3-Ingredient Oatmeal Cookies
These 3 ingredient oatmeal cookies with no banana are perfect for a quick, easy and customizable treat you can whip up in minutes!
If you’re looking for an easy cookie made with just a few ingredients, this recipe is for you.
Bonus: They taste amazing and are perfectly crispy on the outside with a soft, gooey interior!
This recipe is based off of my 3-ingredient banana oatmeal cookies but are made without banana and instead call for maple syrup, nut or seed butter and oats.
From there, they’re endlessly customizable with different add-ins such as nuts, chocolate chips, raisins, spices or whatever else you enjoy in cookies (chocolate chips are obviously recommended!).
Recipe Features
- Dietary Needs: These cookies are vegan, gluten-free, oil-free, refined sugar-free and can be made nut-free.
- Made with no egg or banana.
- Nutrition Features: Each cookie is just 122 calories with 15 g carbohydrates and 3 g protein.
- Quick and Easy: You can make these in 1 bowl in under 20 minutes with just 3 everyday ingredients.
- Customizable: Switch is up every time you make them! Try chocolate chip oatmeal, raisin oatmeal, tahini date, cranberry walnut, etc.
- The best texture..crispy on the outside, soft and chewy on the inside!
- Great for snack time, lunchbox-friendly (use tahini or sunflower seed butter for nut-free) and a healthier dessert option.
Ingredient & Substitution Notes
A complete list of ingredients with amounts and full instructions is located in the printable recipe card below. This section covers ingredient and substitution considerations.
- Oats: You can use rolled oats, large flake oats, old fashioned oats or quick oats. I like rolled oats best for these.
- Nut or Seed Butter: You can use any nut or seed butter as long as it’s not overly dry. For best results, the butter you use should be creamy, drippy and almost pourable. I love tahini in these but almond butter, cashew butter, sunflower seed butter and peanut butter all work great!
- Maple Syrup: Can be substituted with agave syrup.
Step-by-Step Photos
You’ll find the full written recipe at the bottom of this page. The section below shows step-by-step photos for visual reference and includes any helpful tips and suggestions. Have a quick browse before you begin.
Before You Start: Preheat the oven to 350 F and line a baking tray with parchment paper. The parchment paper isn’t required though, so feel free to bake directly on the pan if you prefer.
Step 1: Mix together the nut or seed butter and maple syrup until smooth and completely combined. If you’re adding vanilla, add that now as well.
Step 2: Add the oats to the bowl and mix together until you have a thick, sticky cookie dough.
If you’re adding any other ingredients, stir them in now as well. I’ve included a list of add-in suggestions below.
Step 3: Using a spoon or small cookie scoop, create 12 equal sized clumps on the baking tray. Press each cookie down a little to create a cookie shape.
Quick Tip: The cookies won’t spread during baking so create the shape you want before baking. You can leave them in a haystack-style cookie or press them down to create more of a traditional cookie shape. You can also make them thinner and flatter if you like.
Bake the cookies for 15 minutes then let cool before handling to allow them to firm up. Enjoy!
Add-In Ideas
The cookies are really yummy just as is but you can really go wild with different add-ins to switch them up.
- Nuts: Try chopped walnuts, pecans or almonds.
- Dried Fruit: Try chopped dates, chopped dried apricots, raisins or cranberries.
- Seeds: Pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds and hemp seeds work well.
- Chocolate: Chocolate chips, chopped dark chocolate, cacao nibs or vegan white chocolate.
- Spices: Try cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger or pumpkin pie spice.
- Other: Crushed pretzels, vegan marshmallows.
- Orange zest is yummy for a holiday-inspired cookie (or try these cranberry orange cookies).
Storing
Let the cookies cool completely before storing. This is important so they stay crispy!
After they cool, the cookies can be stored in an airtight container or food storage bag at room temperature for up to 3 days, in the fridge for up to 1 week or frozen for up to 4 months.
If frozen, thaw briefly at room temperature before serving.
Did you try this recipe? I’d love to hear about it! Click here to leave a review.
Print
3-Ingredient Oatmeal Cookies
- Prep Time: 5 mins
- Cook Time: 15 mins
- Total Time: 20 minutes
- Yield: 12 1x
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
- Diet: Vegan
Description
These three ingredient oatmeal cookies with no egg or banana are perfect for a quick and easy treat anytime of day. They’re yummy as is but even better with add-ins like chocolate chips and walnuts!
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup nut or seed butter of choice (120 g)
- 1/3 cup maple syrup (105 g)
- 1.5 cups rolled oats (150 g)
Optional Ingredients
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/4 tsp sea salt
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- up to 1/2 cup dairy-free chocolate chips, raisins, cranberries, chopped nuts or seeds, etc.
Instructions
- Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees and prepare a baking tray with parchment paper.
- Add the nut or seed butter and maple syrup to a mixing bowl and stir together until smooth and fully combined. If you’re adding vanilla, mix it in now as well.
