Gluten-free flourless chocolate pecan oatmeal cookies get a kick of flavor and creaminess from the addition of peanut butter!
These oatmeal chocolate chip cookies have it all!There is a bit of protein from the rolled oats, peanut butter, and pecans (or your choice of nuts).
Rolled oats, also known as old-fashioned oats, are packed with good for you fiber. And, of course, antioxidants from dark chocolate! It’s win-win-win!
Gluten Free Oatmeal Cookies
First off, let’s talk about what gluten is and isn’t. Flours such as wheat, rye, and barley contain different amounts of gluten. Gluten is a protein responsible for elasticity in many breads, doughs, and pastas.
Eating gluten isn’t bad or harmful to your health unless you have a gluten intolerance or celiac disease. These gluten-free chocolate chip oatmeal cookies do not contain any flour.
How to Bake with Oatmeal
There has been debate over whether oats (oatmeal, rolled oats, old fashioned oats) are truly gluten-free.
Some manufacturers make note on their packing regarding cross contamination. If you are sensitive to gluten, stick with a brand that clearly labels “gluten-free oats.”
When I am serving these cookies to someone with gluten intolerance, I buy the oats from Trader Joe’s.
Oatmeal is a wonderfully versatile ingredient! It can be served sweet like this brown sugar persimmon steel cut oatmeal or savory like overnight miso barley oatmeal.
For this cookie recipe, we will be using a mixture of “oat flour” and rolled oats.
Oat flour is simply rolled oats ground into a fine powder. Oat flour is the star ingredient in these protein pancakes.
INGREDIENT INTEL: How to Make Oat Flour
To make homemade oat flour, place rolled oats in a food processor fitted with a blade attachment. Run processor until oats have turned into a fine powder.
Alternatively, oats may also be processed in a blender.
Smooth Peanut Butter
The majority of peanut butter baked goods specifically call for no-stir shelf stable creamy peanut butter like Jif or Skippy.
Natural peanut butter (the ones that require stirring because the oils separate) are generally not ideal for baking or frostings. Why? Because overtime, the oils tend to leak out and separate.
That’s not the case for these chocolate chip oatmeal cookies! Go ahead and use your favorite natural peanut butter. I suggest using a peanut butter that’s made with just two ingredients: peanuts and salt. However, creamy peanut butter like Jif, works just fine in this recipe.
One thing to note: Cookies made with natural peanut butter will spread a little bit more than creamy homogenous peanut butter. The images in this post are made with natural peanut butter.
How to get chocolate puddles in cookies
The key to chocolate puddles is chopped chocolate chunks!
I highly recommend using dark chocolate, preferably a dark chocolate bar that is 60% cocoa or more.
Side Note: During my tour of Theo Chocolate in Seattle, I learned that chocolate with at least 70% cocoa is considered a health food. The darker the chocolate, the more antioxidants and flavonoids!
Roughly chop the chocolate bar into chunks. The dark chocolate chunks will melt during baking creating those luscious puddles!
Here are some dark chocolate bars I recommend: Lindt Excellence 70%, Dark Chocolate with Sea Salt, Theo Dark Chocolate, and 60% Cacao Intense Dark Chocolate.
How to Achieve Soft, Chewy Cookies
The secret to soft, chewy cookies: don’t over-bake the cookies!
Bake just until the cookies are lightly golden brown and set along the edges.
The cookies will continue to “bake” outside on the oven. The cookies will be super soft and fragile straight out of the oven.
Keep the cookies on the hot baking sheet for about five to eight minutes. Then, use a spatula to lift cookies and transfer to a wire rack to cool.
Cool to room temperature. Then, store cookies in an airtight container at room temperature.
These flourless chocolate chip oatmeal cookies make for great ice cream sandwiches!
Try something new! Swap out all purpose flour and use homemade oat flour (aka ground oatmeal) in your favorite cookie recipes.
It’s a nice way to add a little extra fiber and whole grains into your diet!
More Gluten-Free Cookie Recipes
Flourless Chocolate Pecan Oatmeal Cookies
Equipment
- mixer (stand or electric hand held)
- food processor or blender
Ingredients
- ⅓ cup unsalted butter, (75 g), room temp, softened
- ¾ cup light brown sugar, (150 g), packed
- ¾ cup granulated sugar, (150 g)
- 1 ½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- ¾ cup smooth peanut butter*, (200 g)
- 2 large eggs, room temperature
- 3 cups rolled oats , (285 g),also called old-fashioned oats, divided
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon fine sea salt, or kosher salt*
- 1 cup pecans, (115 g) lightly toasted and roughly chopped
- ¾ cup 70% dark chocolate* (or chocolate of choice), (128 g or 4.5 oz), roughly chopped
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350℉. Line two or three baking sheets with parchment paper or reusable silicone baking mat. Set aside.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream together butter, brown sugar, sugar, and vanilla until well combined. Add peanut butter and mix on medium speed until creamy. Scrape down sides of bowl as needed to ensure thorough mixing.
- Add eggs one at a time. Mix on low until well combined.
- In a food processor or blender, process 1 cup (95 g) of rolled oats until finely ground. Mix with baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. Add dry mixture to mixing bowl. Mix until incorporated.
- Fold in remaining 2 cups (190 g) rolled oats, chopped pecans, and chopped chocolate until evenly distributed among cookie dough.
- Use a size 24 scoop to portion out dough. Place rounded mounds of cookie dough on prepared baking sheet, spacing each about 2-inches apart.
- Bake for 12-15 minutes until lightly golden brown around the edges. Rotate pans midway through baking. Cookies will spread during baking. If fresh baked cookies are not circular in shape, use a spatula or mini offset to gently reshape the cookies. Let cool in baking sheet for about 5-8 minutes before transferring to wire rack.
Notes
- This recipe works with natural peanut butter (this kind you have to stir before use) as well as the homogenous peanut butter (such as Skippy or Jif). I recommend using natural peanut butter (made with just peanuts and salt).
- Natural peanut butter will cause cookies to spread more than homogenous peanut butter.
- Almonds or walnuts may be used in place of pecans.
- Use your choice of chocolate bar or chocolate chips.
- There has been some debate over whether oats are gluten free because of cross contamination found in some manufacturers. Check the label of your oats for clarification.
- Baking times and cookie yield is for a size 24 scoop of dough, a little under 3 Tbsp of dough.
- How to toast nuts: Place pecans in a single layer on a baking sheet. Bake in 350℉ oven for 5-7 minutes until lightly fragrant. Cool before chopping and added to cookie dough batter.
- The cookies will be very soft out the oven. Do not over bake, otherwise cookies will not be as chewy. Let cookies cool slightly on sheet tray until stable enough to transfer to cooling rack.
- Recipe adapted from Trader Joe’s Rolled Oats package.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Like this recipe? Rate & comment below!
This was great. We made it twice, once with natural peanut butter and once with Skippy. Definitely super swee with Skippy. Liked it better with the natural Kirkland peanut butter from Costco.
Seems like a lot of sugar but they look yummy!
I did this and they were really good cookies considering that it uses oats instead of flour cause I’m allergic to wheat! But mine came out a lot rounder than the pictures. I think I used to big of a cookie scope.
I used a standard ice cream scoop for the cookies. Next time, you could lightly flatten the cookies before baking to help it spread out :)
They look delicious! Did I miss a print button? I’d love to print out the recipe. Thanks!
Hello! Thanks! Sorry, there’s no print button at this time. I’m still learning how to use this site and I’m not sure how to add the print button. :(