Healthy Oatmeal Cookies
Published 8/21/2023 โข Updated 3/22/2024
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We’ve been blogging since 2010 and this is one of our very first healthy oatmeal cookies recipes. These have been made by hundreds of you and are truly the best healthy oatmeal cookies you’ll find on the internet.
We’ve revised and retested it many times to make it perfect for you! They are made with rolled oats, flour, maple syrup, and a little brown sugar making them perfectly sweet and slightly chewy.
These healthy oatmeal chocolate chip cookies are lower in sugar than most other oatmeal cookies and are the perfect starting point for making them your own! I love keeping a batch of these in my freezer because they are chef’s kiss 👩🏻🍳😘 with a cup of coffee. Oh, and my toddler LOVES them too! He’s big into dunking them in a glass of milk right now.
PS: while this oatmeal cookies recipe calls for butter and a little brown sugar, we’re about food freedom and making small, nutritious swaps!
What is in these healthy oatmeal cookies?
- Rolled Oats: for these oatmeal cookies you need to pulverize them a bit! Do do this you can use a food processor or coffee grinder.
- All Purpose Flour: a little flour helps bind these cookies.
- Light Brown Sugar: brown sugar adds a bit of chewiness to these cookies.
- Mini Chocolate Chips: mini chocolate chips give you a chocolate chip in every bite.
- Eggs: don’t skip the eggs and be sure they are large eggs.
- Maple Syrup: we use a mixture of brown sugar and a mixture of maple syrup to sweeten these babies up.
- Vanilla Extract: love the bit of sweetness and flavor vanilla gives all cookies!
Ingredient Swaps
All-purpose flour-–> we’ve tested this recipe with both white whole wheat and a gluten-free flour mix.
Rolled oats—> quick cooking oats (you wouldn’t have to pulverize the oats if you use these)
Light brown sugar—> dark brow sugar or coconut sugar will work, too.
Mini chocolate chips—> regular chocolate chips
Maple syrup—> we do not recommend substituting maple for honey in this recipe.
Fun Add-Ins/Variations for Healthy Oatmeal Cookies
The sky is the limit when it comes to ingredient add-ins. You can add any of the ingredients below to these cookies or feel free to get created.
- Nuts (walnuts or pecans)
- Oatmeal Raisin
- M&Ms
- White Chocolate Cranberry
Healthy Oatmeal Cookies FAQ
Yes, you can substitute a the large egg with a flax egg. Check out how to make a flax egg.
No, but you can make them gluten free by buy certified gluten free oats and using 1:1 gluten free flour instead of all purpose flour.
Keep these cookies in an air-tight container at room temperature for up to 5 days, making sure they fully cool before storing.
Simply store in an air-tight container (large Ziplocs work great for this!), and write the date you made the cookies + the name of the cookies on the bag before placing in the freezer.
Remove a cookie from the freezer and place in the microwave for 1 minute on defrost, or until it’s chewy and delicious.
Yes, make the cookie dough as written in the recipe and the place it in a freezer safe container. Freeze for up to 3 months.
How to Store Oatmeal Cookies
Let the cookies cool completely. Then, transfer them into an airtight container or gallon-size bag and store them in a cool, dark place for up to 3 days.
How to Freeze these Cookies
Freeze the dough: this is a great make-ahead cookie. Make the dough as-is and then scoop it into single-serve balls. Place the cookie dough balls on a baking sheet and freeze for 1 hour. Once they are almost frozen, transfer them into a gallon-size bag and freeze for up to 3 months.
Freeze after baking: let the cookies cool completely. Then transfer them into an airtight container (I prefer a gallon-size bag) and store them in the freeze for up t 3 months.
Healthy Oatmeal Cookies
Ingredients
Dry
- 1.25 cups rolled oats, lightly pulverized (or quick-cooking oats)
- 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/2 cup chocolate chips
- 1/4 cup light brown sugar, packed
Wet
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter
- 1/2 cup maple syrup
- 1 large egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350ºF. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
- Place oats into a food processor and blend for 15-20 seconds to lightly pulverize, shredding them into smaller pieces. If you’re using quick cooking oats, omit this step.
- Add oats, flour, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt to a bowl and mix well. Set aside.
- Using a standing mixer, cream butter and brown sugar together on medium/high speed until light and fluffy. Scrape the sides of the bowl and then turn the mixer on low speed and slowly add the maple syrup to the butter and sugar. Beat on medium/high until light and fluffy.
