Healthy Cookie Dough Overnight Oats

These healthy cookie dough overnight oats combine peanut butter and cacao nibs for a surprisingly delicious (and vegan) ‘cookie dough’ flavor!

Healthy cookie dough overnight oats. What a dream, right?! Now, it might sound a bit odd but this peanut butter and cacao nib combination really does make the perfect, healthy ‘cookie dough’ flavor for me, without any of the guilt – and no worries about whether or not it’s safe to eat raw!

I mean, obviously I wouldn’t usually be eating cookie dough for breakfast anyway (even healthy cookie dough, unfortunately) – but I think this recipe gives us a little lee-way. I’ve kept this recipe as healthy as possible, using cacao nibs as my chocolate chips and adding some chia seeds, for additional protein. Plus, they are the perfect meal-prep breakfast option – ready to eat in the morning with no additional prep required.

There are a number of ways that this breakfast recipe can be customized to your tastes too.

Recipe Variations

• Add some cacao/ cocoa powder for a super chocolatey version of these chocolate peanut butter overnight oats. Then, they will taste like fudgy chocolate overnight oats. You can also add in some crushed chocolate or chocolate chips into the dish, alongside cacao nibs.
• Choose the yogurt you prefer – I often swap out the yogurt I use for my overnight oats recipes, depending on what texture and flavor I want. Homemade coconut yogurt or almond yogurt are slightly thinner and add a bit of flavor to the dish. Meanwhile, using a dairy option like Greek yogurt is a lot thicker/creamier and makes it richer. Natural yogurt is a good ‘neutral’ for any of the oats recipes.
• You can also select the milk of your choice; for this recipe, I used homemade hemp milk and often swap this out with coconut milk. However, you can use whatever you have to hand or choose any of these Dairy-free milk recipes.

I’ve really been loving overnight oats recipes recently (and I have links to lots of other recipes at the bottom of this post). The best thing is, overnight oats are just SO versatile. With a quick to prepare, simple base recipe of oats, milk, and sweetener of your choice you can then experiment with all sorts of flavor combinations.

But, for now, let’s get right onto the method.

The Recipe How-To

Layer 1: Oats – hemp milk, rolled oats, chia seeds, peanut butter, maple syrup, cacao nibs

Layer 2: Yogurt – yogurt of your choice.

Decoration (optional): dark chocolate, peanuts

The Steps

The first thing to do is to prepare the oats. Do this by mixing the rolled oats with the milk. Then add the chia seeds, peanut butter, maple syrup, and cacao nibs.

Stir well and set aside to soak for at least 1 hour or, for best results, refrigerate overnight.

The ‘quick soak’ option will leave you with oats that have a bit more ‘bite’ to them and more of a separation between the milk and oats. Whereas soaking them overnight will soften the oats and thicken the milk – for more of a uniform mixture.

To decorate your mason jars/ cups of your choice, you can melt a bit of dark chocolate and, using a brush or just your clean fingers, draw a few chocolate strokes on the inside of the jar. This is optional, but I love doing it.

Finally, layer the overnight oats with the yogurt of your choice and top with some shredded chocolate or drizzle the left-over melted chocolate.

Add a few peanuts on top and sit back and enjoy the health benefits of this beautiful and delicious breakfast.

Note* For this particular recipe (in the images) I did a quick soak of the oats and combined everything in the jar when I was ready to eat the first one. However, you can also shove everything in the jars/cups the night before. They’ll be ready to just grab and eat the next morning, with no additional prep required.

Other Oaty recipes you might be interested in

When it comes to overnight oats recipes, I love to let my sweet tooth kick in for healthy, more-ish dessert-inspired breakfast jars. Some options include these apple pie overnight oats, carrot cake overnight oats, or perhaps strawberry cheesecake oats.

If you’re looking for a non-dessert-inspired healthy overnight oats recipe then I’ve got you covered there too, with these Tropical Mango Overnight Oats, Healthy Blueberry Overnight Oats or even Pink Dragonfruit Overnight Oats.

If you have any questions, then you can ask them in the comments. I also love seeing your recipe recreations, so feel free to tag me on Instagram @Alphafoodie.