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!
Kimberly
January 7, 2011 at 9:00 pmThese come out very cakey, which is fine but I prefer my cookies crunchy.
Lacey
January 17, 2011 at 6:17 pmHi Susan,
First of all I LOVE your website! Thank you so much for creating it and sharing all of your recipes with the rest of us. I have shared recipes with others on several occasions by copy and pasting the link but I’d like to share via email directly from the site. I see that you can share via twitter and facebook etc. but not email. Am I missing something? Thanks!
SusanV
January 17, 2011 at 7:14 pmHi Lacey,
Thanks so much for recommending my site! I don’t have an email link up, but I will see what I can do about adding one. Thanks for that great idea!
Bert
January 23, 2011 at 3:53 pmI made these this week and they were great, but the second day they were a bit dry, even after a few seconds in the microwave, do you have any suggestions? I would love to make them again!
-Bert
Lauren
January 25, 2011 at 3:07 pmYum! These look absolutely delicious! I have all of these ingredients (well except the maple syrup) in my house! Maybe I’ll make some tonight.
brian
January 25, 2011 at 7:24 pmsounds great i love cookies and always searching for new yummy recipes to try!
LKM
February 4, 2011 at 11:01 amThese turned out great. I used ground flax and banana (mashed very well), and they are still soft two days later. Oh, and we didn’t have raisins so I snipped up prunes into raisin-sized bits. Delish.
Ty
February 13, 2011 at 9:41 pmdo you think whole wheat pastry flour would work instead of white whole wheat?
SusanV
February 13, 2011 at 9:47 pmYes, I think it will be fine. Enjoy!
Stephanie
February 14, 2011 at 4:29 amYep, you have done it again!! I have to say that I love that you allow comments. If I don’t have an ingredient I just scroll down and find a sub posted by your readers!
sharronsuss
March 8, 2011 at 2:27 pmMany vegan baked treats are way too rich for me now in spite of being pure plant-based. These cookies are tasty and satisfy the desire for dessert, but are not poisonously oily or sweet. Think I will go make/freeze another batch!
BTW I had a question I never saw the answer to – maybe I am not looking in the right place on the blog – about N er gee egg substitute vs. other alternatives, like ground flaxseed. If you specify the brand name in a recipe, does that mean I shouldn’t use other things?
The general spirit of vegan cooking seems to be substitute freely and apologize later (some blog-followers will modify a recipe drastically and then criticize how it comes out!) But egg substitution seems like serious business, so I am ready to be educated…
Thanks…
SusanV
March 8, 2011 at 2:34 pmI’m glad to hear you liked the cookies! About egg substitutes, generally if I specify a name brand, that’s because it’s the one I used and I haven’t tried using anything else. Once you get used to how the different substitutes act in recipes, I think it’s safe to try to use different ones than are stated in the recipe, bearing in mind that you do run the risk of changing the outcome. Some egg replacers strictly add body or thickening (flax seed, tofu) while others do that plus add leavening (Ener-G). So it’s good to have some experience with all of them before attempting substitution.
Kati
March 10, 2011 at 1:00 pmI made these today using apple sauce for egg re-placer and they are the BEST oatmeal cookies I have EVER eaten. It’s hard to find delicious ‘healthy’ oatmeal cookies in the UK, let alone a recipe for them. I couldn’t get any maple syrup so I used Sweet Freedom Natural Sweetner and it worked perfectly.
Thank you so much for the recipe, they are amazing! X
Sophie
March 27, 2011 at 1:54 pmthanks for posting this recipe, these cookies are great!
i just made a batch with a few modifications: i replaced the flour with equal parts spelt and buckwheat flour, and used dried cranberries instead of raisins. the cookies are delicious and passed the boyfriend test.
Tyla
April 5, 2011 at 1:40 pmI made these cookies last week, and they are wonderful! I made a double-batch, and froze some of them. The freeze wonderfully. I just microwaved them for about 20s (for 2) before eating and they were lovely and chewy and fresh-tasting still!
Thanks so much for all of your great recipes 🙂 I am not strictly vegan, but eat a very low-meat, low-dairy diet and am (like many others) trying to maintain a healthy lifestyle – your blog has been a great help!
