These vegan oatmeal raisin cookies are crisp on the outside, soft and chewy on the inside, rich and delicious with a hint of molasses.
There is always time for another vegan oatmeal cookie recipe. These vegan oatmeal raisin cookies are so good, you’ll love them even if you don’t love raisins. Seriously.
I’m not a massive fan of raisins, in that you won’t generally find me eating a handful of raisins ever, but I’ll eat them when they come mixed up with salted peanuts or when they’re in a dessert (like this vegan tiffin, then they’re awesome!).
And in these cookies, they are so good and mix in so well with the other flavors, it will pretty much make a raisin convert out of anyone. They are just ultimately good.
We’ve already done a bunch of oatmeal cookie recipes on this blog but there is always space for more. Have you tried our simple vegan oatmeal cookies, vegan oatmeal chocolate chip cookies or vegan peanut butter oatmeal cookies yet?
If you have, then you know how good they are and how good this one is going to be too!
What sets these oatmeal cookies apart from other oatmeal cookie recipes is well, raisins of course, but also the addition of molasses.
You just use a small amount but nonetheless you will notice the difference in flavor, and that blends so well with the cinnamon and brown sugar, and raisins of course.
You’ll also love our vegan anzac biscuits, vegan cowboy cookies and vegan oatmeal cranberry cookies.
Ingredients For Oatmeal Raisin Cookies:
Ingredient Notes
- Raisins – should be small and seedless. When I first tested these cookies, I could only find jumbo raisins in the store, and they did not work out well at all. They are just too big to go easily into the cookie dough and even when the cookies were baking, it was like these giant raisins were just falling out of the cookies onto the baking tray! So don’t use jumbo raisins! You want the nice and small seedless variety.
- Dessicated coconut – is also called finely shredded coconut.
- Walnuts – these are optional but highly recommended.
- Maple syrup – can be switched for golden syrup or agave nectar or any syrup you may have on hand.
- Molasses – you can really use any molasses here since it’s only a small amount. Our favorite brand is Grandma’s.
- Soy milk – can be replaced with any non-dairy milk.
How To Make Vegan Oatmeal Raisin Cookies
You will find full instructions and measurements in the recipe card at the bottom of the post. This is a summary of the process to go along with the process photos.
- Add vegan butter and light brown sugar to the bowl of your stand mixer and cream them together until smooth.
- Add maple syrup, molasses and vanilla extract and mix in.
- In a separate bowl add rolled oats, all purpose flour, dessicated coconut, baking soda, salt and cinnamon and mix together.
- Add the dry ingredients in with the wet and mix with a spoon into a crumbly cookie dough.
- Add soy milk and mix again. Your dough should be very thick but you should be able to roll it into a ball and have it stick together perfectly at this stage. If not, add a little more soy milk.
- Add raisins and chopped walnuts and mix in.
- Roll the cookie dough into balls and place them evenly onto a parchment lined baking tray. Aim to get 20 cookies from the batch.
- Place into the oven and bake at 350°F for 12 minutes. The tops will be golden brown and the edges will be firm, but the cookies will still be very soft in the middle.
- Let the cookies cool and firm up directly on the tray.
Quick and Easy
These vegan oatmeal raisin cookies are super quick and easy. There’s no chilling of the dough or any delays in this recipe.
If you have a serious oatmeal cookie craving and have the ingredients on hand then in 30 minutes time you could have a batch of freshly baked cookies coming out of the oven!
You’ll have to wait for them to cool down, but you’ll be enjoying some of this cookie goodness in a very short amount of time.
When they come out of the oven, the cookies are quite soft in the middle. You might even wonder if they’re cooked. As long as they’re nicely browned on top, they’re good. Let them cool directly on the tray and they’ll firm up beautifully.
Recipe Tips
Try and get an even amount of raisins and walnuts into each cookie. There’s no need to be too precise of course, but you just want to keep a general eye on it as you’re rolling the cookie dough into balls. You don’t want some cookies to have a ton of raisins/walnuts and others to have none.
Baking time. For a softer cookie bake for 12 minutes. If you’d like them to have more crunch then you can increase the baking time to 15 minutes.
If your cookies don’t flatten. These cookies will usually flatten on their own in the oven. But if they don’t, you can increase the baking time by a couple of minutes. If they still haven’t flattened then just flatten them gently with a fork as soon as they come out the oven still warm and soft.
Make them gluten-free. These cookies work really well as gluten-free. All you have to do is switch the regular flour for a gluten-free all purpose baking blend. Also make sure your rolled oats are gluten-free.
Storing and Freezing
Keep them stored in an airtight container at room temperature and they’ll stay good for up to a week. You can also store them in an airtight container in the fridge.
You can freeze the baked cookies for up to 3 months.
