These oatmeal cookies without butter can be made with different types of oil. They’re mixed together by hand, without a mixer, and the dough doesn’t need to be chilled. These butterless oatmeal cookies can be made with regular flour, gluten-free or whole wheat flour. They’re naturally dairy-free and have a vegan option.

I don’t know why, but I always think of oatmeal cookies as a back-to-school thing. They just seem so like childhood and back-to-school-ish.

If it’s still too hot to bake where you live, try these no-bake oatmeal cookies for a no-bake version. They also don’t use butter!

First, today’s cookies taste way better than they look. I consider myself an oatmeal cookie connoisseur (🤣), and these are the perfect oatmeal cookies.

Oil options

While you can make the cookies with butter, these oatmeal cookies are actually better without butter, as oil makes for a chewier cookie. Coconut oil is my favorite option.

I’ve tested them with both refined and unrefined coconut oil. I expected there to be some coconut aftertaste with unrefined, but there wasn’t. So use whichever kind you’d like.

You can also use other types of oil. A light olive oil would work well if you don’t mind a little olive oil taste.

There’s so much cinnamon in these that the olive oil taste doesn’t taste too strong – at least once they’ve cooled.

It’s the weirdest thing – with olive oil, these cookies taste like paint straight out of the oven. I’ve never had that happen before!

And I do a lot of baking with olive oil, like these Healthy Cinnamon Apple Muffins and Healthy Chocolate Cake.

I used extra-virgin olive oil in these cookies, but if you have light olive oil, there would be less of a chance of olive oil flavor.

Once they’ve cooled, these cookies have a slight olive oil taste (which my husband couldn’t even detect) but are still really tasty.

If you don’t want to use olive oil, then canola oil, grapeseed oil, etc. would also work.

Vegan option

It’s also easy to make these cookies vegan. The butter obviously doesn’t need to be replaced, so there are just the two eggs to worry about.

I used chia eggs, which worked just as well as normal eggs. The cookies didn’t taste any different.

You definitely can’t tell a difference between the two versions. I assume other egg subs work, but I haven’t tried them, so I can’t say for sure.

I’ve also included a gluten-free option for this recipe. You can either use a mix of white rice flour, potato starch, and tapioca starch plus xanthan gum or a gluten-free 1:1 baking mix that’s meant as a sub for all-purpose flour.

I used the one from Bob’s Red Mill with great results, but I don’t know how other brands would do. I love that mix and also used it in my healthy applesauce muffins and pumpkin cupcakes.

For the people who don’t like raisins, you can, of course, use chocolate chips. Or whatever add-ins you’d like.

But dry add-ins. You can’t add things like zucchini or carrots. I’m getting that question a lot right now!

Apparently, people are drowning in zucchini. I think it’s a nice problem to have. 🙂

Can I use something other than the listed flours?

I’ve tested and listed 5 different flour options. Those are the ones that I know will work and they’re the only ones that I think will work.

If you want to use spelt, you can try these Spelt Oatmeal Raisin Cookies.

You could perhaps another 1-to-1 GF baking mix (that’s meant as a sub for all-purpose flour) but I can’t say it’d work as well.

Can I use something other than oil?

This recipe is for oatmeal cookies without butter but you can indeed use butter if you want. They won’t be quite as chewy, though. I don’t recommend applesauce, bananas or any other such subs. It’d probably require reworking the recipe a bit.

Can you taste the coconut oil?

We couldn’t taste any coconut flavor and I use unrefined coconut oil!

Can I use something other than chia eggs for a vegan version?

While I haven’t tried, I think any egg subs would likely would in these cookies.

Can I use something other than the listed sugars?

You can probably use another granulated sugar that you can use in place of regular white granulated sugar. Liquid sweeteners won’t work as they’d make te dough too wet and the baked cookies would be cakey and spread a lot.

Can I reduce the sweetener / oil?

The more you reduce them, the more cakey and crumbly the cookies will be. I used the least amount that I thought was enough. I don’t find the cookies overly sweet! If you want something oaty that’s truly healthy, try these Healthy Oatmeal Breakfast Cookies.

Can I use different add-ins / add more of them?

Nuts, dried fruit or candy work. Nothing wet like zucchini. But don’t add too many add-ins or the dough won’t hold together!

Photo of two oatmeal cookies made without butter on a plate, one with a bite taken out of it.

5 from 41 votes