I’m not sure why, but I’ve had oats on the brain lately. I’ve been eating muesli for breakfast a lot, and I recently posted a recipe for some fantastic oat flour muffins. In keeping with my oat trend I thought it would be nice to share an oatmeal cookie recipe with you, and since Friday is National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day, I settled on my Vegan Oatmeal Chocolate Chunk Cookies. (I know, technically Friday is a celebration of Chocolate *Chip* Cookies, but I prefer my chocolate in chunks. Cut me some slack.)
These amazing vegan cookies are gluten-free as always, plus they’re gum-free, AND if you use soy or oat milk they’re also nut-free. Yes there’s coconut oil in the recipe, but coconut is a fruit, not a nut. Anyway, the cookies are loaded with whole-grain oats and chunks of dark chocolate, and enhanced with earthy buckwheat flour, fragrant vanilla, and a touch of espresso powder. A combination of brown and white sugars plus a little maple syrup provides the perfect chewy-crisp texture and a balanced sweetness that isn’t over the top. They’re super simple to mix up, and they only require about 10 minutes in the oven so you won’t heat up your kitchen too much on sultry summer days.
Let’s do this!
Add both sugars and the coconut oil to a large bowl or stand mixer, and cream them together on medium speed. You want to start with coconut oil that’s firm, but not rock-solid straight from the fridge.
Once it’s nice and fluffy like this, beat in the maple syrup, your chosen dairy-free milk (I like cashew or almond, but oat or soy would be great if you’re nut-free), and the vanilla extract. Sift the flours, baking soda, salt, and espresso powder into a separate bowl, and whisk them together to ensure that they’re evenly combined. Add this dry mixture to the wet ingredients, and beat together on medium speed until the flour is incorporated and it all comes together.
The dough will be pretty thick and sticky. See how it’s clinging to the beaters? Now fold in the oats and chocolate by hand until they’re evenly distributed. I don’t recommend doing this part with electric beaters or a stand mixer because it can break up the oats too much.
Once everything is in the bowl and completely mixed, cover it and pop it into the fridge for 15 minutes to give the dough a chance to rest and firm up. Please don’t skip the chilling step – it allows the flours to hydrate, and makes a noticeable difference in the shape and texture of the final cookie. While the dough is chilling, preheat the oven – make sure a rack is in the middle position – and set up your pans.
I like to use a spring-loaded one ounce cookie scoop for this, but if you don’t have one just use a heaped spoon. You’re looking for two tablespoons of dough in each cookie, and make sure you set the mounds of dough about two inches apart on the pans because the cookies will spread. I find eight to be the maximum number that will comfortably fit on a standard cookie sheet without the risk of any of them running together.
See how rounded the mounds are? If you leave them like this, the cookies will spread and flatten out somewhat, but they’ll still be on the thicker and chewier side.
If you prefer your cookies thinner and a bit crisper like I do, gently press down on each mound to encourage the cookies to spread more. Don’t go crazy here – you just want to flatten the top. If you squish them down too much the cookies will spread out super thin and won’t hold together once they’re baked.
Prepare one pan of cookies and put the rest of the dough back in the fridge while the first batch bakes. After the first pan comes out of the oven, portion out and bake the remaining dough on the second pan. Take note that the recipe technically makes 13 cookies (a.k.a. a baker’s dozen), so you’ll probably do six on one pan and seven on the other. Bake each pan of cookies for 10-11 minutes, or until the edges are set but the tops are still soft. Let the cookies set up on the pans for 5-10 minutes, then transfer directly to a rack to cool completely. That’s all there is to it!
It’s a thing of beauty, isn’t it?
Happy National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day. Enjoy!
- 48g (¼ cup) coconut sugar or brown sugar
- 50g (¼ cup) evaporated cane juice
- 78g (6 Tbsp) coconut oil, firm but not rock hard
- 45 ml (3 Tbsp) maple syrup
- 30 ml (2 Tbsp) dairy-free milk of choice
- 8 ml (1 ½ tsp) vanilla extract
- 75g (¾ cup) oat flour
- 30g (¼ cup) buckwheat flour
- ¼ tsp baking soda
- ½ tsp kosher salt
- ½ tsp espresso powder
- 90g (1 cup) gluten-free rolled oats
- 85g (½ cup) chopped* dark chocolate, at least 72% cacao
- In a large bowl or stand mixer, cream together sugars and coconut oil on medium speed until mixture is fluffy. Beat in maple syrup, milk, and vanilla extract.
- In a separate bowl sift together flours, baking soda, salt, and espresso powder. Whisk to combine.
- Add flour mixture to wet ingredients and beat to incorporate. Fold in oats and chocolate by hand until evenly distributed. Cover and refrigerate dough for 15 minutes.
- While dough is chilling, preheat oven to 350°F. Line 2 standard baking sheets with parchment and set aside.
- Use a spring-loaded one ounce cookie scoop to portion out dough, placing the mounds about 2 inches apart on the baking sheets. If you don’t have a cookie scoop, measure out the dough into portions of 2 packed tablespoons each, and roll into balls. Portion out one pan of dough and refrigerate remaining dough while the first batch bakes.
- For thicker, chewier cookies, leave dough mounds as-is. For thinner, crisper cookies, flatten the tops slightly by pressing down on each mound of dough.
- Bake for 10-11 minutes, until edges are set but tops are still soft when pressed (they’ll firm up as they cool). Repeat with remaining dough.
- Cool cookies on pans for 5-10 minutes, then transfer directly to a rack to cool completely.
Leave a Reply