Gluten-free oatmeal cookies are a delicious and healthy alternative to traditional oatmeal cookies. These cookies are made with oat flour and chocolate chips - the perfect option for those with gluten sensitivities or celiac disease.
These cookies are soft, chewy, and packed with the comforting flavors of oats and chocolate. They make a great snack, breakfast, or dessert option and can be enjoyed by anyone, gluten-free or not.
With a few adjustments to the recipe, you can enjoy the same taste and texture of traditional oatmeal cookies without gluten!
Want more gluten-free baking? Try our decadent Chocolate Chip Cookies With Peppermint, Oreo Cheesecake Cookies or the best Peanut Butter Cookies and loaded with chocolate Gluten Free Brownies.
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Ingredients
My few comments on the ingredients + don't forget to read the Tips section!
The full recipe and ingredients can be found in the recipe card below this post.
- Butter - Melted. I’ve used unsalted butter, so I can control the salt content myself. Salt is necessary as it elevates the chocolate and sugar intensity in the recipe.
- Vanilla bean paste or vanilla extract - both can be used interchangeably in gluten free baking. I just find that paste has a stronger vanilla flavor.
- White sugar - The white sugar provides sweetness and helps to create crispy edges on these cookies.
- Brown sugar - The brown sugar adds depth of flavor and moisture for a chewy texture.
- Egg - Bring your egg to room temperature before combining it with the rest of the cookie batter ingredients.
- Oat flour - I’ve used fine oat flour. You can easily make your own by grinding the oats in a blender or coffee/spice grinder. All you need is whole rolled oats (not steel-cut or quick oats). Blend until they form a fine powder, stopping to stir occasionally. Use certified GF oats and flour.
- Baking soda - Check the expiry date to prevent the cookies from spreading too much. Naturally, baking soda does not contain gluten.
- Chocolate chips - You can use semi-sweet chocolate chips, dark, milk, or white chocolate chips. Chocolate chunks are a good alternative and that's what I used here. Most chocolate chips are gluten-free, but always make sure to go through the label. Chocolate is often manufactured in facilities with the possibility of cross-contamination with gluten.
- Flaky sea salt - For serving. While this isn’t necessary, it intensifies the chocolate flavor even more in those chewy cookies.
JULIA'S TIP Why use unsalted butter? The salt content in various butter brands varies. Depending on the brand, different amount of salt is added according to their recipes. I like to use unsalted butter in baking, so I can control the salt content myself.
Instructions
In a large bowl, with an electric mixer beat together melted butter and egg until just combined. Add the sugars and beat on low again until all combined.
Mix the dry ingredients (oat flour, salt, soda) and add them to the wet ingredients. Stir in vanilla and fold in chocolate chips.
Cover the cookie dough bowl and refrigerate for at least one hour. You can see the dough texture in the pictures below.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Prepare a large cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.
Use a large ice cream scoop to make 14 cookie dough balls. Spread them out onto the baking sheet leaving 2-3 inches apart from each other to expand.
Bake cookies for 10-11 minutes. The edges will become golden brown, and the center will still be jiggly.
Cool on a baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring these onto a wire cooling rack to cool completely.
How to make the best gluten free oatmeal cookies?
The key to perfect gluten free oatmeal cookies is to follow the recipe instructions and measure your ingredients correctly.
And a few main tips from me:
- Do not overbake the cookies, if not sure rather underbake these. The middle should be soft and a little jiggly once you take them out of the oven to cool.
- Don’t substitute the sugars if possible. Using both brown and white sugar in classical chocolate chip cookies gives the best results and give the cookies their chewiness and the right texture.
- It is possible to substitute the melted butter but there is no other ingredient that comes close to the buttery creamy flavor of dairy butter. At least I haven't found one yet.
- Chill the dough for a minimum of 1 hour, ideally overnight. You can bake them right from the fridge. If you don’t do chilling, your cookies will be thin and spread out too much which will also make them taste dry.
Are Oats Gluten-Free?
Are oats, oatmeal and oat flour all gluten free? The short answer is yes, oats are naturally gluten-free. However, you still have to go for gluten-free certified oats as many brands process oats in facilities together with wheat grains such as rye, barley, and wheat.
