These naturally gluten free peanut butter oatmeal chocolate chip cookies are made with oats, oat flour and some cornstarch for the perfect chewy cookie.
I originally created this simple recipe for chewy, peanutty, oatmeal cookies in 2014 using an all purpose gluten free flour, and they were amazing. There’s still a photo of the original cookies below, and 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 no rice flour at all.
What makes these almost flourless 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 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. 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.
Ingredients and substitutions
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.
Corn-free: 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.
Oats: Certified gluten free oats are safe on a gluten free diet. But 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.
HELLO! I’m Nicole! I make gluten-free food enjoyable & affordable. If they can make it with gluten, we can make it without. That’s a promise!
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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.
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!!
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. :)
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
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.
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.
Fair is fair, right, Julie? He can’t have evvvvvery cookie to himself. ?
Delicious! (And I see what you mean about not over-baking them…) Will definitely make these again.
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. ?
Nicole, this rice flour free version is delicious! I just made a batch and my kids are devouring them (and me too).
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. ?
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.
Nicole, I’ve been eyeing recipes for a few weeks after just finding your blog, and finally went a little nuts this weekend and did cheddar bay biscuits for brunch on Saturday, these cookies for an afternoon basketball treat, and pizza crust on Sunday. I was raised in a major baking family and rolled out double crust pies and tarts forever, only to have it all come to a screeching halt when my husband was diagnosed a few years ago! I have enjoyed every recipe so far and can’t wait to experiment further. I want to just thank you so much for all of your work and care you have clearly put into developing this site and your bakery! RAVE reviews from everybody at my house in Wisconsin. I’ve been directed to make these cookies again immediately because the whole batch disappeared in 2 days…
We can not have peanutbutter; would it be 0Kay to use sunflower seed butter?
Be careful about this – it is soo much more oily than PB. I would try it with a hair less than what it calls for in PB. I tried this with another PB chocolate chip recipe and though I wasn’t a fan – tons of others were!! :)
Just wanted to update – I tried the recipe yesterday and again this morning… fabulous! Instead of normal chocolate chips I subbed for white chocolate chips. I also could not resist adding cinnamon to the dough… absolutely delicious! Also further below, there was a mention that if using a high cornstarch-ratio’d flour blend, to use three tablespoons of the flour and not pure cornstarch. I use Cup4Cup and this is what I did, came out great.
I made a full batch, baked half of the dough and put the other half in a tub in the fridge to save. I made the other half this morning and I’m pleased to say that it tastes just as good.
Thank you Nicole!! A copy of GFOAS Bakes Bread is in the mail and I am so super excited. :)
Thanks for reporting back, Cassi! I’m really glad it worked out. :)
Just ask me if I’ve learned to trust your recipes….I mad a double batch of these yesterday ….used score bits (not a real big fan of chocolate chips) and took them to out dog agility class today. I’m sure glad I left a half dozen at home….because the tin is empty! Everyone loved them and couldn’t believe they were gluten free!. Tonight I’m making a big batch of the high quality all purpose flour and a big batch of the bread flour and either tonight or tomorrow I;ll do the starter and then the dough for the Lean White Sandwich Bread and once that goes in the fridge in my brand new Cambro proofing containers, I’m going to try the English Muffin Bread.I;m working up to Hot Cross Buns for Easter. You are an ANGEL Nicole…..I thought I’;d never eat bread again till I found your blog….and in case you haven’t guessed after trying many of your recipes I am positive your bread recipes will be a super success! Thanks Girl!
Wow, Lorna! That’s wonderful. If you haven’t yet baked any of the breads from the bread book, I suggest you read through the Bread FAQs on the blog for some extra direction if you’re at all nervous, and watch the YouTube videos I have posted on shaping the dough. Those seem to have been very helpful to many. :)
Now I have the perfect excuse to buy the certified gluten free oatmeal I’ve been dreaming of. These are my very favorite cookies of all time and now I can make them again. Thank you so much Nicole!
:)
Where can I get unbleached parchment paper here in the northeast ?
Amazon
Yup. As Jennifer says, I usually get it on amazon. I can also find it in my local grocery store, too, and buy it there when I’m in a pinch (but then go order it online because it’s cheaper!)
