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These vegan oatmeal raisin cookies are soft, chewy, and perfectly moist! Loaded with sweet raisins, whole grains, and warming spices, they make the best after-dinner dessert, afternoon snack, or even on-the-go breakfast.
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❤️ Why you’ll love this recipe
- Festive flavors: The combination of cinnamon, clove, and allspice provides sweet, warming, and holiday-inspired flavors.
- Nutritious: Made with fiber-rich oats and antioxidant-packed raisins, these healthy oatmeal raisin cookies are a great way to indulge without feeling guilty.
- Customizable: Add your favorite mix-ins like chopped pecans, dark chocolate chips, or other dried fruits.
- Soft & chewy: Tried and true, these cookies are an old family recipe that turns out perfectly every time!
If you love vegan oatmeal raisin cookies, you should really check out our banana oatmeal cookies, vegan oatmeal cookies, vegan ginger molasses cookies, 2-ingredient peanut butter cookies.
🍪 Vegan oatmeal cookies
Compared to chocolate chip cookies or other varieties, oatmeal raisin cookies are often underrated and tossed to the side (it’s just so sad). Well, that stops today!
These vegan oatmeal raisin cookies are packed to the brim with spices, loaded with rolled oats, and studded with juicy raisins. They are soft yet chewy, sweet yet flavorful, and completely addicting!
Next time you have a cookie swap party to attend, this recipe might make you think twice about which type you’ll be bringing!
🌱 Are oatmeal raisin cookies vegan?
Most cookie recipes typically contain animal products like eggs, butter, lard, and sometimes milk. But, it is surprisingly simple to make a vegan version of oatmeal raisin cookies.
We’ve tried using coconut oil in our cookies, but there’s nothing better than vegan butter in place of dairy butter. It adds richness, chewiness, and a subtle sweetness that you just can’t achieve with any other ingredient.
We don’t find it necessary to replace the eggs, but we use baking soda and powder for a light and tender texture. Feel free to add a flax egg though!
🛒 Ingredients & substitutions
- Raisins: Use regular (black) raisins, red raisins, or sultanas for the best flavors. We like to be generous with the raisins for added natural sweetness and extra bursts of chewiness!
- Rolled oats: Provide a sweet, nutty flavor and a delicious chew. Make sure to use rolled oats, not quick oats, for the most ideal texture.
- All-purpose flour: Along with rolled oats, all-purpose flour makes up the cookie structure. For a gluten-free option, use a 1:1 gluten-free flour blend.
- Baking soda & powder: We use both baking soda and baking powder to give the cookies lift and help achieve a golden-brown end result.
- Spices: The spices are what set these vegan oatmeal raisin cookies apart from the rest! We’ve included cinnamon, allspice, and cloves for a sweet, warm, and festive touch.
- Vegan butter: Creates a perfectly chewy, rich, and flavorful vegan cookie. We like brands like Melt, Earth Balance, or Miyokos, especially for baking.
- Brown & coconut sugar: Both provide deep, rich, and caramel-like flavors while also adding moisture. We prefer to use a mix of brown sugar and coconut sugar, but you can use all brown or all coconut.
- Vanilla extract: Adds sweet, creamy flavors that enhance the other ingredients in these cookies. We highly suggest pure vanilla extract!
For a complete ingredient list and step-by-step guide, scroll down to our recipe card.
📝 How to make vegan oatmeal raisin cookies
Step 1: Whisk the dry ingredients
First, you will need to soak the raisins in some hot water to add moisture. Don’t skip this step! In the meantime, whisk the flour, oats, spices, salt, baking powder, and baking soda together in a large mixing bowl.
Step 2: Cream the butter & sugar
In a stand mixer or mixing bowl with a hand mixer, beat the softened vegan butter, brown sugar, and coconut sugar until light and fluffy. Add the vanilla, then mix it for another 30-60 seconds to incorporate.
Step 3: Combine the batter
Slowly add the dry ingredient mixture to the wet ingredients. Drain the raisins, then fold them into the batter. Be careful not to overmix to prevent gluten bond formation.
Step 4: Chill the dough
The dough will be quite sticky at this point, so let it chill for 20-30 minutes in your fridge. In the meantime, preheat your oven to 350 degrees F and grab out two large baking sheets. Don’t worry about lining them!
Step 5: Shape the cookies
Form approximately 1 ½ tablespoon cookie dough balls, and transfer them to the baking sheets a few inches apart from each other. Slightly flatten each ball of cookie dough, then get them into the oven!
Step 6: Bake the cookies
Bake the cookies for 10-12 minutes, or until they are just turning golden brown. Remove them from the oven, and immediately bang the pan. Leave them for an additional 5 minutes, then transfer the cookies to a wire rack to finish cooling. Happy eating!
If you have questions about making vegan oatmeal raisin cookies, check out our FAQs or leave a comment down below!
☕️ Serving suggestions
Vegan oatmeal raisin cookies never last very long in our house, especially when they’re paired with sweet and creamy drinks like these:
🌡️ Storage & reheating
Don’t let your extra vegan oatmeal raisin cookies go to waste! Follow these simple storage tips to keep them fresh:
- Room temperature: These cookies will stay fresh in an airtight container on the counter for up to 3-4 days.
- Freezer: Once completely cooled, transfer the cookies to a freezer-safe bag or lined container, and store them for up to 3-4 months.
