These delicious fat-free oatmeal cookies contain no white flour, only oatmeal and whole wheat. Sweetened with pure maple syrup, they contain no added oil.
What can I say about these cookies? Should I start with the fact that they contain no white flour, only oatmeal and whole wheat? Or is it more important to note that they’re sweetened with pure maple syrup? Or should I remind you that since this is the FatFree Vegan Kitchen, they contain no added oil or margarine, only the fats that are naturally present in the oats and other ingredients?
No. If your loved ones are like mine, they won’t ask you about the flour, sugar, or fat; they just care about the taste. So when they come streaming into the kitchen, drawn by the warm aroma of cinnamon and maple, give them their freshly baked treats but keep the nutrition lecture to yourself. As they ooh and ahh over these soft, sweet cookies, smile, savoring the secret knowledge that you’re showing your love for them in more ways than they know.
A Few Notes:
The banana flavor is very subtle in these fat-free cookies, so even if you don’t like bananas, you might not mind it here. But, if you want, feel free to substitute 1/2 cup of applesauce for the mashed banana. The same goes for the maple syrup; you can use agave nectar instead, or any other liquid sweetener.
I used a mixture of ground white chia seeds and water to mimic the consistency of eggs, but I’ve included a couple of other egg replacement options that should work as well. I grind the chia seeds briefly in the blender before measuring them and mixing with water; it thickens in about 5-10 minutes.
To make the heart-shaped cookies, I placed a cookie cutter on the baking sheet, pressed the dough into it, and then lifted the cutter off.
I suspect (though I haven’t tried it) that you could make these fat-free oatmeal cookies gluten-free by using gluten-free oats and baking mix instead of the whole wheat flour. If you experiment, please post your results in the comments.
Hope you have a great Valentine’s Day. Spend it doing something you love!
More Fat-Free Cookies
Here are a few more oil-free cookie recipes to satisfy your sweet tooth:
Banana-Maple Oatmeal Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 teaspoon ground chia seeds or 2 tsp. egg replacer powder or 2 tsp. ground flaxseed
- 2 tablespoons water
- 1 cup regular or quick oats
- 1 cup white whole wheat flour
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/4 cup raisins
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
- 1/2 cup maple syrup
- 1 banana , mashed
- 1/2 teaspoon lemon juice
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375F.
- In a small mixing bowl, combine the chia seeds (or egg replacer or flaxseed) with the water and set aside until thickened (no waiting is necessary if packaged egg replacer is used.)
- Mix the oats, flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon in a medium mixing bowl. Add the raisins.
- Add the maple syrup, vanilla, mashed banana, and lemon juice to the chia/flax/egg replacer mixture and combine well. Pour into the dry mixture and stir well but don’t overmix.
- Drop by heaping tablespoons onto a baking sheet lined with a silicon mat or parchment paper. Flatten each cookie slightly with a fork. Bake for 8-12 minutes or until bottoms and sides are lightly brown. Cool for a few minutes on a wire rack before serving.
Nutritional info is approximate.
Please pin and share!
Livie248
March 26, 2012 at 6:48 pmJust made my first batch of these cookies. I added a bit of apple sauce but otherwise follwed the recipe to a tee. They turned out delicious!
hlmcquillan
March 26, 2012 at 11:15 pmI used your recipe as a base for a sugar free, vegan, high protein cookie/muffin recipe i tried last night. Thought I’d share it.
Oaty, Banana, Spiced Protein cookies/muffins
2tsp ground Chia seeds mixed with water (egg substitute)
2 tbsp whole Chia seeds
300g silken tofu
2 bananas
1/2cup sultanas
1 1/4cup Oats
3/4cup wholemeal flour
1tsp Baking soda
1 tsp ground Cinnamon
1 tsp ground Ginger
2tsp Vanilla essence
1/2 tsp ground cardamom
12 largish cookie/muffins 147 cals each
Mash banana and then tofu, then mix with egg whites and vanilla
Mix all other ingredients in a large bowl
Mix together. Spoon into silicon muffin cases or drop onto a tray.
