Healthy Oatmeal Cookie Recipe
Why are these healthy oatmeal cookies miraculous? Allow me to rattle off the selling points:
Vegan oatmeal cookies — No Eggs and No Butter No Oil No Flour No White or Brown Sugar Added No Added Salt Gluten-Free and Soy-Free No Mixer Required — Stir Together in One Bowl in 5 Minutes Soft, Chewy, Not Cakey, Loaded with Texture High Fiber Dense, Rich, and Satisfying Modest Batch Size (about 15 small cookies) They taste good — I don’t care how healthy something is, if it doesn’t taste good, why bother.
Pretty close to a miracle if you ask me.
I’d been wanting to make healthy oatmeal cookies for ages, but the last time I tried by baking bananas into my cookies rather than using butter, oil, or eggs, they were cakey, baked flat and thin, and the taste of bananas overpowered everything. So I put that idea on the shelf for years, literally. Finally, I decided to try again, and this time with success. These healthy oatmeal chocolate chip cookies are such easy, stir-together cookies. Mash a banana, add liquid sweetener and peanut butter, stir in the dry ingredients, and add-ins. In case you’re not a huge fan of bananas, there’s just a very subtle banana taste. The dry ingredients consist of quick-cooking oats and crispy rice cereal. I add crispy rice cereal to no-bake bars like Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Granola Bars and Snickerdoodle Cookie Granola Bars because it adds texture and it soaks up moisture in the batter. You can’t really taste it and it’s more of a stealth operator. These healthy oatmeal cookies are dense, hearty, thick, exceedingly chewy, and loaded with texture. Between the oats, crispy rice cereal, chocolate chips, and raisins, here’s a real texture party going on.
They’re also soft and moist, and not at all cakey, dry, or crumbly. They remind me a bit of a granola bar, in cookie form, but softer and not as hearty. The peanut butter adds richness and nuttiness and the combo of peanut butter, bananas, and chocolate is always a win for me. They aren’t too sweet since just a banana and a bit of liquid sweetener is used, but the raisins and chocolate chips help boost the sweetness level. Before people write saying the suggested liquid sweetener options are a form of sugar; yes, they are. But I’d think brown rice syrup, agave, or honey are healthier alternatives than white or brown sugar. Whenever I post any ‘claims’ related to sugar, I get oodles of passionate comments — to each her own. It’s hard to believe that something without eggs, butter, oil, flour, or added sugar can still taste like a cookie. But I assure you, they do. I’m just doing my part to try to help you get ready for swimsuit season. Considering these cookies are so healthy and miraculous, it’s okay to have seconds. Or thirds.
What’s in Healthy Oatmeal Cookies?
To make this healthy oatmeal cookie recipe, you’ll need:
Mashed banana Creamy peanut butter Liquid sweetener of choice (such as honey) Vanilla extract Quick cook oats Crispy rice cereal Cinnamon Baking soda Semi-sweet chocolate chips Raisins
How to Make Healthy Oatmeal Cookies
These healthy oatmeal chocolate chip cookies are as easy to make as regular cookies! Simply stir together the wet ingredients, then add in the dry. Fold in the chocolate chips and raisins before scooping out the cookie dough. You’ll need to chill the cookie dough balls for 2 hours before baking them off. Once chilled, bake the cookies until the edges have set and tops are just beginning to show signs of very pale golden color. Allow cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before removing and transferring to a rack to finish cooling.
How to Store Healthy Oatmeal Cookies
Store cookies airtight at room temperature for up to 1 week, or in the freezer for up to 3 months. Alternatively, unbaked cookie dough can be stored airtight in the refrigerator for up to 5 days, so consider baking only as many cookies as desired and save the remaining dough to be baked in the future when desired.
What Type of Peanut Butter Should I Use?
I recommend using a conventional peanut butter like Jif or Skippy because they’re thick. I don’t recommend natural or homemade peanut butter since they’re often runny and too oily.
Can I Use a Nut Butter Alternative?
No, I don’t recommend using almond or sunflower seed butter or another peanut butter alternative because they’re much thinner and likely too runny to sufficiently bind this egg-less, flour-less, gluten-less dough.
Tips for Making Healthy Oatmeal Cookies
You must use quick cook oats — not rolled oats or old-fashioned oats — because quick oats are smaller and behave more like flour. Since no actual flour is used, finer ground oats are necessary. Turn your old-fashioned whole-rolled oats into quick oats in 10 seconds in a food processor or Vita-Mix.
Make sure to chill the dough so the healthy oatmeal cookies bake up nice and thick. There are no eggs or gluten to give the cookies structure, and therefore, chilling the dough is essential. That said, after being properly chilled, the cookies spread very little while baking, so flatten the dough mounds so the cookies cook through evenly. For the add-ins, I used chocolate chips and a raisin medley, but feel free to use craisins, dried cranberries, apricots, another dried fruit, sliced nuts, white chocolate, butterscotch, or peanut butter chips.
More Oatmeal Cookie Recipes:
10 Best Oatmeal Cookie Recipes – Every single recipe is for soft, chewy cookies that are loaded with CHOCOLATE!! No raisins in sight! All are EASY, family FAVORITES, and made with common pantry ingredients!! Tried this recipe? Leave a review! Consider leaving a 5 star rating if you’ve made and loved one of my recipes!
One-Bowl, No-Mixer, No-Chill Oatmeal Cookies — An incredibly FAST and EASY recipe that produces perfectly thick cookies with chewy edges and soft centers!! One bowl to wash, no mixer to drag out, and no waiting around!!
Soft and Chewy Oatmeal Coconut Chocolate Chip Cookies — These oatmeal coconut chocolate chip cookies are packed with oats, shredded coconut, and semi-sweet chocolate chips. Sure to be a new favorite recipe!
Soft & Chewy Peanut Butter Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies — 3 favorite cookies combined into 1 so you don’t have to choose!! Easy, no-mixer recipe, and always a hit!
Cowboy Cookies — These cowboy cookies are packed with oats, chocolate chips, Cornflakes, and shredded coconut. This is a flexible recipe that you can make with different mix-ins to suit whatever is in your pantry!
One-Bowl, No-Mixer, Extra-Large Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookie – A FAST and EASY recipe for ONE XL soft and chewy very THICK cookie loaded with chocolate!! No mixer needed and so DELISH!!
Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies — Soft, chewy, loaded with chocolate, and they turn out perfectly every time! Totally irresistible!!
