Paleo Oatmeal Cookies (really like the real thing!)
These paleo oatmeal cookies (also known as n’oatmeal cookies) are crisp with a chewy center and taste just like classic oatmeal raisin cookies! Recipe has a vegan option.
First of all – is oatmeal paleo? Nope. Due to the lack of oats, these paleo “oatmeal” cookies don’t really look like regular oatmeal raisin cookies, but to me, they taste exactly like the real deal.
And not just any old oatmeal cookies, or healthy oatmeal cookies, but really amazing soft and chewy ones! To make up for the missing oats, I added shredded coconut and ground flax seed. It sounds weird, but it works!
Make sure to use shredded coconut, like the left two in this picture, and not flaked coconut, which you see on the right.
If oatmeal-less oatmeal cookies sounds too odd for you, try my gluten-free oatmeal cookies. They’re even tastier than the original gluten-filled kind, in my opinion! These no-bake oatmeal cookies are also awesome and perfect for hot summer days.
I used refined coconut oil in these paleo oatmeal cookies, and they came out with absolutely no coconut taste. If you use unrefined coconut oil, they’ll likely have a bit of coconut taste to them, though it shouldn’t be at all overwhelming! Sometimes it makes a differenc,e and sometimes it doesn’t. Like in my paleo lemon bars, I think unrefined is actually better.
You can’t taste the flax, either. It somehow just makes the cookies more oatmeal-like! If you have whole flax seeds, an electric coffee grinder is a great tool to grind them.
This recipe is based on my paleo chocolate chip cookies. Unlike that version, I haven’t made these with butter or brown sugar (for a non-paleo version). I’m guessing that they’d work, but since I haven’t tried it, I can’t say for sure.
I also don’t recommend playing around with the recipe (unless you’re okay with them not coming out as intended). This is one of those recipes I had to make over 30 times to get right, which is madness considering it’s based on another recipe!
If you omit the coconut or flax, the cookies won’t have the right texture, as I had to make a lot of changes to the recipe to accommodate those two ingredients. I’d just make the original recipe and add raisins instead of chocolate chips if you don’t want to add flax or coconut.
If you want to make these as vegan oatmeal raisin cookies, just use a flax egg or chia egg! Both work great.
And if you’re thinking you’d like to add a little more coconut, flaxseed, or another add-in like that, then be prepared for some super dense and chewy cookies. The first dozen batches or so were work to eat.
Eating cookies should never require too much effort. ;) These paleo n’oatmeal cookies are chewier than the chocolate chip version, but I figured that was fitting for oatmeal cookies!
Want paleo oatmeal chocolate chip cookies? Just replace the raisins with chocolate chips! Just make sure to use paleo-friendly chocolate. And if you’re in a super chocolaty mood, then try my vegan and paleo double chocolate cookies. Or these paleo chocolate cupcakes… because you know, cake is nice, too. ;)
Even something as simple as adding more cinnamon had a weird effect on these cookies! I’ve made them with 1, 1 1/2 and 2 teaspoons of cinnamon. 1 teaspoon was just perfect, and any more than that made the cookies bitter.
I’ve gotten so many of the same questions on the original recipe that I’ve answered any questions I think you may have in the footnotes of the recipe. Be sure to read those for general tips and notes on subs!
Don’t want to use almond flour? Try these Gluten Free Vegan Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies from Beaming Baker!
Paleo Oatmeal Cookies (really like the real thing!)
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup + 2 tablespoons (88 grams) finely ground blanched almond flour
- 3 1/2 tablespoons (28 grams) coconut flour
- 1/4 cup (20 grams) shredded coconut
- 1 tablespoon ground flax seed
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 3/8 teaspoon salt
- 6 tablespoons (84 grams) refined coconut oil
- 3/4 cup (150 grams) coconut sugar
- 1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons (160 grams) natural almond butter
- 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 large egg 50 grams, out of shell, room temperature or for the vegan version, 1 chia egg or 1 flax egg
- 1 cup (145 grams) raisins
Instructions
- In a medium mixing bowl, stir together the almond flour, coconut flour, coconut, flax, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking soda and salt. Set aside.3/4 cup + 2 tablespoons (88 grams) finely ground blanched almond flour, 3 1/2 tablespoons (28 grams) coconut flour, 1/4 cup (20 grams) shredded coconut, 1 tablespoon ground flax seed, 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon, 1/8 teaspoon nutmeg, 1 teaspoon baking soda, 3/8 teaspoon salt
- In a large mixing bowl with an electric hand mixer or using a stand mixer, beat together the coconut oil, sugar, almond butter and vanilla extract at medium speed until well combined, about 1 minute. Beat in the egg on low and mix until well incorporated. Stir in the flour mixture until well combined. Then stir in the raisins. Refrigerate for at least 30-60 minutes or until the dough is firm and easy to roll into balls.6 tablespoons (84 grams) refined coconut oil, 3/4 cup (150 grams) coconut sugar, 1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons (160 grams) natural almond butter, 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract, 1 large egg, 1 cup (145 grams) raisins
- Move the oven rack to the bottom position in the oven. Preheat the oven to 350 °F (175 °C) and line a baking sheet with a piece of parchment paper.
