Apple Oatmeal Cookies

These apple oatmeal cookies are perfect for fall! Packed with apples, walnuts, cinnamon, and raisins, they're a healthy, cozy autumn treat.

Apple Oatmeal Cookies

Baking these soft, chewy apple oatmeal cookies allowed me to cross off #1 on my fall checklist: fall baking! Now that we’ve moved back to Chicago and are experiencing fall to its fullest, I have all sorts of fall activities I want to do. I can’t wait to go apple picking, to carve pumpkins, and more! If you’re also someone who loves fall activities and getting in the fall spirit, I highly recommend making these apple oatmeal cookies as soon as you can. Packed with oats, raisins, apples, and walnuts, they’re basically fall in a cookie. 🙂

Apple oatmeal cookie recipe ingredients

Apple Oatmeal Cookies Ingredients

To make these apple oatmeal cookies, I use a mix of unprocessed, whole foods ingredients. Here’s what makes them so good (and good for you):

  • Flax adds fiber and omega-3s, and it acts as a binder, so these cookies are egg-free.
  • Oat flour makes them delightfully soft and puffy – no gluten necessary!
  • Creamy almond butter adds moisture and richness, so only 1/4 cup coconut oil is required here!
  • Whole rolled oats fill these with fiber, nutty flavor, and chewy oatmeal cookie texture.
  • Cinnamon adds cozy, spiced fall flavor.
  • Brown sugar gives them a lovely, caramelized sweetness. You’ll only need 1/2 cup!
  • Applesauce acts as a healthy substitute for some oil and sugar.
  • Raisins dot them with little pockets of sweetness.
  • Walnuts give these some crunch and make them rich and nutty.
  • And fresh apple adds juicy apple flavor! Any variety will work, but Gala and Granny Smith apples are my favorite.

Find the complete recipe with measurements below.

Diced apples and walnuts

Finely dice the apples, and stir the flaxseed and water together in a small bowl. Set them aside for 5 minutes to thicken!

While you wait, stir together the dry ingredients – the oat flour, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt. In a separate bowl, combine the almond butter, coconut oil, applesauce, vanilla, and brown sugar. When the flaxseed mixture has thickened, stir it in as well.

Apple Oatmeal Cookies dough in a bowl

Then, stir the whole rolled oats, apples, walnuts, and raisins into the bowl of dry ingredients. Pour in the wet ingredients and stir until just combined.

Apple cookies on a baking sheet

Use a 1-tablespoon cookie scoop to scoop the dough onto a parchment-lined baking sheet. Transfer the cookies to a 350-degree oven and bake until the bottoms are nicely browned.

Let them cool for 5 minutes on the baking sheet before transferring them to a wire rack to cool completely. Enjoy!

Cinnamon Apple Oatmeal Cookies

Apple Oatmeal Cookies Variations

As written, this recipe is wonderful – the perfect hybrid between an apple cinnamon muffin and an oatmeal raisin cookie. If you feel like putting your personal twist on them, though, don’t hold back! Here are some ideas to change them up:

  • Skip the raisins. Use dried tart cherries or cranberries instead!
  • Spice it up! In addition to the cinnamon, add a dash of nutmeg, cardamom, ginger, or pumpkin or apple pie spice to your dough.
  • Try another nut. Chopped pecans or almonds would be equally at home here.
  • Go full-on oatmeal raisin. Nix the apple, and up the raisin measurement to 1/2 cup.
  • Or oatmeal chocolate chip 🙂 Instead of diced apples, stir in 1/2 cup chocolate chips.

Happy baking!

Apple Oatmeal Cookies recipe

More Favorite Fall Treats

If you love these apple oatmeal cookies, try one of these fall baking recipes next:

For more vegan dessert recipes, check out this post!

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Apple Oatmeal Cookies

rate this recipe:
5 from 14 votes
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 12 minutes
Total Time: 27 minutes
Serves 24 -28 cookies
These apple oatmeal cookies are soft - they're more similar to these Carrot Breakfast Cookies or a yummy muffin top than to a classic flat & crisp/chewy cookie. Great for an afternoon snack, dessert, or lunch box treat!

Ingredients

Instructions

  • Preheat the oven to 350°F and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
  • In a small bowl, combine the flaxseed and water. Stir and set aside to thicken for about 5 minutes.
  • In a large bowl, stir together the oat flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt.
  • In a medium bowl, combine the almond butter, coconut oil, applesauce, vanilla, and brown sugar. Add the thickened flaxseed mixture and stir well.
  • Stir the whole rolled oats, apples, walnuts, and raisins into the bowl of dry ingredients. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir well to combine. The batter will be thick and sticky.
  • Drop rounded tablespoons onto the baking sheet and press down slightly. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes, until the bottoms are nicely browned. (Note: do not under-bake or your cookies will be more likely to fall apart). Remove from the oven and let the cookies cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before cooling completely on a wire rack.

