These soft and chewy vegan peanut butter oat cookies have only a handful of simple, wholesome ingredients and are ready to eat in under 30 minutes!
If you've followed this ol' blog for a while, you probably know I love oats in any form. Soaked overnight and topped with tropical flavors. Stirred up with melted chocolate, peanut butter, and hemp seeds for nutrient-dense no-bake cookies. Even as flour for a healthier version of carrot cake.
I'm at it again with these oil-free vegan peanut butter oat cookies.
Let's talk about the recipe!
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Recipe Highlights
- This vegan peanut butter oatmeal cookie recipe has no eggs, no dairy, and no oil. It's also wheat-free and gluten-free (just make sure you use certified gluten-free oats, if necessary).
- Old fashioned rolled oats makes them whole grain.
- They're sweetened with maple syrup and molasses, which gives them a more complex flavor than you'd get from cane sugar.
Ingredients
The full recipe is in the recipe card at the end of this post, but here's a quick look at the ingredients you'll need to make these vegan peanut butter oatmeal cookies.
- peanut butter, obviously (I use this unsweetened creamy version)
- old fashioned rolled oats
- oat flour (you can make your own oat flour by grinding rolled oats in a spice grinder or high speed blender)
- maple syrup
- molasses
- vanilla extract
- cinnamon
- ground flax seed
- baking powder
- salt
- raisins or chocolate chips (optional)
Recipe Steps
Preheat the oven to 375°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone mat and set it aside.
In a small mixing bowl, combine the flax and water. Give it a stir and set it aside. Make sure this bowl is big enough to hold all your wet ingredients - we’ll be mixing them together in this bowl eventually.
In a medium mixing bowl, combine the dry ingredients and set it aside.
Give the flax and water mixture a stir before adding the peanut butter, maple syrup, molasses, and vanilla. Stir until smooth.
Add the wet ingredients and the raisins or chocolate chips (if using) to the dry ingredients and stir until combined. Dough will be wet and sticky.
Now let's take a minute to admire that sticky, sweet, oaty, peanut buttery dough. Go ahead. Have a taste. Or several.
Scoop the dough by heaping tablespoons and place dough blobs on the baking sheet 2 inches apart. Use the back of the tablespoon to gently flatten dough blobs into 2 ¼” diameter cookies.
Bake the cookies for 12 minutes. Cool them on the baking sheet 5 minutes before transferring them to a wire rack to cool completely.
Substitutions and Variations
Here are some ideas for substitutions you can try.
- Oat flour - if you don't have oat flour and don't need these to be gluten-free, you can use an equal amount of whole wheat pastry flour or regular old all purpose flour
- Maple syrup - you can use another liquid sweetener like agave if you don't have maple syrup
- Peanut butter - for a peanut-free version, use your favorite nut or seed butter, like almond butter, cashew butter, sunflower seed butter, or tahini
Have some fun with these variations to make the cookies your very own.
- Chocolate chips - for that classic peanut butter chocolate combination
- Raisins or dried cranberries - for a little bit of fruity sweetness
FAQs
Yes! The cookies might not be as hearty and chewy as they would be if you used old fashioned oats, but it should work. You might need to add a tablespoon or two more oat flour if the dough is too runny to hold its shape when you form it into cookies.
Can I use crunchy peanut butter for peanut butter oat cookies?
Heck yes! There might be slightly less moisture in your cookies if your peanut butter is crunchy. If your cookie dough ends up too dry, stir in a tablespoon or two of non-dairy milk until it's easy to scoop up.
Did you make this recipe? Please let me know how it turned out! Leave a rating and comment below, and share a picture on Instagram and tag me @thethrobbingeggplant.
Vegan Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies
Ingredients
For the Flax "Egg"
- 1 Tablespoon (7 g) ground flaxseed
- 3 Tablespoons (45 g) water
Dry Ingredients
- ¾ cup (83 g) rolled oats
- 2 Tablespoons (14 g) oat flour
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon cinnamon
- ⅛ teaspoon salt, add an additional ⅙ teaspoon if you're using unsalted peanut butter
Wet Ingredients
- ¼ cup (64 g) smooth peanut butter, salted and unsweetened
- 3 Tablespoons (60 g) pure maple syrup
- 1 Tablespoon (21 g) molasses
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- ¼ cup (40 g) raisins or chocolate chips, optional
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone mat and set it aside.
- In a small mixing bowl, combine the flax and water. Give it a stir and set it aside. Make sure this bowl is big enough to hold all your wet ingredients - we’ll be mixing them together in this bowl eventually.
- In a medium mixing bowl, combine the dry ingredients and set it aside.
- Give the flax and water mixture a stir before adding the peanut butter, maple syrup, molasses, and vanilla. Stir until smooth.
- Add the wet ingredients and the raisins or chocolate chips (if using) to the dry ingredients and stir until combined. Dough will be wet and sticky.
- Scoop the dough by heaping tablespoons and place dough blobs on the baking sheet 2 inches apart.
- Use the back of the tablespoon to gently flatten dough blobs into 2 ¼” diameter cookies.
- Bake the cookies for 12 minutes.
- Cool them on the baking sheet 5 minutes before transferring the cookies to a wire rack to cool completely.
Notes
Nutrition
*Nutrition Disclaimer*
Nutrition information is an estimate. If you are concerned about the accuracy of nutrition information, I encourage you to weigh your ingredients and use a tracking app like Cronometer for more accurate nutritional data.