Sugar-Free Oatmeal Cookies
By Carine Claudepierre
Published on 03/28/2023 - Last updated on 09/19/2024
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These Sugar-Free Oatmeal Cookies are soft, chewy, gluten-free, low-sugar oatmeal breakfast cookies with delicious nutty flavors. They are packed with proteins and fiber from oats and contain less than 1 gram of sugar per cookie.
These Sugar-free Oatmeal Cookies are healthy cookies packed with oats, nuts, and seeds and naturally sweetened with a sugar-free sweetener. Some sugar-free oatmeal cookies are sweetened with natural fruit puree, and some use sugar-free syrup.
They are a great alternative to my Keto Oatmeal Cookies or Keto Breakfast Cookies.
Ingredients and Substitutions
All you need to make this sugar free oatmeal cookie recipe are:
- Old-Fashioned Rolled Oats – Old-fashioned oats are different from quick oats. Their coarse texture adds a nice consistency to the oatmeal cookies. Choose certified gluten-free oats if you are allergic to gluten.
- Quick-Cooking Oats – Quick oats are different from old-fashioned oats but cut into a smaller chunks. Combining both oatmeal textures makes the oatmeal breakfast cookies less dry. Feel free to use only quick oats or only old-fashioned oats if preferred.
- Unsweetened Desiccated Coconut – Coconut adds a delicious taste to the cookies.
- Oat Flour – You can also use almond flour or wholewheat flour.
- Flaxseed Meal – This brings healthy fats and fiber to the cookies that stabilize blood sugar levels.
- Baking Powder and Baking Soda – for the perfect texture.
- Sugar-Free Dried Cranberries – They are a bit bitter, but I like them. If you can’t find these, use chopped walnuts or pecans for a sugar-free add-on.
- Seeds – I like a blend of pumpkin seeds and sunflower seeds, but you can use any of your favorite seeds.
- Large Eggs – I use free-range eggs.
- Sugar-Free Syrup – Monk fruit syrup is what I use.
- Melted Coconut Oil – You can also use melted butter or melted ghee.
- Vanilla Extract – For flavor.
You can mix in any sugar-free ingredients in these sugar-free cookies like:
- Chopped Nuts – walnuts, pecans, or almonds.
- Seeds – Pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, or hemp seeds for a boost of proteins.
- Coconut – Shredded unsweetened coconut brings a chewy texture to the oatmeal cookies that I love.
- Unsweetened Fruits – You can use unsweetened dried cranberries. It’s slightly sour and adds a great taste to the cookies.
How To Make Sugar-Free Oatmeal Cookies
These sugar-free breakfast cookies don’t contain added sugar at all. They are packed with wholegrain oats, and sweetened naturally with sugar-free syrup from Monk fruit.
- First, in a large mixing bowl, whisk the dry ingredients together: rolled oats, quick oats, oat flour, ground flaxseeds, salt, baking powder, and baking soda.
- Now, stir in beaten eggs, cooled melted coconut oil, vanilla extract, and sugar-free maple syrup. Stir to combine and form a sticky cookie dough. The cookie dough should not be too moist or too dry. It should be able to form balls if squeezed in a cookie dough scoop. If too dry, add one to two tablespoons of water. If too wet, add more oat flour.
- Fold in any mix-ins and stir until evenly combined.
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C). Lightly oil a large baking sheet with parchment paper. Set aside.
- Use a cookie scoop to scoop out some cookie dough from the mixing bowl. If you don’t have one, use your hands and oil your hands with coconut oil before forming the cookies so the batter doesn’t stick.
- This cookie dough makes 12 sugar-free breakfast cookies. Place each cookie dough ball on the prepared baking sheet, leaving a bit of space between each. These healthy breakfast cookies won’t expand in the oven, but you don’t want them too close, either. This makes it easier to remove them one by one from the tray after baking.
- Flatten the cookies to your favorite thickness, using the palm of your hand to apply a little pressure on top of each cookie dough ball.
- Bake the cookies for 15 to 20 minutes in the oven preheated to 350°F (180°C). Keep baking until golden brown on top.
- Let the cookies cool completely on a cooling rack before enjoying them.
Allergy Swaps
You can make the following substitutions to the recipe:
- Egg-Free – Replace the eggs with the equivalent flaxseed egg. To make one flax egg, stir one tablespoon of golden flax meal with 3 tablespoons of lukewarm water in a bowl. Set aside for 10 minutes until thick, then use as one egg in the cookie recipe.