This post is in partnership with Truvia, thank you for supporting the sponsors that keep us cooking!

54 comments

5 from 14 votes (4 ratings without comment)

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Rate this recipe (after making it)




  1. Chris
    12.25.2018

    Can’t wait to get started on these cookies, they sound and look delicious! Can I sub almond flour for the oat flour? I really love to use almond flour when I can – don’t need to, but I enjoy experimenting for my daughter-in-law whose IS gluten free.
    One other question: can you use unsweetened applesauce in place of the sugar? Or would that make the batter too “soupy”??
    MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE. And hope you enjoyed a healthy and happy Chanukah!

    • Jeanine Donofrio
      12.27.2018

      Hi Chris, I haven’t tried these with those modifications, so I can’t say for sure. I bake cookies with almond flour all the time so that might work. I would probably not use extra apple sauce, it will likely make the dough too wet. Hope that helps!

  2. Anne
    10.09.2017

    Hi! Can I make these with 1 cup of ordinary brown sugar?

    • Anne
      10.09.2017

      Whoops – just saw your helpful reply above! Now I can get to grinding up oats and soaking flaxseed. My glutenfree and vegan workmates will be so happy tomorrow!!! Many thanks.

  3. Melanie
    10.07.2017

    Will this work with using real eggs and real brown sugar? Or will the texture not work?

    • Jeanine Donofrio
      10.07.2017

      Hi Melanie, I haven’t tried with eggs, but I think 1 egg should work in place of the flax mixture. 1/2 cup brown sugar works as a replacement.

  4. shelley from wtfrestaurants.com.my
    10.07.2017

    Nice recipe…..even the way you describe this is really very awesome. I enjoyed reading this blog very much. Thanks for sharing

  5. a fall classic! Congrats on your move, love the ingredients here and especially the large apple chunks, like the texture and flavor bomb inside each chunk, thank you!

  6. These sound amazing with fresh apples Jeanine, and I’m loving your Chicago memories 😉 keep em coming! I’m now in love with your city after my visit. <3

  7. Maria from almostproperly.com
    10.06.2017

    Love that these are GF!! They look amazing! Can’t wait to try!

  8. Cindy
    10.06.2017

    Yum, I love oatmeal cookies and these look perfect with the apple in them. My kids are going to love these too.

  9. Winnie the Induction Cook
    10.06.2017

    The apple picking sounds wonderful. I never did that as a kid but it would have been so much fun for you all together. And these cookies look fabulous. Can’t wait to try them.

  10. Christina from christinasfoodandtravel.com
    10.06.2017

    These cookies look so good, I would love to eat them for breakfast! Do you have nutritional data? i.e. calories per cookie, carbs, sugars, etc.

  11. Tanima Mitra
    10.05.2017

    Nice Recipes. I love that.

  12. Cate
    10.04.2017

    Can you use an egg in place of the flax mixture?

    • Jeanine Donofrio
      10.07.2017

      Hi Kate, I haven’t tried, but I think 1 egg will work in place of the flax mixture.

  13. I love using Truvia brown sugar blend! So nice that you can use half the amount of sugar a normal cookie recipe calls for, yet it bakes up just like a regular cookie. Can’t wait to try these out!

  14. Tia
    10.04.2017

    What are others’ thoughts on subbing in a cup of brown sugar for the Stevia blend? I’m a-okay with regular sugar (and caloric cookies 😉 ). Is adding 1 cup of brown sugar going to throw off the wet-to-dry ratio??

    • Jeanine Donofrio
      10.04.2017

      Hi Tia, I tested these both ways and used 1/2 cup brown sugar and they were plenty sweet and had the same texture.

      • Tia
        10.04.2017

        Yay!! Thank you! 🙂

  15. Michelle
    10.04.2017

    Would it work with steel-cut oat?

    • helper
      08.29.2021

      To make the oat flour yes, because all oats grind to a flour with time. As a replacement to the whole oats nope because steel cut soaks up more liquid and needs more time to soften than rolled oats. But if you allow for the extra soaking/liquid amounts, it *could work* 🙂

  16. Yep. If fall was a cookie, it’d 100 PERCENT be these!

A food blog with fresh, zesty recipes.
Photograph of Jeanine Donofrio and Jack Mathews in their kitchen

Hello, we're Jeanine and Jack.

We love to eat, travel, cook, and eat some more! We create & photograph vegetarian recipes from our home in Chicago, while our shiba pups eat the kale stems that fall on the kitchen floor.