These naturally gluten free oat flour peanut butter chocolate chip cookies are made with oats, oat flour and some cornstarch for the perfect chewy cookie.
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Why we love this recipe for oat flour peanut butter chocolate chip cookies
I originally created this simple recipe for chewy, peanutty, oatmeal cookies in 2014 using an all purpose gluten free flour, and they were amazing. I've included the original recipe since so many of you loved it when it was first published.
But I love flourless baking, mostly because of its simplicity. This recipe isn't technically flourless, since it contains old fashioned rolled oats ground into a flour (I never buy oat flour—it's just too expensive and too easy to make in a blender or food processor as needed). Plus, it has cornstarch. But, unlike our classic gluten free chocolate chip cookies, it has no rice flour at all.
What makes these gluten free cookies so special
I truly consider this recipe to be a “starter recipe.” If you're new to the gluten free diet or just starting out in gluten free baking, you can make this recipe with nothing more than regular grocery store ingredients.
I remember what it was like starting out baking gluten free, way back in 2004. There are so many products available in most grocery stores these days, but my favorite all purpose gluten free flour blends are all based on rice flour—and most are not sold in neighborhood grocery stores.
If there had been an option to make a chocolate chip cookie that my children would absolutely love ❤️and be proud to serve to friends without any special ingredients, it would have been such a relief, you know? I want you to have that available to you.
Plus, I'm so happy to be able to point reader in the direction of recipes like this when they email me to say that they can't have rice flour but still want to bake a great cookie. These peanut butter oatmeal cookies are great cookies. And a drop cookie is easy for everyone to make.
How to make these simple gluten free peanut butter oatmeal cookies
I always begin any oat-based recipe with old fashioned rolled oats (certified gluten free, since my son has celiac disease), which I buy in huge bags at my local Trader Joe's (love you TJ's!). Place those oats in a food processor and you're one or two pulses away from quick-cooking oats. Place them in a blender and you'll have oat flour in less than 60 seconds.
All you have to do to make these cookies is place all of the dry ingredients (oat flour, cornstarch, baking soda, salt, oats, granulated sugar, brown sugar) in a bowl and mix them. Then add the butter, peanut butter, eggs and vanilla.
Then just add the chips, mix and roll the dough into balls and chill them. That will help them hold their shape during baking.
The cookie dough is suuuuuper thick, but keep mixing and it will all combine. I really like using the back of the spoon to press down the wet ingredients into the dry when a cookie dough is thick. If you've measured properly by weight, I promise everything will combine in the end.
There is only 1/2 cup of peanut butter in this recipe, so it's not a deep peanut butter cookie like our peanut butter sandwich cookies or gluten free monster cookies. Resist the urge to add more chocolate chips, though, since they'll create a flatter cookie by separating the dough more.
The “original recipe” for these cookies
Originally, this recipe was made using most of the same ingredients, with just a few changes:
- 3/4 cup (105 g) all purpose gluten free flour, including xanthan gum (instead of oat flour)
- 3 tablespoons (27 g) cornstarch (instead of 90 grams)
- 1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons (72 g) granulated sugar (instead of a full 1/2 cup)
- 3/4 cup (75 g) old fashioned rolled oats (instead of a full cup)
Everything else in the ingredient list was the same as the recipe is written now. The cookies were also baked in flattened disks at 350°F for 8 minutes instead of 10 minutes at 375°F.
The photo just above shows exactly what the old recipe looked like. They were thick and chewy, still, and had a similar balance of chew from the oats and flavor from the peanut butter. In case you prefer the old recipe, I wanted to be sure you had it.
Popular ingredient substitution suggestions
Dairy free
In place of the butter, you can try using half (56 g) Earth Balance buttery sticks and half (56 g) Spectrum brand nonhydrogenated vegetable shortening. That combination of fats should create the right moisture balance.
If you have Miyoko's Kitchen or Melt brand vegan butter, you can try using just that, since those butter replacements are relatively well-balanced on their own. The cookies won't brown as much, but they should still taste great. Be sure you're using dairy-free chocolate chips.
Egg free
The egg should be able to be replaced with a “chia egg” (1 tablespoon ground chia seeds + 1 tablespoon lukewarm water, mixed and allowed to gel). The additional egg yolk helps provide a chewy texture to the cookies. You can try replacing that with an additional tablespoon of unsalted butter, melted and cooled.
Cornstarch
The cornstarch in this recipe can easily be replaced with arrowroot if you can't have corn. Potato starch (not potato flour) should also work just fine.
Peanut free
These cookies should be great with a no-stir (the kind that you don't have to stir to combine any oil that has separated on top of the jar) almond butter, like Barney Butter.
Oat free
If you're avoiding oats, you should be able to use quinoa flakes in place of the oat flour, and beaten rice in place of the rolled oats. Please see my full discussion of how to replace oats in baking.
