Easy Vegan Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies Recipe

Name: Easy Vegan Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies Recipe
Prep time: 8 min
Cook time: 12 min
Total time: 20 min
Cuisine: American
Ingredients: 1/3 Cup Granulated Cane Sugar; 1/3 Cup Organic Brown Sugar; 1.5 Cups Sprouted Rolled Oats; 2 Cups Oat Flour; 1 Teaspoon Cornstarch; 1/2 Teaspoon Baking Powder; 1/4 Teaspoon Salt; 1/2 Teaspoon Cinnamon; 3 Medium Bananas, Peeled and Mashed; 1 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract; Two Flax Eggs; One Cup Vegan Chocolate Chips

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These Vegan Oat Cookies are going to blow your mind! They're super easy to make (no rolling, no chilling), taste amazing, and even freeze beautifully if you want to keep a stash of snacks in your freezer like we do (it honestly saves a bundle too!).

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Hey Internet, ready to bake cookies? Because we're making some of the best cookies that we've ever had! Now you might be wondering how vegan oatmeal chocolate chip cookies could be the best cookie ever. After all, oats... best cookie ever... really?

Well we have a few tricks up our baking sleeves to make these the best kind of cookie. First is we use a mix of cane sugar and brown sugar. This results in a caramel flavor and either makes for a gooier cookie or one with a crispy exterior, depending on how long you cook them for. Second, we use bananas instead of milk to make the batter, which go great with the chocolate chips we use. And third, we later drizzled on peanut butter on these cookies! All the flavors go so good together; it's just the best.

What's great about these cookies is they freeze well. We have a whole bunch of these in our freezer right now from the tests we did. You can microwave them or reheat them in the oven, but they are best when we put them in a air fryer. Just a few minutes in one and they are warm and crispy again!

With a mixture of cane and brown sugar, these cookies get a caramely flavor to them and they have the perfect texture, too... it's a little chewy, a little crispy, and those melty chocolate chips? Yum. Just grab a large bowl and two cookie sheets and you'll have these ready in about 20 minutes! This classic old fashioned cookie is reimagined in this recipe that we think you'll love.

We've made a lot of cookie recipes over the years. Vegan Almond Butter Cookies with Coconut are super flavorful and cozy and they are just as easy to make as this. We also love our Vegan Ginger Cookies with Maple Icing no matter the time of year. These Vegan Matcha Cookies are a great way to perk up in the morning. We even have these No-Chill Chocolate Chip Cookies and Vegan Double Chocolate Chip Cookies that we've loved for years. And none of them beat these delicious vegan oatmeal cookies.

So preheat your oven and let's get to mixing.

Why You'll Love These Easy Vegan Oatmeal Cookies

The Best Flavor Combo: Chocolate, banana, oats, and, if you want, add a little peanut butter drizzled on top you get one good cookie! You can also dip them in a glass of cold almond milk or oat milk for delicious nostalgia.
Easy to Make: With a bowl, a cookie scoop, a cookie sheet or 2, and mixing spatula, you'll have these chewy vegan oatmeal cookies in just a few minutes!
Great Meal Prep: Freeze these easy cookies in a sealed container and you'll have cookies for days! More on that in the storage instructions section.

Ingredients

Pick up the following simple ingredients for this vegan oatmeal cookie recipe the next time you're at your local grocery store. See the recipe card at the bottom of this post for full ingredients, instructions, and accurate nutrition information (to the best of my ability; please consult your physician, registered dietitian, or healthcare professional if you have specific dietary needs or need to meet certain daily values of any nutrient). I give substitutions for the ingredients in the section below this one, so most people can still make this recipe!

Dry Ingredients

⅓ Cup Organic Granulated Cane Sugar: We recommend organic as in some countries like ours, the sugar may not be vegan (but organic sugar is not filtered through animal bone char so it's safe, and certain brands are verified vegan).
⅓ Cup Organic Brown Sugar: Is your brown sugar hard and fused together? There's an easy fix for that! Add the sugar to a microwave-safe bowl and then cover it with a lightly damp paper towel. Microwave the bowl in 20 second intervals, checking to see if the brown sugar has softened by pressing it with a fork. When it can, take the bowl and use the fork to break up the rest of the sugar. Your brown sugar will be as good as new!
1.5 Cups Sprouted Rolled Oats: It is very important to use rolled oats for these chewy oatmeal cookies as different types of oats will absorb liquids differently. This will drastically change the batter and will have unpredictable results. So stay clear of quick oats and old-fashioned oats. Make sure to buy gluten-free oats if you can't have gluten.
2 Cups Oat Flour: You can make this yourself by grinding oats in a high speed blender (we blend for 10-12 seconds) or a coffee grinder.
1 Teaspoon Cornstarch: Cornstarch helps make the perfect cookie texture by help keep the outside nice and crispy and the center soft and chewy.
½ Teaspoon Baking Powder
¼ Teaspoon Salt
½ Teaspoon Cinnamon: A hint of cinnamon really brings out the flavors the brown sugar!

