These Vegan Oatmeal Raisin Cookies are chewy, oatmeal cookies filled with raisins for a healthy breakfast on the go. Plus, they are super easy to make for a make-ahead breakfast cookie.
We are big fans of vegan oatmeal cookie recipes, and after sharing my peanut butter banana oatmeal cookies, it’s time for the old-time classic oatmeal raisin cookies.
These are naturally chewy, sweet, and full of oats to bring you fiber and energy in the morning. So let’s see how to make eggless oatmeal raisin cookies.
Ingredients and Substitutions
All you need to make oatmeal raisins cookies without eggs or dairy are a few simple ingredients.
- Old-Fashioned Rolled Oats – You can use quick oats instead of rolled oats, but the chewy texture won’t be the same.
- All-Purpose Flour – You can also use white spelt flour for a healthier alternative to all-purpose flour.
- Flax Meal – Flaxseed meal is a high-fiber and low-carb flour that brings texture to baking recipes.
- Baking Soda – for a bit of texture in the cookies.
- Vegan Butter – Coconut oil is not recommended for this recipe as the cookies would overly spread with it.
- Brown Sugar – Or coconut sugar.
- White Sugar – Or crystal sweetener.
- Cinnamon – Cinnamon adds a delicate flavor to these oatmeal cookies.
- Vanilla Extract – To bring a delicious taste.
How To Make Vegan Oatmeal Raisin Cookies
- First, prepare a flaxseed egg. Stir the flax meal and lukewarm water in a small bowl.
- Wait for 10 minutes at room temperature until an egg-like texture forms.
- Meanwhile, in another bowl, whisk the flour, oats, baking soda, and cinnamon. Set the bowl aside.
- Next, in another large bowl, add softened vegan butter, brown sugar, and white sugar.
- Beat the mixture with an electric beater or the paddle attachment of a stand mixer until the butter is creamy and the sugar well incorporated. It takes about 1 to 2 minutes on the high-speed setting.
- Add the flax egg and dry ingredients into the bowl with the sugar/butter mixture and stir until all incorporated.
- You can use a silicone spatula, the paddle attachment, or the stand mixer to do so.
- Cover the bowl with plastic wrap or silicone lid, and pop the cookie dough in the fridge for 20 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C). Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and lightly oil paper with coconut oil or vegan butter. Set it aside.
- Now, scoop two tablespoons of batter, roll them between slightly oiled hands, and place them on the prepared baking sheet.
- Repeat until you have formed 12 cookie dough balls, making sure you leave some space between each cookie as they will expand a bit in the oven.
- Use your hand to press slightly and flatten each cookie dough ball into the shape of a cookie.
- Bake the cookies for 15 to 17 minutes at 350°F (180°C) on the center rack and bottom center rack if you use two trays as I did.
- Let the cookies cool down on the baking sheet for at least 10 minutes. This is a crucial step to firm up your cookies. They will be a bit soft after baking and will firm up, getting chewy after cooling down.
Storage Instructions
These vegan oatmeal raisin cookies store very well in a sealed cookie jar placed in the fridge for up to 4 days. You can also freeze these oatmeal raisins cookies for up to 3 months in zip-lock bags. Thaw them at room temperature the day before.
Add-Ons
You can always twist this recipe to create a range of delicious oatmeal cookies. For example, you can replace the raisins with a combination of one or two of the below ingredients to create new cookie flavors:
- Shredded Coconut – this also adds an extra chewy texture to the cookies.
- Dried Cranberries
- Dried Apricot finely chopped.
- Dark Chocolate Chips
- Chopped Walnuts or pecans.
Allergy Swaps
If you have food allergies, there are some easy swaps you can apply to this recipe.
- Oat-Free – You can replace old-fashioned rolled oats with millet flakes or puffed quinoa cereal.
- Gluten-Free – Pick a gluten-free certified all-purpose flour and gluten-free certified oats brand.
- Sugar-Free – Granulated sugar-free sweeteners like erythritol melt well in cookies. Avoid xylitol which keeps cookies ultra soft.
Frequently Asked Questions
Below are some answers to your most frequent questions about these oatmeal raisin cookies:
Yes, you can replace all-purpose flour with a 1:1 all-purpose gluten-free flour blend containing xanthan gum.
If your blend doesn’t contain any gum, add 1/2 teaspoon xanthan gum to the cup of flour.
You can use granulated brown erythritol and white erythritol.
The cookies are less chewy with a sugar-free sweetener, but it will work for sugar-free vegan cookies.
If you don’t like raisins much, try the same amount of dark chocolate chips, chopped walnuts, or even dried cranberries.
You can use melted coconut oil, but the cookies spread even more and get crunchier.
I didn’t try replacing oil with anything else, but usually, mashed banana or unsweetened apple sauce works well in the same amount.
More Oatmeal Cookie Recipes
I have a collection of oatmeal cookie recipes for you to try if you want to try some other flavors.
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Vegan Oatmeal Raisin Cookies
Ingredients
Flax egg
- 1 tablespoon Flaxmeal
- 2 ½ tablespoons Water - lukewarm
Vegan Oatmeal Cookie Dough
- 1 cup All-Purpose Flour
- 1 ½ cup Old-Fashioned Rolled Oats
- ½ teaspoon Cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon Baking Soda
- ¼ teaspoon Salt - if vegan butter is unsalted
- ½ cup Dairy-Free Butter (Unsalted) - softened
- ½ cup Soft Brown Sugar
- ¼ cup Sugar
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
- 1 cup Raisins
Instructions
- Prepare the flax egg, in a small bowl, whish flaxseed meal, and water. Set aside 10 minutes or until a gel-like texture forms.
- In a large mixing bowl, stir together flour, oats, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt.
- In another bowl, add softened vegan butter, brown sugar, and sugar. Beat with an electric beater or paddle attachment of a stand mixer until creamy and smooth – about 90 seconds.
- Add flax egg and vanilla extract and stir few seconds until incorporated.
- Stir the dry ingredients into the bowl until a creamy cookie batter forms. Stir in raisins.
- Cover bowl and store cookie dough for 30 minutes in the fridge.
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C). Line one or two cookie sheets with parchment paper, and lightly grease with coconut oil or vegan butter. Set aside.
- Scoop out 2 tablespoons of batter, roll between lightly greased hands into a ball, and place onto the prepared cookie sheet. Press them slightly with your hand to flatten.
- Repeat with the remaining cookie dough, leaving some space between each ball as the cookies expand in the oven.
- Bake in the center rack of the oven for 15-18 minutes or until golden brown and crispy on the edges.
- Cool down on the cookie sheet for 10 minutes, they are still soft, hot, and that's normal, they firm up as they cool down. When easy to handle, slide a spatula under each cookie and transfer them to a wire rack before eating.
Storage
- Store up to 3 days at room temperature or 4-6 days in the fridge in a sealed cookie jar. Freeze in zip-lock bags and thaw at room temperature the day before.
Delicious recipe, Carine! I doubled the recipe, ended up with more than 24, got creative and made cookie sandwiches. Imagine an oatmeal raisin cookie spread with raw cashew butter, shredded carrot & ginger root layer, topped with an oatmeal raisin cookie — the perfect ‘carrot cake sandwich’! Thanks for helping me make sliced bread 😉
My go to recipe for something to have with a cup of tea. The whole family enjoys it too. Wonderful!
Delicious! Just made some and I can see why there are so many 5 star reviews! Yummy! I didn’t spray the parchment paper per directions and they didn’t stick at all and had a nice, slightly crisp bottom. I baked for 16 minutes.
Very good, and still soft inside the next day! I found that at 15 minutes, the bottoms browned more than I would like, nearing the look of being burned. I think this may be due to oiling the parchment — don’t think that step is really needed.
This is our favourite oatmeal raisin cookie recipe and have made it several times. I’m making it again today for our granddaughters! Thank you for sharing.
I made this recipe yesterday and it is the best vegan oatmeal cookie recipe I have found. I’ve made two others but this one is the best.
The best oatmeal cookie recipe to date! We subbed dates for raisins and walnuts for chocolate chips. So good. Thank you!
This recipe was so forgiving- I accidentally added too much flour and had to compensate with more flax egg for moisture. The cookies turned out delicious! I only had dark brown sugar on hand and it worked fine. Can’t wait to make these again.
Hi Carine, Thank you SO much for an amazing, foolproof recipe. I’ve never had much luck with cookies before but these came out perfectly, first time. I used your suggestion of half raisins, half cranberries. This will be my go-to recipe in the future. Happy holidays!
I love raising cookies, and these are now my go to breakfast snack 🙂