My cranberry oatmeal cookies recipe is one of my favorite cookies to bake this time of year. They are chewy, sweet and delicious and always a holiday party favorite.
If there’s ever a time to pull out your baking pans, measuring cups, and mixing bowls, the holiday season is it! This cranberry oatmeal cookies recipe baking in the oven makes the whole house smell delicious.
A Healthier Cranberry Oatmeal Cookies Recipe
Choosing to bake a healthy cranberry oatmeal cookies recipes takes a little bit to adjust if you’ve been using bleached white flour, refined white sugar, brown sugar and butter in your baking.
I used to grab those as my main cookie ingredients too. However, with just a few small switches, you can enjoy our cranberry oatmeal cookies recipe without any guilt if you want to have 2 more cookies! Or if you kids want an extra cookie.
Anytime you are baking and trying to make something both healthy and tasty there’s a very narrow margin for error.
I have a few tricks for making our cranberry oatmeal cookies recipe even healthier. I switched extra-virgin coconut oil in place of butter or other unhealthful omega-6 rich vegetable oils. Cup-for-cup whole grain gluten free flour replaces wheat flour.
What makes our Cranberry Oatmeal Cookies healthy?
There’s a few very important swaps that we want to encourage you to make and we’re also going to tell you why these swaps are so much better for you too in this cranberry oatmeal cookies recipe.
#1: A truly healthy cookie should be low in refined sugar
Sweetness should come primarily from unrefined “whole” fruits. We only use unrefined sugar such as organic coconut palm sugar. It is unrefined and actually still contains nutrients so it is not a total empty calorie. Coconut palm sugar tastes and bakes like brown sugar, so if you can’t find it you can always use a bit of brown sugar.
#2: A healthy cookie should contain no trans fats.
Our cookie recipe contains no trans fats. Which means, we don’t use margarine, vegetable oil or vegetable shortening.
#3: Cookies should not contain animal fat either.
A truly healthy cookie should contain almost zero animal fat. This can be achieved by swapping extra virgin coconut oil for butter.
If you buy a high quality extra virgin coconut oil the tropical flavor intrinsic to coconuts is completely undetectable when mixed with the other ingredients.
My favorite brand of high quality coconut oil is Barlean’s Organic Extra Virgin Coconut Oil.
#4: Cookies should be made with 100% whole grains and no refined flours.
The healthy cranberry oatmeal cookies in the recipe below are made with one of my favorite 1-for-1 whole grain King Arthur gluten free flour. The whole grain ingredients are: rice flour, tapioca starch, potato starch, whole grain brown rice flour. You can learn more about flours here.
#5: A healthy cookie should include a handful of healthful fats.
You can enrich your cookies by using nuts, chia seeds, nut butters and flaxseeds. In this recipe, we added in a 1/2 a cup of walnuts which gives our cranberry oatmeal cookies a delicious nutty flavor.
BONUS #1: Use rolled oats instead of instant oats.
If all you have is instant oats, go ahead and use them. But if you’re looking for a more nutrient dense cookie, we suggest trying rolled oats instead.
BONUS #2: Swap your chocolate chips for dairy free chocolate chips.
We love Enjoy Life brand because they make delicious dairy free chocolate chips. But you can also use raw cacao nibs or raw cacao powder for your chocolate flavor.
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Kitchen Favorites
Cranberry Oatmeal Cookies Recipe
Our Cranberry Oatmeal Cookies Recipe makes sweet, moist and chewy cookies. Gluten free, dairy free and refined sugar free too!
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 15 minutes
- Total Time: 30 minutes
- Yield: 20–24 1x
Ingredients
- 1 cup organic coconut oil
- 1 1/2 cups coconut sugar or date sugar
- 2 pastured eggs
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1 3/4 cup 1-for-1 gluten free flour
- 1/2 teaspoon unrefined sea salt
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon allspice
- 2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
- 1 cup dried cranberries
- 1/2 cup finely chopped raw walnuts
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper, or use our favorite stoneware baking pan.
- In a large bowl, add the coconut oil (or butter) and coconut palm sugar and beat for 2-3 minutes with a hand mixer or stand mixer.
- Next, add the 2 eggs and vanilla and beat for another 2-3 minutes.
- To the large batter bowl, add the flour, salt, baking soda, spices and oats and stir with a wood spoon (do not use the mixer).
- To the bowl, add cranberries and walnuts. Stir until well combined.
- For large cookies, use a large scoop with approximately 3 tablespoons. If you want smaller cookies, you can use a small scoop just keep an eye on the oven! Flatten the cookies slightly with the back of a wet spoon.
- Bake the cookies for 13 to 15 minutes, until they are golden brown and almost firm to the touch. Cool on the baking sheet on a wire rack for about 5 minutes, then remove the cookies from the baking sheet and continue to let them cool on a rack.
Last Step!If you loved our recipe, leave us a review below. This helps future recipe makers and ensures continued high-quality recipes for years to come!
Notes
These cookies will keep for about 5 days if kept in a covered container in the fridge. They can also be made ahead and frozen for up to a month.
Keywords: Cranberry Oatmeal Cookies Recipe
Diane
Monday 13th of March 2023
Oh my GOODNESS..... These cookies are SOOOO... good. I've been buying a similar cookie and wanted to see if I could make these to give me more cookies for the money. The surprise? They taste so much better than the ones I was buying and I get double the number for the price. I will keep some frozen and nibble on the fresh ones. I made it exactly as directed with the ingredients listed. Perfection!! Thank you.
Aimee Niedosik
Monday 13th of March 2023
DIANE!! Thank you for leaving a comment and letting me know that you loved them as much as we do. They are seriously one of our favorite cookies. So glad you found our website and thank you for coming back to tell us!! Music to my ears! - Aimee