Name: Morning Cookies
Cook time: 15 min
Total time: 45 min
Yield: 20 cookies

Celebrated pastry chef and cookbook author Zoë François makes baking accessible and empowering to all skill levels.


Zoë François

A good, healthy morning breakfast can make all the difference in your day, but sometimes you’re rushing out the door and you need something quick to grab. For me and my family, Morning Cookies are the answer, because what's more portable than a cookie? These are made from a nutritious (and delicious) mixture of bananas, honey, oats, whole wheat, nuts, and dried fruit — ingredients similar to a bowl of muesli, which I grew up eating on the commune in Vermont.

Morning Cookies

Meet The Creator

Here you can read Chip's thoughts from our summer issue of Magnolia Journal on identifying the things in your own life that are worth the

Chip's Column: fear-less

Some of my favorite memories growing up include eating dumplings around the table with my mom's side of the family. I knew I couldn't make today's menu

Magnolia Table with Joanna Gaines: Season 5, Episode 4

Roasted mushrooms are one of my favorite dishes to make when hosting friends for dinner because it's so easy to throw them on a sheet pan and let the oven do the work. You can really build on the richness of the mushrooms by pairing it with a simple vinaigrette. As with the Honey Mustard-Glazed Pork Tenderloin, this was inspired by a dish in The Fresh Honey Cookbook by one of my dear late friends, Laurey Masterton. Laurey was wildly passionate about a lot of things, and one of those was bees and honey. It was an honor to be able to recreate some of Laurey's dishes for a dinner on From the Source, incorporating a few of my own touches along the way.

Katie Button's Roasted Mushrooms with Honey Vinaigrette

Roasted Mushrooms with Honey Vinaigrette

“There are some meals you know are special because of the time they require or the long list of ingredients they call for. Other times, I find joy in recipes that can be as creative or straightforward as I want. The base of this recipe offers that flexibility. Flatbread is delicious with a simple, traditional hummus or dip, but I also love piling on veggies from the garden, or as this recipe calls for, a little bit of prosciutto and arugula.” — Joanna Gaines, Magnolia Table, Volume 3

Joanna Gaines' Balsamic-Glazed Prosciutto Flatbread

Balsamic-Glazed Prosciutto Flatbread

These bars are simple to make and so scrumptious that they seem to disappear in seconds. The layers of dark chocolate, white chocolate, and butterscotch meld with the coconut, walnuts, and sweetened condensed milk for a rich, buttery caramel flavor. You can switch up the types of chocolate and the nuts to make this with your favorites. These are great for feeding a crowd and are easy to make a day ahead of time. They’re fun to bring to a potluck and they travel well. All in all they’re a decadent dessert that doesn't need to be served on a plate.

Elizabeth’s Magic Layer Bars

As much as I enjoy doing my own thing in the kitchen, I love when the kids are happy to jump in and help me make a meal. In this episode, I have a couple of

Magnolia Table with Joanna Gaines: Episode 4

Fried green tomatoes are delicious, but fried okra, well that’s a dish that is close to my heart.  I grew up eating fried okra, so these are two delicious items that you can prepare at the same time. I’m excited to share this recipe, so you can make them at home. Green tomatoes and okra are both seasonal ingredients. If frying okra out of season, you can use frozen okra that’s been thawed.

Millie Peartree's Fried Okra and Fried Green Tomatoes

Fried Okra and Fried Green Tomatoes

Living in Texas means there are short windows of truly pleasant weather when you can linger outside and lose all sense of time. I like to seize those moments

Magnolia Table with Joanna Gaines: Season 6, Episode 5

If you’re looking for a side table you can make yourself and customize, we’ve got a simple idea for you! We’re going to walk you through the steps to building

How to Build and Style a Side Table

For breakfast, lunch, dinner, or a quick snack in-between, eggs are a sure way to fuel you any time of day. They can be mainstays of a meal or key ingredients

A Collection of Egg Recipes

This cake is light and airy and fresh! It’s lemony but not overwhelmingly so. I love buttercream frosting and I love lemon curd, and so I decided to try combining them. The result was a frosting that is a dreamy blend of these two favorites: a fresh lemon flavor and a smooth, buttery frosting all in one. If you don't have time to make the lemon curd, it can be store-bought, but it’s fun to make. If you make it you’ll end up with a little bit of extra curd to enjoy on toast. My dad loves everything lemon so I make this cake for him on his birthday every year.