Bake at 180degC until done. They can be cook a little longer if you like them a bit firmer. they will be moist and soft. more like a muffin than a cookie
Debra Kerns
April 3, 2012 at 7:48 pmVery nice recipe! Tasty and light…nicely flavored. Will try it with apples/cranberries! Glad to have found your blog/fb site. My husband and I are working the Eat to Live/Nutritarian philosophy into a lifetime of foodie quality deliciousness, ONE MEAL AT A TIME!
Chelsea
April 19, 2012 at 4:48 pmJust made these & they are absolutely delicious. Thanks!
Carissa
May 16, 2012 at 10:40 pmI don’t see anything about baking temperature…?
Susan Voisin
May 16, 2012 at 11:11 pmSorry! Somehow that line got deleted. It’s 375 F.
Mandy
May 28, 2012 at 12:28 amThese are so awesome.
Instead of the egg replacer powder, I used 1/4 cup of unsweetened apple sauce and added it into the liquid mixture and it was so good. I also got cheeky and added unsweetened dark chocolate drops, ground flax seed and ground peanuts and they worked so well with the rest of the ingredients!
These are so yummers and hard to believe there is no oil, or sugar or a large amount of fat added. My beau is a food snob and he loved them too and couldn’t believe they were vegan. THANKS!
2 thumbs up! 🙂
Ken
July 22, 2012 at 8:42 pmLike a couple others I used quinoa (it is what I had) in place of chia or flax and it worked fine. They were delicious. They were a bit cakey as another mentioned, but that was not a problem for me. I made 4 and they were fine, but wanted a tad more moisture so added 2 tablespoons of almond milk to the rest and that was good.
Sharon
August 5, 2012 at 2:29 pmI just took these out of the oven, and they are half gone already! I love the flavor and the healthy ingredients! I had tried 2 other recipes for fat-free vegan oatmeal cookies, and neither compared to the flavor of these. Now I can stop searching–this will be the recipe I’ll use when I want to make oatmeal cookies. I made them exactly according to the recipe using Ener-G egg-replacer.Thanks for the wonderful blog with all your great recipes!
Christine
September 27, 2012 at 6:47 pmI started eating plant-based about 3 weeks ago and I LOVE your recipes! I don’t know if I could have done it without these.
I would love to make these cookies without having to make a trip to the grocery store. There are two things I don’t have though. I don’t have ground chia seeds or egg replacer powder or ground flaxseed. Can I leave this out or replace it with something?
Also, I don’t have white whole wheat flour. I have whole wheat flour and whole grain pastry flour. Could either be used and if so, which do you think would work better?
Orthohawk
December 7, 2012 at 2:00 pmI just put a batch in the oven…..I used maple-flavored agave (but a full half cup) and the banana I had was enormous but I used the whole thing anyway. The “dough” was quite wet and sticky (but not runny) so we’ll see.
I bought 7 lbs of bananas the other day (25 cents a pound) so will be making more of these and also some of your banana/blueberry bread to help me get rid of them :). They’re a bit cakey for my taste but they’re very good.
Karen
February 1, 2013 at 5:09 amI just made these cookies with gluten-free oats and a gluten-free multipurpose baking mix. The cookies are fantastic! I’ve been eating low-fat, plant strong for a month, and since I have Celiac disease, I have to modify some recipes. This recipe helped satisfy my sweet tooth without abandoning my eating plan. THANKS! 🙂
Charlotte
February 14, 2013 at 9:24 pmThis recipe is delicious. I changed it a bit because I didn’t have raisins. I subbed craisins for raisins, orange marmalade for maple syrup and eliminated the cinnamon. Yummy!
Katie
February 18, 2013 at 11:52 amI’ve made these for my 4 year old son so many times that I probably have the recipe memorized. He loves them! I use dairy free chocolate chips instead of raisins which is delicious. I usually double or triple the recipe and freeze a bunch. They’re great when you want a snack to bring with you. Thanks for such a great recipe!