Cross-contamination occurs and these oats become not gluten-free anymore.
Same with the oat flour in this recipe, look for the GF label on the package. Various brands will give different results. We like to use Bob’s Red Mill as these are trusted high quality oats and tested with many baking recipes.
Tips
- Avoid overbaking gluten-free oatmeal cookies.
- The cookies are ready when the edges are becoming golden brown but the center is a little jiggly.
- If the cookies are too firm to touch, you have probably overbaked them.
- Just like with my Mint Chocolate Chip Cookies, the cookies will have soft middle and feel a little wet when right from the oven. Although these oatmeal cookies are not super chewy but are not dry either.
- Flavor & Texture - these cookies have a crisp exterior with a little softness inside, but these are not chewy cookies. The flavor is buttery, a little nutty, and full of chocolate, oat flavor with a hint of vanilla. They are not the thickest but you can make them thick by doubling the cookie balls in size.
- You can substitute the egg with flaxseeds or chia egg and the butter can be swapped for vegan or coconut butter.
- Small batch - I used a large ice cream scoop to measure the cookie dough balls, making 14 cookies. You could use a smaller cookie scoop instead to make more cookies.
- You can easily double the ingredients to make a double batch and store them in the freezer in an airtight container to enjoy whenever you like.
- Room temp ingredients - The egg should be at room temperature, and the butter should be melted and slightly cooled. This helps these ingredients mix much better into the cookie batter.
- Always check the expiry date on the label of your baking soda, as old or expired ingredients can affect how these cookies rise while baking.
- Don’t be tempted to substitute the sugars in this recipe. They are both needed to create the perfect cookie. While you could technically make these oatmeal cookies only with white sugar, there definitely will be a difference even though they will still taste good. I haven't tried making these with liquid sweeteners yet.
- Just a common sense but if you are celiac or gluten-free intolerant, you probably know that many baking ingredients contain hidden sources of gluten. Always go for products with GF certified labels.
- If you are making your own oat flour from scratch, use old-fashioned rolled oats. Quick oats are too fine, and steel-cut oats will be overly coarse. Use the same amount of oats as the recipe calls for oat flour.
JULIA'S TIP for making perfectly round cookies - it’s very easy! When cookies are baked and still on the baking sheet, take a small bowl, rounded glass, or a mug, and swirl multiple times over still-warm cookies. Do it until they are nicely rounded and in uniform sizes.
Serving Suggestions
These oat cookies are ideal to be served a little warm, with a glass of milk, or turned into cookie sandwiches/ice cream sandwiches. Yum!
A simple light glaze from my sister site's recipe for Blueberry Bread will add a new twist to traditional oat cookies.
Freezing And Storing Instructions
To store. Let the cookies cool completely and store them in an airtight container, jar, or ziplock bag at room temperature.
To freeze gluten-free oatmeal cookies, let them cool first and transfer them to freezer safe container or ziplock bag (just make sure to squeeze all the excess air out first) and freeze for up to 3 months.
Let the cookies thaw on the kitchen counter for 1 hour. However, I highly recommend freezing the cookie dough instead. For this, follow the steps as instructed but don’t bake the cookie balls. Let the cookie balls flash freeze first on a plate or baking sheet and then transfer them to a zip lock bag.
These cookies can be baked right from the freezer, just add 1-2 minutes to the baking time. If you have time, I recommend thawing them a bit on the counter first so they can spread out nicely.
To make ahead. Make the homemade cookie dough and cover it with plastic wrap or a lid. Keep refrigerated for up to 2 days. Although USDA suggest that you can refrigerate these for up to 4 days.
Variations
- To upgrade the flavor add in warming spices - cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves.
- If you want more chunky cookies, use 1 cup of old-fashioned oats + 1 cup of oat flour instead. This will add some texture to your cookies.
- Dairy-free gluten-free oat cookies - you’ll have to swap two ingredients: for a nondairy butter you can use vegan butter, coconut butter, coconut oil or olive oil. We are using butter in its melted form so you can even use olive oil here as a sub. And you’d need to use dark chocolate or dairy-free chocolate chips.
