Vegan Double Chocolate Chip Cookies (Oat Flour)

Secretly healthy vegan cookies rich with cocoa powder, chocolate chips, and whole-grain oat flour. These Vegan Double Chocolate Chip Cookies are lightly crisp on the outside, soft in the middle, and the perfect answer to any chocolate craving! Oil-free, gluten-free, and ready in 25 minutes.

I'm a huge fan of baking with oat flour. From muffins to cake to brownies, oat flour has a way of giving baked goods a lovely, whole-grain texture but without an overpowering flavor (I'm looking at you, whole-wheat).

----> Stay tuned for an Oat Flour Banana Bread recipe coming later this week!

And even better? Oats are cheap, widely available, and since they're naturally gluten-free, you don't have to worry so much about over-working the dough. Note: be sure to check labels for "certified gluten-free" oats, if needed.

These healthy chocolate cookies are very similar to my favorite Vegan Peanut Butter Cookies, but with just a few tweaks.

• Almond butter replaces peanut butter, and we use half as much.
• Cocoa powder is added for an irresistibly rich and chocolatey cookie dough.
• The sweetener is reduced slightly, and we're adding heaps of chocolate chips!

Step by Step Process

If you make cookies very often, you know they're one of the easiest things in the world to bake! The basic process looks like this:

1. Preheat the oven and line a baking sheet with parchment or a silicone mat.
2. Whisk together the oat flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl.
3. In a smaller bowl combine the nut butter, vanilla, maple syrup, and coconut sugar. Stir really well to make sure everything is combined. 
4. Add the wet ingredients to the dry, and stir to combine. Fold in the chocolate chips.
5. If you have a cookie scoop use that to scoop 1.5 tablespoons of dough into your hand. Roll dough between your palms to create a smooth ball, and place on the cookie sheet. No need to flatten or shape the cookies.
6. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes or until the cookies have spread and cracked a bit on the surface. They'll be very soft when pulled from the oven, so be sure to let them stand for about 5 minutes before moving to a cooling rack.

Variations and Tips

Oat Flour

I tested this recipe three times, varying the amount of oat flour each time to get it just right. But what I found is that there really wasn't a just right! They were all delicious, and I would say it really depends on what you want. For example...

See how the cookies below didn't spread quite as much and they look thicker in the center? That was the result of using less oat flour than in the first test batch (reflected in most of the other photos). 

• Using ¾ cup (70 grams) oat flour will produce a very stiff, dry dough and a crinkly cookie.
• Using ½ cup + 1 Tbsp oat flour (about 50 g) produces a moist dough (pictured above) and a less crinkly-looking cookie.
• For a safe middle ground, I recommend ⅔ cup oat flour (60 grams).

If you don't yet own a kitchen scale, I can't recommend it highly enough! A scale makes baking SO much easier. Instead of worrying about fluffing up the flour with a whisk, then accurately scooping it up with a measuring cup, you'll simply place your mixing bowl on the scale, hit the tare button to reset it to zero, and pour in the correct amount of flour. Such a breeze, with consistent results every time! 

Amount of Chocolate Chips

Using the full amount of chocolate chips listed in the recipe creates a super chocolatey, decadent, sweet cookie. If you prefer your sweets on the less sweet side, feel free to reduce the chocolate chips to ¼ cup. 

I haven't tested these without any chocolate added, but I'm sure it would still produce a tasty cookie! In that case it would be a 100% refined sugar-free cookie and much less sweet overall.

Nut Butter

Feel free to use a different nut or seed butter in this recipe. Almond butter adds a nice, nutty richness, but you can also use peanut, cashew, pecan, or even coconut butter if you're a fan!

For a nut-free cookie try sunflower seed butter or tahini for a light sesame flavor that pairs really well with chocolate.

I love hearing from you! If you try the recipe be sure to leave a comment and a star rating below to let us know how it turned out.

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