Healthy Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies are gluten-free, dairy-free, low in sugar, and made in one bowl with common pantry ingredients.
Try other nutritious baked goods next: Banana Bread With Greek Yogurt, chocolate-frosted Healthy Brownies, or Healthy Ice Cream (no bananas!).
Table of Contents
Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies Healthy
After sharing these Healthy Chocolate Chip Cookies, I wanted to create an oatmeal chocolate-chip version with similar goals in mind:
- Simple Ingredients: No need for specialty stores—you likely have everything in your pantry!
- Nutritious: These cookies use ingredients packed with benefits. There’s a small amount of sugar, much less than typical oatmeal cookies.
- Easy Prep: Just one bowl, a hand whisk, and a wooden spoon are all you need for freshly baked Healthy Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies.
What To Expect From This Recipe
This recipe isn’t for classic Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies. Without loads of butter, sugar, and chocolate, these cookies taste different. They’re crunchy with a sandy texture, dry, and a bit crumbly.
Flavor-wise, they’re oat-y with a bit of dark chocolate, and not very sweet. If you like oats, you’ll enjoy them; if not, this might not be for you. For extra sweetness, add more brown sugar. A pinch of sea salt on top adds the perfect touch of salty-sweetness!
Let’s Talk Oats
Healthy Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies use oats in three different forms:
- Old-fashioned oats
- Quick oats
- Oat flour
Before you get overwhelmed (Didn’t I say no specialty ingredients after all?!), if you have oats, you can have oat flour in a matter of minutes.
How to make powdered oats: Add the old-fashioned oats or quick oats to a food processor or small blender jar. Pulse or blend the oats until they are ground into a powder-like consistency that resembles flour. Stir the oats around to be sure that all the oats have been finely ground and there aren’t any whole oats left. (This affects the texture and liquid absorption of these cookies.)
Quick Tip
Make sure to measure the oats once they’ve been blended into a powder and not before. Gently pack the oats into the measuring cup and level the top off. It’s important to measure the oat flour correctly for the recipe to work properly.
How To Make Healthy Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Melt Coconut Oil: Microwave until liquid, then cool. Measure after melting.
- Blend Oats: Process into fine flour. Measure after blending.
- Combine Wet Ingredients: Whisk together wet ingredients. Use room-temperature ingredients.
- Add Dry Ingredients: Mix in oat flour, oats, baking soda, cinnamon, salt, and chocolate chips. Stir until combined.
- Chill Dough: Chill for 30 minutes, shape into balls, then chill again for 30 minutes.
- Bake: At 350°F for 7-9 minutes. Slightly under bake for best texture.
- Cool and Serve: Let stand before transferring to a cooling rack. Handle gently; they’re fragile.
Other Ingredients In Healthy Chocolate Chip Cookies
Below are some notes about the ingredients in this recipe.
- Oats: You need both quick and old-fashioned oats for the right texture and structure.
- Vanilla extract, salt, and cinnamon: These add important flavor. If you don’t like cinnamon, you can use less, but it will change the taste.
- Egg: Helps bind the cookies and gives them a little rise.
- Baking soda: Important for the structure of the cookies—make sure it’s fresh.
- Coconut oil: Adds flavor and texture. Measure it in liquid form and let it cool to room temperature before adding. Other oils won’t work the same.
- Brown sugar (or coconut sugar): Adds necessary sweetness with just 4-6 tablespoons, much less than most cookie recipes.
- Dark chocolate chips: These add sweetness and flavor. Any type of chocolate chip works, but milk or semi-sweet chips have more sugar. Check the labels for fewer additives.
Quick Tip
While the ingredients in these bars are naturally gluten-free, make sure to check all your ingredient labels to verify they weren’t processed in a facility with gluten.
Healthy Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookie Tips
- Measure Carefully: Baking needs precise measurements. Level the tops of measuring cups with a metal spatula or knife.
- Follow the Recipe: Stick to the recipe; substitutions may not work well here.
- Use Room-Temperature Ingredients: Make sure the egg and melted coconut oil are at room temperature.
