These oatmeal chocolate chip cookies use oil rather than butter! After 15 minutes, they emerge from the oven deliciously chewy, soft and super flavorful! Packed with chopped chocolate and old fashioned oats, they're quick to make, and require no rest or chill time. Sprinkle with flaky sea salt to finish.
Hi hi! Just popping in to share the recipe for these Dairy Free Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies with you! am so excited to finally be able to add this recipe to my Collection of chocolate chip cookie recipes with you as they are just so, so good.
These Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies are chewy, soft, and super flavourful, packed with chocolate and oats, and also happen to be dairy free, thanks to the olive oil so if you are looking for chocolate chip cookies with no butter, i've got you covered. They are a riff on my Small batch olive oil chocolate chip cookies which are a reader favorite - if you like those, also check out my easy double chocolate chip cookie recipe which is also an oil based cookie!
These cookies come together quickly and don't have a rest time. The recipe makes six huge chewy oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, although if you like you are most welcome to scale back the recipe and make these a little smaller (although I will never say no to a giant cookie).
How to make Easy Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
These chewy Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies come together in almost less time than it takes the oven to preheat. There is no softening butter required (so they are a great no butter cookie recipe), and they have no rest time, so they are great to just throw together and pop into the oven whenever you're needing a cookie. I do love a long rest time sometimes on a cookie (my perfect chocolate chip cookies use one), but as a food blogger, it's great to have a perfect back pocket recipe that can be ready in 30 minutes.
- Whip your wet ingredients. These cookies are super easy - you start by whipping together the sugars, oil, and egg until slightly thick and fluffy.
- Add your dry ingredients. Dry ingredients go in - flour, oats, leavening agents, and some salt and espresso powder. Mix it all in. It may look a tiny bit oily but that is fine - it's an oil based oatmeal cookie and so that is totally normal.
- Add your chocolate. I use chopped chocolate for these cookies (and all chocolate chip cookies), but you can use what works well for you here.
- Portion up the cookies. A cookie scoop is a great tool here, but you can also portion these by weight if you like.
- Bake off! These chewy oatmeal chocolate chip cookies bake at a slightly lower temperature than other cookie recipes (more on that in a bit). Pull them out and scoot them into shape if you like, and finish with some sea salt. That's it - these are so, so easy. I love them so much and I hope you do too!
What makes a chewy cookie chewy?
For this oatmeal chocolate chip cookie recipe, there are a few factors that give them a delicious chewy texture:
- Ratio of sugars. The ratio of brown to white sugar makes a big difference in cookies, with cookies with a higher ratio of white sugar being a little more chewy.
- Inclusion of oatmeal. I know that these wouldn't be oatmeal chocolate chip cookies without the addition of oats, but they provide a whole bunch of texture, and give you an amazing chewy cookie.
- Chocolate chip cookies with no butter. Because this is a chocolate chip cookie recipe using olive oil, the oil in the recipe contributes a chewyness as there is no water in it (unlike butter) so it really lets the sugars and oats play together for the most amazing chocolate chip cookie.
How do you store Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies?
I store my cookies in an airtight container at room temperature. They last up to five days if stored correctly.
The best Oats to use for Oatmeal Cookies
I tested these Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies with Old Fashioned Oats. I haven't tested with any other type of oats so I am not sure if it would work with a rolled oat, and I think a quick cooking oat would get too sludgy.
Old fashioned oats are chunkier and a little thicker than other styles of oats, which makes them perfect in this oatmeal chocolate chip cookie recipe. They give a great chew to the cookie, and also help to provide some structure - another secret to super chewy cookies.
Three types of sugar in chewy oatmeal chocolate chip cookies?
You will notice that there are three types of sugar in these chocolate chip cookies. This trick of using a little raw / turbinado sugar is one of my favourites and the ratio of brown to white sugar affects spread in cookies.
- Muscovado Sugar / Brown Sugar - This gives cookies less of a spread, while also adding flavour and helping to keep a slightly soft centre.
- White / Granulated Sugar - white sugar helps cookies to spread, and gives that lovely chewy texture around the outside. Playing around with the ratio of white to brown sugar is a fun way to change the spread of a cookie. This is what helps to make a chewy cookie chewy.
- Turbinado / Raw Sugar - This is one of my favourite things to add into a cookie as it gives a super delicate crunch, which is so nice along with the chewy oats.
Why are these cookies baked at a lower temperature?
