I love oatmeal cookies! Do you know what I love even more than regular oatmeal cookies? Almond flour oatmeal cookies! Almond flour has so many advantages that make it a better choice than regular all purpose flour when you are making oatmeal cookies. It is naturally gluten free, low carb, and it has a rich nutty flavor that is perfect for making oatmeal cookies. This recipe for almond flour cookies will help you make cookies that are soft and chewy, not hard and dense.
As a note, different kinds of almond flour are ground to different sizes and can behave differently in recipes. For best results, we recommend using this brand of almond flour to make your almond flour oatmeal cookies as this is the brand that we use.
Allergen information
These almond flour oatmeal cookies are gluten free and egg free. The recipe uses applesauce rather than eggs so the only diary in the base recipe is the butter. This recipe could easily be made vegan by swapping out the butter with margarine.
Why use almond flour in oatmeal cookies?
Why use almond flour in oatmeal cookies? There are three main reasons for using almond flour in oatmeal cookies.
- Nutty flavor. Almond flour has a rich, nutty flavor that makes oatmeal cookies taste even better. The butter, nutty flavor of almond flour goes particularly well with the cinnamon that is typically used in oatmeal cookies.
- Low carb. Almond flour is lower in carbs than most other types of flour. Making cookies with almond flour is a great idea if you are trying to limit your carb intake.
- Gluten free. Almond flour is generally gluten free. Almond flour is sometimes produced on machinery that is shared with gluten containing grains. Make sure to pick an entirely gluten free brand if you have an allergy or celiac disease.
Can you sub almond meal for almond flour?
Can you substitute almond meal for almond flour? In general, the answer to this question is sometimes. Almond meal is grittier and does not hold together as well as almond flour so you do not want to use almond meal in recipes that you want to be soft and chewy. You can substitute almond meal for almond flour in recipes that are dense and crumbly such as pie crust recipes.
You should not use almond meal to make these oatmeal cookies. The almond meal will make the cookies more dense and crumbly. These almond flour oatmeal cookies are best when they are soft and chewy.
How to make soft, chewy oatmeal cookies
How do you make soft, chewy oatmeal cookies? In general the key to making soft, chewy oatmeal cookies is making sure that the oatmeal cookies do not spread too much when they are cooking. When cookie dough spreads it becomes thin and cooks faster. This leads to crispy cookies rather than soft cookies. Here are all of our best tips for making soft, chewy oatmeal cookies.
- Line your baking sheet with tin foil. When I make almond flour oatmeal cookies I line my baking sheet with tin foil rather than parchment paper. Tin foil is grippier and less slippery than parchment paper so it slows down the spread of the cookie dough. One caveat here is that your cookies will be slightly harder to remove from the tin foil and you will really need to wait for the cookies to cool to remove them from the tin foil.
- Chill your batter before cooking. When you chill your batter the butter in your dough firms up. This slows the spread of the cookie dough because it makes the consistency of the dough less liquid.
- Blend your oats. For best results, you should blend you oats in a food processor (this is the one we use) for about 10 seconds before adding them to your cookie dough. This is not enough time to grind the oats to a fine powder, it just slices them into smaller pieces.
- Do not over bake your cookies. Cookies tend to be soft right when they come out of the oven. This is especially true of oatmeal cookies. Sometimes people see that their cookies are soft and put them back in the oven. This can cause the cookies to overcook and become tough!
- Do not use old baking powder. Cookies that rise in the oven are going to be soft and chewy whereas cookies that do not rise will be dense and thick. Baking powder is the main raising agent in this recipe so if your baking powder is old your cookies might not rise properly.
Almond flour oatmeal cookies
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cup instant oats
- 1 cup almond flour
- 1 tsp cinnamon (heaping)
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1/2 cup white sugar
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter (softened)
- 1/3 cup unsweetened applesauce
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup chocolate chips (optional)
Instructions
- Blend the oats for 10-15 seconds to chop them into smaller pieces. Be careful not to blend the oats so much that they break down into a powder.
- Mix all of the dry ingredients other than the butter in a large mixing bowl.
- Mix the butter and the sugar together in a large mixing bowl then incorporate the rest of the wet ingredients.
- Combine the wet ingredients and the dry ingredients then put the dough in the refrigerator to chill for 30 minutes.
- Line a baking sheet with tinfoil then scoop small balls of cookie dough that are 1-2 inches in diameter out onto the baking sheet.Make sure to leave enough room between the cookies
- Preheat the oven to 350 then bake the cookies in the oven for 12-15 minutes.
- Remove the tinfoil from the baking sheet and allow the cookies to cool before removing them from the tinfoil.
Notes
Ingredients & tools for these cookies
Substitutions for oatmeal cookies
- Chocolate chips. If you are not a fan of chocolate chips you can omit them from this recipe. This recipe for almond flour oatmeal cookies is fine without any mix-ins.
- Raisins. You can also substitute the chocolate chips with an equal amount of raisins if you are a fan of oatmeal raisin cookies.
- Walnuts. I love to add walnuts to my oatmeal cookies! If you want to add walnuts to your cookies you should add 1/2 cup of chopped walnuts. Walnuts can be added as an addition to chocolate chips or raisins, or they can be added by themselves.
- Salted butter. You can use salted butter if you do not have any unsalted butter available. If you use salted butter you should omit the salt from the cookie dough.
- All purpose flour. If you do not have almond flour available to you you can also use gluten free all purpose flour, or regular all purpose flour if you do not have a gluten intolerance. However, I recommend using almond flour if at all possible.
Other easy cookie recipes
Can’t get enough of rich, nutty almond flour cookies? Check out our second favorite recipe for almond flour cookies. These lemon almond flour cookies use applesauce and vegetable oil rather than eggs and butter so they are vegan, dairy free, and egg free!
We absolutely love these vegan chocolate crinkle cookies! These vegan double chocolate crinkle cookies are loaded with chocolate chips to give them a little extra chocolate flavor!
