Honey oatmeal cookies are a lovely treat around the holidays (or anytime) and I often wrap them up as gifts for friends, and these ones are made with healthy whole-food ingredients like spelt flour and coconut oil.
Of course they’re not vegan because of the honey, but they are dairy-free and egg-free. A little ginger spices things up and they turn out a little reminiscent of oat florentines, just not so thin.
I feel like I’ve tested a million healthy honey and oat cookies over the past couple of years, all with disastrous results. They were either dense little rocks or spread way too much. One batch filled the cookie sheet with one giant cookie and I had to peel it off in one great chunk. Finally, success.
This version is just the right amount of chewy with a big honey flavour. There’s so little flour in the recipe that it might seem like it won’t work, but it will! I started with dense little honey pucks and worked my way down to this amount, and it’s just right.
Scroll to the bottom of the post or click “skip to recipe” above to see the recipe card with full ingredient measurements and instructions.
Ingredients
- Rolled oats
- Spelt flour
- Cinnamon
- Baking powder
- Sea salt
- Coconut oil
- Honey
- Non-dairy milk (like oat or almond)
- Vanilla
- Fresh ginger (optional)
- Add-ins (optional): raisins, chocolate chips, almonds
Method
Start by preheating the oven and lining a couple baking sheets with parchment. The cookies are large and need some space, so unless you have the European style oven-wide baking sheets, use two.
In a large bowl, mix the oats, flour, cinnamon, baking powder, and salt. If you’re using add-ins, mix them in as well.
In another dish, whisk together the honey, coconut oil, milk, ginger, and vanilla.
Add the honey mixture to the oat mixture and stir with a wooden spoon until well combined. It might seem a bit thin at this point. If it is, let it rest for a few minutes before forming the cookies.
Place a couple tablespoons for each cookie onto the baking sheet(s), spaced a full 6cm (2 in.) between each cookie. Spread them out to about 1cm (1/3 in.) thickness with the back of a spoon. This is what makes the nice thin cookies without loading up the sugar!
Bake for about ten minutes, or until the edges are quite golden. Let the cookies cool for about ten minutes before carefully removing from the sheet and cooling fully on a rack. They are a bit delicate until fully cooled (the coconut oil helps them to set).
Tips and Notes
These are a slightly finicky cookie and small changes to the recipe will make a difference, so please note the substitutions below. Things like oven temperature will also result in fairly large variations (as it generally does with baking) so if you find you’re having difficulties, I recommend an oven thermometer to keep an eye on it.
If you’re here during the winter holidays and want to make these taste a bit more like a spice cookie, go ahead and add some extra spices in there! A lebkuchen blend is always nice, or go for 1/4 tsp each cardamom, nutmeg, and cloves along with the cinnamon and ginger.
Substitutions
Not really substitutions, but you have the option to add raisins, chocolate, and/or sliced almonds here. Or sunflower seeds, other dried fruit… you get it. Stick with the amount listed, though, because too much will make the cookies hard to handle.
Unfortunately, I don’t find that maple syrup is a great substitute here to make these vegan (too thin?) but date syrup works quite well! It’s a little tricker to find – I have several jars from a brand I’ve worked with – and readers have noted that brown rice syrup also works.
I haven’t tried these with GF flour but as it’s such a small amount, I’m thinking that a blend (like Bob’s Red Mill) would be fine. Alternatively, try these vegan oatmeal cookies for a similar, peanut butter version.
Oils that are liquid at room temperature will result in a very soft cookie. If you don’t have coconut oil, use another type of fat that’s solid at room temperature for the best results. That being said, coconut oil is what adds to the slight crispness on the edges of these cookies.
More Healthy-ish Cookies
Vegan Spice Sugar Cookies
Chocolate Orange Macaroons (GF)
Vegan Lebkuchen (German Spice Cookies)
Vegan Orange Shortbread
Ultimate Gluten Free Peanut Butter Cookies (GF)
Flourless Chocolate Tahini Cookies (GF)
Vegan Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies (GF)
Let’s connect! For more OE, follow along on Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest, purchase the Occasionally Eggs cookbook, or subscribe for new posts via email. If you make this recipe, I’d love to see! Tag your instagram versions with @occasionallyeggs and #occasionallyeggs.
Honey and Oat Cookies
These egg free and dairy free honey and oat cookies are a healthier spin on a childhood favourite, with whole wheat flour and a little ginger for kick. There's no added sugar here, just honey, and the cookies are chewy and soft.
Ingredients
- 100 grams (1 cup) rolled oats
- 40 grams (1/4 cup) whole spelt flour*
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 60 grams (1/4 cup) coconut oil, melted
- 60 ml (1/4 cup) honey
- 2 tablespoons non-dairy milk
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 2 cm fresh ginger, grated (optional)***
- Optional: 1/4 cup raisins, chocolate chips, or sliced almonds (60g, 50g, 40g, in that order)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180C (350F) and line a baking sheet with parchment paper (you may need two sheets if yours are small).
- In a large bowl, combine the oats, flour, cinnamon, baking powder, salt, and vanilla powder. Add the raisins or chocolate and the sliced almonds if you're using them.
- In a smaller dish, whisk together the coconut oil, honey, milk, and ginger.
- Add the honey mixture to the dry ingredients and stir to incorporate. If it seems too thin let it sit for five minutes to thicken up a little before shaping the cookies.
- Place two tablespoons of the cookie dough onto the baking sheet and spread it out to about a 1 cm thickness with the back of a spoon. Repeat until all of the dough is used, leaving 6 cm (2 inches) between each cookie to allow for spreading.
