I was in a baking mood and Tony was in a cookie eating mood, so I whipped out my copy of Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar for a little inspiration. Isa’s Fudgy Oatmeal Cookies caught my eye, so I decided to give them a try – with a few modifications. It resulted in what I call chocolate explosion oatmeal cookies. These are simply bursting with flavor. Needless to say, these cookies were a big hit with Tony, and I liked them too!
Vegan Chocolate Explosion Oatmeal Cookies straight from Your Pantry
This is a completely butter-less recipe. I use extra-light olive oil, which melds perfectly, and helps to make these cookies friendly for even more allergy needs.
I omitted the fruit from the original recipe, and added more chocolate. I made a few other adjustments to the recipe including an ingredient swap or two, but stayed true to the concept. As a result, these are the most chocolaty oatmeal cookies I have ever tasted. They’re almost like an oatmeal-spiked brownie.
I originally shared this recipe back in 2010, but have given the post a big update, in time for cookie season! The recipe is a classic that we still enjoy to this day.
Reader Raves
Mary has enjoyed this recipe a few times, adding some of her own twists.
They’re delicious!! Although I changed the recipe slightly. I added a little cayenne pepper (be careful not to add too much!!) and on my second batch I threw in a little golden syrup (not amazing for you, I know, but perfect in this) and they turned out lovely! I also substituted chopped mixed nuts (almond, peanut, walnut) for the chocolate chips, which really worked.
Special Diet Notes: Chocolate Explosion Oatmeal Cookies
By ingredients, this recipe is dairy-free / non-dairy, egg-free, nut-free, peanut-free, soy-free, vegan, plant-based, and vegetarian.
- 2 cups quick oats (not instant)
- 1⅔ cups whole wheat pastry flour
- ⅔ cup cocoa powder
- ¾ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- 1½ cups sugar*
- 2 tablespoons ground flaxseed
- ⅔ cup unsweetened dairy-free milk beverage
- ⅔ cup olive oil (extra-light or regular)
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 cup dairy-free chocolate chips (I used the mini-chips from Enjoy Life Foods)
- Preheat your oven to 350ºF and line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
- In a medium-sized bowl, whisk together the oats, flour, cocoa, salt, baking soda, and baking powder.
- Put the sugar, flax, milk beverage, oil, and vanilla in a large mixing bowl. Stir or mix with a hand mixer until smooth.
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet, and stir until combined. Fold in the chocolate chips.
- Drop the batter by the heaping spoonful onto your prepared baking sheets. Shape and flatten the cookies slightly, they only spread a wee bit.
- Cook for 10 minutes, or until the tops are no longer shiny.
19 Comments
Yum! I used all purpose flour instead of whole wheat pastry and also vegetable oil instead of olive oil and they were still delicious! If the flax meal isn’t meant to be an egg replacement, what is the point of such a small amount? Just a little extra nutrition?
So glad you enjoyed the recipe Kayla! The flax is the egg replacer. It gels with the other ingredients.
Have you ever used Ener-G egg replacer? If so, would you just use “one egg” amount for this recipe? To sub one egg in a recipe you add 1.5 tsp to 2T of water.
There are no eggs in this recipe Amanda.
Sorry! I should clarify. How many eggs would you say the flax is substituting. 1 or 2?
It’s not really a substitution, as there was no original recipe with eggs. This is originally a vegan recipe. At minimum, 2, but the liquids may need to be further adjusted. I don’t want to make guarantees on straight swaps! I would test with two and then adjust the liquid as needed for the right consistency.
Thanks!! I’m new at this…my son has allergies so I’ve had to learn new ways. 🙂
I’m trying these babies out today. After shoveling the snow, they sound like what we need.
Have you ever tried baking these in mini muffin pan? If so, how long do you think I should I cook them for?
I haven’t, but that sounds like a fun idea! I’m really not sure on the timing at all, I would bake at the same temp and just keep a watchful eye.
These cookies are so very yummy. My husband kept going back for more. I made half and froze the rest of the batter, which I was glad I did science my son didn’t get one of them. I never tried cooking then in mini muffin tin but I did keep each cookie to one heaping tablespoon and it still took 10 minutes. I will try baking them in mini muffin tins the next time. Thanks so much for this great recipe.
That’s so great! Thanks for sharing your notes Cheryl.
These were great, Alisa. Bringing them to my friend’s birthday party tonight (she’s lactose intolerant). The small modifications I made below for everyone’s reference:
– I ended up finding Baker’s semi-sweet chocolate chunks without milk
– Used almond milk instead of coconut
– Mine needed to be cooked 12-15 minutes
– I probably made some of them a little too big (and one or two broke), but really great recipe. First time I’d ever used flaxseed as an egg substitute!
So glad you enjoyed them Jenn!! And thank you for including your modifications – this is very helpful 🙂
I want to give these cookies five stars and a standing ovation. They are SO good. Pregnancy has made me lactose intolerant, so I’ve been avoiding all desserts since it’s hard to find any without any dairy at all. I LOVE these cookies. And with all the oatmeal and flax, it seems like they would probably make decent lactation cookies too. I’m going to use that excuse to make them after baby is born. My daughter has an egg allergy and was also really excited that she could eat these (and the dough, since she never gets to eat cookie dough).
I’m so glad to hear that you like them Nichole and that you found the recipe! It’s become a bit buried in our news section. Thanks for reminding me that I should highlight it again!
have you ever read the ingredients on a bag of chocolate chips? dairy. be careful anyone with allergies this recipe is not dairy free!!!!!! lot’s of milk in chocolate chips.
sorry i should rephrase. you MUST use enjoy life foods chocolate chips!!!!!
Hi Kate, Enjoy Life chips are fabulous! I use them, too. But there are quite a few dairy-free chocolate chip brands now. For allergy-safe, Dream brand and Divvies also work well. It offers variety since they are both traditionally-sized chips. For people who don’t have concerns for cross-contamination (trace amounts), Ghirardelli (just one type though!) and Trader Joe’s are another brand. I should probably do a post on chocolate chips 🙂
Pingback: Chocolate Explosion Oatmeal Cookies (Vegan) | Engineering Life