Let’s keep this holiday goodie train chuggin’ along, with a new cookie recipe that I made recently for a holiday get together. It’s inspired by the Turtles candy, with a nutty, “buttery” base of toasted pecans, caramel-like Medjool dates, and mini dark chocolate chips. They did not last long. I bet you’ve never had an oatmeal cookie quite like this one – it’s a keeper, for sure! I have to say, it replaces my oatmeal raisin cookies as the new reigning champion. And I didn’t think anything could top those.
Introducing the world’s best tasting cookie dough. Try it and see…
The cookies aren’t too shabby either! My favourite way to eat them is straight from the fridge or freezer. Weird, right? They get really firm and crispy when chilled – almost caramelized in texture – and I just can’t get enough.
I’m so sorry to do this to you, but I’m keeping the recipe a secret.
Don’t be mad.
Sometimes I just want to keep a recipe all to myself. Is that wrong?
I feel horrible!
Ok, ok stop punching your computer screen. I’m only joking! Poor computer screen.
For the full recipe, head on over to Keepin’ It Kind where I’m participating in Kristy’s Vegan Cookie Swap Party.
Edited to add: you can now find the recipe below:
Featuring all new, protein-packed salads, hearty toppers, flavour boosters, and dressings you'll want to drink, my new cookbook will transform the way you think about salads. Oh, and be sure to flip to the back for a surprise dessert chapter!
Vegan "Turtle" Oatmeal Cookies
Yield
16 large cookies
Prep time
Cook time
Total time
Inspired by one of my childhood favourite candies, these "Turtle" Oatmeal Cookies are studded with caramel-like Medjool dates and dark chocolate chips, all surrounded with a nutty toasted pecan and oat base. If you can stop eating the dough for long enough to bake them, you are in for a real treat. This sounds a bit strange, but my favourite way to enjoy these is straight from the fridge or freezer where the cookies get firm and crisp.
Ingredients
- 1 + 3/4 cups pecan halves
- 2 cups gluten-free rolled oats, divided
- 3/4 cup gluten-free all-purpose flour (I used Pamela’s brand, see note)
- 1/2 cup Sucanat or unpacked brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon fine grain sea salt
- 1/2 cup pure maple syrup
- 3.5 tablespoons coconut oil
- 2 tablespoons almond milk
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- heaping 1/3 cup pitted dates, diced
- 1/4 cup mini dark chocolate chips (I use Enjoy Life brand)
Directions
- Preheat oven to 325F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Toast pecans for about 9-11 minutes, until golden and fragrant. After toasting, remove from oven and cool for a few minutes. Preheat the oven to 350F. Add pecans into food processor along with 1 cup of oats and process until coarsely chopped with some fine powder (see photo in blog post). Be sure not to over process or the oils in the nuts will release.
- In a large bowl, stir the pecan/oat mixture, the remaining 1 cup rolled oats, flour, Sucanat, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt.
- In a medium bowl, stir together the maple syrup, melted coconut oil, milk, and vanilla. Pour the wet mixture on the dry ingredients and stir until combined.
- In a small bowl, coat the chopped dates in 1/2-1 teaspoon of flour and toss until coated. This prevents the dates from sticking together. Fold the dates and chocolate chips into the dough.
- Take about 2 tablespoons of dough, roll it into a ball, and then press down on it with your hand to flatten it on the baking sheet. Space cookies a couple inches apart. Repeat until you have about 16 cookies.
- Bake for 12-13 minutes at 350F until the cookies are golden brown on the bottom. Remove from oven and let sit on baking sheet for 3-4 mins before placing cookies onto a cooling rack for 15 minutes.
Tip:
Notes: 1) Instead of gluten-free all-purpose flour, you can probably swap it for regular all-purpose flour. Depending on the flour you use, the results can vary. 2) As for the gluten-free flour blend, I recommend using one that is rice based (such as Pamela's brand) and avoid using one that is garbanzo based (such as Bob's Red Mill) to avoid any bean-y flavour.
Nutrition Information
(click to expand)
Oh my….. screw the baking, I’ll just have the dough please! :) These look ridiculously good. Fun fact: When I was a kid, I loved eating frozen cookies too. My mum would freeze batches of oatmeal cookies (I’m assuming it was so that we wouldn’t eat them as fast), but that never stopped me. Must be an Angela quirk lol!
Do you think an oat flour would work? I don’t have any gluten-free flour on hand and I’d love to keep them gluten free!
I made turtle oatmeal cookies today and they’re to die for, but definitely not as nutritious as yours – mine are an old family recipe with lots of butter, white sugar, and eggs. I’ll have to try these out for a less sinful alternative. We’ll see how the family likes them!
