Many years ago, my friend Sarena shared her favorite peanut butter oatmeal cookies recipe with us. It was adapted ever so slightly from Allrecipes. She says, these cookies are so good that her family of hungry men can devour nearly an entire batch in a day. We decided to give her recipe a try, and have updated this post with new photos, more information, a teensy recipe modification, and several options.
Perfecting Dairy-Free Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies
The original recipe is actually for peanut butter oatmeal sandwich cookies. The filling is a peanut butter frosting that’s almost a bit too rich. Instead, I decided to make them Little Debbie style with a vanilla crème filling. Here are a couple other quick notes.
- Salt: I’m not sure if the butter alternatives and peanut butters are getting saltier, but I had to reduce the salt in this recipe a little bit. I’m not known for reducing the salt in recipes (usually the opposite!), but we all noticed a little too much saltiness in the aftertaste when I first tried Sarena’s recipe with the full 1 teaspoon. I do use Country Crock for baking, which is on the salty side (similar to Earth Balance) and a salted peanut butter.
- Oats: These peanut butter oatmeal cookies are quite balanced between the flour, peanut butter, and oats. If you like an oatier finish, go ahead and increase the amount. I do prefer using quick oats though, which cook up better in cookies. Regular rolled oats are a bit too tough for these cookies, but that is a personal preference.
Special Diet Notes: Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies
By ingredients, this recipe is dairy-free / non-dairy, tree nut-free, soy-free, and vegetarian. Just be sure to use the butter alternative that suits your dietary needs.
- For peanut-free oatmeal cookies, you can substitute sunflower seed butter for the peanut butter. But note that the cookies might have a slight greenish hue due to the reaction of sunflower seeds with baking soda.
- For egg-free and vegan oatmeal peanut butter cookies, see my Egg Substitution Guide. I would personally use a flax or chia egg, but I haven’t tested this recipe without eggs.
- For gluten-free dairy-free peanut butter oatmeal cookies, I would keep the egg, but substitute your favorite gluten-free baking flour blend. We haven’t tested this recipe without gluten.
Dairy-Free Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies
Prep time
Cook time
Total time
This recipe is a family favorite that was shared with us by our friend Sarena Shasteen. The original recipe is made into sandwich cookies with a peanut butter filling, but they are great soft and chewy cookies on their own. Nevertheless, I have added a vanilla crème filling option for sandwich cookies.
Author: Adapted from Allrecipes
Recipe type: Dessert
Cuisine: American
Serves: about 42 cookies
Ingredients
- ¾ cup all-purpose flour
- ⅜ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon baking powder
- ½ cup (1 stick) dairy-free buttery sticks
- ½ cup peanut butter
- ½ cup sugar
- ½ cup packed brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 egg
- 1 cup quick oats
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350°F and line baking sheets with parchment paper.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, baking soda, and baking powder.
- In a mixing bowl, cream the butter alternative, peanut butter, sugars, and vanilla. Add the egg and beat well.
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture and stir until combined. Add the oatmeal and stir until combined.
- Drop the dough by the level tablespoon onto your prepared baking sheets. Gently roll each dough piece into a ball, and flatten them to about ¼-inch thick on your baking sheet about 2 inches apart. They will spread just a little.
- Bake the cookies for about 10 minutes, or until cookies are a light brown.
- Let the cookies cool for a few minutes on the baking sheet before carefully transferring them to a wire rack to cool completely. They will be fragile when warm, but firm up s they cool.
Notes
Sandwich Cookie Option: In a mixing bowl, beat 2½ cups powdered sugar, ¼ cup + 2 tablespoons non-hydrogenated shortening, 2 tablespoons dairy-free butter alternative, 1 teaspoon water, and 1 teaspoon vanilla extract or pure flavoring. If needed, beat in another teaspoon of water to get a soft icing dough that isn't sticky. The cookies are soft, so gently press a ½ tablespoon ball of the icing onto the bottom of a cookie. Place another cookie bottom side down on the icing, and gently press to seal. You might have a little leftover icing. This fills about 24 cookies.
Nutrition Information
Serving size: 1 cookie Calories: 66 Fat: 3.5g Saturated fat: .9g Carbohydrates: 7.7g Sugar: 4.4g Sodium: 74mg Fiber: .4g Protein: 1.4g
More Dairy-Free Cookie Recipes
Dairy-Free White Chocolate Macadamia Cookies
Carrot Cake Cookies
Triple Chocolate Cookies
7 Comments
Love this recipe. Thanks for sharing.
So glad you are loving it Kat!
Well thank yoy one if the two walmarts in our area did have the earth balance tub, its wonderful, geay for cooking and on toast and baking!! Thanks gor pointing me in the right direction. I also made the peanut butter oatmeal cookies, they were out if the world my little one loved them and ao did the big kids who can have dairy!!!
Natalie
I will have to look for that brand, I have spent much time at safeway and walmart looking at margarine, the only thing I have found dairy free was the blue bonnet light margarine, which is no good for baking. I have resorted to bitter flavored shortening. I am new at this dairy free thing!!!
Most Walmart stores carry one or two varieties of Earth Balance – it is the one in the tubs, however, it does work well for baking. They do sell stick margarine, though it can be harder to find. At least in my area, Safeway is not a good option for any type of dairy alternative and carries few natural foods. If you have a Raley’s, they are often much better.
Unfortunately these are noy dairy free if you are using margerin! Margerin has milk products in in, which I can not use due to a child with dairy allergys! 🙁
They use dairy-free margarine Natalie. Many brands of margarine are dairy-free. We use Earth Balance – their entire line is dairy-free (including casein-free).