No Butter Oatmeal Cookies (Cookies with Oil)

These delicious no butter oatmeal cookies are stuffed with chocolate chips, dried fruit and oat flakes. They are easy to make, soft and use no butter. Perfect for the times when you look in the refrigerator and shout “Who used the last of the butter without telling me??!! Grrr… Now how am I going make cookies for the party?”.

To solve this age old dilemma (and save you from making a special trip/butter run to the supermarket), this oatmeal cookie recipe uses vegetable oil instead of butter. The result is a softer oatmeal cookie that tastes great! Moreover, given the high cost of butter (and lower relative cost of many vegetable oils), no butter cookies are also a way to lower your baking expenses… while still making a great tasting cookie.

However, please be aware that this recipe is designed as an “emergency” cookie recipe when you do not have any butter. These cookies lack the buttery taste that is common to cookies made with butter.

No Butter Oatmeal Cookies with Chocolate Chips & Dried Cranberries (or Raisins)

If you liked this recipe for oatmeal cookies without butter, we hope you will leave a comment below and give us a 5 star rating. Thank you! We also have a printable and “pin-able” cookie recipe at the bottom of this page.

Recipe Sections

• Ingredients
• Instructions
• Helpful Tips

Key Ingredients – Oat Flakes, Chocolate Chips & Dried Cranberries (or Raisins)

Ingredients

• 3/4 Cup – Vegetable Oil – 173 milliliters – Use a neutral flavored oil such as canola or corn oil. Do not use strongly flavored oil or old oil. For more info, see the tips below.
• 2 Large Eggs
• 1 1/2 Cups – Light Brown Sugar (packed cup) – 322 grams
• 1 Teaspoon – Vanilla Extract – 5 milliliters
• 1 1/2 Cups – All Purpose Flour – 180 grams
• 1 Teaspoon – Baking Soda – 5 grams
• 1/2 Teaspoon – Salt – 3 grams
• 1 Teaspoon – Ground Cinnamon – 3 grams
• 1 1/2 Cups – Old Fashioned Oat Flakes – 135 grams – DRY flakes. Do not pre-moisten the oat flakes.
• 1 Cup – Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips – 170 grams
• 1 Cup – Dried Cranberries – 114 grams – You can also use raisins, dried blueberries or dried cherries.

Servings – Roughly 25-30 cookies (depending on the size of your cookies)

Equipment Needed – Measuring cup & spoons, mixing bowl, electric mixer, large wooden spoon, tablespoon or cookie dough scoop, oven mitts, silicon spatula, baking sheets, cooling rack and an oven.

After Mixing & Chilling Dough, Scoop or Shape the Cookie Dough & Place on Baking Tray

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
• Mix vegetable oil, eggs, brown sugar and vanilla extract in a large bowl. Use an electric mixer to mix these ingredients together. Mix until creamy.
• Then stir in the flour, baking soda, salt and ground cinnamon. Use an electric mixer to mix all of the ingredients together. Mix until ingredients are completely blended and cookie dough looks creamy. FYI – Read the tips section below to find out why using an electric mixer results in a much better cookie than mixing by hand (when using vegetable oil as an ingredient). However, don’t overmix. Only mix for 1-2 minutes with an electric mixer.
• Add the old fashioned oat flakes to the cookie dough. Use a large spoon (not electric mixer) to stir in the oat flakes. Stir until oat flakes are mixed evenly throughout the dough.
• Then add the dried cranberries & chocolate chips to the cookie dough. Use a large spoon (not electric mixer) to stir them in. Stir until chips & cranberries are mixed evenly throughout the dough.
• Optional (but recommended) – Chill the dough in a covered bowl in your refrigerator for 30-60 minutes. This helps to prevent the cookie dough from spreading in the oven and reduces the potential for overly thin/flat cookies.
• Scoop the dough with a tablespoon or cookie dough scoop and place this dough “ball” onto a non-stick baking sheet. You will need at least 2 baking sheets in order to bake all of the cookies at the same time (if they can fit in your oven) or you will need to bake each batch separately (one after the other).
• Leave space of roughly 2-3 inches between each dough ball because the cookies will spread as they bake.
• Bake for 10-12 minutes or until golden brown.
• Remove baking sheet/tray from the oven. Wear oven mitts. Leave cookies on baking sheet to cool for 3-4 minutes. Otherwise, cookies might break when removed from the baking sheet.
• Use a spatula to remove oatmeal cookies and place cookies on wire cooling racks in order to cool completely.
• Please read the tips section below for extra information on how to make this recipe successfully & to avoid common no butter oatmeal cookie problems.