- Eggless cookies -go egg-free by substituting it with one flax egg or chia egg.
- Instead of regular melted butter use browned butter! It will add a decadent caramel flavor to your cookies. Melt and brown the butter slightly in a small saucepan, let cool and then add I to the mix instead of regular butter.
- Lemon or orange zest will add that necessary extra that your classical cookies are missing.
- Optional add-ons instead of chocolate chips - nuts (macadamia, hazelnuts, peanut, almond, pecan), dried fruits such as raisins, and shredded coconut flakes.
FAQs
If you are baking gluten-free, then you can use a good GF-certified flour blend with xanthan gum. For regular baking, all-purpose flour will be fine in this recipe.
Yes! To use oats as a substitute for oat flour, you will need to grind them into a fine powder using a food processor or a high-powered blender.
You may also need to make some adjustments to your recipe when using oats as a substitute for oat flour, such as increasing the liquid in the batter so that the cookies aren’t overly chewy or crumbly.
Yes, gluten-free flour can affect the baking time of a recipe. Because gluten-free flours lack the chewy gluten found in wheat flour, they can absorb liquid differently and have a different texture, affecting the baking time and final texture of the baked goods.
Gluten-free goods brown faster and take a longer time to cook through. Therefore, they need to be cooked for a slightly long time (about 15 additional minutes) at a lower temperature (reduced by about 25F), so they don’t burn.
More recipes with oats
ALL DESSERT recipes.
More gluten free baking recipes
I hope you'll enjoy these gluten free oatmeal cookies, please leave a rating on this recipe below and leave a comment, take a photo of your food and tag me on Instagram @theyummy_bowl. I love seeing your creations!
Thank you for reading,
Love,
Julia
Gluten Free Oatmeal Cookies With Chocolate Chips
INGREDIENTS
- ½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted
- 1 ½ teaspoon vanilla paste or extract
- ½ cup white sugar
- ¼ cup brown sugar loosely packed
- 1 large egg
- 2 cups oat flour
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ cup chocolate chips or chunks
- Flaky sea salt for topping
- 1 pinch salt
INSTRUCTIONS
- In a large bowl, with an electric mixer beat together melted butter and egg until just combined. Add the sugars and beat on low again until all combined.
- Mix the dry ingredients (oat flour, salt, soda) and add them to the wet ingredients. Stir in vanilla and fold in chocolate chips.
- Cover the cookie dough bowl and refrigerate for at least one hour. You can see the dough texture in the blog post.
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Prepare a large cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.
- Use a large ice cream scoop to make 14 cookie dough balls. Spread them out onto the baking sheet leaving 2-3 inches apart from each other to expand.
- Bake cookies for 10-11 minutes. The edges will become golden brown, and the center will still be jiggly.
- Cool on a baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring these onto a wire cooling rack to cool completely.
NOTES
- Flavor & Texture - these cookies have a crisp exterior with a little softness inside, but these are not chewy cookies. The flavor is buttery, a little nutty, and full of chocolate, oat flavor with a hint of vanilla. They are not the thickest but you can make them thick by doubling the cookie balls in size.
- For small batch, I used a large ice cream scoop to measure the cookie dough balls, making 14 cookies. You could use a large cookie scoop instead to make slightly smaller cookies.
- Don’t be tempted to substitute the sugars in this recipe. They are both needed to create the perfect cookie. While you could technically make these oatmeal cookies only with white sugar, there definitely will be a difference even though they will still taste good.
- If you are GF, choose gluten free certified oat flour or oats.
- Avoid overbaking gluten free oatmeal cookies.
- The cookies are ready when the edges are becoming golden brown but the center a little jiggly.
- If the cookies are too firm to touch, you have probably overbaked them.
PRIVATE NOTES
(Nutrition information is calculated using an ingredient database and should be considered an estimate.)
These gluten-free oatmeal cookies were inspired by Chelsey.
Julia | The Yummy Bowl
foolproof delicious buttery oat cookies
Rita
I've had many GF oat cookies but these are our favorite!