- Bake for 8-10 minutes, or until golden. Remove the pan from the oven and let the cookies cool on the pan for 10 minutes before carefully lifting them off with a spatula and letting them cool fully on a rack. Store in a sealed container for up to 3 days.
Notes
• Please note that in the video, my oven was running hot and the cookies baked too quickly, so they spread less. Still good!
Nutrition Information:
Yield:
10Serving Size:
1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 168Total Fat: 9gSaturated Fat: 5gUnsaturated Fat: 3gSodium: 69mgCarbohydrates: 22gFiber: 2gSugar: 12gProtein: 3g
This data is provided by a calculator and is a rough estimation of the nutritional information in this recipe.
Sign up for email updates!
This post was originally published in December 2016. It has been updated with improvements and new pictures as of August 2020.
Ayngelina says
I'm not big on sweets but I LOVE crispy cookies, these seem right up my alley.
Eyecandypopper says
I understand the battle with oat cookies! haha and I love that they are dairy-free too! Nicely done, at least it was worth the effort in the end.
Mardi (eat. live. travel. write.) says
These look great – and I love the addition of fresh ginger! Happy New Year!
Justine Celina says
Yum, yum, yum! I LOVE spelt flour cookies and haven't made them any in such a long time. I just pinned this recipe to try it out in the new year. Thanks for the beautiful inspiration, Alexandra! Wishing you an incredible 2017!
Alexandra Daum says
Good to hear, Ayngelina! I don't like overly sweet desserts either.
Alexandra Daum says
Hahaha it's so frustrating sometimes eh? These ended up being a really nice holiday treat, though.
Alexandra Daum says
Thanks Mardi!
Alexandra Daum says
Thanks, Justine! You've got enough on your plate with your own recipe development! I always mean to make recipes from other bloggers but get caught up in testing 🙂
Maria Gr says
This recipe is sooooo goood!!!! Oh my God! I´m ready to eat the whole bunch of them 🙂 Thank you very much for the recipe. I hope you don´t matter, if I publish the translation of it on my blog? Of course with a link to your website ^_^
Thank you again. Now I need to go away from kitchen, maybe even from home hahaha :))
Ulka says
Hi Alexandra
I tried half the recipe and has some issues. The batter did not spread at all while baking and the resulting cookies were extremely soft and little dry.
The only difference was that I used normal whole wheat flour instead of spelt flour and canola oil instead of coconut. Are these supposed to be very soft? The cookies in your picture look crispy and lovely golden!!
Alexandra | Occasionally Eggs says
Hi Ulka, it’ll be because you used a liquid oil instead of coconut oil. If you don’t have coconut oil, I’d recommend margarine or butter or something else that’s solid at room temperature.
Ulka says
Thank you for your suggestion Alexandra! Will try with butter.
Even though soft, the cookies tasted delicious and the kitchen was filled with the most amazing aroma!! 😃
Ivy says
Hi there,
I tried these with vegetable shortening in place of coconut oil and they were delicious. The honey and cinnamon are in perfect balance. Thank you for the recipe!
Laura says
Made these switching honey for rice syrup and ground turmeric for ginger, adding a chia egg just to make sure they would stay together, almonds for the crunch and they were really nice!! Everyone appreciated them, thanks for a quick and delicious recipe
Alexandra | Occasionally Eggs says
That’s great to know they work with rice syrup, thanks Laura!
eyon says
I tried this and the cookies were hard but taste is nice. What possibly went wrong??
Alexandra | Occasionally Eggs says
If you didn’t change anything about the recipe, it might just be that your oven was running a little hot and they over-baked slightly. Small changes to the recipe to make a big difference for these cookies – if the recipe was the same then I’d suggest a slightly shorter baking time next time.
Erica Thiessen says
Mine didn’t spread in the oven!! But were simply delicious either way. I recommend flattening them before popping them in the oven before baking if you want them to be thin 🙂
Alexandra | Occasionally Eggs says
Hi Erica! The recipe says to spread the cookies to about 1cm thickness with a spoon before baking, so I suggest trying that next time – they don’t spread and turn into the thin cookies pictured otherwise. I’m glad you liked them anyway!
Vera says
What an easy recipe, thanks!
I will try once I buy the coconut oil.
Emma says
These failed miserably for me 🙁
I used plain flour instead of spelt but otherwise followed the recipe to the T so I’m not sure why?
Alexandra | Occasionally Eggs says
Hi Emma, could you explain a bit more on what went wrong?
Julia says
Thanks for the receipt I have tried and was delicious. Honey sweetness, cinnamon smell and task so yummy😋
My was not crunch as I see on the picture but I will improve.
Susan says
This recipe looked really lovely but unfortunately the cookies did not turn out golden or crispy like the picture.. I used coconut oil and Bob’s Red Mill GF flour, and followed the recipe but no joy.. They were about 1.5cm thick but I am not sure the texture would’ve held together as they were a bit dry and crumbly. Not sure if they needed more honey or maybe use margarine instead of oil?
Alexandra says
Hi Susan, as I wrote I hadn’t tried with GF flour so I wasn’t sure how they’d turn out. I’m guessing they need some tweaking in order to be gluten free. Sounds like you definitely need more liquid in this case. Did the dough look the same as in the process pictures, or was it dry? Or were they only crumbly after baking?
Daivya says
I made half of the recipe to see how it comes out, i really loved it! But how can i make it crispier? Thank you!
Alexandra Daum says
Hi Daivya, unfortunately these are never going to be really crisp – you’d need something like brown sugar to make a crisp cookie rather than honey. I’m glad you liked them anyway!