- Sugar-Free Syrup Swap – If you are fine with unrefined sugar, then try natural maple syrup, brown rice syrup, or coconut nectar. Otherwise, try replacing the syrup with 1/2 cup of mashed banana for natural sweetness.
- Seed-Free – Swap the seeds for any chopped nuts.
- Cranberry-Free – Swap the cranberries for sugar-free chocolate chips or more chopped nuts or seeds/
- Oil-Free – Replace the cooled melted coconut oil with melted butter or melted ghee.
- Gluten-Free – You can use gluten-free oats for this recipe.
Flavoring Options
You can make this recipe with so many variations to create a range of flavors. For example, try:
- Oatmeal Almond Flour Cookies – Swap the oat flour for almond flour and add chopped almonds and sugar-free chocolate chips to the batter instead of cranberries and coconut.
- Chocolate Chips Oatmeal Cookies – Replace 1/2 cup of mix-in ingredients with your favorite sugar-free chocolate chips flavor.
- Banana Oatmeal Cookies – Replace the syrup with a mashed ripe banana for a natural sweetener. This is technically not sugar-free, but a natural way to sweeten cookies.
- Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies – You can replace one egg with 1/4 cup of natural peanut butter.
- Sugar-Free Oatmeal Raisin Cookies – Swap the unsweetened dried cranberries for dried raisins but they contain more natural sugar.
Storage Instructions
These Sugar-free Oatmeal Cookies can be stored in an airtight cookie jar in the refrigerator for up to 4 or 5 days. You can also freeze them in freezer bags for up to 1 month and thaw them at room temperature.
Frequently Asked Questions
Below are my answers to your most frequent questions about this recipe.
Sugar-free recipes don’t use any sugar, even the natural sugar from fruits like bananas, dried fruits like dates or raisins, or refined sugar-free sweeteners like maple syrup. On the other hand, refined sugar-free recipes may use all these ingredients – dates, honey, banana, apples, and dried fruits.
But they never include refined sugar like white sugar, brown sugar, or golden syrup.
Yes, you can, but the cookies are more fragile.
No, coconut flour is four times more liquid absorbent, and it will make the cookies very dry.
Instead, you can use almond flour, oat flour, or whole wheat flour.
Yes, sugar-free oatmeal cookies are packed with nourishing, wholesome ingredients, and no sugar is added, which spikes blood sugar levels and tricker sugar cravings. They are also high in fiber – which is good for gut health and stabilizes blood sugar levels.
More Sugar-Free Cookie Recipes
If you’ve enjoyed these sugar-free breakfast cookies, you’ll love these:
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Sugar Free Oatmeal Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup Old-Fashioned Oats
- 1 cup Quick-Cooking Oats
- ¾ cup Oat Flour
- 3 tablespoons Flaxseed Meal
- 1 teaspoon Cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon Baking Powder
- ½ teaspoon Baking Soda
- ¼ teaspoon Salt
- 2 Eggs beaten
- ½ cup Sugar-Free Maple Syrup
- ¼ cup Coconut Oil melted
- 1 tablespoon Vanilla Extract
Mix-in
- ⅓ cup Sugar-Free Cranberries or chopped walnuts/pecans
- 3 tablespoons Pumpkin Seeds
- ⅓ cup Unsweetened Desiccated Coconut
- 3 tablespoons Sunflower Seeds
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C).
- Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Slightly oil the paper with cooking oil spray or coconut oil. Set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl, combine all the dry ingredients: old-fashioned oats, quick oats, oat flour, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and flax meal.
- Add beaten eggs, sugar-free syrup, melted coconut oil, and vanilla extract.
- Stir to combine and bring all ingredients together into a sticky oatmeal cookie dough. If too dry, add 1-2 tablespoons of water to combine all the ingredients. If too wet, add more quick oats, 1 tablespoon at a time. You should be able to squeeze the dough and form a ball that holds together.
- Fold in mix-in ingredients of your choice: coconut, unsweetened cranberries, pumpkin seeds, and sunflower seeds, and stir to incorporate evenly.
- Set aside 10 minutes – the fiber will firm up the cookie dough and make it easier to shape into cookies.
- Slightly oil your hands with coconut oil and shape 12 cookie balls.
- Place each ball on the prepared baking sheet leaving a thumb of space between each cookie – they won't expand much in the oven.
- Press the cookies slightly with your hand palm to flatten them.
- Bake the cookies for 15-20 minutes until the sides are crispy and golden brown.
- Cool down on a rack and store in a cookie box in your pantry for up to 1 week.
Notes
Want My Kitchen Equipment?