Oat Flour Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients
- ¾ cup (90 g) oat flour (certified gluten free if necessary)
- ⅝ cup (90 g) cornstarch
- 1 cup (100 g) old fashioned rolled oats (certified gluten free if necessary)
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
- ½ cup (100 g) granulated sugar
- ½ cup (109 g) packed light brown sugar
- 8 tablespoons (112 g) unsalted butter at room temperature
- ½ cup (128 g) no stir smooth peanut butter
- 1 (50 g (weighed out of shell)) egg at room temperature, beaten
- 1 (25 g) egg yolk at room temperature, beaten
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 4 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 375°F. Line rimmed baking sheets with unbleached parchment paper and set them aside.
- In a large bowl, place the oat flour, cornstarch, oats, baking soda, salt, and granulated sugar, and whisk to combine well. Add the brown sugar, and mix to combine, working out any lumps.
- Create a well in the center of the dry ingredients and add the butter, peanut butter, egg and egg yolk, and vanilla, and mix to combine. The dough will be very thick, but just keep mixing and it will come together. It helps to press the dough down with the underside of the spoon sometimes while mixing.
- Add most of the chocolate chips and mix until the chips are evenly distributed throughout the cookie dough.
- Divide the dough into pieces of about 1 1/2 tablespoons each, roll each tightly into a ball and then place about 1 1/2-inches apart on the prepared baking sheets. Do not flatten the balls of dough at all.
- Add a few chocolate chips to the tops of the balls of dough and press lightly to help them adhere.
- Chill the dough in the freezer for about 10 minutes or the refrigerator for about 30 minutes, until mostly firm.
- Place the baking sheets, one at a time, with the chilled dough on them, in the center of the preheated oven and bake for 10 minutes, or just until the balls of dough have melted and spread and the cookies are just beginning to brown around the edges.
- Some may even be slightly wet toward the center. Be careful not to overbake them.
- Remove from the oven and allow to cool for at least 10 minutes on the baking sheet or until firm.
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Thanks for stopping by!
Hi, I’m Nicole. I create gluten free recipes that really work and taste as good as you remember. No more making separate meals when someone is GF, or buying packaged foods that aren’t good enough to justify the price. At Gluten Free on a Shoestring, “good, for gluten free” just isn’t good enough! Come visit my bio!
JoAnn says
Just finished making these scrumptious cookies. For the GF oat flour I ground up the oats in a food processor to turn it into flour. I substituted Hershey Reese Pieces chips instead of chocolate chips. Baked them for 11 minutes and ended up with 58 cookies using a melon baller scoop. Will definitely make this recipe again. Thanks for sharing the recipe.
Wendy says
Thank you so much.
My sister-in-law cant have rice. So I’m always searching for desert recipes to make when she visits that she can have too. I’m the one with celiac.
Was wondering if these could be bars?
I was to make a cookie pizza for Italian night. :-)
If not, no worries at all!!
Nicole Hunn says
Hi, Wendy,
I actually would not recommend making these as bars, but I’m actually working on making a pizookie-style recipe without rice flour that you should be able to make into a bar, so stay tuned! The reason I don’t recommend making this recipe as bars is because it would be almost impossible to avoid overbaking them like that, at least along the edges. You should also check out my Paleo recipes, as you both should be able to have all of those. :)
Linda Degenhardt says
Nicole
I made these delishious chip/peanut butter cookies I can’t fiqure out what I did, they taste great yet did not melt down into cookie shape, a little lost, is there something else I need to add to make them softer. Please help
Nicole Hunn says
It’s very hard for me to know how you deviated from the recipe as written, since I’m not there with you. Here are a few guesses. If you made any ingredient substitutions, Linda, that would explain it. If you didn’t measure by weight (and instead used measuring cups and spoons), it’s extremely easy to overmeasure dry ingredients which would cause the dough to be too stiff. Other than that, if you froze or chilled them for too long and/or didn’t have your oven at the proper temperature (most ovens don’t maintain proper calibration), that would explain it.
Julie L says
Nicole, you’re my favorite. This looks like my dream cookie. I just made my husband a batch of your chewy ginger cookies. He smiled so big when I told him he could have the whole batch! He’ll have to trade me one of those for one of these, I’m making a batch right now.
Nicole Hunn says
Fair is fair, right, Julie? He can’t have evvvvvery cookie to himself. ?
GF Mum says
Delicious! (And I see what you mean about not over-baking them…) Will definitely make these again.
Nicole Hunn says
So glad you enjoyed them, GF Mum! I hope you didn’t find out the hard way that you really don’t want to overbake them. ?
Dana Schwartz says
Nicole, this rice flour free version is delicious! I just made a batch and my kids are devouring them (and me too).
Nicole Hunn says
I’m so glad, Dana! We love them, too, and the dough freezes really well. I have a bunch of balls of dough in my freezer, ready to be baked any time. They can even be baked from frozen. Just lower the temperature to 350°F and bake for a bit longer (like 12 minutes). I guess I could have put that in the post/recipe. ?
Debi says
These are hands down the best GF cookies I’ve ever made. We’re on the second batch! Thank you for doing this blog. By the way, I have all your cookbooks and have also given them as gifts.