Kate
April 10, 2011 at 6:40 pmThese cookies turned out delicious!
Modifications:
-I ended up using whole wheat pastry flour, mostly because it was the only flour left in the Whole Foods bulk items and I am trying to avoid baking regularly (trying to lose some weight!) so I bought a small amount of flour for this project.
-I used agave nectar since I didn’t have maple syrup/honey.
-no lemon juice (mostly by preference)
So tasty in every way-even my non-vegan friend enjoyed them and he is a hard audience to please! Now I won’t be able to make any until I can give an entire batch away, otherwise I’ll be eating every piece up myself! Thanks again!
togiveandtake.wordpress.com
Shaina
April 29, 2011 at 12:13 amMy 1 yr old loves oatmeal but really wants to feed herself. These are a great sub for her oatmeal in the morning. Someone mentioned not having any lemon juice…i didn’t either but used apple cider vinegar instead. I used a little extra banana and raisins and added pecans. And used a combo of molasses and agave (a little less than the recipe and they were still plenty sweet!). Thanks so much for the recipe…oh and cannot wait to try the date bar idea someone posted!
Martha
May 2, 2011 at 4:55 pmHi Susan,
These cookies are right up my alley since they contain 3 of my favorite thinks – oats, maple syrup and bananas. I’ve linked to them from a post I did about making healthier cookies. Here’s the link if your interested – http://simple-nourished-living.com/2011/healthy-eating/healthier-cookies/.
Warmly,
Martha
veganlvr
May 17, 2011 at 7:04 pmBottoms burned at 8 min. So try 6,7 min. Also needs something maybe a little bittersweet chocolate chunks thrown in and some walnuts but wonderful base
Kim Millican
September 10, 2011 at 8:15 pmI love this recipe!! So quick and easy! Who knew fat free and sugar free could be so yummy? Do you mind if I post the recipe on my website with credit to you and a link to your website of course?
Thanks!
Kim
Hai
October 1, 2011 at 9:48 pmHi Susan,
These look delicious. I’m gonna make them tomorrow-ish. I just want to know how long they will last (not that will happen or anything).
SusanV
October 1, 2011 at 9:55 pmI think you need to eat them within a few days. Refrigerate them if you need to keep them longer and maybe put them in the oven for a few minutes to crisp up if they get soft.
Maida
October 18, 2011 at 4:00 pmGreat recipe! Thanks for sharing. I managed to make a gluten free batch and they turned out great.
Here are the changes I made:
-I used the 2 tsp flax/water combo
-1 cup certified GF oats
-1 cup brown rice flour for the wheat
-1 tsp pumpkin pie spice for the cinnamon
-added 1/4 tsp allspice
-used 1/2 cup frozen blueberries in place of the raisins
-1/2 cup agave for the maple syrup
-increased banana amount to 3 because that’s how many I needed to use up
-increased baking time to about 15 minutes
I will definitely make these again!
Starla
January 21, 2012 at 6:18 pmJust made them. I used straight whole wheat flour. They came out fantastic! Even the picky eaters in the house loved them. Mahalo for the post!
Robbie
January 30, 2012 at 4:04 pmI am not very good in the kitchen, but these came out pretty good! They were easy to make and they’re not bad for a kind of guiltless snack. Great w/Almond milk! My only comment is that next time I make them, I am going to double the raisins. Thanks for the recipe! Yum!
Amy
February 15, 2012 at 3:37 pmCan you use regular chia seeds? Or do they have to be white? Or if I want to omit the chia altogether, how many eggs would I use? Thanks!
Susan Voisin
February 15, 2012 at 4:29 pmYou can use any color of chia seeds. I’ve never made them with eggs, so I can’t say how many to use.
Jodi
March 13, 2012 at 12:12 amThese were a yummy guilt-free late night snack. My husband was surprised that it was vegan because it was so soft and tasty. Thanks for the recipe!
Suzanne
March 24, 2012 at 2:19 pmSusan, these are SOOOOO good!! I knew when we had a hankering for oatmeal cookies that we would find a winner recipe on your site… Scrumdiddlyumptious!
Angie
March 25, 2012 at 5:23 pmI’ve made these cookies for myself, my boyfriend and for my parents, and everyone loves them! Easy to make and the cookie is the perfect texture!