Vegan Oat Cookies
These vegan oatmeal cookies are not your ordinary cookies - I combined them with chocolate chip cookies and the result is heavenly! They are super easy to make and crunchy on the outside while chewy on the inside! Find out how to make the best cookies below.
I’m a terrible planner. Don’t get me wrong, I love to plan everything out but I am terrible at sticking to the plan. And where am I heading with this? Well, these cookies are an outcome of my cravings that I decided to follow instead of my plan. I didn’t even think about making vegan oat cookies in April and yet, here we are and I am so happy! These are amazing, crunchy edges with soft middle… I highly recommend to sprinkle salt flakes on them, because the salty taste with chocolate and sweet cookie is to die for. (You might think I am overly dramatic about the salt, but trust me on this one). Anyway, go and make these straight away, you very likely have all the ingredients at home (except maybe for the vegan butter but it is easily replaceable with coconut oil). There are also some tips and tricks so read those as well.
What ingredients do you need?
Flour - I used all purpose flour but you could also use whole wheat or for gluten free use GF flour.
Flax seeds - make sure to use ground flax seeds (you can either buy them that way or grind them yourself in a coffee grinder). They are here to replace eggs, they bind everything nicely together.
Sugar - I like to use light brown caster sugar but you could also use white caster sugar - they are not that different in taste.
Vegan butter - use butter block (either Naturli or Flora here in the UK). I wouldn’t use margarine because it has higher water content but you can replace it with coconut oil (ideally mild one so your cookies don’t taste that coconuty)
Oats - apparently some people can’t imagine having oat cookies with any other oats than jumbo oats but I made these with porridge oats and I like that texture more. But feel free to use jumbo oats, cookies will have more texture to them.
How to make the best oat cookies?
Mix ground flax seeds with 6 tbsp of water.
Sift flour, baking powder and baking soda into a large bowl.
Add oats and mix well.
In another bowl beat room temperature butter until it’s pale (just about 1 min).
Add sugar and beat until creamy - for about 2 mins.
Add flax seeds and vanilla extract and mix until incorporated.
Fold in dry ingredients and refrigerate for 60 mins.
Make 12 balls (each around 50g so they all are similar in size) and bake in preheated oven 190C/170C (fan) for 13-15mins.
Tips & tricks
Is it necessary to refrigerate the cookie dough? It is not. But it is better if you do. The ingredients will have more time to get to know each other therefore the outcome will be better. It is also easier to shape balls from refrigerated dough and cookies won’t spread as much in the oven. If you don’t have that much time (or if you are too eager to eat them, which is no surprise), shape balls from the dough straight after you mixed it all together. Place them on baking sheets and put into fridge (or even better - freezer) for about 10 mins - or as long as it take to preheat your oven.
How to freeze the dough? Cookie dough is great - you can make a big batch of it, bake half, freeze half and then bake cookies whenever you feel like it. So how to do it? Shape balls from the dough, place them apart on a baking sheet and place into the freezer for about 1 hour. Then move dough balls into an airtight bag and put it back into the freezer. It is always good idea to label it with date (you should use it within 3 months) and how to bake these cookies (temperature and time). Also, when you bake freeze cookie dough, you might need to bake it for 1 or 2 mins longer than stated.
Don’t overbake your cookies - because it is quite easy. Cookies (and basically anything you bake) continues to bake for a bit even after you took it from the oven. Bake cookies until they are golden brown, they’ll get darker when you take them out. Every oven is a bit different so check your cookies from time to time. Also, when you take them out, they will be soft to touch but they will get harder, don’t worry.
For more delicious vegan cookies be sure to check out:
Parkin Cookies (oat cookies with molasses and ginger)
If you make these delicious oat and chocolate chip cookies, and take photos of them, be sure to tag me on instagram - @bigbakesmanifesto and use hashtag #bigbakesmanifesto too. I’d love to see you making my recipe!
Makes 12 cookies
Ingredients
2 tbsp flax seeds (ground up)
140 g all purpose flour (use GF if needed)
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
120 g oats
120 g vegan butter (room temperature)
160 g light brown caster sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
optional: 70 g dark chocolate (I used 55%), sea salt flakes
Method
Mix flaxseeds with 6 tbsp of water and set aside to thicken.
Sift flour, baking powder and baking soda into a large bowl. Add oats and mix well.
In a stand mixer (or with a hand mixer, or just hand and fork) beat butter until it is pale (just about 1 min). Add sugar and mix together for about 2 mins - until it is creamy and there are not chunks of just butter.
Add vanilla extract and flax seeds into the bowl with butter and sugar and mix until it’s all incorporated. Fold in dry ingredients + chocolate (if you are using) and mix well.
Cover the bowl with a cling foil and refrigerate for about 60 mins.
Preheat the oven to 190C / 170C (fan) and line two baking sheets with paper.
Use an ice-cream scoop (or just a spoon) to create 12 balls (one should weight around 50g, that way you’ll get even 12) and place them apart on baking sheets. Give them some space because they will spread.
Bake for 13-15 mins, sprinkle with salt flakes, leave them to cool down a bit and then move to a cooling rack.