 2 tsp. natural sprinkles* optional
*See blog post above for substitutions.
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- Whisk together dry ingredients (through salt) in a medium mixing bowl.
- Add wet ingredients (through butter extract) and mix until no clumps remain.
- Stir in sprinkles if desired (optional).
- Place heaping tablespoons of cookie dough on a baking sheet lined with parchment or lightly coated with cooking spray.
- Press flat slightly with wetted fingertips (batter will be sticky).
- Bake for 10-12 minutes until cookies are golden brown underneath. Enjoy!
Notes
2 Responses
Brooke
Have you tried the Quest Frosted Cookies? How do these compare? I’m looking for a substitute for those and these look promising.
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Sarah Wilkins
April 08, 2024
Hi Brooke,
You know, I haven’t but these are better than some store-bought protein cookies I’ve tried!
Sarah