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Other Bread Dad Sections

• Cookie Tools – Cookie scoops, etc.
• Bread Machines – My favorites
• Bread Making Books
• Bread & Dessert Mixes

Helpful Hints – Oatmeal Cookies with Oil

• The tips below are designed to help cookie “novices” and/or people with limited baking experience. These tips will help you to make soft, great tasting & better shaped no butter oatmeal cookies.
• These cookies are not dairy-free cookies because many types of chocolate chips contain milk or dairy-based ingredients. Consider vegan chocolate chips if you want to look for chocolate chips without dairy-based ingredients. Always read the labels on recipe ingredients to see if the ingredient contains potential allergens (i.e. dairy or nuts).
• Click on our “print recipe” link if you want to print out this recipe. It includes all of the recipe’s ingredients and instructions. However, the recipe print function does not include our tips section. Please read the tips section in order to avoid common recipe problems.
• This recipe is part of Bread Dad’s series on Easy Cookie Recipes.

• As stated at the top of the page, this recipe is designed as an “emergency” cookie recipe when you do not have any butter. Cookies made with oil do not taste the same as cookies made with butter… because they don’t use any butter! Cookies made with oil (instead of butter) do not have a buttery flavor.
• Some people like to make oatmeal cookies with oil because they ran out of butter. Others like to make oatmeal cookies without butter in order to cut out the saturated fat associated with most dairy butters. I just like to make them because oatmeal cookies with oil are softer & taste great!
• Tips on how to avoid making HARD cookies – Do not use old baking soda (expired baking soda impacts the rise/fluffiness of the cookie), measure the ingredients correctly & don’t eyeball things (too much flour or too little liquid will result in drier & harder cookies), do not overmix the cookie dough (only mix the cookie dough for 1-2 minutes with an electric mixer), do not overbake the cookies (bake the cookies at the low end of the 8-10 minutes), use a portable oven thermometer to check if your oven temperature is off (some ovens run hotter than the temp set on the dial), do not remove the brown sugar (helps activate the baking soda & adds a little moisture), chill the dough (helps to retain the height of the cookie as flatter/spreading cookies bake faster & come out harder), do not make overly flat thin cookies (thin cookies bake quicker and become hard faster), store freshly made cookies in airtight containers (after they have cooled down), etc.

• Tips to prevent “spreading” (i.e. OVERLY THIN cookies) – Chill the dough (see tip below), don’t squish the dough flat (higher dough results in higher cookies), use fresh baking soda (cookies made with stale baking soda don’t rise properly), measure the recipe ingredients exactly!! (too much oil results in “runny” dough and flatter cookies), always use cool or room temperature baking sheets (don’t reuse a hot baking sheet to make another batch… i.e. the hot baking sheet that was used to bake your first batch of cookies), don’t overmix the dough (only use an electric mixer for 1-2 minutes), make sure to use the right oven temperature (follow the recipe’s instructions because ovens that are too hot will cause cookies to “melt” too quickly and thus they will spread more than expected), etc.
• Chill the oatmeal cookie dough in your refrigerator for 30-60 minutes before baking. Colder dough helps to prevent the chocolate chip oatmeal cookies from spreading too much in a hot oven and this helps your cookies from becoming too flat/thin. FYI – The longer that you chill the dough, the less the oatmeal cookies with oil will spread in the oven.
• Chilling the dough also helps with the ability to shape the cookies. The cookie dough is less sticky & runny. Therefore, it is easier to create round cookies with smooth edges.

• You should use a NEUTRAL flavored vegetable oil (such as corn or canola oil) in order to make these no butter oatmeal cookies.
• Stronger flavored oils (i.e. peanut oil or olive oil) may NEGATIVELY impact or change the taste of the cookies. You want to use an oil that has very little flavor.
• You should also consider using fresh oil when baking as some oils spoil faster than others. Old oil can go rancid and taste bitter, stale, funky, etc. Old oil can leave a bad aftertaste in your baked goods.
• Oils also spoil faster when exposed to air (oxidation), light, heat, etc. Vegetable oils should be stored in a tightly sealed container and in a cool & dark pantry. Some people like to refrigerate their vegetable oils in order to extend their shelf life.
• However. if you prefer the taste of butter to vegetable oil, please feel to substitute butter for the oil on a one-to-one basis.
• Economic Benefit – A number of our visitors (Cindy & others) have pointed out that it is cheaper (in most cases) to use basic vegetable oil instead of butter (on an ounce-to-ounce basis). Therefore, no butter cookie recipes can help lower your baking bills during times of economic uncertainty.

