Oat flour cookies with chocolate chips that are rich and buttery with a gooey soft chewy center and crisp edges baked to golden perfection. They’re easily gluten-free with an underlying oat flavor and so delicious! These cookies taste like the best of your childhood memories.
These cookies have been on repeat at our house for the last two months. Can’t. Stop. Making. Them. We all love them so much and with wholesome oat flour, they’re gluten-free and a little more nutritious than your standard chocolate chip cookie recipe.
The touch of salt on top is *chef’s kiss* fantastic and further brings out the sweetness. The abundance of vanilla and coconut sugar or brown sugar creates an almost caramel-like appeal. They’ll disappear fast. You’ll think you can resist and then, poof, they’re all gone!
Why Make THIS Oat Flour Cookie Recipe
I don’t know about you but when I take time to bake cookies, I want to make a recipe that WORKS. I want it to be tried and true, perfectly balanced and deliver a classic chocolate chip cookie that hits the spot.
As you can see in my test cookies, this recipe was tested multiple ways. I tried using different baking temperatures, using different measurement methods, chilled vs. unchilled, and with varied amounts of baking soda, eggs, sugar, and flour. The end result was the perfect oat flour cookie.
Here are the highlights:
- chewy, somewhat gooey center yet crispy edges
- made in one bowl
- recipe was tested rigorously to come up with the best oat flour cookie possible
- flavor is buttery, sweet, salty and spot on without unnecessary ingredients to overcomplicate things
- gluten-free without using a costly gluten free flour blend (just choose gluten-free oats!)
- tantalize your tastebuds with a sweet and salty, chocolatey combo
- dough freezes great and can be baked without thawing for future cookie cravings
This is bound to be your new favorite oat flour cookie recipe without a doubt.
If you’re gluten-free and miss all purpose flour or if you’re just looking for a nutritious option, oat flour is such a great alternative. Homemade oat flour is a budget friendly alternative to gluten-free flour blends with a hearty, wholesome taste.
Cookie recipes aside, be sure to try my popular peanut butter banana oat flour muffins! My oat flour pumpkin muffins and oat flour pumpkin protein balls are a fun fall twist. If you’re wanting to try oat flour for breakfast, my oat flour waffle recipe, oat flour pancake recipe and spinach pancake recipe are all incredible ways to start the day. Oat flour biscuits are great as a breakfast, dinner or lunch side too!
Or if you’re interested in almond flour, I have over a dozen almond flour recipes to check out too!
Ingredients & Substitutions
This oat flour chocolate chip cookie recipe uses basic pantry staples and standard ingredients. That being said, they come together in a way that is anything but basic! Here’s what you’ll need:
- butter – butter is necessary here! Both salted and unsalted are fine here but if you use salted butter, you may want to adjust the amount of salt down to just 1/4 teaspoon. I have not tried using a vegan butter but
- coconut sugar or light brown sugar – sugar is necessary for getting the perfect cookie. I preferred the cookies with brown sugar but coconut sugar works great too. For simplicity, we just used one kind but you can substitute half white sugar and half brown if you prefer that combo.
- egg – the egg acts as a binding agent and helps with overall texture. If you can’t have egg or are vegan, you can try using a plant-based egg replacer like Just Egg.
- vanilla extract – vanilla is essential in chocolate chip cookies. Use a decent quality vanilla extract and a full tablespoon for the best flavor.
- oat flour – you can buy store bought oat flour or easily make your own oat flour in a blender.
- salt – salt helps balance out the sweetness of the cookies. I prefer Himalayan salt or sea salt in baking but use whatever you have and prefer. If using salted butter, cut the amount of additional salt added in half, per the note in the recipe card.
- baking soda – this gives the cookies their rise and is essential. Do not substitute it with anything else.
- semi-sweet chocolate chips – this is what gives the cookies their name but you can certainly substitute chopped baking chocolate, dark chocolate or milk chocolate if you prefer.
- Fleur de sel – entirely optional for sprinkling on top, but so good! The saltiness brings out the sweetness and pairs so well with the chocolate and cookie overall. Fleur de sel has a crunchier texture, melts less readily and imparts more flavor than standard salt making it perfect for sprinkling.
How to Make Oat Flour Cookies
These cookies are easy to make and here’s how you do it.
- Cream the sugar and butter butter for about 2 minutes in the bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment or in a medium bowl with a hand mixer and beaters.
- Add the egg and vanilla extract to mixing bowl and pulse a few times until just mixed in but not over mixed.
- Add dry ingredients (oat flour, salt, and baking soda) to wet ingredients and mix until everything is combined. Fold in chocolate chips by stirring.
- Cover and refrigerate for 20-30 minutes or up to 48 hour maximum.
- Preheat your oven to 350° F (175° C). Line cookie sheets or baking pans with parchment paper and set aside.
- Remove oat flour cookie dough from refrigerator. Use a medium cookie scoop or spoon to create balls that are roughly 1 inch in size (about 1 ½ Tablespoons of dough). Place cookie dough balls on the prepared baking sheet, at least 2 inches apart.
- Bake for 8-11 minutes until edges are firm but center is still soft (Slightly underbaked is best!). Remove from oven and if using, sprinkle with fleur de sel immediately.
- Let cookies cool on the baking sheet for 10 minutes before removing and letting fully cook on a cooling rack. They’re delicious warm but for longer storage, cool completely and store at room temperature in an airtight container. Oatmeal cookies are best eaten in the first 3 days.
Tips and Tricks
Recipe tips:
While oat flour cookies are easy to make, there are a few tips and tricks I can impart to help make sure they turn out perfectly for you every time.
- Make sure your butter is room temperature. This means, it’s solid but makes and indent when you press it with your finger. You don’t want your finger to sink all the way in, just make a light indent when gently pressed.