Elizabeth Poett's Lemon Cake with Lemon Curd Buttercream Frosting

Lemon Cake with Lemon Curd Buttercream Frosting

Jo and I are homebodies. You can drag us out and make us travel and even put us up in some fancy place way nicer than where we live, but the reality remains

An Exciting Announcement: Hearth & Hand with Magnolia

Making a pan of focaccia is one of quickest ways there is to get fresh bread on the table. And with a little creativity, your loaf can also be pretty enough to serve as a centerpiece. Once my dough has risen, and I’ve rolled it out and patted it out into a pan, I use edible flowers, vegetables, and herbs to make a kind of nature-inspired mosaic on the surface that bakes into a beautiful, flavorful topping.

Herb Focaccia with Edible Flowers

In busy seasons, one thing that I always look forward to is a slow Sunday at home with my family. For us, that can look like spending some time in the garden,

Magnolia Table with Joanna Gaines: Season 3, Episode 1

During the holidays, I love to make these cookies to give to neighbors. They are buttery and rich with just the right amount of vanilla. Rolling the dough in sugar makes them sparkly and festive, and you can also vary the type of jam you use. Sometimes I will make a batch and fill a few with blueberry jam, a few with raspberry jam, and a few with apricot jam. The color variation is beautiful and the different fruit flavors make it hard to just have one cookie!

Butter Thumbprint Cookies with Jam Filling

"An easy way to gather vegetables for this recipe is to keep a baggie in the freezer and whenever you have leftover vegetables you can just toss them in. That way, as soon as you cook a recipe that leaves you with chicken bones, you have what you need to make the stock—you can just put it all in a large pot on the stove and let it simmer. I always try to make as much of this stock as possible so that I can freeze at least half the batch. There is satisfaction in using every last bit of food you can, and knowing that nothing is going to waste." – Joanna Gaines, Magnolia Table, Volume 3

Homemade Chicken Stock

Fixer Upper: The Castle premieres today! You can find all the details of how to watch the first episode here. But first, we’re giving a glimpse into Chip and

Behind the Design of the Castle

Coming into fresh truffles is a special moment. The flavor and aroma are woodsy and strong and make an incredible addition to a variety of dishes. One of the best ways to extend the enjoyment of a truffle is to incorporate it into butter that can be stored in the refrigerator or freezer for a wide variety of future applications. Check out my Truffle Butter Roasted Chicken recipe, swirl it into your favorite pasta for a weeknight meal, or melt over steak, still hot from the grill. YUM!

Truffle Butter

Here are a few dishes straight from the pages of Magnolia Table, Volume 3. We hope you savor the taste, yes, but also everything in-between.

Joanna Gaines smiles in an apron while cooking in her kitchen. 

Recipes to Savor from Magnolia Table, Volume 3

This sweet, smoky, spicy salsa is a great accompaniment to a classic grilled tri-tip. It’s also great on its own with tortilla chips or as an addition to tacos, steaks, or eggs. (When I make it, I try to keep some around for breakfast the next morning, but it’s so good that we usually end up eating it all at dinner.) The key to the salsa’s complex flavor is to grill the vegetables so that their skin gets a nice charred, smoky flavor; then add some fresh sweet corn. If you want to make the salsa without firing up the grill, you can get a similar result by toasting your vegetables over a flame on the stove or blackening them a bit under the broiler.