- Measure Dough Balls: Each should be 1½ tablespoons or 30 grams- use a cookie scoop. Roll and slightly flatten before baking. Expect about 14-15 cookies.
- Bake on a Lined Pan: Use a silicone liner or parchment paper for even baking and easy cleanup.
- Let Cool: Cookies are crumbly when hot. Let them cool on the tray before transferring to a rack.
- Handle Carefully: Cookies are delicate; move them gently to avoid crumbling.
Storage
Storage: Store cooled cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days.
Freezing Dough Balls: Freeze dough balls on a parchment-lined sheet until solid, then transfer to an airtight container or bag. Bake directly from frozen, adding 1-2 minutes to the baking time.
More Nutritious Treats:
- Healthy No-Bake Cookies chocolate and peanut butter flavored
- Monster Cookies with a healthy twist
- Healthy Blueberry Muffins with Greek yogurt
- Chocolate Granola Bar with dark chocolate and coconut oil
- Healthy Pumpkin Muffins with dark chocolate
Healthy Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
Equipment
- Blender or food processor
- Sheet pan
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup coconut oil see note 1
- 1 large egg at room temperature
- 1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 4 tablespoons light brown sugar lightly packed, see note 2
- 3/4 cup oat flour regular oats blended in a blender—see note 3
- 1/2 cup old-fashioned oats
- 1/4 cup quick oats
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt or 1/4 teaspoon table salt
- 1/2 cup dark chocolate chips see note 4
Instructions
- Melt the coconut oil in the microwave until it is liquid. Measure once fully melted. Set aside to cool back to room temperature—it should not be hot when adding to the recipe.
- Add old-fashioned or quick oats to a blender or food processor. Blend or process until the oats are fine and resemble flour; stir and reblend if needed so that all the oats are a fine powder. Measure the oat flour after blending to get a level and gently packed 3/4 cup oat flour. Set aside.
- In a medium bowl, combine cooled coconut oil, vanilla extract, egg, and brown sugar in a bowl. Briskly whisk everything together until completely smooth.
- Add oat flour, old-fashioned oats, quick oats, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt to the wet ingredients. Mix with a wooden spoon and stir until just combined, then stir in the chocolate chips. The dough is very wet—this is normal.
- Cover the dough tightly and chill for 30 minutes. Don’t skip chilling, but don’t chill longer than 30 minutes or the dough will be nearly impossible to shape! Remove dough and use a 1-1/2 tablespoon measuring spoon or cookie scoop to measure out cookie dough balls. Tightly roll the balls, then slightly flatten. You should get about 14 dough balls. They must be this size for correct baking. Place the balls on a parchment-paper-lined plate, then chill all the rolled dough balls for another 30 minutes.
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Once dough balls have chilled, transfer them to a lined sheet pan, spacing them out 2-inches apart. Bake for 7–9 minutes (I think they’re perfect at 8 minutes) or until no longer gooey-looking on top. Slightly under-baking is best for flavor and texture. Carefully remove the tray from the oven. If desired, press a few chocolate chips into the tops of the cookies. It makes them look pretty and ensures chocolate in every bite! Once those chips have melted a bit, add a sprinkle of sea salt onto the melted chocolate if desired. Let the cookies sit on the sheet pan 5 minutes. Then use a spatula to carefully remove cookies to a cooling rack. Handle carefully; these cookies are very delicate and crumbly.
- Enjoy hot, warm, or at room temperature (I like them best right out of the oven!). Cookies are best the same day they’re made—they get harder and less sweet every day following.
Video
Recipe Notes
- Measure the ingredients carefully. As with most baked goods, loosely measuring may result in cookies that do not work out properly.
- Even tried-and-true substitutions (like flax egg for regular egg, vegetable oil for coconut oil, or almond flour for oat flour) don’t work the same in these cookies—this recipe is fairly particular.
- Use room-temperature ingredients. It’s best if the egg and melted coconut oil are at room temperature. This ensures even emulsification of ingredients instead of a cold egg seizing up in warm or hot coconut oil.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Just made them! they are delish!!! 🙂 Loving every minute of them.
