best ever oatmeal chocolate chip cookies
FLOURLESS OATMEAL NUT BUTTER CHOCO CHIP COOKIES
aka Best Ever Oatmeal Cookies
Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 9 to 12 minutes.
Makes 14-28 cookies, depending on how big you want ‘em and how much dough you eat in the process.
• 2 cup natural salted chunky nut butter (one full 16 oz jar)
• 2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3 large eggs
• 1 1/3 cup packed dark brown sugar
• 2 1/3 cup rolled oats (gluten-free if desired)
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 2/3 cup dark chocolate chips
• 3/4 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1 teaspoon salt
• flaky sea salt for topping once baked
HALF RECIPE
For when you want fewer cookies or have fewer ingredients!
This is all approximate, okay?
• 1 cup natural salted nut butter (half of one full 16 oz jar)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 large egg
• 2/3 cup packed dark brown sugar
• 1 cup rolled oats (gluten-free if desired)
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 2/3 cup chocolate chips
• 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/8 teaspoon nutmeg (1/4 works fine)
• 1 teaspoon salt
• flaky sea salt for topping once baked
Combine all ingredients in any manner you choose. Tradition dictates combining wet ingredients (nut butter, vanilla, eggs) first, then adding dry ingredients. I don’t much like to follow the rules!
Roll dough into approximately 1-inch balls, lay on sheet pan about 1 inch apart, and flatten slightly with hand. Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 9 to 12 minutes. Remove from oven when golden brown. Let cool before removing from sheet pans. Enjoy!
Recipe notes below.
Recipe Notes:
I grew up baking. And not from a box, you fool. Making dessert is a family affair in our house. Mom makes birthday cakes and Christmas cookies with a melt-in-your-mouth icing glaze. Little brother Tom apprentices under Grandma to make the perfect apple pie every Thanksgiving. Cool aunt once had her own cupcake company. Dad loves to eat. Everyone wins.
My speciality is cookies, preferably with chocolate involved. I am still undecided on my personal political stance on desserts that do not contain any chocolate. Feels wrong to me—excluding Grandma’s Pie, of course. But my favorite cookie variety since early high school has been oatmeal chocolate chip. As I have grown I have never tired of this cozy ingredient combination that I have come to believe is actually the culinary embodiment of the Taurus zodiac sign. In short, I’ve been refining my oatmeal cookies for years. And this is my first ever recipe that’s completely my own! BIG MOMENT. Thanks for sharing it with me.
These cookies are highly customizable depending on your dietary preferences and restrictions! It took me approximately one zillion by-the-book bakes of this recipe, plus some fun new food sensitivities, to finally start experimenting. But then I couldn’t stop. I now find creating my own alien-food-babies (aka new recipes) exhilarating. So once you’re practiced and comfortable, I recommend it!
I want to call these “gluten and dairy free,” but it really depends on how you make ‘em. Hence the many notes. Stay tuned for a forthcoming vegan version for dearest Tavis and his fellow animal lovers / cholesterol haters. Also if you’re looking for a nut-less version, here’s the OG recipe I grew up on.
Cinnamon is key. Do not skip it. Cinnamon is everything.
Check your oats, folks! Plenty of gluten-free varieties exist, but I only recently realized that not all oats are free from the demon wheat protein. Oats can be fine depending on your gluten sensitivity level. But probably not fine if you have Celiac.
Check your chocolate chips too. If you’re living your best non-dairy life, make sure you read your labels closely. I’ve encountered many a dark and semi-sweet chocolate chip that has dairy. Because Big Dairy Lobbyists are out to cream up our lives and ruin our stomachs in the process.
Use any nut butter of your choosing! Peanut, almond, cashew (my personal favorite)… Trader Joe’s even has one with some Macadamia mixed in! I use chunky but creamy also works.
If you don’t use salted nut butter, make sure to ramp up the teaspoons of added salt. Add to taste, one and a half or two teaspoons are probably plenty for the average Jane.
Decrease sugar to one cup or less to pretend that these cookies are “healthy” “granola” breakfast snacks!
My full recipe makes a hearty helping, and will deplete your nut butter supply. Unless you’re a practical-yet-indulgent fool like me who buys at least one jar of almond butter and one jar of more-expensive-but-more-delicious cashew butter every time she stops at TJ’s. Hello to my fellow Tauruses. And hello to Trader Joe. Sponsor us!!!
These cookies are great for: grab and go breakfast treats, post-lunch pick-me-ups, or anticipated-all-day snacks before bed. I like to share with roommates, take to the office, and still keep my own stash! Also fun to feed them to your dearest friend or significant other and then yell at when they eat the last one.
