Everyone has a go-to chocolate chip cookie recipe but not many have a go-to oatmeal cookie recipe.

As soon as I pulled these out of the oven and tasted them these became mine.

Chex is launching this month a line of oatmeal including flavored oatmeal packets and sent me some to try. I’m glad gluten-free oats aren’t a “specialty” food anymore and it’s easier to get classics like packaged oatmeal. The maple brown sugar flavor was by far the best breakfast I’ve had in a while.

Instead of loose oatmeal this recipe uses quick-cooking packaged oatmeal. It’s an easy way to add a lot of flavor. When you’re baking it’s better to use quick-cooking oats than rolled oats because they’ll bake faster and softer. 

I made mine with chocolate chips, but if you wanted to make these healthier you could add chopped walnuts, pecans, or even dried blueberries! Basically, if you’d have it with a bowl of oatmeal, it’s going to go great with these cookies. 

Maple Brown Sugar Oatmeal Cookies

Prep time: 10 minutes

Cook time: 14 minutes

Ingredients(Makes 24 cookies):

• 3 packets Chex gluten-free maple brown sugar oatmeal
• 1 cup all-purpose gluten-free or regular flour
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup chocolate chips
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 stick butter, softened
• 2 eggs

Method:

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. 
2. In a large bowl, mix together the oatmeal packets, flour, sugar, chocolate chips, and baking powder.
3. Add in the vanilla extract, butter, and eggs and mix thoroughly until it makes a soft dough.
4. Roll the dough into 1-inch balls and flatten them out just a bit before putting them on a nonstick baking tray. 
5. Bake for 12-14 minutes until the bottoms begin to brown. 
6. Remove from the oven and let cool. Store in an airtight container for up to a week. 

I hate the word low-fat, because instantly it conjures up thoughts of dried pastries and a total lack of flavor. That’s nothing anything like these loaves are, soft and bursting with a sweet flavor right out of the oven.

Instead of butter or oil, these are made with two favorite tricks: Greek yogurt and evaporated milk. They’re much better options in baking than low-fat or non-fat margarine because of the simple ingredients and don’t change the flavor.

I used a mini-loaf pan because that was what I had, and the portioning worked out perfectly. Just reheat one at a time and it’s like having a freshly baked breakfast. Since low-fat pastries dry out faster, I’d recommend freezing half of the batch and thawing it later in the week(if you think the first batch will last that long).

Low-Fat Chocolate Coconut Loaves

Prep time: 15 minutes

Cook time: 25 minutes

Ingredients(Makes 8 mini-loaves or 1 large loaf):

• 1 3/4 cups +2 Tablespoons gluten-free all purpose flour(or wheat flour)
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 cup chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup sweetened coconut flakes
• 1 5oz can fat-free evaporated milk
• 1 5.3oz vanilla Stonyfield Greek
• 3 eggs

Method:

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
2. In a large bowl, mix together the flour, sugar, baking soda, chocolate chips, and coconut flakes until well mixed.
3. Add in the rest of the ingredients and beat until it forms a thick batter.
4. Grease 8 mini-loaf pans or one large one and pour the batter in.
5. Bake for 25 minutes or until the loaves rise and the center has set. If you’re making one large loaf, wait 40-50 minutes before checking if it’s done.
6. Remove from the oven and let cool before removing from the pan and slicing.

Caught the day before Valentine’s Day with out a dessert? Don’t worry, I’ve got you covered.

These are some of the easiest cookies I’ve ever made. At first I was sure they wouldn’t work and would come out flat as a pancake but I’m glad they didn’t. And they tasted great, too!

These cookies are chewy and crunchy. The texture reminds me of a Little Debbie oatmeal raisin cookies. They’d be perfect for making sandwich cookies with raspberry jam or ice cream sandwiches. I only made half a batch because 9 seemed like more than enough, but these would be just as good for a party as they are for a valentine.

To make sure these are 100% gluten-free make sure you’re using gluten-free oats. These cookies would probably work gluten-full with regular all-purpose flour but I haven’t tried that myself.

Gluten-Free Nutella Cookies

Prep time: 5 minutes

Cook time: 15 minutes

Ingredients(Makes 18 cookies):

• 1 cup Nutella
• 2 cups oat flour*
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 eggs

*I always make my own by blending oats in a high-power food processor.

Method:

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
2. In a large bowl, beat all of the ingredients together until well mixed. If your Nutella is hard to mix you might want to soften it a bit first.
3. Roll the dough into balls and place them on a non-stick baking surface. Do not flatten them out at all.
4. Bake for 12-15 minutes until the cookies are firm.
5. Remove from the oven and let them cool before moving.

Some weekends I don’t want to cook a thing.

I want to go out to eat for every meal, forget I have a blog, and never pick my camera up.

Maybe it’s guilt, or maybe it’s sensibility. Maybe it’s something in between. I’ll inevitably find something to make, for myself or a friend, and at the end I’ll be happy I have something delicious that’s homemade, that I can call my own, and that cost a quarter as much as if I got it somewhere else.

I baked these brownies reluctantly, took photos of them frantically, and shared them happily. Sometimes the best push to cook something comes not from doing it for yourself, but from doing it for others. Do yourself a favor and bake some brownies for someone else.

Oat flour is more crumbly than regular flour and even other gluten-free flours. When baking with it, make sure to grease your pans liberally and add a dusting of powdered sugar on top before frosting to keep the top intact.

Bailey’s Frosted Brownies

Prep time: 15 minutes

Cook time: 30 minutes

Ingredients(Makes 1 8 x 8 pan):

For the brownies:

• 3/4 cup oat flour
• 1/4 cup cocoa powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 cup + 2 Tablespoons cup sugar
• 3 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/2 cup butter
• 4oz bittersweet baking chocolate
• 1/3 cup Irish cream

For the frosting:

• 6 Tablespoons butter, room temperature
• 1 1/4 cup powdered sugar
• 1 1/2 Tablespoons Irish cream

Method:

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
2. Mix together the oat flour, salt, cocoa powder, and baking powder and set aside.
3. In a separate bowl, melt together the chocolate and butter.
4. While the chocolate is melting, beat together the eggs, sugar, vanilla, and Irish cream.
5. Slowly pour the melted chocolate and butter into the egg/sugar mixture while whisking until fully incorporated. Don’t go too fast so that the raw eggs don’t cook upon contact.
6. Add the chocolate mixture in with the dry ingredients and mix completely.
7. Pour the batter in a greased 8 x 8 pan.
8. Bake for 30 minutes or until a toothpick poked into the center comes out clean. Let these cool completely before frosting.
9. To make the buttercream, beat the powdered sugar, butter, and Irish cream heavily until it’s entirely mixed. Add a touch more buttercream if it’s too dry at first.