Nutrition
About The Author
Hi, I'm Carine, the food blogger, author, recipe developer, published author of a cookbook, and founder of Sweet As Honey.
I have an Accredited Certificate in Nutrition and Wellness obtained in 2014 from Well College Global (formerly Cadence Health). I'm passionate about sharing all my easy and tasty recipes that are both delicious and healthy. My expertise in the field comes from my background in chemistry and years of following a keto low-carb diet. But I'm also well versed in vegetarian and vegan cooking since my husband is vegan.
I now eat a more balanced diet where I alternate between keto and a Mediterranean Diet
Cooking and Baking is my true passion. In fact, I only share a small portion of my recipes on Sweet As Honey. Most of them are eaten by my husband and my two kids before I have time to take any pictures!
All my recipes are at least triple tested to make sure they work and I take pride in keeping them as accurate as possible.
Browse all my recipes with my Recipe Index.
I hope that you too find the recipes you love on Sweet As Honey!
Disclaimer
The recipes, instructions, and articles on this website should not be taken or used as medical advice. The nutritional data provided on Sweetashoney is to be used as indicative only. The nutrition data is calculated using WP Recipe Maker. Net Carbs is calculated by removing the fiber and some sweeteners from the total Carbohydrates.
You should always calculate the nutritional data yourself instead of relying on Sweetashoney's data. Sweetashoney and its recipes and articles are not intended to cure, prevent, diagnose, or treat any disease. Sweetashoney cannot be liable for adverse reactions or any other outcome resulting from the use of recipes or advice found on the Website.
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Can I substitute the brown rice syrup for something else? Or can I omit it all together. Is it really needed for the recipe?
Any liquid syrup like Monk fruit syrup
I love having stuff like this around for breakfast
I am glad you do ! Enjoy the blog recipes, XOXO Carine.
Hey everyone I just tried making these. They are delicious! What I did is halfway through the bake time I flipped them. Made them brown on both sides. HIGHLY recommend:).
Thanks for the recipe!!
i don’t like brown rice flour because no matter WHAT I use it in it tastes gritty like sand. i have a gluten free flour mixture from carol fenster that i use for everything from cakes to cookies to cornbread it has white rice flour and potato flour and corn starch and I forget at the moment, but could I use this as well? also i have friends that can use anything but not wholewheat flour. another member said she used white flower and more rolled oats, how much more. I would like to try that . this sounds sooo good.
Hi, I am not familiar with the carol gluten free flour but I am sure it will work well to replace brown rice flour in this recipe. Enjoy the cookies! XOXO. Carine.
Can I use olive oil instead of coconut oil
Hi, I would not use olive oil in this recipe. Coconut oil is really adding a great taste to the cookies and help them firm up when cooked. Coconut oil gets solids again at room teperature and it gives a lovely texture to those cookies. Enjoy them, xoxo Carine.
These look great but I am not crazy about the desiccated coconut, what can I substitute or can i leave it out altogether?
Hi, I would recommend you to use any nut flour like almond flour, hazelnut flour or oat bran. Use same amount as you will use for coconut. Enjoy the recipe, xoxo Carine.
I made these today and they were delicious!
I skipped the cranberries when I read the ingredients on the pack and discovered they were 41% sugar (!!!). Also I used 3 eggs and added a little rose water for flavor. So they ended up nice and moist. Kids loved them too. Thanks for this recipe ?
You can get juice-sweetened cranberries, or unsweetened. Just not in typical grocery stores ????
Well, I am sorry if you can’t get those where you live, I don’t have this trouble in NZ. You can always omit them in the recipe and it will come out great! Enjoy the recipes on te blog. XOXO Carine.
These have become a staple for us. So quick and easy to make up on Sunday for weekday breakfast. So many nutritious ingredients too! We love them!
Hi, Thank you so much for this lovely comment. I am so happy to hear that my recipe is on your table every Sunday 🙂 I hope you’ll find even more delicious recipe on my blog. Thanks for reading me and trying my recipe. xoxo Carine.
Am I reading carbs right. 45 for one cookie or is it 45 divided by 8? That seems realllllllly high in carbs. Which makes me sad as a diabetic! The ingredients don’t seem as though it would equate to 45 carbs for one cookie. Am I reading cab right lol?