• These no butter oatmeal cookies are soft oatmeal cookies. I find that oatmeal cookies made with oil (not butter) are softer & moister because oil stays as a liquid at room temperature. My family prefers soft oatmeal cookies (versus the occasional rock hard oatmeal cookies that we receive as gifts).
• Optional – If you don’t have dried cranberries, you can use the traditional oatmeal cookie standby… raisins! Or you can use dried blueberries, dried cherries, etc. FYI – I like to use golden raisins (versus “regular” raisins) when making raisin-based cookies. Golden raisins tend to be moister than regular raisins (which can be too dry on occasion).
• Visitors – What do you like to add to your oatmeal cookies? Raisins, chocolate chips, chopped walnuts, M&Ms, unique spices, chopped-up Halloween candy, etc. Please post your oatmeal cookie tips & recipe variations in the comment section below and help beginning bakers make even better oatmeal cookies without butter.

• No butter cookies come out much better if you mix the ingredients with an electric mixer for 1-2 minutes (see the recipe instructions above for when to use a mixer and when to use a large spoon). The cookie dough comes out “creamier” and the vegetable oil is blended in better if you use an electric mixer. However, don’t overmix (don’t mix for more than 1-2 minutes) because this could result in problems such as cookies spreading too thin during baking.
• Completely mix the eggs, vegetable oil and sugar together with an electric mixer BEFORE adding the flour. This will result in much better no butter oatmeal cookies. See the inadequately blended problems in the line below.
• Mixing only by hand can lead to the cookie dough being inadequately blended. This can result in your cookies having unwanted “clumps” of ingredients (i.e. small flour clumps) and/or a gritty texture (inadequately blended sugar grains). For this recipe, you should only stir by hand when you add the oat flakes, chocolate chips & dried cranberries.
• Stir the oats flakes into the dough BEFORE mixing in the chocolate and cranberries. This helps ensure that the oat flakes are moistened properly in the dough (and this reduces significantly the chance of overly dry oats appearing in your no butter oatmeal cookies).

• This no butter oatmeal cookie recipe uses old fashioned oat flakes. I think oatmeal cookies are much better with old fashioned oat flakes (rather than using instant or one minute flakes) because the old fashioned oat flakes are larger & less processed flakes and add more texture to the cookies. Nevertheless, some of our visitors (thanks Christy!) have used one minute oatmeal to successfully make these cookies .
• Do not use steel cut oats. This no butter oatmeal cookie recipe will not work with steel cut oats because steel cut oats are much harder and take much longer to soften.
• Use DRY old fashioned oat flakes. Do not pre-moisten the oat flakes or you will be adding too much moisture to the recipe and the oatmeal cookies with oil will come out undercooked.

• Use FRESH ingredients (i.e. baking soda and flour) for the best results. For example, if you use stale baking soda, your cookies will not rise properly. The cookies will be flat and dense. Baking soda & powder is best if used within 6 months of opening the container.
• Old flour can affect the taste of homemade cookies. Old flour can spoil and taste bitter, sour, musty, etc. Cookies made with old flour do not taste good!
• Try to keep your ingredients (i.e. flour & sugar) in airtight food containers in order to extend their shelf life and avoid contamination by moisture (absorbed via the air), pests, dust, etc. Excess moisture in flour & sugar can also throw off recipes (as it can distort the liquid-to-dry ingredient ratio in recipes).
• Don’t eliminate the brown sugar from this oatmeal cookies without butter recipe (i.e. replace it with white granulated sugar). Brown sugar adds moistness, a slightly richer flavor and helps to activate the baking soda.

