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These vegan peanut butter oatmeal cookies are the perfect choice when you can't decide if you want to make peanut butter or oatmeal cookies! You can make them both. The base recipe is a little salty, a little sweet, crispy around the edges and soft in the middle. Basically, the perfect vegan cookie.
How to make oatmeal peanut butter cookies
This original recipe, from Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar calls for canola oil, but one of our readers mentioned she had success with coconut oil. We tried it for ourselves and it was delightful! But really any oil will do, including melted (and slightly cooled) vegan butter.
Aside from that, these are very easy cookies to make. You'll start by mixing together all of your dry ingredients: flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, salt, and oats. I like to use a dry whisk to get everything mixed together nicely without the hassle of sifting anything.
From there, you'll take a second bowl to mix together the wet ingredients. This is especially important when using something like nut butter that really needs to be incorporated into the other ingredients so you don't end up with globs of peanut butter in your cookie batter. In that second bowl, the wet bowl, your whisk up the oil, peanut butter, sugar, brown sugar, non-dairy milk (I usually use oat milk), flaxseed meal, and vanilla until you have a nice smooth consistency.
In this recipe, the flaxseed meal is working as the egg substitute. If you don't have flaxseed meal, you can check out other egg replacers in this post:
Vegan Egg Substitutes: A Comprehensive Guide
From there, you'll just mix the dry ingredients into your wet ingredients. This cookie dough is very forgiving, so don't be afraid to experiment with mix-ins and swap ingredients!
Mix-ins and variations to try
We also call these "whatever cookies" because you can literally add anything else to them and they're absolutely perfect.
- chocolate chips
- chopped walnuts
- chopped peanuts
- hemp seeds
- coconut flakes
- raisins
- dried cherries
- sprinkle with sea salt
- roll in sugar
- swap peanut butter for almond or cashew butter
Can I freeze these cookies?
Yes! Absolutely you can freeze these cookies. Just let them cool completely and load them up in a tightly sealed freezer bag. They should be fine for a few months in your freezer.
Recipe adapted from the fabulous, Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar.
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Vegan Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies
- Prep Time: 20 mins
- Cook Time: 14 mins
- Total Time: 34 minutes
- Yield: 30 1x
- Category: dessert
- Method: baking
- Diet: Vegan
Description
These vegan peanut butter oatmeal cookies cookies are a little salty, a little sweet, crispy around the edges and soft in the middle. Basically, the perfect cookie!
Ingredients
- 1 ⅓ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ¾ teaspoon baking soda
- 1 ¼ teaspoons ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 2 cups oats (quick cooking or rolled)
- ½ cup coconut oil, melted (or any vegetable oil)
- ½ cup peanut butter
- ½ cup sugar
- ¾ cup brown sugar, firmly packed
- ⅓ cup non-dairy milk
- 4 teaspoons ground flaxseed meal
- 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350° F. Lightly grease two baking sheets or line with parchment paper.
- In a medium bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. Stir in oats and set aside.
- In a large bowl, beat together oil, peanut butter, sugar, brown sugar, nondairy milk, flax seed and vanilla until smooth. Fold in the flour mixture, half at a time.
- Spoon about a 1-½ tablespoons of dough on the cookie sheet, spacing about 2 inches apart. Flatten the top slightly.
- Bake for 12 to 14 minutes, until the edges just begin to brown. Let cookies rest on the baking sheet for about 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 30
- Calories: 214
- Sugar: 10
- Sodium: 190
- Fat: 11
- Carbohydrates: 23
- Fiber: 2
- Protein: 6
- Cholesterol: 0
Sofia
oh my,,,,these little cookies are out of this world. must try! started eating the dough even before baking, cant stop!!! What an amazing recipe - thank you for creating it! xx
ps. made a couple of small amends - 1/used 50/50 almond and peanut butter. 2/ only used 1/2 cup of dark brown sugar and no other sugar added, but included 40 grams of chopped dark chocolate, 3/ used both flaxseed and 2 table spoons of chia seeds mixed with water.
Rebecca Duiven
Great recipe, thank you. I subbed 215 g GF flour mix for the flour and 3/4 tsp xanthan gum, and used Sunbutter instead of peanut butter. They came out great!
Katie Koteen
Rebecca - Thanks so much for your gluten-free, nut-free fix!!! We'll definitely give it a try. 🙂
Sheryl
So delicious! Everyone loved them 🙂
Judy
As a new vegan I wanted a good oatmeal cookie. Found this and they are fabulous! No brown sugar so i ussed a cup5 of white sugar and drizzled in some molasses. Have never thought of adding peanut butter to oatmeal cookies, but oh, WOW! WHAT A FABULOUS COOKIE! Thanks very much!
Vicki
I could not wait to try these cookies as I could only see '5" stars, however, I found these lacking in taste so I could only rate these a "2." I could not taste any peanut butter and I double checked to make sure I had included the correct amount. Sorry, but I'll be looking for a new one.
Beatrice
I have made these cookies many times now and my friends and family love them! They are so easy. Thank you for this recipe!
Well Vegan
Hey Beatrice! Love your name, btw. That was one of my top picks before we found out our youngest was a BOY! They're an absolute favorite around here too! I just love them 🙂
Georgia Gaudioso
I can't wait to make these! Thanks!
