Healthy Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies are gluten-free and made with no flour, less sugar, semi-sweet chocolate chips, and natural peanut butter. A cookie recipe that’s perfect for year-round baking whether it be for the holidays or a weekly staple for lunchboxes and afternoon treats.
This post was originally published on October 30,2017. Updated on November 18th, 2020
These Healthy Peanut Oatmeal Butter Cookies with Chocolate Chips are made with only one-half cup of added sugar.
These peanut butter oatmeal chocolate chip cookies are made with less sugar but without sacrificing the delicious factor.
There is only one-half cup of sugar in this entire recipe which makes about 2 dozen cookies give or take. When you break it down per cookie, that means only 5 g of sugar per serving. That means that these cookies make for a sensible treat when you’re craving something a little sweet.
These cookies have been tested with both coconut sugar and cane sugar, so feel free to use what you have on hand.
Healthy Peanut Butter Cookies are naturally gluten-free, and options for dairy-free
Unlike traditional cookie recipes, there’s no flour (all purpose or other varieties!) to be found in these cookies. Instead, these delicious treats use oats to provide some chew and structure to the cookie.
Pure oats are naturally gluten-free. However, oats are can be contaminated with gluten if they are processed in the same facilities as grains like wheat, rye, and barley. If you follow a gluten-free diet, make sure to choose certified gluten-free oats!
We chose to use butter in this recipe, but you can always substitute coconut oil for a dairy-free cookie recipe.
The combination of chewy oats, nutty peanut butter, and gooey chocolate chips makes these cookies so irresistible, you won’t even think of them as “healthy”!
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- Oats – old fashioned or regular rolled oats will work for this recipe, use gluten-free if needed.
- Sugar – cane sugar or coconut sugar , both have been tested in our kitchens and work but we do feel can sugar works best!
- Baking soda
- Sea salt
- Eggs
- Butter – unsalted butter or a substitute of coconut oil for a dairy-free cookie option.
- Vanilla extract – look for pure vanilla extract with no added corn syrup.
- Peanut butter – use natural creamy peanut butter at room temperature or heated slightly to have a pourable consistency.
- Chocolate chips – use dark or semi-sweet chocolate chip. Use dairy-free chocolate chips if needed.
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How to make Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies
First step: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
Second step: Combine the ingredients in a medium bowl, except for the chocolate chips. You can also use s standup mixer. Mix until well combined.
Third step: Fold in the chocolate chips.
Fourth step: If the dough is really sticky, let it sit for 10 minutes or place in the fridge until the dough has firmed up enough.
Fifth step: With a small cookie scoop, scoop the dough onto the prepared sheets to make about 2 dozen cookies (give or take). With your hands, slightly flatten each cookie dough mound to form a round cookie shape.
Lastly: Bake for 10-15 minutes or until cookie centers are done and the outsides are golden. Baking time will depend on the size of the cookies.
To store these cookies, you’ll want to keep them in an airtight container. You can keep them fresh for up to 5 days.
These irresistible healthy peanut butter cookies are also freezer-friendly! When you make a batch, feel free to double it and stash away half of them to enjoy later. Simply let the cookies cool completely then place them in a freezer-friendly container/bag and freeze for up to 2 months.
To thaw, simply take out the desired amount of cookies and let thaw on the counter until soft. Alternatively, you can defrost in the microwave for that fresh-baked cookie taste with melty chocolate chips!
What is the best kind of peanut butter to use in these Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies?
In these Healthy Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies, the kind peanut butter you use does make a pretty significant difference. You want to use peanut butter that has a nice drizzly, pourable consistency. I like to use natural peanut butter where the only ingredients are peanuts and maybe a little salt.
Now, if the peanut butter you are using is pretty solid at room temperature, no worries. Simply heat it up in a small saucepan over low heat or in the microwave for about 20-30 seconds just until it is drizzly. You don’t want the peanut butter to get too hot, as it will melt the chocolate chips.
You simply can’t beat a freshly baked cookie right from the oven! Especially one rich with peanut butter, dark chocolate chips, less sugar, and only clean ingredients!
