Name: Vegan Oatmeal Cookies
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 10 min
Total time: 20 min
Ingredients: 1 cup rolled oats ((95g)); 1 cup all purpose flour ((125g: gluten free flour or certified gluten free oat flour)); 1 tsp baking soda; ⅛ tsp salt; 1 tsp ground cinnamon; ¼ tsp ground nutmeg; ½ cup vegan butter ((unsalted 115g) ); 1 tsp pure vanilla extract; 1 tbsp flax seeds with 2½ tbsp water; ½ cup brown sugar ((100g)); ¼ cup granulated sugar ((50g))

Old-fashioned vegan oatmeal cookies are made with vegan butter and are ready in 20 minutes! Soft, moist, chewy centers - chock-full of healthy oats and icing to die for! Watch them disappear!

Vegan Oatmeal Cookies served in white plates

Making Vegan Oatmeal Cookies

These cinnamon nutmeg vanilla icing glazed oatmeal cookies are our new favourite cookies.

I only discovered how good oatmeal is very recently. It's just not very common in Japan. Not in cookies, breakfast or anything else really.

When my partner, Andy from Sydney, Australia, started talking about ANZAC Biscuits the other day, I needed to know why they were so good. Oatmeal is the secret!

I found that they make for very tasty cookies. So I decided to make my own best vegan friendly oatmeal cookies ever as a special treat for him!

So here’s what I learned from my first vegan oatmeal cookie making. They turned out delicious, and now I can’t get enough of oatmeal! Thanks!

To make this vegan oatmeal cookies recipe successful, choosing the fresh and right ingredients are necessary. The right measuring flour is also inevitable!

Vegan Oatmeal Cookies piled on a white plate

Which type of oats to use for baking oatmeal cookies

The best oat for these oatmeal cookies is old-fashioned oats. They are known as rolled oats, which have a chewy texture and nutty flavor. They’re flat and disc shaped after being steamed the whole grains. They are thicker than quick oats (instant oats).

Can you use regular oatmeal for oatmeal cookies?

Yes. Since oats are recommended to pulse in a food processor, basically you can use rolled oats or quick oats. I tried both for this recipe. Cookies get both crunchy and chewy with rolled oats while quick oats provides less texture.

It’s the crunchy on the outside and chewy on the inside that make these cookies so good. Quick oats also absorb liquid more, which can result in dryer cookies.

oats in the food processor for Vegan Oatmeal Cookies

Using a brown sugar and granulated sugar mix/blend

I added both brown sugar and granulated sugar for a reason. They function differently in baking cookies. (source)

Brown sugar is added to make the cookies moist and chewy. When it react with baking soda, it rises less and spreads more.

Granulated sugar aerates the dough when it's mixed with butter. Cookies then become soft and airy on the inside.

Add molasses to the brown and granulated sugar mix to make a richer more complex flavor!

Ingredients for healthy oatmeal cookies

Using the right ingredients is important for making vegan oatmeal cookies healthy and delicious

Vegan Oatmeal Cookies ingredients, oatmeal, brown sugar, almond flour, salt, flaxseeds and butter

Vegan Butter: I used to buy vegan butter at shops but not anymore. I bake desserts quite often, so shop-bought can be costly. I use homemade vegan butter for this easy healthy oatmeal cookies.

Cinnamon: Don't skip cinnamon! It adds a warm feeling and a touch of spicy sweetness to the cookies. It works perfectly with brown sugar, nutmeg and molasses.

Flaxseed Powder: For egg free oatmeal cookies, use flaxseeds to oatmeal cookies for binding as well as vegan egg replacement.

How to make the best oatmeal cookies

Preparing oats

I really wanted these cookies soft and chewy in the center and crispy on the outside. So there are two things to help make that happen:

Stick closely to the oats and flour quantities/ratio
Pulse the oats in a food processor

Making coarse powdery oat consistency is the key to it mixing well with flour. Soft and chewy on the inside, crispy on the outside, here we come!

Measuring flour properly

To keep the right ratio of oats and flour, measure them rather than estimate (I know, we all take the estimate shortcut every now and again, but not for this one!). Cookies should be soft on the inside but if the flour is not measured properly, they get dry and dense

dry ingredients for Vegan Oatmeal Cookies showing in 2 images

If you use a measuring cup for flour, never scoop up the flour with it directly in the flour bag. The flours are packed in the bag. It will likely give more flour than needed. Cookies will end up dry.

What you can do instead are:

Transfer the flour into a container or a bag.
Then spoon the flour into the measuring cup. Gently pile it until it forms a heap above the rim. Don't pack the flour down.
Then scrape a knife across the top of the cup to level the flour.

Mixing up the ingredients

Kneading or excessive mixing should be avoided. Otherwise, the cookie dough gets too dense and hard like a rock!

wet ingredients for Vegan Oatmeal Cookie in 4 images

Use cut and fold technique - Simply divide the dough into two and place the one onto the other. Push the dough from the top to the bottom by hand or a spatula. Repeat this for 5 to 6 times until the surface of the dough becomes even.

Chill the dough - Leave it in the fridge for 30 to 45 minutes. If you omit that process, the cookies do not maintain a good structure and tend to spread out too thinly. Also if you leave the dough in the fridge for hours, leave them in the room temperature for a while before you start baking. It's not recommended to leave them overnight.

Baking oatmeal cookies

baking Vegan Oatmeal Cookies showing in 4 images

Remove the dough from the fridge and divide it into twelve segments with a spatula. Start rolling them up.

Then place them on a cooking paper, push the top of each dough gently and placed on the oven plate. Gently push the top of each dough and flatten little. Start baking in the preheated oven.

Remove the plate from the oven but keep the cookies on the plate for 5 minutes. The cookies are still soft but they become firm once cooled down.

Serve immediately. Enjoy!

Vegan Oatmeal Cookies served in 3 white plates with yellow flowers

Tips for oatmeal vegan cookies

How to save & freeze them?

Oatmeal cookies can last for 3 days in the room temperature and for a week in the fridge. Leave them in the freezer for a month.