I also wonder about a flour swap, using spelt in place of the GF flour. I live in a very remote area and good GF flour isn’t really available but I want to make these to bring to my wheat sensitive sister for Christmas and spelt flour is what we have up here. Would you please be able to help me out with a substitution, how much should I use?
Thanks.
Did you ever make these with the spelt flour? Also don’t have GF on hand and wanted to try with spelt… would love to hear if it worked out.
these look great … I’m wondering about substituting brown rice syrup for the maple syrup. It’s a much thicker, treacly consistency … but it’s what I have on hand, and we like to use what we have on hand. I also use brown rice syrup in my bijou peanut butter cups, which thickens the mixture like maple syrup does. Thanks for the recipe!
I love cookies (and just about anything else) straight from the freezer.
Years ago – before I saw the light (haha) – I left a box of Pop Tarts in my car in the winter, and my love of frozen pastries was born!
Ang, I made these this morning as a gift for a few friends. Holy moly they are delicious! I used coconut sugar in place of the sucanat and my own blend of gf flour, but kept everything else the same. It took so much will power not to drink the ‘wet’ ingredients before adding to the dry. Oh, and once you add the two mixtures, it was like toffee caramel heaven. My husband (who is VERY picky) stated that he would have no problem just eating the dough because it was SO good. I agree! Thanks!
I would eat the batter by the spoonful!
Thank you Angela for that wonderful recipe :) Can’t wait to try it. I have a quick question though. I only have the Bob’s Mill gluten-free all-purpose flour mix at home. I don’t have access to the Pamela’s Brand in my region. So, I’m wondering if you have a homemade gluten-free all-purpose mix recipe to suggest me ? I pretty have most of all the gluten-free flour here, so I can definitely make an interesting mix. However, I don’t know which one to use and in what proportion. I would really appreciate if you can help me with this one :) Thanks in advance and have a nice weekend.
I used the Bob’s Red Mill because it was all I had and they turned out delicious. Not beany!
I love parties with milk and cookies! I’m all in! <3
LOL, you got me (:
These cookies are so delicious even my teen daughter approves. And she’s a tough nut to crack…
O.M.G.! I just made these. Best. Cookies. Ever! Amazing! Only thing I did was to make them half the size so I have more of them. I’ve baked them to take to my office on Monday, but they may not make it. Or I just have to bake another batch….. seriously fabulous!!!!!!
Just made these for my sister who is gluten-free and visiting for Christmas. So delicious! Even my very picky husband couldn’t get enough!
Made these… they were good but have to admit, your Oatmeal Choc Chip are a lot better. :) But it was a nice change with the dates and less work to make them.
Angela,
I was wondering if you have seen this website before and your thoughts on other butter replacements to use.
http://www.undergroundhealth.com/earth-balance-betrays-consumers-with-false-non-gmo-and-organic-claims/
OMG best cookies ever! Thank you! I made a couple of changes to mine based on what I had on had. 1. I used spelt flour. Not technically GF but my son is GF sensitive and can tolerate Spelt. 2. I used coconut sugar instead of succulent. 3. Instead of mini chips (Whole Foods was sold out!) I used the larger dark chocolate disk shape chips.
I would recommend more chopped dates in the recipe as I couldn’t really taste them in the cookies.
I would also recommend not making these on Dec 23 with the plan of using them for Santa’s cookies. I doubt I will be able to save 1 for him! haha
I made these tonight and my husband and I are already obsessed! So good…I hope the rest make it to our Christmas Eve dinner tomorrow! Also, I’m evil because I ate all the cookie dough before the husband came home ;)
These look fabulous, can’t wait to try them. Was wondering if there is a replacement for the coconut oil, since we are plant strong?
What does that mean, no coconut oil since you are “plant strong”?
Coconut is a plant?
Plant strong means eating whole plant based foods. Oil is nothing but fat.
These are fantastic! Thanks for sharing. I sent them to my in laws for Christmas and they were very much enjoyed. I tried them…or really, I tried four (!) before sending them and looked forward to making them again.
Tonight is the night! With snow on the way they seemed perfect, but I thought I’d share some variations I made… I didn’t want to use sugar since we are trying to avoid it, so I substituted date sugar (still used the maple syrup) also left out the chocolate (hard but true) and added a few more half pieces of toasted pecans. They are great, still!! I made my flour (thanks vitamix) using Isa’s recipe from her cookie cookbook.
Do you ever cook with date sugar?
Thanks for all the yummy recipes you share!
Julia