These Pumpkin Banana Cookies are easy, healthy oatmeal cookies perfect for a healthy Fall breakfast with pumpkin pie flavors. They are moist, lightly sweetened with refined sugar-free sweeteners and banana, these are the best vegan breakfast cookies to start the day!
I love making healthy banana oatmeal cookies for breakfast! These simple vegan oatmeal cookies are packed with nutrients, delicious, and easy to make in just 20 minutes.
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Pumpkin Banana Cookies
Ingredients
- ½ cup Canned Pumpkin Puree - canned or homemade, not canned pumpkin pie filling! (note 1)
- ½ cup Mashed Banana - (note 2)
- ¼ cup Peanut Butter (Unsalted) - (note 3)
- ¼ cup Maple Syrup - (note 4)
- 2 ½ cups Quick Oats - (note 5)
Optional – for flavors
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
- 1 ½ teaspoons Pumpkin Pie Spices - (note 6)
Glazing
- ½ cup Powdered Sugar
- 1-2 tablespoons Almond Milk
- ½ teaspoon Vanilla Extract
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C). Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. Lightly oil with a cooking oil spray. Set aside.
- Mash the ripe banana and make sure you get exactly 1/2 cup.
- In a large mixing bowl, combine all the base ingredients: pumpkin puree, mashed banana, peanut butter, maple syrup, quick oats, vanilla extract, and pumpkin pie spices, if used.
- Stir well with a rubber spatula until it forms a consistent, sticky oatmeal cookie dough. If you like, stir in 1/3 cup of chopped pecans and chocolate chips.
- Use a cookie dough scoop to grab about 2 tablespoons of dough – I made 9 large cookies in total. Place each ball onto the prepared baking tray, leaving one inch of space between each ball. They won't spread in the oven, but you will flatten them, and you don't want them to touch each other.
- To flatten each cookie dough ball, oil a little piece of parchment paper, and place the oiled side on top of the cookie dough ball. Press with something flat like the bottom of a glass or lid of a jar to make a flat cookie mine are about 0.2 inches/0.6cm thick. The thinner, the drier they will be. Keep them thick for a moist cookie, especially if you added chopped nuts or chocolate chips – thick = less fragile.
- Bake the cookies for 22-25 minutes at 350°F (180°C). They should be golden brown on the top and sides, but still moist in the middle.
- Let them cool down on the baking sheet for 10 minutes, then transfer them to a cooling rack for 1 hour before glazing.
Glazing – optional
- In a small, shallow bowl, stir the powdered sugar, vanilla extract, and almond milk until thick, slightly runny, and white. If too runny, stir in more powdered sugar. If too thick and dry, stir in a few drops of almond milk to thin it out.
- Dip each pumpkin oatmeal cookie, upside-down (top goes into the icing), swirl to coat, wait for a few seconds above the bowl to let the excess icing drop down the bowl. Place on a cooling rack to dry.
- Repeat for the next cookies. Sprinkle extra pumpkin pie spices or cinnamon on top for flavor.
- Refrigerate for 1 hour to set the icing hard.
Notes
Nutrition
Ingredients and Substitutions
All you need to make these vegan pumpkin oatmeal cookies are 4 simple ingredients.
- Ripe Mashed Banana – I love to use ripe bananas for baking.
- Pumpkin Puree – I am using pure canned pumpkin puree, but you can make your own homemade pumpkin puree, peel, chopped fresh pumpkin, and steam until tender. Cool completely at room temperature to steam out and then puree in a food processor. Learn how to make your own pumpkin puree!
- Maple Syrup – or any other refined sugar-free vegan-friendly syrup like agave syrup, brown rice syrup, or date syrup.
- Quick Oats – don’t use old-fashioned rolled oats, it’s too thick, I found the cookies dry with it. To make your own quick oats, pulse old-fashioned oats in a food processor 2-3 times, or buy from the store.
- Peanut Butter – or almond butter. If nut-free, use sunflower seed butter or tahini.
- Vanilla extract– for flavor
- Pumpkin Pie Spices – or just cinnamon.
Optional Ingredients
You can make these pumpkin oatmeal banana cookies with the simple ingredients below. The good part, these pumpkin banana oatmeal cookies are oil-free. If you love vegan oil-free recipes, these are perfect for you, no need for vegan butter or coconut oil here!
However, for a boost of flavor, you can add
- Chocolate Chips – skip the glaze and stir in 1/3 cup of dark chocolate chips in the batter.
- Chopped pecans or walnuts – stir in 1/2 cup of chopped nuts, stir evenly in the batter, and shape the cookies a bit thicker; if too flat, the nuts make them fragile.
- Dried fruits – add 1/3 cup of dried cranberries, dried raisins, or finely chopped dates.
How To Make Healthy Pumpkin Cookies
Let’s see below how to make the best Fall vegan breakfast cookies with pumpkin puree, banana, and Fall spices!
Step-By-Step Video
Cookie Decoration
You can add a few different toppings to your cookies just before baking them or after they cool down. Before baking, you can press crushed walnuts, pecans, or chocolate chips on top of each cookie. After baking, you can drizzle sweet glazing made of 1/2 cup powdered sugar (or powdered erythritol to keep the cookie low in sugar) and mix with 1-2 tablespoon of almond milk.
More Vegan Breakfast Cookie Recipes
I love to make vegan cookies for breakfast, especially with oatmeal! They are fulfilling, tasty, easy, and so good for you, packed with nutrients, vegan protein, and fibers.
Hi could you use oat flour?
No, it will never firm up.
Any suggestions for substituting the banana? They sound delicious.
Sure, unsweetened applesauce will work
Can oats be sub for something else that would work?
I haven’t tried quinoa flakes, sometimes it work, but it won’t bind the ingredient as well.
Are they supposed to be healthy because they are vegan? With the nutrition facts they are not very low carb low calorie.
Low calorie and low carb doesn’t mean healthy either! Healthy means using minimal ingredients to avoid additives, and selecting ingredients that are whole to brings nutrient to your body like fibers, proteins, vitamins. The recipe has just 4-ingredients, oats, nut butter, veggie puree and refined sugar free sweetener. Everything here is good for your body and health in general.
Can you use all old fashioned oats
They are fragile with rolled oats but it works
Is there a replacement option for bananas?
Sure, unsweetened applesauce works too.
what can I substitute for the maple syrup
Other liquid sweeteners like agave syrup, coconut nectar will work too.