Vicki
February 24, 2013 at 1:46 pmI have been reading your site with real interest for the last few weeks and I made these cookies this afternoon, used spelt flour, half and half maple syrup and agave and substituted the raisins with goji berries – DELICIOUS! Thank you so much for the recipe
Ashley
February 26, 2013 at 4:41 pmI will never make these again… Because I can’t stop eating them!! Yummy 🙂
Georgie
July 5, 2013 at 5:03 amMade these last week and again last night! Didn’t know you could use ground Flaxseed like that. Great tip! They were lovely, my Mam liked them a lot too. Thanks from Ireland 🙂
Lily
September 10, 2013 at 10:19 pmOh my goodness! These were so absolutely amazing that I just had to comment! I ended up making 8 mega cookies instead, which have about 168 calories per, and was surprised when I felt incredibly full after wolfing down 3 of them. Yes I know that’s almost 500 calories, but I can practically eat 1000 calories of cookies usually! I think these must be very filling because of the oats and whole wheat. I didn’t have lemon juice so I subbed in vinegar, which didn’t seem to affect the taste thankfully, and I used the flax option that you mentioned. Next time I might put in some walnuts even! Thanks again!
Nica Hodges
November 9, 2013 at 11:01 amI guess I would consider myself a fairly new vegan, almost 2 years, but truly adventurous at trying new recipes ; especially sneaking them in at family/friend dinners, functions, & now the holidays. Your website is my ‘go to’ and I’ve been pleased with my outcomes. But, I made these oatmeal cookies using flaxseed, agave nectar & applesauce but omitted the raisins. They looked amazing… But they tasted rubbery! Even if I cooked them a bit longer (not burning) to try & see if that would help, it didn’t. Glad I was home alone for the taste test so I didn’t lose any ground I’ve gained thus far with the skeptics!
Oh well, I sure do appreciate you being there during my amazing transformation & I have loved (& saved) many of your recipes.
Lauren
March 28, 2014 at 2:47 pmThanks for the recipe! I just finished baking them and they’re quite yummy. However, they are a bit bouncier than I had expected.. is there anything I can do to mitigate that issue?
Also, I didn’t quite have enough oats so I topped off the measurement with a quarter cup of shredded coconut- and that works very well! Some added chocolate chips never hurt either. Otherwise I plan on adding a bit more salt and cinnamon, since the maple syrup I have around the house is a bit lack luster on taste.
Cheers all! Enjoy with tea!
Sara
October 5, 2014 at 4:13 amThese were quite good and easy to make. I agree with the last comment that they were a bit bouncier then I thought and a little dry, especially the next day. I guess that’s because there’s no fat in them. Can anyone suggest how to remedy that? Would an extra banana help or some added apple sauce? BTW, I added about 1/4 tsp powdered ginger which was good. I used Silan instead of maple syrup and cranberries instead of raisins like some others.
Last question – anyone try these as squares? What size pan would you use?
Sarah
October 1, 2015 at 5:20 amThanks for this! I’m not vegan, so I just used one egg instead of the chia seeds and water, and they worked really well. A keeper!
Elizabeth
October 11, 2015 at 12:03 amHi Susan,
I came across your recipe in “The Campbell Plan” book. I made a gluten-free version using Trader Joe’s brand of GF flour, and flax meal for egg substitute. (I do not recommend Bob’s Red Mill GF flour for sweets…the main ingredient is garbanzo flour and I prefer cookies NOT to taste like beans.)
GF flour does have a bit of a gritty texture, but those who are GF are probably used to that.
My batch made 12 medium sized cookies so I will definitely make a double batch when I need to share them! 😉 They cooked in about 9-10 minutes using parchment paper. They turned out delicious!
Thanks for the wonderful, healthy recipe!
