Oatmeal Cranberry Orange Cookies made with 8 basic ingredients! This healthy recipe results in a chewy cookie, loaded with orange flavor, and contains zero flour, butter, or sugar!
With a chewy texture and an explosion of bright orange flavor with bursts of tangy cranberries, this elevated oatmeal cookie recipe is perfect for those who are like me and can’t get enough of the cranberry orange combo.
All we need for this easy, dreamy oatmeal cranberry cookie recipe is eight basic ingredients.
Almond butter, eggs, pure maple syrup, oats, baking soda, dried cranberries, and orange zest.
No flour, butter, or sugar!
The best part? The dough only takes about 5-10 minutes to whip up, there’s no chilling necessary, and just 8-10 minutes of bake time. Meaning you’ll have cookies in 20 minutes tops!
In order to create this recipe, I looked toward my 5-Ingredient Peanut Butter Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies recipe for guidance. The formula in that recipe works so well, that I decided to cranberry-orange it, feeling confident the cookies would turn out great.
Heads up to those who love sweet treats: These cookies are not super sweet! You can easily bump up the sweetness by adding a few tablespoons of brown sugar.
Let’s discuss those eight simple ingredients for orange cranberry cookies in detail as each one is paramount to the recipe.
Ingredients for Oatmeal Cranberry Orange Cookies:
Unsweetened Almond Butter: Acting as the fat and the glue that holds everything together, we need almond butter to step in for flour and butter.
It adds richness and consistency to the cookies, which gives them their chewy texture and a great deal of flavor.
Eggs: A couple of eggs help bind all of the ingredients together and add to the soft cookie texture.
If you have an egg allergy, swap the eggs out for 2 ripe bananas. Simply mash the bananas in a mixing bowl until they’re very creamy, then proceed with the recipe.
Pure Maple Syrup: We need a touch of pure maple syrup to sweeten the cookies. Because dried cranberries are already sweet, there’s no need for a lot of excess sweetener here.
Quick Oats: Bringing some texture and structure to the cookies, we need oats! I recommend using quick oats (also known as instant oats or quick oats) over rolled oats because they are easter to chew, resulting in better texture.
For gluten-free cookies, use certified gluten-free oats. I use gluten-free sprouted oats.
Baking Soda: The leavening agent here. We need just a little to ensure the cookies don’t spread too much.
Dried Cranberries: Sweet and tangy, dried cranberries add that zingy kick we all love! If you prefer raisins, feel free to make the switch.
I recommend sticking with dried cranberries over fresh cranberries for the best texture.
Orange Zest: The real hero here! We need two navel oranges to obtain enough zest for these zesty cookies. Don’t worry, you can still eat the oranges after zesting them!
Recipe Customizations:
- Want to make them egg-free? Substitute 2 large ripe bananas for the eggs. Mash the bananas in a large mixing bowl until they are very smooth, then carry on with the rest of the instructions.
- While other nut butter options like peanut butter or sunflower seed butter work as a replacement for texture, I don’t recommend them because they overpower the cranberry orange flavor.
- Swap out the dried cranberries for chocolate chips or white chocolate chips if you enjoy the combination of chocolate and orange.
- Add one teaspoon of pure vanilla extract if you have it on hand.
- If you prefer very sweet cookies, add 1 to 3 tablespoons of brown sugar.
- Melt chocolate chips to make a chocolate coating for dipping if you’d like.
Now that we’ve covered the basic ingredients, let’s make these soft and chewy oatmeal cookies!
How to Make Oatmeal Cranberry Orange Cookies:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. As an alternative, you can spray the sheet with cooking spray if you don’t have parchment paper.
Add the eggs, almond butter, and pure maple syrup to a large bowl and mix until very well combined. This mixture should be thick and smooth.
Pro tip: if your almond butter has been chilling in the refrigerator, microwave it for 20-30 seconds, or until it is easy to stir. You can use an electric mixer for this if you’d like; however, I just stir everything with a fork.
Mix the oats, baking soda, and ground cinnamon (the dry ingredients) into the wet ingredients until a thick cookie dough forms.