Hi Melodie, yes it is 45 g carbs per cookie – but it is 8 large cookies. You can remove the cranberries to decrease and swap the honey by brown rice syrup. It will decrease the carbs to 38 g – including 5.2 g of fibre so only 32.8g net carb per cookies. Also, this recipe makes 8 large cookies. You can also makes 16 small cookies and each cookies will bring you only 16.4 net carb per cookie. Don’t forget that this recipe contains only healthy wholegrains carbs from wholegrain oat and brown rice flour which are good for you. Have a great day, xoxo Carine.
Is the nutrition breakdown for the entire recipe or per cookie?
Hi Jenny, The nutrition panel is per cookie and the recipe makes 8 large cookies. You can also make 16 smaller cookies to divide your calories per portion. Enjoy the recipe ! xoxo Carine.
Have you figured out the breakdown on protein, calories, fiber etc…
Hi Cheryl, Yes! The nutrition panel is now available after the recipe box. Enjoy the cookies! Carine.
hi there how can i make it without the eggs
Hello! I never made those clean breakfast cookies without eggs so I would not recommend anything without trying it before. However, if you love egg free oatmeal bars I have gt another delicious recipe that will be suitable for your egg-free diet. It is a carrot cake oatmeal bar. Enjoy the recipe! Carine.
Hi there. I am going to attempt these on the weekend! I am just wondering what jumbo oats are please?
Thank you so much for sharing
Hi Sheryl, Jumbo oats also known as wholegrain oats or old fashioned oats are oat groats that have been steamed and flattened with a large heavy roller. They have got a perfect bite size for muesli or bars adding more texture. Rolled oats also know as quick oats are smaller pieces than jumbo oats. It is finer flakes that absorb more liquids and give bulk in porridge or bars. You can buy jumbo oats from Quaker brand. I added a link in the recipe box for you – click on it and have a look ! I hope it helps. Enjoy those delicious cookies. see you soon on the blog and thanks for reading my blog Sheryl! xoxo Carine.
I am looking forward to making these for breakfast to go in the mornings! Thank you for sharing. I was wondering for this recipe, how many cookies does it make? And how many would say for a average size person would fill you up for breakfast? Appreciate the info for helping in my food prepping for my family of 5. Thanks again!
Hi Sarah! This recipe makes about 8- 10 cookies – size as on the picture makes 8. I am a small person and I am usually full with two cookies and a large cappuccino 🙂 My husband will have more that is why I am often doubling the batch and keep them for a week in an airtight plastic container at room temperature. Enjoy the recipe and let me know how it goes! Thanks for reading my blog and testing my recipes Sarah! I can’t wait to read you again! xoxo Carine.
Hi Carine,
I made your breakfast cookies for the fist time today and they were great! My batter was a bit wet (I only had white flour in my pantry) so I added in more quick oats and they turned out perfectly. I will definitely be making these again and look forward to trying new ingredient combinations! Thank you for sharing your recipe.
Hi Melissa, I am so happy to read that ! I love those breakfast cookies and I always found the recipe super easy and delicious. I am very happy to read that this works perfectly in your kitchen too and that we can easily adapt it with what we have got in the pantry! Always great to have options for the other readers. Huge thank you for following my blog and taking few minutes to add this positive review. I hope you will find more delicious recipe on my blog. xoxo. Carine.
Just made these and while certainly tasty, they do not resemble cookie batter in the least. They were very hard to shape and fell apart as soon as I put them on the cookie sheet. I ended up skipping them with an ice cream scoop into muffin tins.
Put the batter in the frig for 20 mins. I just made these and they turned out great.
Hi Penny, Thanks for your positive comment on this recipe! I love to hear that everything goes well and was as simple as that ! Enjoy the clean cookies and see you soon on the blog to try more healthy recipes ! Huge thanks for following my blog and testing my recipes <3. Carine.
Hi, I am sorry to hear that. Did you change any ingredients in the recipe at all? I am thinking about the flour or did you well use a combo of jumbo and rolled oats? For e.g brown rice flour has a different amount of fiber than other flour meaning that they liquid absorption is also different. Same with oat size. My batter is never dry using this recipe. It looks sticky, thick not crumbly at all. If it is crumbly or too dry I recommend to add 1 tbsp of cold water into the mixture – up to 6 tbsp. It should makes the batter easier to work into cookies. Thanks for following the blog! Let me know, xoxo Carine.
Can you please explain what is desicated coconut? These sound delicious but I don’t know what that is. Thanks.
Hi Patricia, Desiccated coconut is coconut meat which has been shredded and then dried to remove as much moisture as possible. It is thinner than shredded coconut. It looks like a coconut powder and you can buy it in any supermarket in the baking area. I hope you try those breakfast cookies. It is delicious! Carine.