- Roll the dough into 8 (95-gram) balls. You can also roll them into smaller balls but then you need to reduce the baking time. Place 4″ apart on the prepared baking sheet. Press the cookies down lightly with the palm of your hand.
- Bake for 14-18 minutes or until the surface of the center of the cookies no longer appears wet. They’ll be very soft but will continue to cook as they sit on the cookie sheet.
- Let cool completely on the baking sheet. Store in an airtight container for up to 3 days.
Notes
- Make sure to use shredded coconut and not the flaked kind, which is the long strands. I used unsweetened in these cookies, but sweetened should also be fine.
- I prefer to use refined coconut oil, which has no coconut taste. If you use unrefined coconut oil, your cookies may have some coconut taste to them. If your coconut oil is a little melty, put it in the fridge for about 10-20 minutes or until firmer, like softened butter. If you use slightly melted coconut oil, the dough will be greasy and the raisins will be hard to incorporate. I haven’t tried these cookies with butter, ghee or shortening or anything other than coconut oil. I’m pretty sure butter would work but I’m not sure about the others.
- I don’t recommend using honey, maple syrup, date syrup, etc. They make the cookies very cakey and, in my opinion, not worth making.
- Use the kind with just almonds and salt. I haven’t made these cookies with other nut butters, so I’m not sure how they’d come out with other types. I definitely think they’d taste less oatmeal cookie-lik,e and it may also have an effect on the texture.
- I don’t recommend omitting the raisins. If you don’t like raisins, use dried cranberries, cherries, etc. in their place. I added 3 tablespoons of raisins to the tops of the cookie dough balls just so there would be some raisins sitting on the top, so the cookies would look pretty for the pictures. It has zero effect on taste.
- The nutrition information provided is calculated as a courtesy and is only an estimate. I am not a licensed nutritionist or dietitian. For the most accurate nutritional data, consult a professional or use your preferred calculator. This recipe yields 8 huge bakery-style cookies or 16 regular ones.
- Adapted from my Perfect Paleo Chocolate Chip Cookies.
Nutrition
Categories:
Cookies, Dairy-free, Gluten-free, Grain-free, Healthy Oatmeal Cookie Recipes, Paleo, Vegan,
I cannot use almond flour, can I substitute flour such as rice flour?
Almond and oat flour can’t interchangeable. Can you have other grains or just rice flour?
No wheat flour, but can use rice
If you just can’t have gluten and wheat, then check out my gluten-free oatmeal cookies, which use rice flour with some other flours.
These cookies are SO good. Even my husband, who thinks raisins are a sad sub for chocolate chips, really liked them. Can’t wait to try your chocolate chip cookie recipe next! (oh and I accidentally left out the coconut and they were still a great texture!)
A sad sub for chocolate chips? Haha. I guess he’s kind of right. ;) Except in oatmeal raisin cookies! I’m so glad that you both enjoyed the cookies. I hope you’ll like the chocolate chip cookies just as much! Thanks for your comment.
These are SO good! Completely satisfied my craving for oatmeal raisin cookies. Even my husband who hates raisins liked the taste of these (don’t worry, there’s a batch of your chocolate chip cookies baking for him in the oven). I only used half a cup of coconut sugar, and with the raisins, they were plenty sweet. Thank you so so much for this recipe!
I’m sorry for just now seeing your comment! It was in spam for some reason and with my son home the last few months, I haven’t been diligent in checking it. :( I’m so happy that you enjoyed the cookies! I’m glad that they worked well with less coconut sugar. Was the texture still really good with less sugar? And that was nice of you to make your husband his own batch. I would have just eaten them all. ???? Thanks a bunch for your comment and sorry for my slow reply!
Yes, texture was perfect, even with less coconut sugar!
Oh, great! I’ll have to try that. Thank you! :)
OKAY WOW.
I have been on a **baking crusade** to find a great paleo cookie and I told my boyfriend I can officially retire and hang up my apron and go back to savories.
This is an amazing cookie – and as skeptical as I was beforehand, totally tastes like a real-deal oatmeal cookie.