Healthy Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies with Chocolate Chips
Healthy Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies are gluten-free and made with no flour, less sugar, semi-sweet chocolate chips, and natural peanut butter.
Ingredients
- 2 cups old-fashioned or regular rolled oats
- ½ cup cane sugar* (may sub coconut sugar)
- 1 tsp. baking soda
- ¼ tsp. sea salt
- 2 whole eggs
- ¼ cup unsalted butter, softened (may substitute coconut oil for dairy-free)
- 1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
- 1 cup natural peanut butter, room temperature or heated slightly to achieve pourable consistency** (please read note below)
- ¾ cup dark or semi-sweet chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350℉. Line two sheet pans with parchment paper.
- Combine the ingredients in a medium bowl, except for the chocolate chips. You can also use a standup mixer. Mix until well combined.
- Fold in the chocolate chips.
- If the dough is real sticky, let it sit for 5 minutes or place in the fridge.
- With a small cookie scoop, scoop dough onto pans to make about 2 dozen cookies give or take. With hands, slightly flatten each cookie dough mound to form a round cookie shape.
- Bake for 10-15 minutes or until cookie centers are done and outsides are golden. Baking time will depend on the size of the cookies. Start with 10 minutes and add time as needed.
- After removing from the oven, let the cookies set on pan for 10 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack.
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Notes
*Cane sugar works best but coconut sugar is an option.
**Note: Peanut butter must be a drizzly consistency, not solid. If it’s solid, warm it over low heat or in the microwave until drizzly consistency is achieved. Depending on the consistency of peanut butter, you may need to add 2-4 Tbsp. of water or milk of choice if the dough is too thick.
Nutrition Information
- Serving Size: 1 cookie
- Calories: 135
- Fat: 9g
- Sodium: 65mg
- Carbohydrate: 13g
- (Fiber: 2g
- Sugar: 5g)
- Protein: 4g
Dietary
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Shouldn’t you be using a sugar substitute to actually make them “healthy?” Like Erythritol or something similar?
Hi Liz, we consider this a healthy cookie recipe because it calls for much less sugar than typical cookie recipes. We don’t use too many sugar subs in our recipes but you could sure try them with Erythritol or stevia. If you do, we’d love to hear how they turn out. Thanks!
Liz, the sugar alcohols are not “healthy”. There are many people who experience significant GI distress when ingesting them. I learned the hard way that just a few “sugar-free” gummies meant 24 hours of distress, causing me to lose a day of work and be completely miserable until the stuff was out of my system. I wonder if they cause problems in all people but the worst symptoms only manifest in a portion of the population. Like what if they cause inflammation in you too but not to the extent that you can really feel it?
Stacie is right, 1/2 c sugar is less than typical recipes. And it’s not like a person is eating the entire batch of cookies in one serving anyway (we hope!). The 1/2 c. is distributed among the 30 cookies which results in less than 1 teaspoon per cookie .
I’m going to use brown sugar because I love the taste. 🙂
My husband didn’t care for the chewy ness of the oats so next time I will try to chop the oats up a little in food processor first. Overall this cookie has great flavor.
Could you use maple syrup in place of the sugar?
Hi Holly,
Since we haven’t tested this recipe with a liquid sweetener such as maple syrup we can’t say with 100% certainty that they’ll work as well as they do with cane sugar. However, you could try using maple syrup and adding more gluten-free flour blend to get the right consistency/texture. Alternatively, you could sub maple sugar 1:1 for the cane sugar and have great results.
If you try it with the maple syrup, we’d love to hear how they turn out!
I tried to make these cookies but they came out incredibly dry. I didn’t have gluten free oats so I used regular Quaker Oats. I was a little short of a cup on the pb- could that have been it??
Hi Melissa,
I’m sorry to hear that your cookies came out dry. I doubt it had anything to do with the oats but it may be related to your PB shortage and possibly the texture of your PB as some are runnier than others.
Hi there… maybe this is a silly question: I want to follow your recipe as closely as possible so that I can come close to matching the nutritional breakdown that you’ve included. I don’t have a “small cookie scoop” – can you please tell me the equivalent measurement in tablespoons or cups? Thanks! 🙂
Probably about 2 1/2 Tablespoons.