You may notice that the baking temperature on these cookies is 325°f / 165°c. There is a reason for this. Baking temperature affects a few things, mainly how these cookies spread and how quickly they bake.
If cookies are baked at a hotter temperature, particularly with an oil based recipe such as this one, they will spread more, and bake faster (obviously). While 350°f / 180°c is great for most cookie recipes, I found that it caused these cookies to melt down too fast and end up thinner than I was hoping.
It is also important to make sure your oven is running at an accurate temperature if you are making things that are temperature sensitive. An oven thermometer is a great investment.
Tips for Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookies
There are a few tips that I use every time for perfect chocolate chip cookies. These tips can be applied to every cookie recipe. They are completely optional (aside from using a scale of course!) but make a big difference if you're looking for perfect chocolate chip cookies!
- Chop your chocolate. Chopped chocolate gives you pockets of chocolate and perfect chocolate shards distributed throughout the cookie. I prefer chopped chocolate over chocolate chips in cookies forever. Chocolate also melts much better than chips. It's the best ever.
- Use a cookie scoop. You can weigh out your cookie dough balls if you don't have a cookie scoop, but they are a great investment. They help to get the dough all relatively the same size and make things super quick and easy. I use this one.
- Add chocolate puddles. To get puddles on the top of cookies, press the dough into a disc and press additional chocolate on the top, then squish it back up into a ball of dough. This encases all the chocolate inside and as it bakes you get perfect puddles.
- Scoot your cookies. The "Cookie Scoot" is my secret weapon to perfectly round cookies. It's a totally optional step, but one that I really love. All you do is take a round object slightly larger than the cookie. As soon as the cookies come out of the oven, while they are still hot, put the cutter over the cookie and 'scoot' it into a perfectly round shape. The best. I do it basically every time now.
For more tips and tricks on making perfect chocolate chip cookies, check out my ultimate guide: How to make perfect chocolate chip cookies
Frequently Asked Questions
What tools and equipment do you use?
You can see a full list of all the tools I use here. I used a 3 Tbsp Cookie Scoop to scoop out the cookies, but you can also divide the dough and weigh it out.
Can these cookies be made ahead?
I haven't had great success with freezing an oil based cookie dough like this one, particularly when the recipe also contains oats. The oats tend to hydrate and the texture of the cookie is thrown off. With that being said, the baked oatmeal chocolate chip cookies would freeze well I think! I just haven't frozen the dough.
I don't have muscovado sugar, what can I use?
No worries if you don't - you can sub in brown sugar (light or dark). If you don't have any raw sugar I would substitute it with 10g brown sugar or muscovado (whatever you are using) and 10g granulated sugar.
Help - my cookies spread everywhere?!
Your oven is likely running too hot. Reduce the baking temperature and it might be a good idea to invest in an oven thermometer - so often ovens do not run at the temperature on the display.
Do I have to use the espresso powder?
If you don't have access to espresso powder you can either use fine instant coffee, or you can just leave it out. Up to you - it is just there to add flavour and enhance the taste of the chocolate.
Can these be made smaller?
Yes, absolutely. If you don't want massive cookies, you can scale these back and do a 2 Tbsp scoop, which will be about 45 to 50g of dough.
For more easy chocolate chip cookie recipes, check out:
❤️ Made this recipe and love it? ❤️
I would LOVE for you to leave me a review and star rating below to let me know how you liked it! Also, please make sure to tag me on Instagram!
Answers to your baking questions
Over the years, many of you have asked me questions about:
- baking in grams
- adjusting oven temperatures
- what kind of salt to use
- and many more!
I've curated and answered them all for your easy reference in this frequently asked questions post!
Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies with Oil (No Butter)
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 20 minutes
- Total Time: 35 minutes
- Yield: 6 cookies 1x
- Category: Cookies
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
These oatmeal chocolate chip cookies use oil rather than butter! After 15 minutes, they emerge from the oven deliciously chewy, soft and super flavorful! Packed with chopped chocolate and old fashioned oats, they're quick to make, and require no rest or chill time. Sprinkle with flaky sea salt to finish.
Ingredients
- 75g Olive Oil
- 90g Muscovado Sugar or Brown Sugar
- 50g granulated sugar
- 20g Turbinado (Raw) Sugar
- 1 large egg, at room temperature
- 1 tsp (3g) kosher salt
- 1 tsp espresso powder
- 90g All-Purpose Flour
- 75g old fashioned oats
- ¼ tsp baking soda
- ¼ tsp baking powder
- 200g dark chocolate, coarsely chopped, plus extra for the tops (I used a mixture of milk and dark - make sure you choose a dairy free chocolate if keeping these strictly dairy free)
- Flaky Sea Salt to finish (optional)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 325°f / 165°c. Line 1-2 sheet pans with parchment paper.
