A delicious cookie that’s both vegan and packed with wholesome ingredients? Yep! These vegan oatmeal chocolate chip cookies combine the heartiness of oats with rich, melty chocolate for the perfect guilt-free treat. Whether you’re vegan or just love a good cookie, this recipe become a favorite in no time!
Why You’ll Love This Vegan Oatmeal Cookies
I love being able to share recipes that are delicious, easy, and just so happen to be good for you recipes. Take these vegan oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, for example. Using a base of walnuts, maple syrup, and a touch of coconut oil in place of butter and regular eggs, these are just darn tasty and not-so-shabby, nutritionally speaking.
Like many cookie recipes, you can make the dough several days in advance and keep it covered in the refrigerator. Take it out when you’re ready to bake and scoop it onto your cookie sheets.
They are full of fiber and contain no refined sugar. No animal products either, if that’s important to you. You can even make them gluten-free by using gluten-free oats. Serve them with a glass of your favorite non-dairy milk and enjoy every last bite!
Ingredient Notes
These really are the best vegan oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. With simple ingredients and 15 minutes of baking time, these vegan cookies have the perfect texture and are full of ooey gooey goodness.
- oat flour: You can easily make your own oat flour. See step 2 in the recipe card.
- baking soda
- fine grain sea salt
- ground cinnamon
- raw walnuts or walnut meal: You can also use raw cashews/cashew meal or raw pecans/pecan meal.
- melted coconut oil or olive oil or avocado oil
- 100% pure maple syrup
- vanilla extract
- rolled oats: To make this recipe gluten-free, make sure to use gluten-free rolled oats. For best results, use old-fashioned rolled oats, though quick oats will work in a pinch.
- vegan chocolate chips
See the recipe card below for exact ingredient amounts.
Step-by-Step Instructions
Step 1: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
Step 2: *If you need to make oat flour, place 1 ¾ cups rolled oats in a food processor and process until powdery.
Step 3: Place the dry ingredients: oat flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon in a large mixing bowl and whisk together.
Step 4: Place walnuts in a food processor and blend into a fine meal. Add oil, maple syrup, and vanilla and process until the mixture has the consistency of natural nut butter (this serves as our egg replacer!)
Step 5: Stir walnut mixture into flour mixture. Fold in 2 cups of rolled oats and chocolate chips.
Step 6: Use a 1 ¾ -inch ice cream scooper (or cookie scoop) to form dough into balls, and place the cookie dough balls on the parchment lined baking sheet. You can fit 12 on a sheet. Flatten cookies slightly with a damp hand. Bake for 13-15 minutes or until cookies begin to turn golden brown and the tops look dry.
Step 7: Cool for a few minutes and then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
Recipe Tips & Substitutions
- Mix-ins: Feel free to add other mix-ins such as shredded coconut, chopped nuts, or additional chocolate chunks or chips.
- Oil: I prefer oil in this recipe, but you can use vegan butter if that’s what you have on hand.
- Make your own Oat Flour: If you need to make oat flour, place 1 ¾ cups of rolled oats in a food processor and process until powdery.
Storage Tips
Store baked leftover cookies in an airtight container for up to a week at room temperature. For longer storage, let the cookies cool completely on the cooling rack. Then, store the cooled and baked cookies in a freezer-safe container or freezer bag for up to 3 months.
If you have leftover dough, store it in the refrigerator, covered, for up to 3-4 days.
To freeze the cookies unbaked: Arrange them in a single layer on the baking sheet and place the pan in the freezer. Once the cookies are frozen solid, transfer them to an airtight container and keep them frozen until you’re ready to bake. Then just place them on a prepared baking sheet directly from the freezer and add another minute or two to the baking time.
More Vegan Cookie Recipes
- Vegan Thumbprint Cookies
- Chocolate Hazelnut Cookies
- Cranberry Orange Oatmeal Cookies
- Carrot Cake Oatmeal Cookies
- Pumpkin Spice Oatmeal Cookies
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Vegan Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups oat flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon fine grain sea salt
- ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 2 cups raw walnuts or walnut meal, or cashews/cashew meal or pecan/pecan meal
- 3 Tablespoons melted coconut oil or olive oil or avocado oil
- 1 cup 100% pure maple syrup
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2 cups rolled oats
- 12 ounces or 1 ½ cups chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
- *If you need to make oat flour, place 1 ¾ cups rolled oats in a food processor and process until powdery.
- Place oat flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon in a mixing bowl and whisk together.