You can even freeze the unbaked cookie balls for up to 3 months and then bake them directly from frozen (allow an extra couple of minutes baking time).
More Delicious Vegan Cookie Recipes
- Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Vegan Peanut Butter Cookies
- Vegan Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Vegan Chocolate Cookies
- Vegan Sugar Cookies
- Vegan Snickerdoodles
Did you make this recipe? Be sure to leave a comment and rating below!
Vegan Oatmeal Raisin Cookies
Ingredients
- ½ cup Vegan Butter (112g)
- 1 cup Light Brown Sugar (200g)
- 1 Tablespoon Maple Syrup or Golden Syrup
- 1 Tablespoon Molasses
- 1 Tablespoon Vanilla Extract
- 1 ½ cups Rolled Oats (150g)
- 1 cup All Purpose Flour (125g)
- 1 cup Dessicated Coconut (80g) Finely Shredded Coconut
- 1 teaspoon Baking Soda
- ½ teaspoon Salt
- 1 teaspoon Cinnamon
- 2 Tablespoons Soy Milk or other non-dairy milk
- ¾ cup Raisins (105g) small and seedless
- ½ cup Chopped Walnuts (64g) Optional
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C).
- Add vegan butter and light brown sugar to the bowl of your stand mixer and cream them together until smooth.
- Add maple syrup, molasses and vanilla extract and mix in.
- In a separate bowl add rolled oats, all purpose flour, dessicated coconut, baking soda, salt and cinnamon and mix together.
- Add the dry ingredients in with the wet and mix with a spoon into a crumbly cookie dough.
- Add in the soy milk and mix again. Your dough should be very thick, but you should be able to roll it into a ball and have it stick together perfectly at this stage. If not, add a tiny bit more soy milk.
- Add in the raisins and chopped walnuts and mix in.
- Roll the dough into balls and place them evenly onto a parchment lined baking tray. Aim to get around 20 cookies. Try to ensure the raisins are spread out in the cookie dough so that you don't end up with some cookies having no raisins and some cookies having a lot of raisins.
- Place into the oven and bake for 12 minutes. The tops will be golden brown and the edges will be firm, but the cookies will still be very soft in the middle.
- Let the cookies cool and firm up directly on the tray.
Video
Notes
- Baking time. For a softer cookie bake for 12 minutes. If you’d like them to have more crunch then you can increase the baking time to 15 minutes.
- If your cookies don’t flatten. These cookies will usually flatten on their own in the oven. But if they don’t, you can increase the baking time by a couple of minutes. If they still haven’t flattened then just flatten them gently with a fork as soon as they come out the oven still warm and soft.
- Make them gluten-free. These cookies work really well as gluten-free. All you have to do is switch the regular flour for a gluten-free all purpose baking blend. Also make sure your rolled oats are gluten-free.
- Storing: Keep them stored in an airtight container at room temperature and they’ll stay good for up to a week. You can also store them in an airtight container in the fridge.
- Freezing: You can freeze the baked cookies for up to 3 months. You can even freeze the unbaked cookie balls for up to 3 months and then bake them directly from frozen (allow an extra couple of minutes baking time).
- This recipe has been updated with new photos and extra tips but the recipe itself is the same.
Linda says
Hey, I’m about to make these and just wondering if I can use Coconut Oil instead of Vegan Butter?
Thanks for your recipes 🙂
Alison Andrews says
Hi Linda, yes you can!
Verity says
Everything you could want in an oatmeal raisin cookie! Chewy, caramel-y – I hate cinnamon usually but the hint just works! I subbed black treacle for molasses and it turned out perfect (UK).
Alison Andrews says
Fantastic! Thanks for sharing Verity!
Melissa says
Alison – these are AMAZING cookies! Easy to make, rich flavor, and each one comes out perfect. Thanks for sharing this recipe. I was a big cookie baker prior to going plant-based. It’s great to discover a new recipe that EVERYONE will love. Looking forward to trying out some of your other recipes.
Alison Andrews says
Thanks Melissa! So glad you enjoyed the recipe. 🙂
Em says
I love this recipe, I didn’t use molasses the first time but used treacle today which I think is the same thing? Added more raisins as I like a lot and used sunflower seeds instead of walnuts.
Just a tip i use a cookie scoop rather than rolling them into a ball, so they are rough shape but makes it so much quicker. Xxx
Alison Andrews says
Thanks for sharing Em! So glad you like the recipe. And yes I believe treacle is the same thing as molasses. 🙂
Kimberly says
I’m eating one now, for breakfast. It tastes better the next day. No subs except for 2 tbs maple syrup instead of 1 tbs of simple syrup and 1 tbs of molasses. SO GOOD!
