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:
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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)
Hi there, they came out dry for me. The only variables I can think of are: cooking with two preschool boys and sub’d coconut four. Suggestions? Can’t find Pamela’s flour
Hi Alison, I made my own flour blend:
1/4 cup + 2 tbsp brown rice flour
1/4 cup sorghum flour
2 tbsp arrowroot starch or potato starch
I’d encourage you to try this recipe again. These cookies are wonderfully healthy and packed with flavor! Good luck. :)
AMAZING. So much flavor.
All I can say is ‘Awesome’ vegan cookie recipe. Thank you for sharing.
I modified the recipe because I didn’t want brown sugar in them.
Instead of 1/2 cup brown sugar, I took 1/2 cup of puree dates and 1 tablespoon honey. Blend the dates with the wet ingredients and incorporate into dry ingredients.
In lue of chopped dates, I put dry blueberries. Raisins, dried apricots or any dried fruit would work.
These look delicious. I am wondering though if you would consider posting the nutritional information for your recipes with your posts (e.g. calories, proteins, fats, carbs etc)?
What a lovely recipe! These cookies are delicious, healthy and easy to throw together. Thanks for another wonderful recipe, Angela! :)
I used coconut sugar and they turned out lovely.
The only thing I can complain about is that they take 12min to bake. In which time I ate 1/3 of the dough. Omgoodness soon good & tasty & crunchy edged. YuM
Made a 2nd batch with Walnuts vs Pecans – just as yummy
I had to replace so many ingredients because I didn’t have them in my pantry : Rye flakes instead of rolled oats, macadamia instead of pecans, coconut sugar instead of Sucanat, flax milk instead of almond milk and no vanilla extract :(
and to my surprise, it turned out AMAZING ! Crunchy and chewy at the same time, full of flavours and I couldn’t be happier ^^
Thank you for this recipe, I printed it and will keep it forever :)
Can I use prunes instead of dates?
made them. not a fan at all.
Hey Claudia, So sorry to hear that you didn’t enjoy these! Can you let us know what went wrong?
Would coconut flour work?
These cookies are heavenly! Using pecans as a base is such a good idea, delicious! I made these at the cafe I work in and we sold them all in no time! Thanks for the recipe :)
I made these cookies to give to my neighbor, a sweet but ailing older man who lives alone. He always knocks on my door when he notices I have a package on my doorstep that I haven’t retrieved (I always forget to check the mail), so I wanted to repay his neighborly kindness with a bit of my own. I know he’s going to love these! I was originally planning to make your jumbo chocolate chunk cookies today, but I couldn’t find arrowroot flour, so I ended up going with these instead. They turned out so perfectly moist, chewy, and delicious! Sweet but not cloyingly so. I followed the recipe as-written except that I added chopped up chunks of 54% dark chocolate instead of chocolate chips. This one’s a keeper!
Hi Angela,
Love your cookbooks and blog! For the flour, is the measurement for after the flour is sifted? Or straight from the bag?
Thank you so much and happy holidays!
Angela
These are the best cookies I have ever made. We don’t have a food processor, so the oats went in whole and the pecans chopped. “Fantastic” is how my husband describes them.
The directions say to preheat the oven to 325F but to bake at 350… I’m pretty sure I should bake at 350, but wanted to double check? What did everyone else bake at?
WOW, my family adored these! We made them with regular (not GF) flour, coconut sugar and without dates because we wanted to eat these immediately after reading about them and that’s all we had on hand. Needless to say, they were divine. I think the only thing I’d change next time (oh yes, there will be a quickly approaching next time) is that I’d add less sugar/maple syrup if I were to include dates. I felt like these were already on my extreme scale of sweetness and I don’t think I could’ve handled the sugar content if dates were added. Just a heads up for those also a bit sensitive to sweetness! Thank you for all the wonderful recipes as always–they’re so enjoyed both by my family and home and by my friends on campus!
Now, they don’t rival Turtles, but for a much healthier alternative, my gosh, these are yummy!!! And hearty, too. Just two cookies feels like a mini-meal. Thanks for the recipe. :D
Thank YOU for the great comment! So happy you’ve enjoyed the recipe.
I made these today, and they were delicious. Thank you for the recipe! I started following your blog and trying recipes 3 years ago, and now nearly all the meals I make come from your books or blog. I’ve been vegan for over 10 years, but was never much of a vegan cook until I found this website!
Oh, I’m so happy you liked the cookie recipe, Tori! And thanks so much for your lovely comment. :)
Hi Angela,
If you could please comment on why I could not get these to hold together. Every time I tried to roll them they crumbled so I put them in a smaller cookie sheet to bake them as bars. The batter was delicious, I made no substitutions so not certain what I did incorrectly. They are baking now – taking longer than if I had accomplished cookies.
Also, is the oven temperature 325 or 350 degrees – both temperatures are listed on the recipe.
Thank you so much for all you do and all of your delicious recipes!!
Hi Cyd, I’m so sorry to hear you ran into problems! I’m not sure what might have been the cause; I haven’t encountered this issue with these cookies before. Is it possible somewhere along the line your ratio of dry ingredients to wet got thrown off accidentally? On the plus side, it sounds like you made the best of the situation with those cookie bars–yum! In terms of oven temps, the pecans should be toasted at 325, and then the cookies baked at 350. Hope that helps clarify!