- Place walnuts in a food processor and blend into a fine meal. Add oil, maple syrup and vanilla and process until mixture has the consistency of natural nut butter.
- Stir walnut mixture into flour mixture. Fold in 2 cups rolled oats and chocolate chips.
- Use a 1 ¾ -inch ice cream scooper to form dough into balls, and place on baking sheets. You can fit 12 on a sheet. Flatten cookies slightly with a damp hand. Bake 13-15 minutes or until cookies begin to brown and tops look dry.
- Cool a few minutes and then transfer to wire rack to cool completely.
Notes
- Store baked leftover cookies in an airtight container for up to a week at room temperature. For longer storage, let the cookies cool completely on the cooling rack. Then, store the cooled and baked cookies in a freezer-safe container or freezer bag for up to 3 months.
- If you have leftover dough, store it in the refrigerator, covered, for up to 3-4 days.
- To freeze the cookies unbaked: Arrange them in a single layer on the baking sheet and place the pan in the freezer. Once the cookies are frozen solid, transfer them to an airtight container and keep them frozen until you're ready to bake. Then just place them on a prepared baking sheet directly from the freezer and add another minute or two to the baking time.
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Hello,
Just curious if the dough freezes okay? And if so, if there any specific way to freeze it that works the best? I was thinking to mold it into a sausage shape, like they do at the store, but I’m not too sure what to wrap it in? Or maybe form balls of the dough and store in a Tupperware?
Any advice is much appreciated.
Thanks!
Oh and my cookies have 5 mins left in the oven so I will rate once they cool and we have our first bite(dough was yummy though!).
You got it! The dough freezes great and you can freeze it two ways – in a log wrapped in parchment or plastic wrap OR freeze individual cookie dough balls.
I am looking forward to trying these cookies. I don’t have maple syrup or honey, could I add a little brown sugar or something? I also don’t have a food processor, maybe I will try the blender. Thank you!
I fear they will be dry with a dry sweetener, but if you try it, check them in the oven early just in case.
Def delicious! Like many, I’ve been on a baking spree as of late and these were the top of my list. I’m not vegan but I’m so glad these dreamboats came into my life. I only made half a batch, in an effort to curb my climbing carb intake, it didn’t yield a tonne but that’s because I could not. stop. eating. the. dough I used Enjoy Life chocolate mega chunks but next time I think I’ll use the dark chocolate morsels or a mix of those and the semi sweet. I think these cookies would also make for an awesome ice cream sandwich.
Would be AWESOME for an ice cream sandwich!!
just made these and they are delish!!!
Long-time favorite cookie! Glad you enjoyed them. 🙂
Can I use almonds instead of walnuts? My son is allergic.
I haven’t tried the recipe with almonds but I have with raw cashews and pecans and they worked well. Almonds may be a bit gritty although I bet almond flour would work. I just don’t know exactly how much.
I made these after watching you make them on Instagram live. These are amazing!! I only baked 6 cookies and am going to get the rest of the batter in the freezer before I am tempted to bake more. 🙂 The only change I made to the recipe was using 1/2 cup of maple syrup instead of 1 cup. Thank you so much for this delicious recipe!
Great!!! I like that you made the adjustment with the maple syrup. 🙂
The cookies taste good but mine came out too hard, is there any way to make them a little softer?
Just cook them a little less. Your oven likely runs a little hotter than mine. You didn’t happen to bake on the convection setting, did you?
Any way to use less sugar? 1 cup is a heck of a lot to me. I really would like to make these as oatmeal raisin cookies but cant justify eating that much sugar (and ouch on the calorie count!)
Sure! Just reduce to whatever amount makes sense to you and you may need to adjust cook time to be a bit less. You’ll have to wing it on the cook time though. Take a peek 5 minutes early.
I made this recipe the exact same as you did, and omg- they are the best vegan cookie I’ve baked, as well as the healthiest. I am very appreciative that you shared this recipe. Lol
Yay! I just made these twice this week for my vegan husband, but everyone loves them vegan or not!
Could you use spelt flour instead of oat & add oats?
Probably!
Hi:) I have steel cut oats in the pantry. Will that work if I blend them in the food processor? Or do they need be rolled? Thank you!
Hi Maggie — I suppose you can try to make oat flour from steel cut oats, if that’s what you’re asking. But you can’t turn steel cut oats into flat rolled oats unless you steam and flatten them, which you can’t do! The rolled oats give a nice texture to the cookie, whereas steel cut would just be hard and too crunchy.