- In a medium bowl, using a handheld electric mixer or a whisk (or you can use a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment), combine the Olive Oil, muscovado sugar, granulated sugar, turbinado sugar, and egg. Mix on high speed for about a minute, until the mixture is well combined. Add the salt, espresso powder, all-purpose flour, Oats, baking powder, and baking soda and fold in by hand using a rubber spatula.
- The dough will seem a little oily and may take a little work to come together - this is ok! Add the chopped chocolate and mix to incorporate.
- Scoop out 3 Tbsp balls of dough (about 80g per ball) and roll into rough balls. Press additional chocolate onto the top of each ball if desired. Arrange on the pan - these are quite big so I did 4 cookies on one pan and 2 on another just to leave room for spreading.
- Bake the cookies for 16 to 17 minutes, until the edges are set. Remove from the oven and tap the baking sheet briefly on the counter to deflate the cookies slightly. If you would like them perfectly round, use a cookie cutter slightly larger than the cookies to scoot them into a round shape. Finish with flaky sea salt.
- Allow to cool on the sheet pan for about 20 minutes.
- Store leftovers in an airtight container at room temperature.
Comments
Caribou says
Makes the perfect amount 🙂
Stacy says
These are delicious and come together so quickly!!
Adrienne says
Deliciously chewy with just the right amount of salt to match the chocolate.
Lisa P says
This cookie is incredible in every way!
Amy says
I’ve made a very similar version of these for years with a secret ingredient, 1/4 cup of toffee bits. Takes them over the top.
Erin Clarkson says
Oh yum! I have a salted caramel cookie recipe that has those, they would be so good here!
Irina says
Thanks for receipt! Really tasty and fine texture cookies! I’ ve added orange extract and some raisins.
Elisa says
Does this recipe double or triple, please? Grandkids are coming and I’d like to make these ! Thank you!
Erin Clarkson says
Yes it should do!
Tasnim says
I made them yesterday and honestly I never thought dairy free cookie could be this good!! They are just perfect. Thank you for sharing these wonderful recipes with us
Erin says
Delicious! Come together very quickly too. Erin's recipes are a winner every time!
Nadine says
Delicious chewy cookies loaded with chocolate. I doubled the recipe and made 12 massive cookies, they disappeared very quickly!
Chrystal says
Thank you for a great recipe. If it didn't turn out as beautiful despite my changes I wouldn't have rate it all online because then it's on me! But it worked so well with less sugar and simple rolled oats for me, I had to share for others.
Made them like 4 times in 2 months!
Daphne says
These were so so good! I love that they are small batch because I would eat them all in one sitting!
Liz says
So far I loved all the cookies I made from your side. But these are my favorites (when baked)! The texture is amazing and they stay very nice and fresh over a couple of days.
Next time I will try and add some caramelized white chocolate chips as well.
And when I say these are my favorites when baked, my favorite dough are the brown butter cookies 😀
Laura says
Just made these—so easy and good (and less dishes thanks to the measurements in grams, whoop!). I used regular olive oil and you can definitely taste it in the final product, I like it myself but something to consider if you don’t like that flavour.
maxx says
I made these cookies and they were so delicious! The cookies have a great texture/chew and the flavor is so good! I had been looking for a oatmeal raisin cookie alternative for my husband (he hates raisins)—this was IT. We might add nuts to it next time, but tbd, still finishing the first batch .
Taryn says
I was looking for an oat cookie and made these today! Love that they’re small batch, and super simple to make. It’s probably just the brand of olive oil I used, or maybe I just don’t like that flavour, but I get hints of it in the cookie and it’s not bad, just a little different. Good thing is hubby will probably hate it … more for me!
Karina says
I’ll be honest, olive oil instead of butter had me concerned but the 30 mins had me hooked. I didn’t have normal oats but I did have steel cut oats so they’re probably a bit different to intended but still delicious! I like how the texture is a bit more interesting than your standard chocolate chip cookie. I’m going to try them again true to recipe
Lyra says
These look fantastic, and I want to make them for a friend who is allergic to dairy. She also cannot eat gluten, so I wonder if GF flour could be substituted for all-purpose and have similar results. Perhaps oat flour or a GF all-purpose baking flour?