Alison Andrews says
Awesome! Thanks for sharing Kimberly.
Jodi says
Holy moly, Moses, mackerel, and more … this is the “Holy Grail” of oatmeal raisin cookies, vegan or otherwise! I made these yesterday and already devoured a dozen — and I usually limit myself to two cookies a day, tops, when I bake. These are so good that I’ve deleted all other recipes for oatmeal raisin cookies from my Pinterest Board called “Yum Sweet Yum”.
I don’t like molasses and didn’t have golden syrup, so I used a tablespoon each of silan (date syrup) and agave nectar, and they came out ABSOLUTELY PERFECT. I made them big, using a 3-tablespoon scoop, and they spread out a little in the best possible way.
I am over the moon to have found such an incredible recipe. I’m going to bet that non-vegans wouldn’t even be able to tell these are vegan.
THANK YOU.
Alison Andrews says
Fantastic! So happy to hear that! Thanks so much Jodi!
Dominique says
I loved this recipe. My cookies were chewy with crisp edges and so delicious. I used coconut oil instead of butter and currants instead of raisins. I omitted the coconut flakes because I didn’t have any. I also used maple syrup, light syrup and molasses interchangeably depending on what was available. Even with all these changes the cookies came out perfectly and I made a few batches.
Thanks so much for sharing!!
Alison Andrews says
Brilliant! Thanks Dominique!
Lorrainne Stewart says
I absolutely love your website. I have tried many of your recipes and have not been disappointed yet. The cookies were amazing! Even my son, who’s not vegan loved them. I gave him 8 out of the batch to take home, and he texted me 30 minutes later to say they were all gone! Lol! Thanks so much for sharing your recipes!
Alison Andrews says
Wonderful! Thanks so much Lorrainne!
Noor says
I don’t have brown sugar… is there a replacement? I have yellow sugar… and white sugar
Alison Andrews says
White sugar will work! 🙂
Michelle says
Just recently my body would not let me eat how I have eaten my whole life. Then I found you. You have given me back my life. This is an even better cookie than I have ever eaten. Grateful for all your brilliant recipes. It is true I am loving it vegan!
Alison Andrews says
I’m so happy to hear that Michelle! Thanks for your lovely comment! So glad the recipes are helpful!
Kendall says
Can I sub all purpose flour for almond flour?
Thanks so much!
Alison Andrews says
Hi Kendall, unfortunately I don’t think that would work well at all. If you want a gluten-free version then a gluten-free all purpose flour blend works great! 🙂
Elizabeth Galloway says
These were DELICIOUS! My hubby whipped them up in under 10 minutes and we had fresh warm cookies within the hour. We didn’t have any coconut so just upped the oats a bit and left everything else as is. This recipe is a keeper! thank you
Alison Andrews says
Awesome! Thanks for sharing Elizabeth!
James says
Hello from tropical Reunion Island,
We’re in confinement, so I’ve been challenging myself to cook vegan recipes with whatever I have in the house. Since I’m a nonchalant vegetarian, I don’t have oodles of vegan friendly ingredients on hand. Anyway, I made these cookies using margarine, organic oats, locally produced unrefined sugar, grated fresh coconut (I have a coconut tree in the yard that bombards me occasionally), less vanilla extract than the recipe calls for because Réunion produces amazing vanilla, and…drum roll…rum soaked raisins that I’d had around for quite some time for no specific purpose. No molasses or golden syrup, but the raisins provided the extra moisture.
Needless to say, it took me a lot longer that 30 minutes to make these cookies because of the coconut. A good thing given confinement.
Oh wow! The cookies are SO GOOD!
Thanks for the recipe.
Alison Andrews says
That sounds amazing, how cool to have your own coconut tree! Thanks so much for sharing and the awesome review!
Mindy says
I want to visit Reunion some day, James! But, I’m lucky I live on Kauai and I also have coconut trees! Thanks for your story.
I love the way these cookie turned out, Alison–I didn’t use coconut because my husband isn’t a fan of them in cookies, and I only used maple syrup. They were as perfect as the ones I could never stop eating back when I used to use eggs and real butter. I love vegan recipes that really work, and this one just felt right as the ingredients were being mixed together. The texture of the batter and the resulting cookies were perfect!
Alison Andrews says
Awesome! So glad they worked out well Mindy!
Holly says
Absolutely LOVE these cookies! Just wondering if I could sub the oats for gluten free oats and the flour for gluten free flour or whether I would need to tinker with anything else to make them gluten free??
Alison Andrews says
Hi Holly, you can definitely make these gluten-free very successfully! Use a gluten-free all purpose flour blend, as long as it’s a blend it will work great. All the best!
Crissie says
This was so good!!
Alison Andrews says
Thanks Crissie!