Cranberry Orange Oatmeal Cookies
These sweet and spiced, vegan cranberry orange cookies are easy to make in 1 bowl in 20 minutes and are perfect for Thanksgiving, Christmas or any time of year.
Ingredient Notes
- Almond butter. I’ve made these with almond butter and tahini and like them both. Just make sure the nut or seed butter you use isn’t too dry. It should be thick but close to pourable.
- Maple syrup. The cookies are naturally sweetened with maple syrup making them refined sugar-free. I have not tested any other sweetener but you should be able to sub agave if needed.
- Orange. You’ll need 1 navel orange to grate some orange zest for these cookies.
- Rolled oats. Old fashioned, rolled or large flake oats all work.
- Whole wheat flour. You’ll need 1 cup of whole wheat flour. I have not tested a gluten-free flour but you should be able to use all-purpose flour if needed. I suspect a gluten-free flour blend such as Bob’s Red Mill would work just fine but I haven’t tested it.
- Dried cranberries. Any dried cranberries work. I like apple juice sweetened cranberries best!
- Chocolate chips. I like Enjoy Life dairy-free chocolate chips but any vegan brand works. If you can’t find vegan chocolate chips, chopped dark chocolate works too.
Cranberry lover? Don’t miss my apple cranberry crisp recipe for another holiday favourite!
How to Make these Cookies
Before you start: preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. You want it to be fully heated before you start baking the cookies.
Use a box or handheld grate or citrus planer to grate some orange zest off of an orange then add it to a mixing bowl with the nut butter and maple syrup and stir until smooth and creamy.
Fold in the dry ingredients and stir into at thick cookie dough.
Quick Tip: Use an inexpensive kitchen scale for accurate measuring and best results.
Drop 10 cookie shapes onto a parchment paper-lined baking tray and press each into a rough cookie shape. Bake the cookies for 13 minutes then let cool completely on the pan.
Recipe Variations
- For plain oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, omit the orange, pecans and cranberries and increase the chocolate chips to 1/2 cup.
- Use vegan white chocolate chips for cranberry white chocolate cookies.
- Try using almond extract instead of vanilla extract and replacing the pecans with slivered almonds.
Related Recipes
- Tahini Date Cookies
- Turmeric Carrot Cookies
- Carrot Oatmeal Cookies
- Chocolate Chip Quinoa Cookies
- Gluten-Free Thumbprint Cookies
- Chocolate-Dipped Coconut Macaroons
Looking for more holiday recipes? Try my vegan turtles, vegan pecan pie bars no-bake Nanaimo bars, vegan rum balls, vegan eggnog or something from my collection of Thanksgiving recipes.
Did you try this recipe?
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I’d love to hear about it! Click here to leave a review and be sure to tag me @runningonrealfood if you post it on social media.
Cranberry Orange Oatmeal Cookies
- Prep Time: 10 mins
- Cook Time: 13 mins
- Total Time: 23 minutes
- Yield: 10 1x
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
- Diet: Vegan
Description
Delicious, vegan cookies featuring holiday flavours like orange, nutmeg and cranberry. These cookies are perfect for the holiday season! This recipe is refined sugar-free and oil-free!
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup (120 g) drippy almond butter or tahini
- 1/2 cup (145 g) maple syrup
- 1 cup (120 g) whole wheat flour
- 1 cup (100 g) rolled oats
- 1 tsp finely grated zest from an orange (substitute with 1 tsp orange extract)
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp sea salt
- 1/4 tsp nutmeg
- 1/4 cup dried cranberries
- 1/4 cup dairy-free chocolate chips
- 1/4 cup finely chopped pecans or walnuts, optional
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
- Add the almond butter, maple syrup and vanilla to a bowl and whisk until smooth.
- Add the flour, oats, salt, nutmeg and baking soda, stir to combine.
- Mix in the cranberries, nuts and chocolate chips.
- Line a baking tray with parchment paper or give it a light spray with non-stick cooking spray.
- Drop 10 spoonfuls of the dough onto the baking tray, pressing each one into a rough cookie shape.
- Bake for 13 minutes. Let cool completely on the pan. They will be fragile after coming out of the oven but will be firm after they cool.
- These can be stored at room temperature for up to 4 days but I like them best stored in the fridge. They’ll keep in the fridge for a week or so, or they can be frozen up to 2 months.
Notes
For plain oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, omit the orange, nuts and cranberries and increase the chocolate chips to 1/2 cup.
For best results with baking, use a kitchen scale to accurately measure ingredients.
Keywords: cranberry orange cookies
I have been baking these cookies since the summer and make several batches at a time to give to my running buddies. I later baked more to give to my best friends and several families. They all came back to me and stated “best oatmeal cookies I ever had”. I’m making more as this Sunday I will be attending a brunch with my running friends who ran the LAMarathon this past Sunday. Oh my husband always eats a few be wise they taste so good.
Thank you for sharing this recipe with us.
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These are wonderful as a post workout snack! Sometimes I swap the chocolate for pumpkin seeds.
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My dough was very dry and separated and my cookies were falling apart out the oven 🙁 the flavor was nice but can anyone tell me what might have went wrong?I used my super drippy almond butter and used my measuring spoons but ehh idk help thanks!
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Hi Candice, if the dough was dry it’s usually a result of too much flour. Flour is really easy to over measure, so I always suggest using an inexpensive kitchen scale for baking to ensure accuracy (I noted that in the post above but have added it to the recipe card as well), it also makes it really easy because you can just add everything directly to the bowl following the listed weights. The cookies are a little fragile when they come out of the oven, which is why it says to let them cool. Did you make any other changes to the recipe? Sorry they didn’t work out for you!
We make a batch of these almost every week. Easy and delicious!
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I love chocolate, but I wasn’t sure about having chocolate chips with the orange/cranberries. Personally, I probably still prefer a cranberry cookie that doesn’t have chocolate in it, but hubby loooooved these, and so did my parents. Overall, even with my chocolate misgivings, I’d say this was a tasty cookie and worth making again (especially considering it’s semi healthy!).
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It is a bit of a different flavour combination…but it works! So glad you both enjoyed them. Thanks for the kind review!
10/10 whoa baby these are amazing! That little hint of orange is so so good and dark chocolate chips/dried cranberries are always a tasty combo, but the TEXTURE is the absolute best. I didn’t have enough nut butter so I used about 1/4c peanut butter and 1/4 tahini and they are bomb dot com.
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Excellent! So glad you enjoyed them. Thanks for letting me know!
Omg! These are seriously addicting. I made a batch for Thanksgiving and everyone loved them. I’m making another big batch for Christmas. So good!
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I’m so glad you enjoyed them! I hadn’t gotten any feedback on them yet so I’m so happy to hear this. Thanks for letting me know!