These no bake chocolate oatmeal cookies are an oldie but goodie that got buried in our site over the years. Since I had a craving for something fudgy, I decided to dust this recipe off and take some pictures of the results. They aren’t really lookers, but I promise that these do deliver on fudgy flavor.
Fudgy No Bake Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies that are Refined Sugar Free
Unlike most no bake cookie recipes, these are dairy-free, vegan, and made without refined sugars. In fact, they are sweetened solely with maple syrup. The texture is dense, fudgy, and lightly chewy, and the flavor is like rich dark chocolate. They’re not nearly as sweet as your average no bakes, but are just sweet enough.
I added more oats in the ones pictured than the recipe calls for, because I couldn’t decide between quick oats and rolled oats. I think we like the quick oats better, since the oats don’t suck up a lot of moisture. But if you like the hearty chew of rolled oats, go for it!
I’ve also added an option for making these with almond butter or sunflower seed butter, since some readers have had great results with these alternatives. I still use peanut butter, but I did use a natural one with no additives, except sea salt. If you use an unsalted nut butter, I would add a generous pinch of salt with the cinnamon.
And I haven’t tried this yet, but I’m betting these would be delicious as carob no bake cookies, since carob goes so well with maple syrup. If you can’t do the caffeine of chocolate, or are allergic, I recommend subbing carob powder in an equal amount.
Special Diet Notes: Fudgy No Bake Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies
By ingredients, this recipe is dairy-free / non-dairy, egg-free, gluten-free, optionally nut-free, optionally peanut-free, soy-free, vegan, vegetarian, and refined sugar-free.
If you can’t do coconut, you can sub another oil for the coconut oil. The cookies just won’t set up as firmly. Or you could try your favorite buttery spread.
- ⅔ cup maple syrup
- ¼ cup coconut oil
- 5 tablespoons cocoa powder
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ½ cup salted peanut butter, almond butter, or sunflower seed butter (for nut-free)
- 1 cup rolled oats or quick oats (certified gluten-free if needed)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- Put the maple syrup, oil, cocoa, and cinnamon in a saucepan over medium heat, and whisk until smooth.
- Bring the mixture to a boil and boil for 3 minutes, stirring constantly.
- Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the nut or seed butter, oats, and vanilla until thoroughly combined.
- Drop the dough by the heaping spoonful onto waxed paper, and shape if desired (the dough might be hot!). Let cool and refrigerate for 30 minutes to let them set up.
- Store the cookies in an airtight container in the refrigerator.
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5 Comments
anyone used carob powder in these cookies instead of cocoa?
I haven’t yet, but it’s on my list. Should be delicious. It’s a good flavor profile for carob.
I used coconut oil and creamy almond butter and they turned out great! I also used gluten free oats. I also ran out of maple syrup and used a little agave. They were still great! Although they didn’t set up like normal no bake cookies. I don’t really have a problem with that though. 🙂 Thanks for the great recipe! I will be using this over and over again!
I used coconut oil and chunky almond butter. Really yummy! Kind of like an almond joy candy bar.
Looks awesome! I will substitute the veggie oil. Most are soy! I learned that the hard way. I wonder if coconut oil is too heavy