My sweet treat lately has been the Trader Joe’s dried baby bananas (no sugar added), and I’m not a big raisins person, so I chopped the dried banana into raisin-sized pieces and used that instead. It was delicious, for any non-raisin lovers. (To be clear, baby bananas are very sweet so when dried they have the same texture as a soft raisin – not like a “banana chip” or something like that.)
Eating half the batch and freezing the other half for future PMS (lol)
Haha. I love that you’ve been on a baking crusade. :D Have you also tried my paleo chocolate chip cookies? That’s my most popular recipe. Thanks for the tip about dried baby bananas! I hadn’t heard of those. I’m so glad that you liked the cookies! Thanks a bunch for your feedback.
I haven’t yet! I’ll give them a try!
PS my boyfriend said these are the best cookies I’ve ever made, and we were together before I went GF and paleo etc. wow
Wow! What a compliment. So glad he liked them so much! :)
Hi, can I use almond meal? Thanks!
Instead of almond flour? Yes. :)
Hi Erin, I’m new to your blog and just found you by chance but boy am I glad I did! I cannot wait to make more of your recipes based on this cookie recipe alone. It was SO GOOD! I don’t even remember what my favorite oatmeal raisin cookies taste like anymore after these because they wiped out the memory and made a new favorite memory. Thank you! I was wondering if you had figured anything out using Lacanto or erythritol. I read through all the comments and in a lot of your sweet recipes you say that low carb sweetners never work for you. I’m wondering since that was a few years ago if you’ve had any more success because I would love to cut back on the sugar here. I’m scared I’m going to waste my expensive ingredients unless I hear from someone else how it went first. Thank you so much again!
Hi Holly! I’m glad you found the blog, too. :) And how awesome that these cookies wiped out the memory of your old favorite oatmeal cookies! I’m afraid nothing has changed with me and low-carb sweeteners. I can’t use them so I can’t really experiment (I also live in Germany and would have to order them from the US making experimenting insanely expensive!). Sorry I can’t be more of a help. Sometimes commenters leave their low-carb changes in the comments, though. I hope you’ll enjoy the other recipes! Thanks for your comment. :)
Erin, I am curious why you say low-carb sweeteners don’t work for you. Does that mean you don’t like the taste or you can’t get the recipe to work with them? I made these with an equal amount of Swerve brown and they were really good. I had to add a few teaspoons of water to get them to come together because low-carb sweeteners are drying. My husband loved them and he’s pretty picky. We are used to low-carb though. I’ve made your regular version too with coconut sugar and we couldn’t tell a difference. Just wanted to give your low carb readers a heads up. God bless!
You couldn’t tell a difference?! Hmm. I don’t understand. I tried the regular version with Brown Swerve and thought they tasted terrible and they fell apart and didn’t spread at all. I didn’t add any extra water, though. But they definitely had a strong taste to them which my husband and I didn’t like at all. I’ve tried using Swerve, Lakanto, and Sukrin. I haven’t liked anything I’ve made with them. :( I so wish I did! And the other problem is that they give me stomach issues. I’m glad that you liked them, though! Thanks for sharing how you made them. :)
Well… let me start off by saying I prefer your version but we just can’t have that much sugar. These cookies are huge and I cannot just eat half lol. WE LOVE THEM SOOOO MUCH ERIN ???? You are the cookie queen. You’re probably the queen of other things too but we haven’t had time to make other things on here yet! So, there’s a definite taste with those products and I agree with you that a lot of people have stomach issues with them. But I just wanted to make note of that in case other readers wanted to try. The key is to cut it with a little bit of a regular sweetener like coconut sugar. I didn’t do that with these last time because I wanted to see how they tasted when they were completely low-carb (except for the raisins). But I will do that next time. You have to add a teeny tiny bit of water though or they will not come together or spread. If you add too much water they spread flat. I’ve had much trial and error with baking paleo, keto low carb etc… so…I guess you live and learn. Thanks again!
Haha. Cookie queen. Thank you. I love the title. :D It’s really a great tip to add some water! I see so many bloggers saying to just use whatever low-carb sweetener in place of coconut sugar and I’m always just thinking, “Huh?! That doesn’t work for me.” I can’t wait to try it! I won’t be able to eat them but I’d like to add the option if I can. Thanks again for your help!
Just made these and my husband LOVES them! We are eating paleo, and this is the first cookie I made that was just perfect! They’re so good that I now have a batch of the Chocolate Chip ones in the oven. I can’t wait to try some of your other recipes now! Thank you so much for being so innovative!
Aww, yay! I’m glad that you both enjoyed them and I hope that you liked the chocolate chip version just as much. Thanks a bunch for your comment and kind words! :)
I am curious why you said to move the rack to the lowest position and bake there? They seem so perfect but that did make some overcook /burn on the bottom. I added cashew butter to them and chopped dates instead of raisins – for the most part they turned out awesome.