Cindy
February 14, 2016 at 8:45 pmI just made these! Turned out great! I did sub unsweetened applesauce for the maple syrup, and used all oats. Very easy recipe!
maggie
July 18, 2016 at 4:32 pmI used to make these frequently, then stopped baking for a few years and forgot about these. I just rediscovered the recipe. I use BOTH chia and ground flax to boost EFAs. These cookies are amazing with chopped chunks of dark chocolate, walnuts, and dried cranberries in place of raisins. Utterly decadent.
Koral Lambert
January 31, 2017 at 10:05 amI made these after having made several different vegan refined sugar-free oil-free cookies and these really surprised me. They are by far my favourite oatmeal cookies and I will definitely be making them again. Instead of the whole wheat flour, I used oat flour because that was all I had and I’m not big on gluten. Thanks so much!
Rebecca Holdren
August 27, 2017 at 5:46 pmThis was exactly what I was hoping for! I didn’t have maple syrup so I substituted coconut sugar and used trail mix instead of raisins because that’s all I had. But, even my picky eaters loved them.
Laina
October 12, 2017 at 12:24 amHi Susan,
I hope you are doing well!
If I wanted to use stevia or splenda for my diabetic husband, how would I adjust the liquid to dry ration in this recipe.
I love these cookies with the maple syrup so I will probably use 1/4 cup and use stevia or splenda for the remaining maple syrup. Also, how much would I need to use of the stevia or splenda to sub half of the maple syrup.. Thanks so much! 🙂
Susan Voisin
October 12, 2017 at 9:19 amHi Laina. I’m doing great, Hiw about you? I would probably use a little less than 1/4 cup liquid to replace 1/4 cup syrup. The stevia question is really hard to answer because every brand tastes different and is a different strength. I would just start off with a little bit, what you might put in a cup of tea, and toast the dough and add more as needed.
Laina
October 13, 2017 at 12:12 amI’m well also, thanks!
Okay, I’ll try that. Would soy milk be better than water? Or maybe water mixed with chia seeds? Or would the chia seeds affect the recipe? I use the NuNatural Stevia. I’ll just try a small amount like you said.
Thanks for the help! 🙂
bbglo
December 22, 2017 at 2:06 pmI was recently diagnosed with gastritis and was looking for a fat free cookie recipe. Unfortunately, I won’t be able to eat most of the food served on Christmas Day, so I wanted to make a treat for myself. I made these today with gluten free flour and oats (+ reduced the maple syrup), and was pleasantly surprised. They don’t look like your cookies at all and they’re crumbly, but they sure do taste good! I’ve had four so far without any tummy pain. Thanks for sharing this recipe!
Sheila
January 26, 2019 at 9:06 amSusan, however did you do it??? Make a vegan cookie so delicious with a real cookie texture???
These cookies are fantastic and today I’m making another batch to have enough for our granddaughters’ visit next week. I know they will love them too. Their daddy, the baker in the house, still uses oil so his vegan cookies are good in comparison to mine.
So thank you for making me grandmother of the year with your fabulous cookies!!!.
I have always been a big fan of yours but today I had to write to comment on these cookies.
I can’t make the stars work. It won’t take my five stars but I would give these a 10 anyway!!
Susan Voisin
January 26, 2019 at 9:21 amThanks for the rave review, Sheila! I’m sorry about the stars. Were you using a computer or a phone when you tried to leave them?
James Puricelli
December 12, 2020 at 5:13 pmSuper duper awesome cookie recipe. Just made a double batch today to freeze and snack on during our quarantine holi-daze.
Franny
August 3, 2022 at 3:21 pmHi Susan! These are my favorite cookies. I have made this recipe several times and it always turn out perfectly. Today, I was out of maple syrup and subbed date syrup. Delicious! I also used half spelt flour and half oat flour, and added a handful of chopped walnuts with the raisins. So satisfying with a cup of Earl Grey tea! Thanks for a keeper recipe! 💖 Franny