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.
Can’t wait to try this recipe with oat flour, however after reading all of the posts hoping to find that someone had tried butter and had a good result. Yay to anyone who tries different approaches! Here’s one I tried on another cookie recipe in an attempt to add a healthy aspect since several posts added flax. First, flax seed must be ground to get the most benefit flax requires additional liquid to a cookie recipe. So here is what worked for me, 2 tbls of whole flax seeds, grind them and to dry ingredients then add 3 tbls water to wet ingredients. It made feel better about using butter (organic)…lol!
Note: our bodies do not digest whole flax seeds, rendering them useless as a healthy addition to any recipe.
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Sounds delicious! I think butter would work fine in place of the coconut oil. Enjoy! 🙂
I’d love to make these cookies but I don’t love the taste of coconut oil, can you taste it in these cookies?
Thank you!
There is a slight hint Deanna. I do know some readers have tried butter in the place of coconut oil with success.
I added a bit of honey the second time I made these and they stuck together a lot better. Also crisped it up on the outside more and made the texture inside nice and gooey.
Sounds delicious! 🙂 Thanks Jasmine!
I’d been searching online for healthy cookies as I’m trying to loose weight and crave for cookies. Found this today and didn’t have the chocolate and vanilla extract but I went ahead to make it and it tastes soooooo yummy. Thanks for this wonderful recipe.
That’s awesome!! I’m thrilled you enjoyed these Patience! 🙂
Any idea what the carb count is for these? I’ve been tasked with making oatmeal chocolate chip cookies for a baby shower. The mother has gestational diabetes tho, so I’m trying to make them as tasty as possible while still being low carb and on the healthier side. :/
I’m sorry Michelle, I don’t know the carb count. I do know that My Fitness Pal is a great resource for that information though. And how kind of you to make healthier cookies for the shower and mother! 🙂
I’m low carbing, for weight loss and overall health. I’ve read that you can there’s something about cooking rice with coconut oil, then refrigerating it overnight does something to the way your body handles the carbs. I wonder, speculating here, but it might work the same for the oatmeal. And there’s virtually no sugar in this, I think this would be very low carb. Just refrigerate overnight before serving.
Do you know how many calories are in these?
Do you know how many calories are in these?
Thank you!
Made these here in the UK and they’re just cooling now! Can’t wait to try them – thank you for sharing :-)))
You are welcome! I hope you love these Andrew! 🙂
Love this recipe! Instead of eggs I used unsweetened applesauce it they were delicious. Thank you for this recipe.
Awesome!! I’m so thrilled you enjoyed these cookies Ayana! 🙂
Just made these! I added 3/4 scoop Vegan chocolate Protein Powder (North Coast Naturals Vegan Protein just to add some nutritional benefit and they are turning out awesome as I type! I did have to flatten them before putting them in but that might be because I didn’t have any old fashioned oats and just added a bit more quick oats. Thank you for the great recipe that I’ll definitely be using in my freshmen year of uni in the fall!
Ooo love the protein powder addition! That sounds awesome! So glad you enjoyed these Dawson! 🙂