Fall Harvest Oatmeal Cookies (With Easy Gluten Free Option!)

Fall harvest oatmeal cookies with cranberries, dried apricots, walnuts, white chocolate and warm fall spices are a delicious and easy fall dessert than can easily be made gluten-free without any specialty flours.

You all probably know my love for oatmeal, so it should be no surprise that my favorite cookies are oatmeal cookies. Preferably oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, but once the weather gets chilly, these fall harvest cookies are a very close second. If you love oatmeal cookies, too, you've got to try this recipe!

Why You'll Love These Oatmeal Cookies

Filled with warming fall spices like cinnamon and nutmeg, and loaded with cranberries, apricots, walnuts and white chocolate chips, these cookies are stuffed to the brim with so many different tastes and textures that just work together. And even better, they can easily be made gluten-free for friends or family members that have a sensitivity - with no specialty flours! If you have oats (which I'm assuming you do if you're making oatmeal cookies), you can make this recipe gluten-free.

How To Make Them

1. In the bowl of a stand mixer or a large bowl with a hand mixer, cream butter and brown sugar until smooth. Beat in egg and vanilla.
2. Add flour or oat flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt and baking soda. Mix the dough well to combine.
3. Stir in the whole oats, white chocolate chips, apricots, cranberries and walnuts. Place dough in the refrigerator to chill while you preheat the oven to 350° F.
4. Using a medium scoop (3 tablespoons), scoop the dough onto a baking sheet lined with parchment or a silicone baking mat. Gently press down to flatten the dough slightly.
5. Bake 12-15 minutes until golden. The cookies may not appear completely set when they're done. Remove from the oven and let cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before removing to a cooling rack. The cookies will firm up as they cool.

How To Make Gluten-Free Oatmeal Cookies (Without Specialty Flour!)

The great thing about this recipe is that you can make it gluten-free with just oats! Grind some oats up in a food processor or blender, measure it like you would with flour, and you're good to go. It takes 1 ½ to 1 ¾ cup oats to make the 1 ¼ cup oat flour you'll need. Be sure to use certified gluten-free oats if necessary.

Tips & Ingredient Substitutions

• You'll want to use room temperature butter and egg to ensure even mixing. To quickly soften butter, pop it in the microwave on half power for 10 seconds. To quickly bring en egg to room temperature stick it in a cup of warm water for 20-30 minutes.
• The dough won't spread a lot in the oven, so gently flatten each scoop onto the baking sheet before baking.
• The gluten-free version doesn't hold together quite as well as the regular version, but the cookies are still delicious even if they crumble a little. Over-baking will make crumbling worse.
• Feel free to swap out any of the dried fruit or nuts. You can add raisins, or use pecans in place of walnuts.
• All purpose flour can be used in place of whole wheat.
• I've made this recipe several times without baking soda, so if you forgot to pick some up at the store, just leave it out!

Make-Ahead Instructions

You can make the dough up to 3 days ahead. Store it in an airtight container in the refrigerator. Add 1-2 minutes to the baking time if you're baking chilled dough.

Can The Dough Be Frozen?

Yes! I recommend scooping it into balls before freezing and storing the frozen balls in a freezer-safe bag.

More Delicious Fall Desserts You'll Love

• Chickpea Apple Snickerdoodle Skillet Cookie For Two
• Cranberry Bliss Cookies
• Pumpkin Snickerdoodles
• Easy Pumpkin Lava Cake
• Healthy Spiced Apple Skillet Cake

Did you make this recipe? Please leave a star rating in the comments!

Print

This post was originally published December 2016 and has been updated.