- Don’t add dough to a hot baking sheet. Either use two baking sheets or make sure to cool the sheet completely between batches. If you do this, place the bowl of cookie dough or pre-formed balls back into the refrigerator while waiting.
- Make sure your oat flour is super fine. Store-bought oat flour works great. If using homemade, blend to a fine powder using a high speed blender or food processor. Oat flour has to be very fine without any grit or the cookies won’t have the best texture.
- Spoon and level oat flour. Alternatively you can use a kitchen scale to weigh the oat flour to 100 grams per cup.
- For picture perfect cookies, reserve about 1/3 of the chocolate chips. Then manually add chocolate chips to the top of each cookie after scooping and placing on the baking sheet.
- For the chewiest cookies, always let them rest on the baking sheet for 10 minutes before removing to a cooling rack to fully cool.
How to Bring Butter to Room Temperature Quickly
Warming butter usually takes 1-2 hours of sitting on the counter to get to the ideal temperature. Forgot to warm up that butter? No problem! Here are 3 ways to do this quickly:
- Grab a glass or bowl that’s larger than the stick(s) of butter (test to make sure it fits if needed). Either fill it with boiling water from a kettle or microwave the glass with water in it for a couple of minutes until hot. Dump the water out. Place the butter stick on a plate with the hot cup or bowl on top and let it sit for about 5-7 minutes.
- Alternatively, you can microwave a cup of water for 2-3 minutes and then remove and dump the cup of water. Place the butter on a plate or bowl in the microwave and close the door. Let it sit for 10 minutes so the warmth of the microwave does the work.
- In a real pinch, you can microwave the entire stick of butter for 5 seconds and then flip and microwave for 5 more. If needed you can flip to another side and microwave another 5 seconds. DO NOT microwave more than 20 seconds. This method works but is less predictable since you can easily get the butter too soft.
Storage and Freezing
Freezing dough: use a cookie scoop to form balls of dough and place on a parchment lined baking sheet in the freezer for several hours. Once cookie dough balls are firm, transfer to a freezer safe container or bag, label, and put back in the freezer for up to 3 months. Thaw on the countertop before baking or bake frozen, adding 1-2 minutes to the bake time.
Freezing baked cookies: oat flour cookies can be frozen in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 2 months. Let the cookies thaw on the countertop before eating or on the defrost setting in the microwave.
Variations to Oat Flour Chocolate Chip Cookies
They’re perfect as written but if you want to switch up the flavor profile, here are a few tasty ideas:
- butterscotch chips and toffee bits
- peanut butter chips
- white chocolate and shredded sweetened coconut
- milk chocolate or dark chocolate chips or chopped chocolate chunks
- chopped toasted pecans or walnuts
Just be careful not to add more than a cup of add-ins at the absolute most or it will overwhelm the base of the cookie.
Do I really need to chill the dough?
I wish this wasn’t the case but chilling helps create the perfect texture. Without chilling cookies will spread too quickly and you’ll get more of a cake-like poofy texture. Still perfectly delicious and ok to skip chilling if you’re in a rush and don’t care if they’re perfect but for the best results, I recommend chilling.
Can they be vegan?
I haven’t tested to confirm this but if you do, you will need to replace both the butter and egg. I recommend using a plant-based egg replacer like Just Egg and vegan butter sticks like the Earth Balance ones instead of a butter spread. A flax egg and coconut oil may work but will create a grittier, less desirable texture.
Are these cookies gluten free?
If you use store bought gluten-free oat flour or grind up gluten free rolled oats to make your own oat flour, they will be gluten free. Oats are gluten free but often contaminated by other gluten containing grains so make sure to use oat flour or oats explicitly labeled as “certified gluten-free” if you need them to be gluten free.
Oat Flour Recipes
Oat Flour Cookies – Chewy with Chocolate Chips
Equipment
- 1 Electric Mixer or mixing bowl and hand mixer
- 1 Medium Cookie Scoop or spoon
- 1 Sheet Parchment Paper or just grease the baking pan
- 1 Baking sheet
Ingredients
- ½ cup unsalted butter room temperature (salted butter is fine, just see note on adding less salt)
- ¾ cup packed coconut sugar or light brown sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 Tablespoon vanilla extract
- 2 cups oat flour
- ½ teaspoon salt if using salted butter, just use ¼ teaspoon additional salt
- 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 2/3 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips reduce if you want less chocolatey, increase for more chocolatey
- Fleur de sel optional for sprinkling on top
Instructions
- Beat 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter and 3/4 cup sugar for about 2 minutes in the bowl of a standing mixer with the paddle attachment or in a mixing bowl with a hand mixer and beaters.
- Add in 1 egg and 1 Tablespoon vanilla and pulse several times until just mixed in but don't overmix.
- Add 2 cups oat flour, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and 3/4 teaspoon baking soda and mix until everything is combined. Fold in 2/3 cup chocolate chips.
- Cover and refrigerate for 20-30 minutes, up to 48 hour maximum.
- Preheat oven to 350° F (175° C). Line cookie sheets or baking pans with parchment paper and set aside.
- Remove dough from refrigerator. Use a medium cookie scoop or spoon to create balls that are roughly 1 inch in size (about 1 ½ Tablespoons of dough) and place on the prepared baking sheet, at least 2 inches apart.
- Bake for 8-11 minutes until edges are firm but center is still soft (Slightly underbaked is best!). Remove from oven and if using, sprinkle with fleur de sel immediately.
- Let cookies cool on the baking sheet for 10 minutes before removing and letting fully cook on a cooling rack. They’re delicious warm but for longer storage, cool completely and store at room temperature in an airtight container. Cookies are best eaten in the first 3 days.
Notes
Nutrition
did you make this recipe?
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