- Add egg and continue mixing. Scrape the sides of the bowl, add vanilla, and mix until light and fluffy.
- Slowly add dry ingredients (everything but the chocolate chips) to wet ingredients, 1/4 cup at a time, mixing on low. Last, fold in mini chocolate chips.
- Place the cookie dough in the refrigerator for 30 minutes to harden and to allow the flour in the cookie dough to hydrate.*
- Using a tablespoon cookie scoop, roll dough into ball and slightly flatten between your palms. Place on cookie sheet and bake for 8-10 minutes.
- Remove cookies from oven, let cool, and enjoy!
Tips & Notes
- This recipe was updated on January 6th, 2022. Click here for the old recipe.
- Refrigerating the dough: don’t skip refrigerating the cookie dough or you will run the risk of the cookie dough being too thin and spreading when baking.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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This was a terrible recipe. The last step, where you put the batter in the fridge, is not cookie like at all. It’s more like cake batter. There is zero chance I could have taken a spoonful and flattened with the palm of my hands. Gooey and weird. Waste of time and ingredients. I wish I’d read the reviews first instead of just looking at the stars. ๐๐
Huge miss. For starters, swapping out a bit of the sugar for maple syrup doesn’t really make these much “healthier”, whatever that even means when you’re making cookies (why are we trying to ‘healthify’ cookies anyways?). But I decided to try the recipe because the maple flavor sounded interesting and I was looking for something a little different. I don’t know there I went wrong, but these ended up being a sloppy mess. They spread out and basically turned into a giant cookie mess on the pan. I’ve reread the recipe a dozen times and can’t figure it out because I followed the recipe exactly. It seems like a half cup of syrup was just too much. Can’t say I’ll make these again. I’ll probably just go back to my regular “unhealthy” cookie recipe.
I loved the recipe, with a little change, they turned out delicious, crunchy, moist and just the right touch of sweetness. I reduced the brown sugar to a little less than half a cup, added a ripe mashed banana and some walnuts.
Thank you for this healthy cookies recipe, love baking them more than store bought.
Reducing the sugar and adding a ripe banana was an awesome suggestion. Everyone loved these!!!
Way too sweet and batter way too dry. I did no read reviews before cooking. Shouldโve. How this has almost 5 star rating I donโt understand.
Los postres son siempre mejor si estรกn acompaรฑados con un buen cafรฉ
Si! Delicioso!
These have a great flavour and the oatmeal texture was nice. I used 2/3 organic cane sugar and 1/3 coconut sugar. I chopped up some dark (70%) chocolate for the chips. The only criticism is that they didn’t flatten out.
I added a quarter cup of brewers yeast to make these lactation cookies, came out great!
Such a great idea!
The taste was quite good but there was too much sugar. Dough was dry so added a tablespoon of peanut butter and a tablespoon of milk.
I agree with this one. I also added banana bits and lessen the sugar too and some raisins. kinda want it to be a healthy cookie recipe.
Can you be more specific with all the changes you made (amounts, etc.). Your cookies look great!
I just made these cookies and do not like them at all. It has a cake-like consistency and the cinnamon flavor is too strong.
Yes, it was looking dry so I took that advice, I also only did only half the sugar and added 2 tablespoons honey. Turned out just perfect!! xoxo <3
So you kept everything else the same except for using half the sugar and adding 2T honey? I want to make this today. Thanks.
This is a really nice trick. I made the oatmeal cookies for the very first time with 1/2 cup brown sugar, 2 Tbsp honey, 1 Tbsp peanut butter and 1 Tbsp milk. They came out beautifully. The flavor of cinnamon came out a little stronger for my taste. I would use 1/2 tsp of it the next time. All in all, a really good recipe.
So Iโm only labeling it a three stars cus I used oat flour instead and over whipped the eggs so my end result was a ball not a cookie ๐lol but if at first we donโt succeed try try again right ๐๐ปThanks for sharing this great recipe. They are delish.
Hello! these look and sound amazing! Can I use rye flour instead of the wheat/white? Otherwise I have all purpose flour too … will that work? Lastly, can I use a sugar substitute, like golden monkfruit or some other sugar-like substance?
Hi! If anything I would use all-purpose. I’ve never had that sugar substitute, so I can’t speak to that!