Except me burning some of them! uggh
Aww, I’m sorry some of them burned! I tried baking them in the middle several times but the bottoms were always undercooked and I couldn’t get them off the cookie sheet in one piece. Putting them in the lowest position fixed it! You didn’t put them on the bottom of the oven, right, but on the lowest “shelf” (can’t think of the right way to say this just now!) Just want to make sure!
I ran out of shredded coconut, what can I use as a substitute? As I want to make these now. Can’t wait to make these. ????
I don’t really think there’s a good sub for coconut. It took a lot of work to get the proportions right on this recipe so I wouldn’t recommend just omitting it! Sorry about that.
Thanks Erin for answering. I’ll buy the coconut tomorrow, as I want the cookies to be perfect.
Merry Christmas????
Awesome! Hope they’ll be worth the trouble of a trip to the store. :) Enjoy!
These are a family fave! Everyone loves them and say they are better than regular cookies. Thanks so much for all the great recipes!
Better than regular cookies? Wow, thanks! I was very happy to read that. :) Thanks for your comment!
Hi Erin! I made these cookies! And I am impressed!!! They are so good and easy to make :) love your recipe :)
Yay! I’m thrilled that you were impressed. :) Thanks for your comment!
Yummy! made these tonight for our gluten free and dairy free dinner guest needs. They were a hit! My go•to will forever be your paleo chocolate chip cookies (the. best. ever.), but these were delish and nice to change it up! … Now on to try your next recipe! thanks for all you do!
I’m so happy that you enjoyed them and that they were a hit! And glad that you love the chocolate chip cookies. :) Hope you’ll enjoy the next recipe just as much. Thanks for your comment and sorry for the slow reply! I’m in the process of moving and haven’t had internet since Sunday.
omg. i made them. amazing recipe. thank you!!! i used peanut butter. i will make it again and again. im going to try other recipes too. blessings!!!!
Woohoo! I’m so happy that they came out well with peanut butter. :) Did they still taste kind of like oatmeal cookies or not really? Thanks a bunch for your comment and I hope you’ll enjoy the other recipes just as much!
Yes. It does taste as oatmeal but you can also taste the peanut butter. i’m sure that almond butter will have a milder taste.
Yum! I love the idea of a peanut butter version. Trying that out soon! Thanks for your reply. :)
Don’t want to use flaxseed in oatmeal cookies, digestive reasons, what should i substitute with?
I haven’t tried anything else. Maybe ground chia seeds would work? I have no idea, though, if it’d have the same effect.
These are really good! Just like “real” cookies. Family agreed, and that’s no small thing. Thank you, Texanerin Baking. I ran out of almond butter and used half natural peanut butter and they were still amazing! I go to Texanerin Baking first because I know I will not be disappointed.
Oh my gosh. Sorry that I’m just now responding! I’m very happy that you enjoyed the cookies and what a nice thing to say. :) Thanks a ton for your comment and sorry again for the ridiculously slow reply!
I love these cookies and I need that pan. I had no idea they made cookie sheets. Can’t wait to use this pan when I make your cookies.
Right?! I had no idea they make so many awesome things other than Bundts. Hope you’ll get your hands on that pan soon!
I’m a sucker when it comes to oatmeal cookies! These look amazing!!!
Thanks so much! :)
Ahhh, these look amazing!
Thanks!
These look amazing! I love that different options!
Thank you!
Is there a way you can add the nutrional values at the end of recipe. Calories, carbs.,fat, sodium, fiber? They look so delicious!
Thanks! And unfortunately, I’m not a nutritionist or a dietician and because of this, I’d be uncomfortable providing nutritional information. I’d hate to give out false information, especially when it could result in a problem for someone. Many of my readers like using Calorie Count to figure out the nutritional profile. Sorry for the inconvenience!
Thank you so much for the link to the nutrition label maker! I have wished for something like that.
I also am not a nutritionist, but offer my result from that website for others to use at their own risk. I did not include the extra +2 tbsp in a couple of ingredients, it was not recognizing the multiple measurements and I was too lazy to create separate lines.
Of course, they are calorie dense, but with a good profile of protein and fat and amount of carbs (wish it was less sugar though.) At 8 cookies per batch, these are nearly a stand alone meal. Would be great for breakfast on the go. For a snack or dessert, I would definitely halve the size of the cookies.
They are nearly 450 calories each. With 29 g of fat, 30 g of sugar, and 8.2 g protein.
Thanks for sharing! And I’m happy you found the link useful. :) I hope that you enjoyed the cookies!