So happy to hear that! Thank you Emily!
These are great, they turned out perfect when we made them. Thanks for posting.
Simon
So happy to hear you enjoyed these! Thanks Simon!
My batch didn’t turn out as expected but I admit there were a few errors on my part:
II am guessing my baking soda was expired,
I think I used regular oats rather than the old fashioned,
my cookie scoop broke so I tried an ice cream scoop but didn’t get them packed firmly enough in there
soooo…because of all those errors my cookies turned out super flat & crumbly BUT they still tasted OH SO GOOD!!!
I must fix my errors and try again!
Thank you for this great recipe
Thank you so much Shan for your comment! I am glad you loved the taste! 🙂
this looks wonderful. I am waiting for my dough to chill and was wondering if you have ever made them as a pan cookie to cut into bars?
I haven’t! Sorry Maria, wish I could be of more help!
Chelsea,
This recipe is great. Actually. I was very skeptical but the first batch I made turned out so well. Obviously not exactly like a traditional cookie ( a little grainier) but still delicious. I ended up subbing 1 cup of ground flax for 1 cup of the oats (I did 1 cup ground flax,1 cup ground oats and a handful of oats as well as a mix of a little agave and molasses instead of brown sugar) and the cookies still turned out amazing.
Hey Ari! I’m thrilled that you enjoyed this recipe! 🙂 And the flax sounds delicious!
I just made these. They were really flavorful. Good cinnamon flavor and very chocolatey. They definitely ratify a sweet tooth, and that’s coming from a hardcore sweets person. I used Dr. Bronner’s extra virgin coconut oil and 1 whole Chocolove Strong Dark 70% chocolate bar. I just chopped the bar. It gave the 1/2 cup called for in the recipe. The chocolate came out gooey even after cooling. I blended the oats and then measured the oat flour accordingly. I also melted the coconut oil and then measured. I baked for 9 minutes, let them sit for 2 minutes on parchment. But they were crumbly. So I picked up the whole parchment sheet and laid it on the cooling rack. Even after sitting for a while they never really got crispy. They also didn’t expand very much. Like they stayed the same size as the cookie scooper. Maybe I need to blend the oats a little more? I don’t have a food processor. Or bake them longer? All my ingredients are fresh. Any suggestions you have would be nice. This is a really lovely and healthier alternative to the 2 cups of sugar recipes for cookies. I’ve been working on cutting down on sugar as much as I can. And you can’t beat the fiber from the oats. I am very happy with the cookies overall. I’m looking forward to making them for others.
I’m happy you liked the cookies overall Luna! 🙂 I would try grinding your oats more so they are the consistency of flour. Also what type of coconut oil are you using?
These are definitely the best cookies I’ve ever had in my life! I discoved this recipe last week and I just made my 8th batch tonight. The only thing I did different is take out one scoop of oat flour and replaced it with unflavoured protein powder. The first time I made them I’m not gonna lie I ate 10 of them! I will know this recipe by heart by next week lol. Thank you so much for the recipe!
Wow!! That is such an amazing thing to hear! Thank you so much Novelia, I am thrilled you’ve been loving this recipe. Thanks again for the wonderful compliment 🙂
I used steel cut oats to make flour with some old fashioned oats. I divided the cookies and put caocoa nibs in it. They came out great.
So happy to hear these were enjoyed!! Thank you Sandra! 🙂
Flatter than a pancake indeed. I did put them in the refrigerator for over thirty minutes but as I was making the cookie balls, I placed the container on top of the oven and by the time I put them in, they were already a little melty. Plus, I added butter because my husband said that he wanted more fat in them. I made the first batch with raisins and the walnuts and they came out good, just not gooey at all and they came out exactly in the same shape that I put them is, as balls.
Yes, if they get melty before baking they will go flat! 🙂 If you are wanting thicker cookies, bake them right out of the fridge. Thanks for the comment Perla!
Love it so much. Thank you!
So glad to hear that! Thank you for the comment Veronica 🙂