• DON’T OVERBAKE!!! Overbaked no butter oatmeal cookies will come out hard & dry. Don’t leave the cookies in the oven longer than recommended & don’t use a higher than recommended baking temperature.
• Do NOT substantially reduce the sugar in this recipe. For the best results, always use the ingredient amounts called for by a recipe. Reducing sugar can affect a cookie’s texture and taste. If you make a significant reduction to the sugar quantity then you will get much drier & blander chocolate chip oatmeal cookies. Sugar helps to retain moisture. For more on this issue, you might like to read this King Arthur Baking article.
• Do not use heavily compacted flour (versus fluffed flour) when making cookies. Compacted flour can add too much flour to a recipe and this increases the potential for dry & hard cookies. At a minimum, you should shake your flour container to aerate the flour before scooping with a measuring cup. Moreover, some people like to transfer flour with a tablespoon to their measuring cup in order to help fluff their flour. FYI – Many international home bakers like to use a kitchen scale in order to measure the ingredients more accurately and to avoid the measuring cup problem of compacted vs fluffed flour.

• You can make the cookie dough balls (drops, spoonfuls, etc.) with 2 tablespoons, a cookie dough scoop or your hands. Some people also like to wear food grade plastic gloves when making cookie dough balls/drops.
• Use of a cookie dough scoop will give you more consistently shaped cookies versus varying sizes from using a less “exact” methods such as using a tablespoon or your hands.
• For “rounder” cookies (with no edges sticking out), you can use a cookie dough scoop or mold the cookie dough by hand into round balls and then press down on the dough ball until it turns into a pancake shape.
• For a more “natural” cookie shape, you can scoop the cookie dough with a tablespoon and place the cookie dough “drops” onto the baking sheet without shaping the dough. Your oatmeal cookies will taste great and just have a few more natural edges and bumps.
• Place the baking tray on the oven’s middle rack for best results. If the baking tray is placed too high or too low in the oven, the baking tray may be too close to the heating element.

• When selecting a vegetable oil for this no butter cookie recipe, please read the label on the vegetable oil container if you are trying to reduce saturated fat. Be aware that some vegetable oils (such as coconut oil and palm oil) may contain more saturated fat than other vegetable oils.  For information on the levels of saturated fat in various vegetable oils, you might like to read this Wikipedia article.
• FYI – I like to use canola oil when making oatmeal cookies with oil due to its neutral flavor and lower saturated fat content.
• To prevent cookies from drying out & becoming hard, they should be stored in an airtight container. This should only be done after the freshly baked cookies have completely cooled down. Of course, the easiest & tastiest solution to prevent cookies from drying out is to eat them the same day that they are baked!
• For long-term storage, cookies should be wrapped in plastic wrap or aluminum foil, placed in an airtight bag or container and then placed in the freezer.

• According to Wikipedia, “An oatmeal raisin cookie is a type of drop cookie made from an oatmeal-based dough with raisins. Its ingredients also typically include flour, sugar, eggs, salt, and spices. A descendant of the Scottish oatcake, the oatmeal raisin cookie has become one of the most popular cookies in the United States. When the cookies were becoming prominent in the United States in the early 1900s, they came to be known as a health food because of the fiber and vitamins from the oatmeal and raisins”.
• FYI – Adding some old fashioned oats into your baked goods is a great way to sneak some soluble fiber into your family’s diet. For more on soluble and insoluble fiber in various foods, you might like to the Wikipedia article on dietary fiber.
• In regards to the oat fiber in oatmeal cookies, Wikipedia states “The established property of their cholesterol-lowering effects has led to acceptance of oats as a health food. Oat bran is the outer casing of the oat. Its daily consumption over weeks lowers low-density lipoprotein and total cholesterol, possibly reducing the risk of heart disease. One type of soluble fiber contained in oats, beta-glucans, has been proven to lower serum cholesterol”.
• However, on a negative health note, just remember that many oatmeal cookie recipes (including mine) tend to include a lot of sugar.

• If you like no butter desserts & snacks, you should also try our recipes for No Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies and No Butter Banana Bread.
• To avoid problems with cookie recipes, please make sure that you are following the recipe exactly (i.e. using the correct oven temperature), using the correct amounts of ingredients (i.e. don’t eyeball the measurements versus using a measuring cup or accidentally add a tablespoon when a teaspoon is called for), using the correct ingredients (i.e. baking soda/powder versus yeast or all purpose flour versus bread flour), etc. Please don’t “wing” things with recipes.
• FYI – When making this recipe, many international bakers prefer to use a kitchen scale versus using measuring cups and measuring spoons. A kitchen scale provides greater accuracy because the amount of ingredients in a measuring cup can vary somewhat (i.e. a cup of fluffed flour vs a cup of densely packed flour). Therefore, this recipe also includes gram/milliliter measurements.