Wet Ingredients

3 Medium Bananas, Peeled and Mashed: Make sure to process these last! Mashed bananas can brown fast. For best results, use bananas that are starting to get speckled with brown spots or a little darker.
1 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract
Two Flax Eggs: Flax egg is a great vegan egg replacement! Grind up 2 tablespoons of flax seeds and then mix it with 4 tablespoons of water. Let it gel for about 5 minutes and you're good to use it for all your vegan baking needs.

Fold-Ins

One Cup Vegan Chocolate Chips: Many dark chocolate chips are accidentally vegan. We've used them in a pinch for many vegan recipes. Just always make sure to check the ingredients list on the back.

Substitutions

Brown Sugar: Coconut sugar is a great brown sugar replacement! Also, if you happen to have molasses, you can mix it with a 1 to 1 ratio with cane sugar to make your own brown sugar on the spot!
- If you're thinking of using maple syrup, you can certainly try, but keep in mind it may throw off the wet to dry ratios of the recipe and you might need more dry ingredients!
Oat Flour: All Purpose Flour will work just as well. We haven't tried almond flour; but let us know if you do! Almond flour may require a bit more moisture than regular flour or oat flour.
Flax Eggs: You can use chia seeds in the same amounts, OR a bit of cornstarch or chickpea flour can also work well. You can also use commercial vegan egg replacers such as Bob's Red Mill Egg Replacer.
Bananas: We love this recipe with bananas and it makes them so low fat, but if you can't have bananas or just prefer not to use them, vegan butter or coconut oil can work well too! We have NOT tested the recipe with these, though, so you might have to experiment if you want to use them.
Vegan Chocolate Chips: Raisins are also delicious (use these to make vegan oatmeal raisin cookies!), but they're so polarizing that we didn't use them in this recipe. Walnuts would also make a lovely addition.

How to Make Vegan Banana Oatmeal Cookies

Preheat Oven to 350F (175 C). Prepare 2 half sheet trays with parchment paper.
Mash Bananas: Peel the bananas and then add them to a small bowl. Using a fork or a potato masher, mash them until the mixture is smooth and glossy looking.
Mix Dry Ingredients: In a large mixing bowl, add the sugars, oats, oat flour, baking powder, cornstarch, salt, and cinnamon and combine them with a whisk until they are well incorporated. You can use a hand mixer or stand mixer if you prefer.
Mix Wet Ingredients: To the bowl add the mashed bananas, vanilla extract, and flax eggs and gently mix everything into a batter.
Fold in the Chocolate Chips: Sprinkle in the vegan chocolate chips and fold them into the batter. Make sure to do this gently to not over work the cookie dough.
Scoop the Cookie Dough: Using a medium cookie scoop, take leveled scoops out of the dough. Add them to the lined baking sheet, making sure place them in three rows and with about an inch between each other. Note that if your dough is VERY thick, you may want to gently flatten the cookies with the back of the spoon (due to the oats and lack of fat, these won't flatten as much as a butter-based cookie recipe).
Shake and Bake: Before adding the trays to the oven, them them a few light taps on a surface to help spread the cookie dough out. Then add them to the oven. Bake for 12 to 16 minutes depending on how crispy you want them: less time for a chewy texture, more time for a crispy texture. If you add extra minutes, just be careful not to overcook them. Half way, make sure to switch the cookie trays between their oven racks to ensure an even bake.
Cool: Remove cookies form oven and let cool for about 10 minutes before enjoying with some dairy-free milk! I know, it's hard for us to be patient too around fresh baked cookies. You can add them to a cooling rack to start the cooling process faster.

Storage Instructions

Let cookies cool to room temperature. Then add to an airtight container (any freezer-safe container will do) or resealable bag. Depending on how much you cooked them will affect how shelf stable they are. Chewy cookies are more moist and will likely need refrigeration to stay good.

You can also freeze these cookies! Use a freezer bag or another freezer safe container. When you want to eat them again, you can heat them in the microwave for about a minute for fast cookies. But if you like your cookies crispy, we suggest you cook them in an air fryer. We add them in there with a small piece of parchment to prevent the chocolate from getting everywhere. We cook them at 350 F (175 C) for about 2 to 4 minutes and they are as good as fresh! Actually they're also really good straight from the freezer... Don't forget the soy milk!

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I use baking soda instead of baking powder?

Baking powder and soda are very different things, so we can not recommend it. While both use bicarbonate of soda (baking soda), baking powder is formulated so you don't need to add an acidic element to activate it. Many brands of baking powder are made to be double acting, meaning they activate both when added to wet ingredients and then again when heated.

Can I use a bigger cookie scoop?

Yes! We've made these bigger (who doesn't want a giant cookie?) and they just need a little more time to cook. Maybe about 16 to 20 minutes depending on the texture you want.

Why should I let the oatmeal cookies cool?

Cookies tend to firm up as they cool. What might seem like a chewy cookie in the oven my turn out crispy. Note that when checking on the bake.

More Vegan Desserts

Oh and if you like oats, try our: