Almond Flour Oatmeal Cookies are crispy, chewy, and generously studded with chocolate chips. Gluten-free, and delicious as dessert or afternoon snack!
I love baking with almond flour in all kinds of sweet recipes, but I’d never tried pairing almond flour with oats until recently. Turns out it’s a really lovely match. These gluten-free Almond Flour Oatmeal Cookies have a warm, nutty flavor enhanced by a generous amount of chocolate chips.
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Why Make This Recipe
- So Easy to Make: You only need one bowl, and a big wooden spoon to stir.
- Healthy-ish Snack: Yes, there's still sugar in this recipe (though you can replace with a sugar substitute), but with the oats and the almond flour in there, these are a relatively nutritious choice for cookies! Gluten-free too!
- Substitutions Possible: Read on for ideas for ingredient substitutions, including replacing the chocolate chips with raisins.
🥗 Ingredients for Almond Flour Oatmeal Cookies
- Brown Sugar: You can use light brown sugar or dark brown sugar for this recipe, or a combination of the two. Dark brown sugar will give you more of a molasses flavor in your cookies.
- Ground Cinnamon: You can leave this out if you don’t have it, or you can add a ¼ teaspoon of ground nutmeg instead. You could also replace the cinnamon with ground cardamom, for a slightly different, but equally delicious, flavor!
- Old-Fashioned Oats: Old fashioned oats are also called rolled oats. I like the texture you get with old fashioned oats, but you can use instant oats too. That said, instant oats absorb more liquid and bake into a softer texture. Conversely, if you substitute steel cut oats, you may get a coarser texture that isn’t as appealing. Also, make sure that if you are looking for a gluten-free recipe, you confirm that you are using certified gluten-free oats.
- Chocolate Chips: Use mini chocolate chips or the regular-sized ones. Or, replace with raisins for more traditional oatmeal raisin cookies.
- Other Add-ins: These healthy oatmeal cookies with almond flour are a great base for other flavors too. You can stir in dried fruit, such as dried cranberries, or add in butterscotch or white chocolate chips. You can also add chopped nuts or coconut flakes.
🥣 Step-by-Step Instructions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
Line one or more baking sheets with parchment paper.
In a large bowl, mix together 1 stick of softened butter, ½ cup packed brown sugar, and ¼ cup granulated sugar with a wooden spoon until well-combined.
Add 1 egg and 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract, and stir again.
Then, stir in 1 ¾ cups of blanched almond flour, 1 ½ cups of rolled oats, ½ teaspoon baking soda, ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon, and ½ teaspoon kosher salt.
When fully combined, stir in 1 cup chocolate chips.
Chill dough in refrigerator for 20-30 minutes.
Scoop out one generous tablespoon of filling at a time, and roll with your hands to make a ball. Using a cookie scoop like this makes this super easy.
Place cookie balls on the parchment paper-lined baking sheet a couple of inches apart.
Bake for 12-15 min, until you can smell them, and they are lightly browned on top.
Put the cookie sheet on a cooling rack. Let sit for 3 minutes to let these oatmeal chocolate chip cookies firm up. Then remove cookies and place directly on cooling rack. These healthy oatmeal cookies with almond flour are about to become your new favorite cookie!
🧐 Recipe FAQs
With the caveat that I haven't tested this myself, I think these cookies would work fine with replacing the butter with coconut oil, vegetable shortening, or a vegan butter substitute. If the texture seems too soft, add more almond flour or oats. For a vegan recipe, you'll need to replace the egg as well—try replacing with a flax egg or with applesauce. And make sure your chocolate chips do not include any dairy (or make these into almond flour oatmeal raisin cookies by replacing chips with raisins!).
Almond meal and almond flour are terms used for the same thing—both mean finely ground almonds. The majority of almond flour products are made by finely grinding blanched almonds (almonds where the skins have been removed). Almond meal can mean finely ground blanched or unblanched almonds, and almond meal may be a coarser grind than almond flour. In general, I look for almond flour for baking recipes.
You can easily make your own almond flour with the help of a food processor. Just take a quantity of blanched almonds (you can often find these as blanched, slivered almonds in the grocery store) and blitz in a food processor until they are finely ground. Just make sure you stop as soon as you see the texture you want—if you grind for too long, your almond flour will turn into almond butter.
Yes! And since almond flour is expensive both to buy and to make, you should definitely freeze any leftovers for your next batch. According to Bob’s Red Mill, you can even freeze almond flour for 4-5 months after its sell by date, as long as you keep it in an airtight container. You can also keep it in the fridge if you prefer, and in fact, if you are planning to store almond flour for over a few weeks, you should keep it in the refrigerator or freezer. Almond flour (and other nut flours) can turn rancid more quickly than traditional flour.
👩🍳 Expert Tips for Almond Flour Oatmeal Cookies
If you're new to working with almond flour, know that almond flour takes longer to absorb moisture than regular flour. That's the reason for chilling the dough before you bake. The extra time allows the almond flour to absorb more liquid. This firms up the dough so you can scoop it into balls. Note: cookie dough can rest in the fridge for up to 24 hours before baking, either in a bowl or already scooped into cookie balls.
One of the best things about almond flour cookies is their shelf life. Because there is more moisture and fat in almond flour than in regular flour, almond flour cookies will last longer than traditional flour cookies. They easily keep at room temperature in an airtight container for 5 days. You can also freeze baked cookies for up to 3 months, sealed in a freezer bag or airtight container. Just make sure cookies are fully cooled before putting them in the freezer. For more delicious almond flour cookies, check out my round-up of The Best Almond Flour Cookie Recipes.
Want to freeze the almond flour oatmeal cookie balls before baking? Roll the dough into balls, then put the cookie balls on a parchment-lined plate in the freezer to firm up. Once they are hard, you can move cookie balls into a freezer-safe ziplock bag or other freezer-safe container. Then take out the number of cookie balls you need when you want to bake them. Baking almond flour oat cookies straight from frozen will add another couple of minutes to your baking time. Cookie dough balls will last in the freezer for about 3 months.
Using Almond Flour
Now that you've tried almond flour in these oatmeal almond flour cookies, you're going to want to use it in everything! It's perfect for many French desserts—try making macarons or making a frangipane base for a tart.
You can bake muffins with almond flour too, like with these Banana Muffins with Almond Flour and these Zucchini Almond Flour Muffins. I also have recipes for Lemon Almond Flour Muffins, and Almond Flour Blackberry Muffins.
You can also use almond flour as a replacement for all-purpose flour (or for some of the flour) in regular cake or cookie recipes as in my French Yogurt Cake with Almonds, and Apple Almond Cake. Or mix almond meal with flour, sugar, and butter for a delicious topping for a fruit crisp, crumble, or tart.
Finally, you can replace breadcrumbs with almond flour when you are making breaded chicken or fish. Just note that almond flour will burn more quickly than traditional breadcrumbs.
For more information about substituting almond flour in your baking recipes, consult this almond flour baking guide from King Arthur Flour. It’s a great resource that shows you exactly how different kinds of recipes react to almond flour.
Other Almond Flour Recipes
If you enjoyed this Almond Flour Oatmeal Cookies recipe, you might also want to check out this round-up of my favorite Almond Flour Dessert Recipes. Here are a few more favorites:
For other delicious desserts, don’t miss my Ultimate Blondies with Chocolate Chips, my Puff Pastry Cinnamon Rolls with Apple, my Peach Blueberry Crisp, my Lemon White Chocolate Cookies, and my Cherry Danish with Puff Pastry.
If you try these Almond Flour Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies, I would love to hear from you! Leave a comment below—I read them all, and your feedback is invaluable to me. And please follow along on Instagram, Pinterest, and Facebook or subscribe to my newsletter. I'd love to inspire you with more delicious, healthy, and seasonal recipes!
📖 Recipe
Almond Flour Oatmeal Cookies
Almond Flour Oatmeal cookies are crispy, chewy, and generously studded with chocolate chips. Gluten-free, and delicious as dessert or afternoon snack!
Ingredients
- 1 stick butter, softened (4 oz.)
- ½ cup brown sugar, packed (100g)
- ¼ cup granulated sugar (50g)
- 1 egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 ¾ cup almond flour (175g)
- 1 ½ cup old-fashioned oats (150g)
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 cup chocolate chips or ¾ cup mini chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
- Line one or more baking sheets with parchment paper.
- Make sure butter is quite soft—if not, pop in the microwave for a few seconds to soften.
- In a large bowl, mix together butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar with a wooden spoon until well-combined.
- Add egg and vanilla extract, and stir again.
- Then, stir in almond flour, rolled oats, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt.
- When fully combined, stir in chocolate chips.
- Chill dough in refrigerator for 20-30 minutes.
- Scoop out one generous tablespoon of filling at a time, and roll with your hands to make a ball.
- Place cookie balls on the parchment paper-lined baking sheet a couple of inches apart.
- Bake for 12-15 min, until you can smell them, and they are lightly browned on top.
- Put the cookie sheet on a cooling rack and let sit for 3 minutes to let cookies firm up.
- Then remove cookies and place directly on cooling rack to finish cooling.
Notes
- I recommend using weights to measure ingredients rather than cup measures, whenever possible. It gives you a much more accurate measurement since the volume of ingredients like almond flour can be quite different with different brands.
- Cookie dough can rest in the fridge for up to 24 hours before baking, either in a bowl or already scooped into cookie balls.
- To make sure this recipe is completely gluten-free, check your oats to make sure they are certified gluten-free. Some oats are made in processing facilities that are not gluten-free.
- You can use light brown sugar or dark brown sugar for this recipe, or a combination of the two. Dark brown sugar will give you more of a molasses flavor in your cookies.
- Other ingredients can be used as a replacement for the chocolate chips: try raisins, dried cranberries, coconut, butterscotch or white chocolate chips.
- Baked cookies can be stored at room temperature in an airtight container for up to 5 days. Baked cookies can be frozen for up to 3 months.
- Unbaked cookie dough balls can also be frozen for up to 3 months. Just roll dough into balls and place on a parchment- or wax paper-lined plate in the freezer until firm. Then you can put the cookie dough balls into a freezer-safe ziplock bag and take out however many you want, whenever you want.
Nutrition Information:
Yield: 21 Serving Size: 1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 214Total Fat: 14gSaturated Fat: 6gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 7gCholesterol: 20mgSodium: 127mgCarbohydrates: 22gFiber: 3gSugar: 15gProtein: 4g
Nutrition information is provided as a general reference for users courtesy of the online nutrition calculator Nutritionix.
Instagram Users: Now that you've made these oatmeal cookies with almond flour, tag me @vanillabeancuisine or #vanillabeancuisine because I'd love to see your results!
More About Molly
Cooking healthy(ish) meals with seasonal ingredients is my passion. Trained as a French pastry chef, I spent over 10 years as a personal chef. Here you'll find well-tested recipes that you and your family will love!
Roxann says
I just saw this on Google news feed, March 5, 2023.
I've been looking for a Good Recipe for Chewy but Crunchy Oatmeal Cookies, but, can I use Regular, Unbleached Flour ?
I've not used any other ? Plus I will put Raisins, but Frozen, thawed out Crans in, is that ok ?
Thank You in advance !!!
Chef Molly says
Hi Roxann, you can definitely put in raisins instead of chocolate chips (or in addition to!). And you can substitute all-purpose flour but start with 1 1/2 cups of flour instead of 1 3/4 because almond flour absorbs more liquid than regular flour. Add more flour from there if it looks like your cookie batter is too wet. Hope that helps!
Connie Reading says
could I make them low carb by adding swerve brown n white sugar substitute?
Chef Molly says
I think that would work just fine, Connie!
ML says
really good oatmeal cookies. I added raisins and candied ginger pieces for the Choco chips. for the white sugar I used monk fruit. I also used dark brown sugar. I guess my scoop was smaller than yours so I got 39 cookies. will make again and again. thx much
Chef Molly says
love those substitutions! thanks so much for commenting.
L. F. says
I’m allergic to almonds. Can I substitute hazelnut flour? Thank you.
Chef Molly says
Hello! I have not baked much with hazelnut flour, but my understanding is that you should be able to sub hazelnut for almond flour in a cookie recipe. Hazelnut flour can be more crumbly than almond flour, so it may not work as well in a cake recipe, and you'd need to combine it with another type of flour. I think this recipe would work with a direct swap though!
Greta says
These cookies are so beautiful. I'll do it tomorrow. Thanks for sharing the recipe!
Wendy says
These were so good! I already have plans to make them again.
Chef Molly says
So glad you enjoyed them. A favorite of mine!
Journa Liz Ramirez says
Kids can't get enough of these crispy and delicious cookies. They love these with extra chocolate chips. Yummy!
Chef Molly says
Oooh, extra chocolate chips. Bring 'em on!
MacKenzie says
I love that these were made with almond flour. We made them yesterday and they taste similar to ones you would find at a bakery.
Chef Molly says
Definitely! So worth it to make your own! Glad you enjoyed these.
Rosanna Stevens says
We ate these way too fast, they were delicious!
Chef Molly says
So glad you enjoyed them!
Jennifer says
These cookies were amazing! I'm watching my gluten and so I was thrilled to see these cookies. They turned out perfectly and the kids loved them, too!
Chef Molly says
Glad to hear it! It's amazing how delicious gluten-free cookies can be.
Glenda says
One of my favorite gluten free cookie recipes! Thanks for sharing!
Chef Molly says
So glad you liked these--they are so good!
Nicole says
These cookies are amazing! Love the texture, too.
Chef Molly says
Thanks so much! They are a favorite around here.
Joe Lachat says
Very good with walnuts and raisins
Chef Molly says
Yes! So easy to add nuts, raisins, or any other dried fruit you like! Thanks for posting. 🙂
Alexa says
Wow! These were delicious!! Molly, I’m in awe of your website. Thank you for these delicious recipes and how you walk us through their creation with such care. Seriously, my kids were floored by my cooking this week! Thanks, my friend!
Chef Molly says
Awesome! I'm so happy to hear that, Alexa. Always good when the kids recognize our efforts, right?! Enjoy these yummy cookies!
Cheryl Walton says
is there a better substitute for the butter (seems to call for a lot of butter) or reduce the amount of butter? Thanks 😊
Molly Pisula says
Hi Cheryl, I haven't tried a butter substitute--to me, these cookies do not come out overly buttery at all. But you could try replacing half the butter with applesauce and see how that turns out. I know that works for some baking recipes. Or try with whatever butter substitute you prefer. I wouldn't just reduce it without replacing it, as I think your cookies would come out too dry. But replacing some of the butter with a substitute should be ok! Would love to hear how it turns out so that I can make that note for other people in the recipe itself.