Erin Clarkson says
I haven't tried making them gluten free sorry!
Sarah says
There is a gluten free flour called 1-to-1 by red mill. It’s available at Walmart and it works as perfect substitute for regular white flour. I have made my regular chocolate chip cookies, and even waffles recipe and it tastes same and good texture. You will need extra flour for some recipes but most of the time it can be substituted in 1:1 ratio
Kim says
Can I substitute olive oil with canola oil?
Erin Clarkson says
Yep 🙂
Jo says
Hi Erin! Do you think these would work as cookie bars if I put the dough into an 8x8 pan, or doubled the recipe for a for 9x13 pan? I know you have other cookie bar recipes on the website but am keen to try this one that has olive oil!
Erin Clarkson says
Hi! Ummmm yep I would look at the quantites of my other cookie bar recipes and the size pan that they use and use those as a guide. I want to say an 8x8 but just check 🙂
Rosa says
Subbed sunflower instead of olive oil, flaxseed as an egg replacer, and added ~80g raisins. Turned out perfectly! Thank you so much for the awesome recipe 🙂 Also, you probably have it written somewhere but is there a difference if using table salt instead of kosher?
Erin Clarkson says
Table salt is twice as salty as kosher salt 🙂
Jenn says
These cookies are amazing. Definitely putting in my cookie rotation. I didn't have light olive oil so used Veggie oil and light brown sugar instead of Turbinado Sugar. Just fantastic. I'm not going to share with anyone
Tasha J says
These were the second search result when I googled ´cookies made with oil’. And gosh am I glad I found them!
This was my first time baking cookies with a scale and it was pretty fun.
The texture is light and there is a slight matte sheen on the top of the cookies which is cool. They aren’t cakey at all which has always been a complaint with me.
Andrea says
Thank you Erin, you can’t go wrong with your recipes. Had to go off dairy for my newborn that has intolerance to the protein in cow’s milk and I thought I would be able to bake anything good again. But then you have all this recipes with oil and they are just as amazing as the regular ones. Specially the brownies, they are my fave, just like boxed brownies 🥰 Thanks for your hard work, you are the best!
Erin Clarkson says
Hi! Ah yayy I am so happy you love!
Hillary says
I haven't made yet, but I'm wondering if anyone has reduced the sugar successfully and by how much?
Thanks!
Erin Clarkson says
I haven't tried sorry! It will likely affect the texture.
nicole says
I reduced the sugar by 20g (left out the raw turbinado sugar) and also reduced the chocolate by 100g. Mine were so good and chocolatey I truly can't imagine needing more.
Annie says
Go-to dairy free cookie, and they really do come together as quickly as the name advertises. So rich and delicious. I have gone back to this recipe many times!
hay says
Hi! is it possible to make these eggless? also what temperature do you recommend for a convection oven? thank you!
Erin Clarkson says
I haven't tested eggless sorry! all ovens are different so I would suggest testing with an oven thermometer just to make sure - I usually drop about 20°c but make sure to check!
Nana says
Made these cookies for the 1st time as I had oatmeal and half of Trader Joes plus pound chocolate leftover from baking your small batch chocolate chip cookie recipe. Subbed canola for olive oil, made them around 40 gram each and made 15 pieces of cookies. It was delicious and will be in my rotation for sure!
Thank you, Erin, for sharing this amazing recipe!
Vicki says
Have you tried this recipe with an egg substitute so that it is suitable for vegans?
Erin Clarkson says
I haven't sorry!
Rob says
I'm sure tahini would work as the binding agent maybe try 1 tbsp approx 1/2 cup.
As it's slightly more viscous than egg, you may need to add a dash of some form of milk to replicate the consistency - play around with half batches until you find what's right for you. You're not going to ruin anything but see what chef says!
Good luck.
Erin Clarkson says
Adding the photo of yourself has absolutely made my week, thank you so much! hahahahahaha.
Dawn says
THANK YOU ERIN! This is my go-to recipe for a DF cookie. Love how easily it comes together and I’ve even made it GF by subbing the flour with a 1:1 GF flour. I’ve made this recipe many times and always come back to it… yum!!!
Emma says
I have made many Cloudy Kitchen recipe’s and they are always so good and predictable in their outcomes. I needed a dairy free cookie and these are so good I don’t really care there’s no butter!!
Carla says
Oh my goodness! I made them all chocolate, substituting some of the flour for cocoa powder... They're the best cookies ever! So decadent! No one could believe they weren't made with butter and melted chocolate. Thanks!!