• You should always try to use relatively FRESH baking soda & powder for the best results. For example, using baking soda from an open container (that has been deodorizing your refrigerator for months) may lead to subpar results. Old & hard baking soda/powder may lead to rising problems and/or leave small bitter clumps in your chocolate chip oatmeal cookies.
• Try to keep your ingredients (i.e. flour) in airtight food containers in order to extend their shelf life and avoid spoilage (i.e. exposure to moisture, pests and dust).
• Consider using an oven thermometer as your expected oven temperature may be different than reality. Some ovens can be 25-50 degrees F hotter or colder than the number you set with your oven dial. Oven temperature problems can throw off many recipes (i.e. lead to over or undercooked baked goods). An oven thermometer (which usually costs less than $10) is an easy way to measure the actual temperature inside your oven.
• Oven thermometers are also a good way to see if you have preheated your oven to the correct temperature (as it takes a while for an oven to warm up). Trying to bake cookies in an oven that has not been properly preheated will result in undercooked (underbaked) cookies.

• My recipes are based on US ingredient measurements (i.e. US cups & tablespoons). However, as a courtesy to our European visitors, I have also included some very ROUGH European equivalents (i.e. grams & milliliters). Since I rarely use European measurements when baking, please let me know in the comment section below if any of the European ingredient measurements need to be changed (i.e. for XYZ ingredient, milliliters are more commonly used versus the grams information listed in the recipe).
• FYI – If you have wheat allergies, be aware that this recipe contains all purpose flour and all purpose flour is made from wheat.
• Always wear oven mitts/gloves when dealing with hot ovens, baking trays, etc.
• For more simple & delicious homemade cookie ideas, please visit Bread Dad’s section on Easy Cookie Recipes.

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Common Oatmeal Cookie Questions

Can you make oatmeal cookies with vegetable oil instead of butter?

Yes. You can generally substitute vegetable oil for butter in most cookie recipes. I would also look for cookie recipes specifically designed for the use of vegetable oil (versus using butter). These “oil” recipes will have more tips & instructions to help you successfully make oatmeal cookies with oil. You will need these tips & instructions because making cookies with oil is slightly different than making cookies with butter (i.e. vegetable oil is a liquid at room temperature whereas butter is a solid).

Are oatmeal cookies healthier than chocolate chip cookies?

Yes. Oatmeal cookies are healthier than chocolate chip cookies because oatmeal cookies generally contain oat fiber, dried fruit, etc. In contrast, plain chocolate chip cookies do not contain these ingredients. However, in general, oatmeal cookies and chocolate chip cookies both tend to be overall less healthy snacks because they contain lots of sugar, calories, etc.

Are oatmeal cookies a good source of fiber?

Oatmeal cookies contain oat fiber. Oat fiber is a source of insoluble and soluble dietary fiber. Insoluble fiber helps the body “push” things through the digestive system. Soluble fiber helps things “slide” more easily through the digestive system. For more detailed information on fiber, you should read this Wikipedia article on dietary fiber.

In contrast, many popular cookie recipes (i.e. chocolate chip cookies and sugar cookies) contain much less fiber than oatmeal cookies. However, while oatmeal cookies will add some oat fiber to your diet, they also add less healthy items such as sugar & calories.

Why did my oatmeal cookies come out flat?

You probably didn’t chill your oatmeal cookie dough. Colder dough results in less spreading while in a hot oven. Also do not reuse a hot baking tray (i.e. a tray just used to make your first batch of cookies) to make a second batch of oatmeal cookies. Other possible reasons include using stale/expired baking soda (so the cookies did not properly rise), adding too much liquid (you should always follow a recipe’s ingredient measurements carefully), etc.

Should you chill oatmeal cookie dough?

Yes. Chilling oatmeal cookie dough will reduce the potential for your oatmeal cookies to spread in the oven and become overly thin. Colder oatmeal dough is also easier to shape into rounder cookies (as it is less sticky dough). I generally recommend that people chill their dough for 30-60 minutes when making oatmeal cookies (by placing the cookie dough in a bowl covered with plastic wrap in the refrigerator).

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Reference Sources

• Wikipedia, Dietary Fiber
• Wikipedia, Oat
• Wikipedia, Oatmeal Raisin Cookie
• Wikipedia, Vegetable Oil

Your fantastic comments motivate us to write more easy & delicious recipes. Also beginning bakers learn a ton from your helpful suggestions, tips and amazing recipe variations. Thank you!

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