- Add the oats and any other add-ins you’re using and mix into a thick, sticky dough. Depending on the consistency of your nut butter, you may need to add a bit of extra maple syrup or nut butter or a bit more oats. The dough should be a thick, sticky cookie dough-like consistency.
- Using a spoon or small cookie scoop, create 12 roughly equal-sized clumps, placing on the baking tray. It’s helpful to wet your hands so the dough doesn’t stick to you. The cookies will not spread during baking, so press each one down a bit to form a cookie shape (or leave them haystack-style).
- Bake for 15 minutes then allow to cool before handling.
Notes
Be sure to use creamy, drippy nut or seed butter that’s nearly pourable in consistency. You can use almond butter, peanut butter or cashew butter or for nut-free cookies, tahini or sunflower seed butter.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 cookie
- Calories: 122
- Sugar: 6 g
- Fat: 6 g
- Carbohydrates: 15 g
- Fiber: 2 g
- Protein: 3 g
Keywords: 3 ingredient oatmeal cookies, 3 ingredient cookies no egg
Originally published January 28, 2019.
I baked your Banana oatmeal cookie (added crushed walnuts) and they turned out to be very tasty _ thank you so much,
For a guy that doesn’t know his way around a bakery these turned out A-OK!
Going try your no banana recipe using crunchy peanut butter and semi-sweet chocolate chips.
Hoping for the best.
Again many thanks
Hergy
These are delicious! My family and I can’t get enough. Thanks for a quick, easy and scrumptious cookie recipe! ❤️
★★★★★
Great to hear! I’m so happy you all enjoyed them. Thanks for the review!
Can you use honey instead of maple syrup?
Yes.
These were great and so easy and didn’t make too many. I had some peanut butter but not enough so I added tahini. I didn’t have maple syrup so I used pancake syrup. I added the optional salt and vanilla. Extras were some chopped walnuts, raisins and chocolate chips. I know if I’d have made it exactly like you said it would have been great too but I really wanted a cookie!! I will be making these forever. Thanks so much!!
★★★★★
So happy you loved them!
The best oatmeal cookies 🍪 loved them easy recipe. My husband said they were not sweet enough for him. I really loved them because I didn’t have to use sugar they were just right. I used almond butter.
There’s a great breakfast cookies.
These were super fast to make and satisfied my late night sweet tooth. I added Hu chocolate chunks.
★★★★★
Was feeling hopeful while making cookies, but they didn’t come out as I imagined, unfortunately!
But now that I know what I’m working with, the next time I make the banana, peanut butter and oatmeal cookie, there must be a couple of added additions. The first is salt, the second either chocolate or carob chips or a sweet dry fruit. And either pecans or walnuts.
Creamy peanut butter was used; next time, I’ll try chuncky peanut butter.
★★★★
The kitchen used while preparing cookies had no vanilla, which was sorely left out.
★★★★
Could butter be used if you dont have any of the seed or nut butters on hand at the moment?
Hmm, I’m not sure the consistency would be right unfortunately. You could try it but I can’t be sure they’ll work out. Thanks.
I followed the steps and also the suggestions the recipe called for exactly. I added the recommended vanilla extract and used chocolate chips instead of nuts or raisins. The nut butter I used was Skippy peanut butter “with honey.” When I made these I was already eating the unbaked batch cause it was so delicious. When it baked I didn’t know what to expect because it looked dry. But when I ate one, the texture was oats, but chewy and the flavor is super addicting. Delicious!
★★★★★
Thanks, Rose! So glad you enjoyed!
I had a box of oats in the back of my pantry and wanted to use them. This was perfect – oats, peanut butter, and syrup. I added dark chocolate chips and they are super yummy. I’m excited to try walnut and dried cranberries next time. They’re more like a rolled oat snack than a traditional cookie, which is awesome!
★★★★★
Tried this with crunchy peanut butter & cranberries, it turned out easy & quick!
★★★★
Great to hear! So glad you enjoyed them!
Thank you! My family enjoyed the taste, but I’m worried that if my math is right (might not be) for my batch of 12 one cookie has more calories, fat, carbs, etc. than two oreos. I followed the recipe exactly with a scale.
Glad you enjoyed them! If you prefer Oreos, go for it! These are just an option for a basic homemade cookie. If you made 12, 1 cookie should be about 122 calories. They’re not meant to be low-calorie, though that’s still quite low for a cookie. Thanks!
So yummy!
★★★★★
These came out Great! Followed to a tee except I added some chopped pieces of Lindt dark chocolate, used Quaker 1 minute oats, and some vanilla extract. Sprayed my cookie sheet with oil, DELICIOUS THANKS!
★★★★★
So glad you enjoyed them! Thanks for leaving a rating and comment – much appreciated!
Super easy to make! I used Almond butter instead and used some chopped pecans and raisins that I had sitting around. I was craving something sweet and this hit the spot!
★★★★★
Awesome, glad you enjoyed!
I bake these directly on the pan but I’ve also baked on a silicone baking mat and parchment paper. I’ve never had an issue with this recipe – you followed it exactly aside from the almond butter?