- Reheating: When you’re ready for more vegan oatmeal raisin cookies, thaw them overnight at room temperature. Serve them as-is, warm them in the microwave for 5-10 seconds, or bake them at 350 degrees F for a few minutes.
♻️ Variations
- Protein: Make this healthy oatmeal raisin cookie recipe even more satisfying by adding protein-rich ingredients like pumpkin seeds or chia seeds.
- Fruits: Mix and match different dried fruits like golden raisins, cranberries, blueberries, cherries, apricots, dates, or coconut shreds.
- Nuts: Add some crunch and healthy fats with chopped nuts like walnuts, pecans, pistachios, macadamia nuts, almonds, or peanuts.
- Chocolate: If you’d prefer something a little more indulgent, mix in vegan chocolate chips!
- Oil-free: For an oil-free option, replace the vegan butter with peanut butter, cashew butter, applesauce, coconut butter, or mashed banana.
- Sugar-free: Instead of brown sugar and coconut sugar, use a sugar-free option like Lakanato brown sugar replacement.
🧑🍳 Top tips
- Careful not to overmix: Stop mixing the dough when the dry ingredients are just combined. This will prevent dense and tough cookies.
- Don’t overchill: 30 minutes is the soft spot for this recipe. Chilling the cookie dough for too long will make it difficult to work with. If it’s in the fridge overnight, let the dough warm up for 10 minutes or so before making the cookies.
- Soak the raisins: To prevent hard raisins and dry cookies, soak the raisins in hot water before adding them to the batter.
- Leave space on the pan: To prevent the cookies from sticking to each other, leave a few inches between the dough balls on the baking pan.
💬 FAQ
If you don’t have access to vegan butter, you can try making these vegan oatmeal raisin cookies with coconut oil. However, the fat content does vary between sources, which will affect the overall results.
Yes, you can make these vegan oatmeal raisin cookies gluten-free. Replace the all-purpose flour with your favorite 1:1 gluten-free flour blend, and make sure the rolled oats are certified gluten-free.
If you only have quick oats on hand, you can use them 1:1 for rolled oats. The chewiness and texture will be slightly off, but they work in a pinch!
🍴 More dessert recipes
If you enjoyed this healthy oatmeal raisin cookie recipe, be sure to check out some more desserts like these:
- Tahini cookies: A grown-up version of classic peanut butter cookies.
- Vegan cookie dough: A no-bake, quick, and easy treat ready in minutes!
- Healthy granola bars: Full of nuts, seeds, whole grains, and fruit.
- Vegan chocolate chip cookies: A chewy cookie without the need for eggs!
- Vegan peanut butter cookies: Chewy cookies packed with peanut butter flavors.
- Snickerdoodles: Soft, tender, and perfectly spiced snickerdoodles.
- Mexican sprinkle cookies: Sugar cookies topped with rainbow sprinkles!
Best Vegan Oatmeal Raisin Cookies
Equipment
- Hand or stand mixer
- Large and medium mixing bowl
- Baking sheet
Ingredients
Dry
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 cups rolled oats
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon cloves
- 1 teaspoon all-spice
- ½ teaspoon salt
Wet
- 1 cup vegan butter
- 1 ½ cups brown sugar
- ⅓ cup coconut sugar
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Mix-Ins
- 1 ½ cups raisins
Instructions
- Soak your raisins in a bowl of hot water for about 10-15 minutes while you prep the rest of the ingredients.
- In the meantime, whisk the flour, oats, baking powder, baking soda, spices, and salt together in a large mixing bowl.
- In a stand mixer or mixing bowl with a hand mixer, beat the softened vegan butter, brown sugar, and coconut sugar until light and fluffy, about 2-3 minutes. Add the vanilla, then mix it for another 30 seconds to incorporate.
- Slowly add the dry ingredient mixture to the wet ingredients. Drain the raisins, then fold them into the batter.
- Cover and chill the cookie dough in the fridge for 20-30 minutes. In the meantime, preheat your oven to 350°F and grab out two large baking sheets (it's not necessary to line them).
- Roll balls of dough (about 1 ½ tablespoons per cookie) and place them 2 inches apart on the baking sheets. Use a cookie scoop if you have one. Once on the baking sheet, slightly flatten each ball.
- Bake the cookies for 10-12 minutes, or until lightly browned on the edges. Remove them from the oven, and immediately bang the pan.
- Leave the cookies on the pan for an additional 5 minutes, then transfer them to a wire rack to finish cooling. Happy eating!
Notes
- Careful not to overmix: Stop mixing the dough when the dry ingredients are just combined. This will prevent dense and tough cookies.
- Don’t overchill: 30 minutes is the soft spot for this recipe. Chilling the cookie dough for too long will make it difficult to work with. If it’s in the fridge overnight, let the dough warm up for 10 minutes or so before making the cookies.
- Soak the raisins: To prevent hard raisins and dry cookies, soak the raisins in hot water before adding them to the batter.
- Leave space on the pan: To prevent the cookies from sticking to each other, leave a few inches between the dough balls on the baking pan.
- Room temperature: These cookies will stay fresh in an airtight container on the counter for up to 3-4 days.
- Freezer: Once completely cooled, transfer the cookies to a freezer-safe bag or lined container, and store them for up to 3-4 months.
- Nutritional information is a rough estimate and should not be taken as health advice.
Nutrition
Note: We’ve updated this post to include new information and helpful tips about the recipe.
Such delicious cookies!
I am so excited to make this at home for my vegan sister.
Hey Amy!
We are so glad you enjoyed them! We hope your sister does as well!