These Oat Flour Shortbread Cookies are super-simple egg-free, dairy-free, 4-ingredient cookies made with no refined sugar for a sweet, crispy texture.
While the whole recipe is just below, don’t miss all my tips further down, including ingredient swaps, my cooking tips, and step-by-step shots!
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Oat Flour Shortbread Cookies
These Oat Flour Shortbread Cookies are super-simple egg-free, dairy-free, 4-ingredient cookies made with no refined sugar for a sweet, crispy texture.
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Servings: 11 shortbread
Calories: 109.4 kcal
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups Homemade Oat Flour - (note 1)
- 2 tablespoons Mild-Flavor Olive Oil - (note 2)
- ¼ cup Maple Syrup - (note 3)
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract - (note 4)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C). Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
- In a mixing bowl add, oat flour, olive oil, maple syrup, and vanilla extract.
- Use a rubber spatula to stir ingredients together and form a soft, sticky dough. If it's too wet or runny, add a little bit more oat flour. The dough should be sticky, soft. You can oil your hands to form a dough ball. The ball should be soft and lightly spread, not firm as a rock. If it's too hard, add a bit of water to rehydrate the batter.
- Oil hands with olive oil, grab a tablespoon of dough, roll a ball, and place on the prepared baking sheet, leaving an inch of space between each ball.
- Use the back of a spoon, lightly oiled, to press the cookie into a flat round shape.
- Use a fork to prick the cookies a few times and give them a shortbread look.
- Bake the cookies for 15 minutes at 350°F (180°C) until the sides are golden brown.
- Let them cool down on a cooling rack to firm up and crisp.
Notes
Note 1: If you use store-bought oat flour, you will need way less, as the texture is finer and absorbs more liquid.
Note 2: Or melted plant-based butter, or any low-flavor oil you love.
Note 3: Or agave syrup or coconut nectar.
Note 4: or 1/2 teaspoon of almond extract. Or lemon extract and 1 teaspoon of lemon zest, or orange extract and orange zest.
Oven Mode: I use the fan-forced (convection) mode. If you have to use conventional mode, I recommend increasing the temperature by 25°F (15 °C). The baking time should be the same, but it might take a few more minutes.
Storage: Store the cookies for up to 7 days in an airtight container at room temperature.
Nutrition
Serving: 1shortbread | Calories: 109.4kcal | Carbohydrates: 15.7g | Protein: 2.4g | Fat: 4g | Saturated Fat: 0.6g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 0.8g | Monounsaturated Fat: 2.3g | Sodium: 3.9mg | Potassium: 77.7mg | Fiber: 1.1g | Sugar: 4.6g | Calcium: 17mg | Iron: 0.7mg | Magnesium: 25.1mg | Phosphorus: 74mg | Zinc: 0.6mg
Ingredients and Substitutions
This paragraph gives you all my tips about picking the right ingredients. For the full recipe with measurements, scroll to the recipe card at the bottom of the post!Go to Full Recipe
You only need four simple ingredients to make this recipe. Here’s how to pick and swap them.
- Homemade Oat Flour – This forms the base of your cookies, giving them their unique texture and wholesome flavor. If you use store-bought oat flour, you’ll need to adjust the quantity as it’s finer and absorbs more liquid.
- Olive Oil – This provides the necessary fat for a tender crumb and helps bind the ingredients. You can also use melted plant-based butter or any other low-flavor oil you enjoy.
- Maple Syrup – This acts as the sweetener and helps create a soft yet slightly chewy texture. Agave syrup or coconut nectar also work as alternatives.
- Vanilla Extract – This adds a warm, aromatic flavor that complements the oats. You can also use almond extract, or for a citrus twist, try lemon extract with lemon zest or orange extract with orange zest.
How to Make Oat Flour Shortbread Cookies
This recipe is super simple to whip up. Here’s how in pictures.
Make your own oat flour and pour all the ingredients into a large mixing bowl.
Stir the mixture until it forms a sticky paste.
Form cookie dough balls with your oiled hands, place them on a baking sheet, and flatten them.
Prick the cookies with a fork and bake them for 15 minutes at 350°F (180°C).
Carine’s Baking Tips
Let me share a few more tips for a perfect oatmeal cookies.
- Dough Softness – Don’t be concerned if your dough feels a bit soft; it’s quite normal for this recipe. When you roll the dough into balls and place them on the baking sheet, they should naturally begin to flatten slightly, which indicates the dough has the perfect consistency and isn’t too dense.
- Flavor Creativity – Feel free to get creative with your flavors! You can mix in chocolate chips directly into the dough, or experiment with different extracts like vanilla or almond. For a bright, zesty note, try adding lemon zest or other flavors you love.
- Chocolate Dip – For an extra treat, once your shortbread is baked and cooled, dip half of each cookie into melted dark chocolate. Place them in the fridge afterward to allow the chocolate shell to harden.
I would like to see more recipes like this one 🙂
Can I sub sugarfree free maple syrup for the maple syrup?
It could work, it really depend on the brand of sugar-free maple syrup. Some are made mostly from water as main ingredient and they don’t bind, others are made of fiber syrup and bind too much.
I tried this recipe but I added nutmeg, almond milk, raisins and Pecans and it turned out so good. Thank you Carine for all your healthy recipes. I can’t keep my hands off these cookies.
Thank you so much! It sound delicious with all your adds on.
These look great. Any suggestions on a savoury version? I’d like to try with chilli and sea salt, but not sure about a binder instead of maple syrup? Thanks
That’s a great idea, but I haven’t tried yet so it’s hard to tell the amount of what you would need. I will probably use water or vegetable stock instead of maple syrup and flaxmeal to bind.
I added nutmeg, unsweetened walnut milk, and cardamom to my mixture. They taste so good and crunchy like digestive cookies. The only thing is they are too sweet, and I don’t like sweet things, so I want to know if I can make them without the maple syrup and what I can use instead. Thanks.
You can use brownie rice syrup instead of maple syrup, it taste 40% less sweet and it won’t change the cookie dough consistency.
I tried making it for the second time. The first time, I reduced the maple syrup because I try to stay away from sugar, but the cookies turned out too hard. This time, I followed the recipe as written, but the mixture was too watery, so I added ¼ cup of oat flour and it came out perfect. Still, it’s a bit too sweet for me since I prefer things less sugary.
That’s expected as maple syrup is used as a binder in all my egg-free recipe, it’s not only a sweetener.
BONJOUR SI VOUS POUVIER ME DIRE A QUOI CORRESPOND 1 TASSE EN GRAMMES MERCI
Si vous cliquez sur le bouton metric en haut de la liste des ingredient, la recette se converti de cups en grammes automatiquement. 1 cup correspond a 250 ml c’est un volume, donc le grammage depend de se que vous mettez dedans. 1 cup de farine ne pese pas le meme poids que 1 cup de sucre.
yummy and super easy. thank you
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I tried these and they are so good. Easy and turned out so well – crunchy and good flavour. My teen son liked them as well! I used canola oil instead of olive oil as that’s what I had. I have a feeling I’ll be making these on rotation… thank you!
Thank you !