Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies with Oil (No Butter)

These oatmeal chocolate chip cookies use oil rather than butter! After 15 minutes, they emerge from the oven deliciously chewy, soft and super flavorful! Packed with chopped chocolate and old fashioned oats, they're quick to make, and require no rest or chill time. Sprinkle with flaky sea salt to finish.

Hi hi! Just popping in to share the recipe for these Dairy Free Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies with you! am so excited to finally be able to add this recipe to my Collection of chocolate chip cookie recipes with you as they are just so, so good.

These Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies are chewy, soft, and super flavourful, packed with chocolate and oats, and also happen to be dairy free, thanks to the olive oil so if you are looking for chocolate chip cookies with no butter, i've got you covered. They are a riff on my Small batch olive oil chocolate chip cookies which are a reader favorite - if you like those, also check out my easy double chocolate chip cookie recipe which is also an oil based cookie!

These cookies come together quickly and don't have a rest time. The recipe makes six huge chewy oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, although if you like you are most welcome to scale back the recipe and make these a little smaller (although I will never say no to a giant cookie).

How to make Easy Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

These chewy Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies come together in almost less time than it takes the oven to preheat. There is no softening butter required (so they are a great no butter cookie recipe), and they have no rest time, so they are great to just throw together and pop into the oven whenever you're needing a cookie. I do love a long rest time sometimes on a cookie (my perfect chocolate chip cookies use one), but as a food blogger, it's great to have a perfect back pocket recipe that can be ready in 30 minutes.

• Whip your wet ingredients. These cookies are super easy - you start by whipping together the sugars, oil, and egg until slightly thick and fluffy.
• Add your dry ingredients. Dry ingredients go in - flour, oats, leavening agents, and some salt and espresso powder. Mix it all in. It may look a tiny bit oily but that is fine - it's an oil based oatmeal cookie and so that is totally normal.
• Add your chocolate. I use chopped chocolate for these cookies (and all chocolate chip cookies), but you can use what works well for you here.
• Portion up the cookies. A cookie scoop is a great tool here, but you can also portion these by weight if you like.
• Bake off! These chewy oatmeal chocolate chip cookies bake at a slightly lower temperature than other cookie recipes (more on that in a bit). Pull them out and scoot them into shape if you like, and finish with some sea salt. That's it - these are so, so easy. I love them so much and I hope you do too!

What makes a chewy cookie chewy?

For this oatmeal chocolate chip cookie recipe, there are a few factors that give them a delicious chewy texture:

• Ratio of sugars. The ratio of brown to white sugar makes a big difference in cookies, with cookies with a higher ratio of white sugar being a little more chewy.
• Inclusion of oatmeal. I know that these wouldn't be oatmeal chocolate chip cookies without the addition of oats, but they provide a whole bunch of texture, and give you an amazing chewy cookie.
• Chocolate chip cookies with no butter. Because this is a chocolate chip cookie recipe using olive oil, the oil in the recipe contributes a chewyness as there is no water in it (unlike butter) so it really lets the sugars and oats play together for the most amazing chocolate chip cookie.

How do you store Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies?

I store my cookies in an airtight container at room temperature. They last up to five days if stored correctly.

The best Oats to use for Oatmeal Cookies

I tested these Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies with Old Fashioned Oats. I haven't tested with any other type of oats so I am not sure if it would work with a rolled oat, and I think a quick cooking oat would get too sludgy.

Old fashioned oats are chunkier and a little thicker than other styles of oats, which makes them perfect in this oatmeal chocolate chip cookie recipe. They give a great chew to the cookie, and also help to provide some structure - another secret to super chewy cookies.

Three types of sugar in chewy oatmeal chocolate chip cookies?

You will notice that there are three types of sugar in these chocolate chip cookies. This trick of using a little raw / turbinado sugar is one of my favourites and the ratio of brown to white sugar affects spread in cookies.

• Muscovado Sugar / Brown Sugar - This gives cookies less of a spread, while also adding flavour and helping to keep a slightly soft centre.
• White / Granulated Sugar - white sugar helps cookies to spread, and gives that lovely chewy texture around the outside. Playing around with the ratio of white to brown sugar is a fun way to change the spread of a cookie. This is what helps to make a chewy cookie chewy.
• Turbinado / Raw Sugar - This is one of my favourite things to add into a cookie as it gives a super delicate crunch, which is so nice along with the chewy oats.

Why are these cookies baked at a lower temperature?

You may notice that the baking temperature on these cookies is 325°f / 165°c. There is a reason for this. Baking temperature affects a few things, mainly how these cookies spread and how quickly they bake.

If cookies are baked at a hotter temperature, particularly with an oil based recipe such as this one, they will spread more, and bake faster (obviously). While 350°f / 180°c is great for most cookie recipes, I found that it caused these cookies to melt down too fast and end up thinner than I was hoping.

It is also important to make sure your oven is running at an accurate temperature if you are making things that are temperature sensitive. An oven thermometer is a great investment.

Tips for Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookies

There are a few tips that I use every time for perfect chocolate chip cookies. These tips can be applied to every cookie recipe. They are completely optional (aside from using a scale of course!) but make a big difference if you're looking for perfect chocolate chip cookies!

• Chop your chocolate. Chopped chocolate gives you pockets of chocolate and perfect chocolate shards distributed throughout the cookie. I prefer chopped chocolate over chocolate chips in cookies forever. Chocolate also melts much better than chips. It's the best ever.
• Use a cookie scoop. You can weigh out your cookie dough balls if you don't have a cookie scoop, but they are a great investment. They help to get the dough all relatively the same size and make things super quick and easy. I use this one.
• Add chocolate puddles. To get puddles on the top of cookies, press the dough into a disc and press additional chocolate on the top, then squish it back up into a ball of dough. This encases all the chocolate inside and as it bakes you get perfect puddles.
• Scoot your cookies. The "Cookie Scoot" is my secret weapon to perfectly round cookies. It's a totally optional step, but one that I really love. All you do is take a round object slightly larger than the cookie. As soon as the cookies come out of the oven, while they are still hot, put the cutter over the cookie and 'scoot' it into a perfectly round shape. The best. I do it basically every time now.

For more tips and tricks on making perfect chocolate chip cookies, check out my ultimate guide: How to make perfect chocolate chip cookies

Frequently Asked Questions

What tools and equipment do you use?

You can see a full list of all the tools I use here. I used a 3 tablespoon Cookie Scoop to scoop out the cookies, but you can also divide the dough and weigh it out.

Can these cookies be made ahead?

I haven't had great success with freezing an oil based cookie dough like this one, particularly when the recipe also contains oats. The oats tend to hydrate and the texture of the cookie is thrown off. With that being said, the baked oatmeal chocolate chip cookies would freeze well I think! I just haven't frozen the dough.

I don't have muscovado sugar, what can I use?

No worries if you don't - you can sub in brown sugar (light or dark). If you don't have any raw sugar I would substitute it with 10g brown sugar or muscovado (whatever you are using) and 10g granulated sugar.

Help - my cookies spread everywhere?!

Your oven is likely running too hot. Reduce the baking temperature and it might be a good idea to invest in an oven thermometer - so often ovens do not run at the temperature on the display.

Do I have to use the espresso powder?

If you don't have access to espresso powder you can either use fine instant coffee, or you can just leave it out. Up to you - it is just there to add flavour and enhance the taste of the chocolate.

Can these be made smaller?

Yes, absolutely. If you don't want massive cookies, you can scale these back and do a 2 tablespoon scoop, which will be about 45 to 50g of dough.

For more easy chocolate chip cookie recipes, check out:

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