Martin Addams-Smith
I just made these for the first time for my kids visiting this afternoon. They are quite superb. The texture is perfect , the light saltiness sublime. But why oh why do you Americans have to use the Cup measurements ? LB´s and oz´s work fine for us , grams for the Euros. I could sort of understand the logic of cups if one cup of flour was the same as one cup of peanut butter or milk , but No ! I must have sat here for half an hour comparing the results from 5 different weight and volume conversion websites until I found 2 like results. Complaining aside , I now have the perfect recipe , and shall make these cookies every time my little guys come over. Ya all take care.
Larzie
One of the very few if not only vegan cookie recipes I've made that turned out perfect!! I replaced the canola with coconut oil and I lightly salted them along with sprinkling a bit of sugar on top! Lovely flavor and texture! Will definitely be saving this recipe!
carolyn
Ok I just made these. I added one cup of carob chips, used coconut oil instead of canola, added about 3 tablespoons of cocoa powder and used whole wheat flour instead of regular. Theyre so good someone is going to have to come here and take them from me because im about to not fit into my skinny jeans after this. They make a lot . So i froze half the dough -
Jess
Had to cut out dairy because I'm nursing and I love desserts! Came across this recipe and LOVE these cookies! Never looked for another option and will continue to make them even when I can eat dairy again!
Well Vegan
Oh I know! They're just the best. And as a side note, I also had to cut out dairy while nursing (I was already a vegetarian) and never went back 😉 Turned out, I felt much better without it too!
Dani
I made them as bars. Used a 13 x 9 baking pan lined with greased parchment & baked 5 minutes longer than the recipe states. They came out great!
Well Vegan
Yum! That sounds fantastic. I love a good bar 🙂
Brianna
Good texture but they came out flavorless. Very bland! They need more spices and perhaps a larger quantity of vanilla.
Tayla
Is there anything I can use instead of flaxseed while still keeping it vegan? The cookies look amazinggg I HAVE to try them but don't have any flaxseed! Thanks.
Well Vegan
Any other egg replacer will do the job 🙂
Terry
Is there any way I can make the recipe without using oil?
Well Vegan
Yeah, absolutely. I think applesauce would work great or a little mashed banana. Report back and let us know how it turns out!
Pelagia
I like subbing quinoa flakes for oatmeal and earth balance for canola oil -- everyone loved them!
Well Vegan
That is an amazing idea! I LOVE it and will definitely try it myself next time.
Ana
Thank you so much!
Ana
Hi. Is there a substitute of sugar I can use like stevia and what portions? Thank you.
Well Vegan
@Ana - That's a great question! Here's a link to a great conversion chart for using Stevia in baking. Truvia even makes products specifically for replacing regular or brown sugar, but I think they still have some sugar in them. http://truvia.com/recipes/conversion_chart
ALFR
Hi - I'm about to make this recipe right now. My peanut butter contains a large amount of both flax and chia seeds. Can I just add a little more of this instead of the flaxseed meal? I also have egg substitute if emulsification is the goal. Thank you!
Well Vegan
@ALFR - Hmmm. Not sure about that. Baking is more of a science and you might not get the results you're after with the extra peanut butter. You could try the egg substitute... let us know how it goes!
Mary
Can you use whole wheat flour?
Well Vegan
@Mary - Yes, whole wheat four should work as well 🙂
Shannon
Yummy! I made them with Old fashion oats instead of quick oats! They came out amazing, melted in my mouth!!! My family loved them! Thank you for the recipe 🙂
Peter B
These are excellent cookies, but a little dense. I found the best way to make them is large and flat. They will stay chewy despite being pretty flat.
Desi
My family is not vegan but we like to try all types of recipes. Especially dessert recipes! These cookies have surpassed our non-vegan cookies and I'm ALWAYS asked the recipe whenever I make them. Love your site and Love these cookies! 🙂
Well Vegan
@Desi - Aww, thanks! That's so great to hear!!! These are totally the best cookies ever 🙂
manchuán
great cookies, people still say, theyre vegan really?? made them with macadamia nut butter instead - thanks!
Well Vegan
@manchuán: Macadamia nut butter would be awesome! Glad you like them!!!
Jinet
Hello! I'm the only vegan in my house and 30 cookies is too many for me. How do I cut the recipe in half?
Well Vegan
@Jinet - For sure! Or you can always freeze half. Another thing to consider is that vegans desserts are awesome! Take the extras to work and make a few converts outta them 😉
Sarah
Has anyone tried freezing this dough (or the actual cookies)? I love these and would love to be able to save some for later!
Well Vegan
@Sarah - I haven't tried freezing the dough, but I think it would work. I would set them up on a cookie sheet, like you're going to bake them but put them in the freezer instead for a couple hours. After they're solid you can transfer them to a freezer bag. Next time I make them I'll be sure to give it try. Let us know if you have success with the freeze! These are VERY good cookies, it would be nice to have them at the ready.
Jen
I made these and they turned out great. I always found that the vegan cookies I made in the past always turned out greasy. These were delicious and not greasy! Definitely a recipie I will be using over again. Thanks for the recipie.
Caitlin
Super good! I just made them and used chia seeds instead of the flax meal. Even the dough was awesome :). Thank you for the recipe!
- Caitlin
Well Vegan
@Caitlin- These are still my all time favorite cookies! Glad you're enjoying them.
Cindy Morgan
These cookies were awesome!
I used hemp seed because I had no flax seed and used alittle more
plain soy milk to hold them together.
I also added some vegan chocolate chips.
Everyone loved them and my friend just called to get the recipe.
Thanks for sharing with us!
Sincerely
Cindy
Well Vegan
@Cindy - Yes! These are the best. So glad you liked them 🙂