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These are the best vegan oatmeal raisin cookies ever! They’re soft, thick, and made with warm spices, giving you the coziest cookies! Plus, these freezer friendly cookies are ready in under 30 minutes and don’t require any dough chilling.
There is nothing cozier to me than a freshly baked warm oatmeal cookie. These vegan oatmeal raisin cookies are based off of my popular vegan oatmeal chocolate chip cookies.
These vegan oatmeal raisin cookies use simple ingredients that you probably already have in your pantry, and they are perfect for those with food allergies!
Why You'll Love These Vegan Oatmeal Cookies
- These cookies are loaded up with warm and cozy spices like cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg.
- These oatmeal cookies are extra thick and soft - no thin cookies here!
- This recipe is freezer friendly, so you’ve always got a stash of cookies on hand.
- These cookies are ready in under 30 minutes and don’t need any chilling time.
- They’re egg free, dairy free, and can easily be made gluten free too!
Ingredients Needed
- Butter: Any vegan butter will work fine!
- Flour: I tested this recipe with all purpose flour, but if you are gluten free then you can use gluten free 1-1 baking flour.
- Oats: you will need to use old fashioned rolled oats, not quick oats or steel-cut oats.
- Flaxseed: make sure you are using milled or ground flaxseed and not whole flaxseeds.
Step By Step Instructions
Note: Full ingredient measurements and instructions can be found in the recipe card at the bottom of this page.
Step 1: Start by making your flax egg. Add 2 tablespoons of milled or ground flaxseeds and 4 ½ tablespoons of warm water to a small bowl.
Stir together and set aside until it becomes thick and gelatinous, about 10-15 minutes. If it forms a layer of water on top, scoop that out.
Step 2: Preheat the oven to 350°Fahrenheit and line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
Step 3: In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, or in a large bowl with a handheld mixer, beat the butter, brown sugar and white sugar together for 1-2 minutes, until light and fluffy. Add the flax egg and vanilla extract.
Step 4: Mix in the flour, nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves, salt and baking soda. Do not over-mix the cookie dough! Stir in the raisins.
Step 5: Using a large cookie scoop or your hands, scoop out 3 tablespoons of cookie dough. Press a few raisins on top of the cookie dough ball.
Repeat with the remaining dough, placing them 3-4 inches apart. Bake one cookie sheet at a time for 9-12 minutes. The edges will be golden brown and the middle will have set.
Step 6: Allow the cookies to cool on the sheet for 10-15 minutes. Sprinkle the cookies with some sea salt if desired. Transfer the cookies to a wire cooling rack to cool completely.
FAQs and Expert Tips
If you don’t like raisins you can swap them out for craisins, dried cherries or nuts! Or, you can check out my vegan oatmeal chocolate chip cookie recipe instead.
Yup! Just use an equal amount of gluten free all purpose 1-1 baking flour instead of regular all purpose flour.
Can I use quick oats instead of rolled oats?
If you want thick and chewy cookies, then you will have to use old fashioned, rolled oats and not quick oats. Quick oats will absorb moisture much faster than the rolled oats, leaving you with a dry cookie.
Expert Tips
- Measure your flour properly: Measure your flour using either a kitchen scale or the scoop and level method. A lot of people measure flour incorrectly and add too much, leading to a dry and crumbly cookie.
- Avoid over-mixing: when you start adding your dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, be careful not to over-mix the cookie dough. If you over-mix the dough then it will lead to a dry cookie
- Let the dough sit for around 5 minutes before scooping it onto the baking sheet. This allows it to firm up a little bit and makes it easier to scoop.
- Bakery style cookies: here are a couple tips to make your vegan oatmeal raisin cookies bakery worthy! Just before baking, place a few raisins on top of each cookie dough ball. Then once the cookies are out of the oven use a wide rim cup or biscuit cutter to gently scoot the cookies into perfectly round shapes.
- Flax egg: make sure to give your flax egg enough time to get gelatinous. If after 15 minutes it still isn’t firm enough I recommend placing it in the fridge for a few minutes.
Storage and Freezing Instructions
You can store the freshly baked cookies in an airtight container for up to 5 days at room temperature.
To freeze the baked cookies, just place in a freezer bag for up to 2 months in the freezer. Thaw at room temperature when ready to eat. To freeze the unbaked cookies, place the unbaked cookie dough balls on a parchment lined plate.
Place in the freezer until almost frozen solid. Take them out of the freezer and place in a ziploc bag. You can now freeze them for up to 2 months. Allow them to come to room temperature before baking.
More Vegan Cookie Recipes You'll Love
If you make this recipe, let me know how it went in the comments below, I’d love to hear from you! You can also tag me on Instagram or Facebook so I can check it out!
Vegan Oatmeal Raisin Cookies
Equipment
- Mixing Bowls
Ingredients
- 2 Tablespoons ground/milled flaxseed
- 4½ Tablespoons warm water
- 1 cup vegan butter, softened
- ¼ cup granulated sugar
- ½ cup light brown sugar
- 1 Tablespoon vanilla extract
- 2¼ cups old fashioned oats (SEE NOTES)
- 1⅔ cup all-purpose flour (SEE NOTES)
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon ground cloves
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- ⅔-¾ cup raisins
Instructions
- Add 2 tablespoon of milled/ground flaxseed and 4½ tablespoon of warm water to a small bowl. Stir and set aside until the mixture becomes thick and gelatinous (around 10-15 minutes). If after 10 minutes, a layer of water has formed on top of the flax eggs, you can scoop that out.
- Preheat oven to 350°F and line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
- In the bowl of a standing mixer with the paddle attachment or a handheld mixer, beat butter, brown sugar, granulated sugar for 1-2 minutes, until light and fluffy. Add in the flax egg and vanilla extract.
- Mix in the flour, nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves, salt, and baking soda until combined. Do not over-mix! Stir in the raisins.
- Use a large cookie scoop or your hands to form 3 tablespoon sized balls of dough. Press a few more chocolate chips into the top of each cookie (if desired). Put the dough onto the baking sheets, around 3-4 inches apart and bake one sheet at a time, for 9-12 minutes. The edges will look golden brown and the middles will look set.
- Let cool on the baking sheet for 10-15 minutes (you can sprinkle with some sea salt if desired), then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
The calorie information provided for this recipe is an estimate. The accuracy of the calories listed is not guaranteed.
Christina
Can you replace the butter with apple sauce or something more healthy?
Gabby
I haven't tested them with any butter alternatives so I can't say for sure how they would turn out, but you could try coconut oil (equal amount in grams)
Linda
My favorite!
Gabby
I'm so happy you loved them!!