I’ve got mine in the oven right now! I halved the recipe and had a bit extra flour but the dough tasted scrumptious and I can’t wait to try the cookies. It’s so nice to be able to lick the bowl again.
I made these tonight. They were easy to put together, but took much longer for them to cook (I do have a oven thermometer but it took almost twice as long). I took them out as in the directions, when flattened and just browning. They cooled and were amazing. They look beautiful, their texture was perfect and tasted great. Thanks so much for the recipe!!
I’m not sure why your cookies took twice as long to bake, Stephanie, but my first thought is that you chilled them longer than instructed. Sounds like you got around it though.
I’m a pretty recent new follower, have bought 2 of your 3 cookbooks, put a lot of your tips into practice and am loving being in the kitchen again. So…I did stop everything I was doing and made these immediately when I got the post!!! They do not disappoint. Oh my goodness!!!! Delish!!! And I used Organic Cane Sugar that sometimes causes a fuss in baking but they turned out perfect. Also I used Trader Joes organic creamy PB (I did have to stir it but I used a fresh jar that hadn’t been refrigerated so it was pretty easy). These will be a family favorite, I’m sure. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!!
Cammi, that is the best news ever. This is my favorite part: that you’re “loving being in the kitchen again.” That’s the home run! And I love that you already made these cookies. Good thing I didn’t sit on the recipe any longer. :)
MY mouth is watering….this is a must make for the weekend. And here I was thinking about tackling something out of GFOAS Bakes Bread……I think I finally have all the ingredients. I’m planning to make buckets full of your different flour mixes so I can just go at it. There are so many wonderful recipes though, that I don’t know where to start! What would you suggest are the best ones to start with?
Hi, Lorna, I love your energy! You’re going to do great. Believe it or not, I actually covered that in my Bread FAQs (see Bread FAQ #5. :)
yea buddy! these look so yummy right now. I might blow off all I have to do today just to make these. Thank you sister from the bottom of my heart! P.S. I was going to make the nutella bread for a party this weekend, and then it was cancelled. boo.
Jennifer, I hate to point out the obvious, but if you make the Braided Nutella Bread … the party will be at YOUR house. ;)
I’m there!
What was I thinking, giving up processed sugar for lent???? I have so many recipes that I want to try and this one is tempting me the most! Chocolate, oats and Peanut butter!!! Arrggggghhh!! I just have to remember the Easter season lasts far longer than Lent. Printing this recipe to put on the top of the collection! Thanks Nicole for all of your hard work!
Oh no, Beth! If you can have unrefined sugars, try replacing the sugars with an equal amount by weight of coconut palm sugar. It will be different (and will probably end up a flatter cookie), but should still be delicious!
If your flour blend has cornstarch in it already, do you need to add the extra cornstarch? Thanks!
It depends upon how much cornstarch your blend has, Natalie. If you’re using Cup4Cup, that has quite a lot of cornstarch, so instead of cornstarch, I’d use an equal amount by weight of Cup4Cup. So, it would be 3/4 cup (105 g) + 3 tablespoons (27 g) Cup4Cup.
Ohhh my, these look good. I would love to try them tomorrow! Question though – I’m strange in that I actually don’t like chocolate. Would the recipe work with, say, white chocolate chips? Maybe caramel chips, or dried fruit, or nuts, etc.?
I know there are other oatmeal cookies sans chocolate recipes here but, this one has peanut butter. Wonderful, glorious, peanut butter.
Good question, Cassi! Absolutely. Use whatever kind of chips you like. White chocolate chips would be really lovely in these. :)
how big of a difference does it make to use natural PB (which you do often have to stir after opening and before putting in the fridge)
I find that the natural peanut butter you need to stir makes for much flatter cookies, Esther. It has a lot more oil, and can be really hard to mix well so it really does change the chemistry of the cookies.
What about sunflower butter? Peanut butter is a no in our house.
I am totally the girl who breathes a sigh of relief when you post something I probably won’t make! These cookies, however, make me want to bake them right now, they look awesome!
I know you do, Anneke! Sorry? ;)
I figured this might be you Anneke!! :) Take one for the team because these look awesome!