It will appear stickier than regular cookie dough. This is normal.
Mix in the orange zest and the dried cranberries until they are well-distributed throughout the dough.
Use a spoon to scoop mounds of dough onto the prepared baking sheet. I use the spoon and my fingers to shape the dough into a round disc shape. Be sure to give the dough plenty of room to grow, as it will!
Bake on the center rack of the preheated oven for 8-10 minutes, or until the cookies are puffy, slightly golden brown, and appear to be set up.
When they first come out of the oven, the cookies will look puffy and strange. This is normal.
Allow the cookies to cool for at least 10 minutes before removing them from the sheet and enjoying.
The cookies taste even better the next day and the 2-3 days following preparation, because the orange has a chance to really infuse. For this reason, feel free to make the cookies ahead of time, as they stay nice and chewy for days on end.
Storage Instructions:
- Room Temperature: Cookies can be stored at room temperature in a zip lock bag or a sealed container for up to 4 days.
- Refrigerator: Store cookies in a large ziplock bag or an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 1 week.
- Freezer: For longer term storage, transfer any leftover cookies to a zip lock, freezer bag, or freezer-safe container and freeze for up to 3 months.
Julia’s Tips:
- Make sure the almond butter is room temperature or warmer so that it is easy to mix. If your almond butter is cold from sitting in the refrigerator, microwave it for 30 seconds, or until it is easy to stir.
- Grate just the orange peel, stopping at the white underneath the rind for the best tasting result.
- When stirring the wet ingredients together, put some elbow grease into it. Don’t stop until you get a thick and creamy substance.
- Make any size cookies you like! I make 7 huge cookies, but you can easily turn the recipe into 12 to 15 small cookies.
The next time you’re craving oatmeal cookies or that delectable cranberry orange goodness, whip up a batch of these cookies!
You don’t need to wait until the holiday season to enjoy a batch of these healthier cookies! They are what I consider to be an everyday treat.
I always recommend a double batch if you want cookies for more than a day, because these tend to disappear quickly.
If you’re a cookie lover and enjoy healthier desserts, try out these reader favorites too!
More Healthy Cookie Recipes:
- Peanut Butter Protein Cookies
- 3-Ingredient Oatmeal Cookies
- Keto Cowboy Cookies
- 6-Ingredient Peanut Butter Chickpea Cookies
- Applesauce Oatmeal Cookies
- 5-Ingredient Healthy Blueberry Oatmeal Cookies
Homemade cookies with pizzaz!
Cranberry Orange Cookies
Equipment
Ingredients
- 2 large eggs *
- 1 cup unsweetened almond butter
- ⅓ cup pure maple syrup
- 1 ½ cups oats
- ¼ tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon optional
- Zest of 1 navel orange 1 to 2 tsp
- ½ cup dried cranberries
- ¼ tsp sea salt
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper or spray with cooking spray.
- Add the eggs, almond butter, and pure maple syrup to a large bowl and mix until very well combined. This mixture should be thick and smooth. Pro tip: if your almond butter has been chilling in the refrigerator, microwave it for 20-30 seconds, or until it is easy to stir. If using bananas instead of eggs, mash the bananas until very creamy before mixing them with the remaining wet ingredients.
- Mix the oats, baking soda, and ground cinnamon (the dry ingredients) into the wet ingredients until a thick cookie dough forms. It will appear stickier than regular cookie dough. This is normal.
- Add in the dried cranberries and orange zest and stir well to incorporate into the cookie dough.
- Use a spoon to scoop mounds of dough onto the prepared baking sheet. I use the spoon and my fingers to shape the dough into a round disc shape. The dough spreads during the baking process, so leave plenty of room between each mound of dough.
- Bake on the center rack of the preheated oven for 8-10 minutes, or until the cookies are puffy, slightly golden brown, and appear to be set up. When they first come out of the oven, the cookies will look puffy and strange. This is normal. Allow the cookies to cool for at least 10 minutes before removing them from the sheet and enjoying.
Notes
Nutrition
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