Gabriela’s Oat Cookies: dairy-free, soya-free, egg-free, nut-free

Dairy-free, soya-free, egg-free, nut-free Oat Biscuits

by Azélia on 10/12/2010

in Cookies,Dairy Free,Egg-Free Baking,For My Kids,Nut / Dairy / Egg / Soya Free,Vegan

These are my 12 year old daughter’s cookies, she makes them all the time and in fact the ones without the raisins on this post are ones she’s made.  The difficulty when having to find a recipe for egg-free, dairy-free and other exclusions is to find something that taste as good as normal ones. These cookies taste good enough, they taste nearly as as good as all-butter cookies…ok I said…nearlynothing taste as good as butter for me. This is a cookie that Bikerboy will eat happily with his cup of tea and not notice it’s dairy-free.  What I would say is quite important to compensate for the lack of butter taste is to add the vanilla extract.  Obviously if you don’t have an issue with dairy make these with real butter.

The texture of this cookie is all in the baking and this is where you’ll decide how you want it, a slight chewier centre or a crispier one.  If you’re aiming for a crispier result you need to essentially dry it out in the oven and cooking at a slightly lower temperature for longer is a good idea or sometimes I just turn the oven off and let it sit there for an extra ten minutes.  The crispier texture is the way my daughter prefers, it has more of a melt in your mouth affect.

The other variable is how thick you have the cookie prior to baking and whether you use baking powder or not, both of this will determine slightly the texture inside and how much they’ll spread.  This mixture will sit happily in the fridge unbaked for days and then you can bake a few at a time…they’re lovely still warm!

Gabriela’s Oat Cookies

Pre-heat oven to 180C fan / 320 F / gas 2

  • 225g dairy-free margarine or butter
  • 150g sugar.  I use light muscovado sugar, but have also made them with half brown & half white sugar or all white sugar.
  • 200g oats
  • 150g plain flour
  • 1 teaspoon of baking powder.  You can leave it out, it will mean they’ll be slightly flatter.
  • 1  1/2 teaspoon of real vanilla extract
  • 100-150g of raisins or chopped dried fruit – optional

Mix all of the ingredients above except the dried fruit and mix well until the butter and oats are well amalgamated.  Mix in the dried fruit.  Shape the cookies and placed them on baking sheets.  Depending on the size you can have from 8-10 cookies.

Bake in the pre-heated oven for about 15 minutes, they should have changed to a darker golden colour.

If you want to dry them out further turn the oven off but put a teatowel in the way of the oven door leaving it ajar just slightly and let the cookies bake further for another 10-15 mins with the residual heat of the oven.

There are a lot of dairy-free butter alternative but usually contain soya too.  I have found a dairy-free & soya-free one called Pure but it’s only available in very large supermarkets or Waitrose.  The pack of Tomor below is easily available in the Kosher section in the supermarket and is dairy-free but not soya-free.

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{ 17 comments… read them below or add one }

Nisrine | dinners & dreams December 10, 2010 at 9:56 pm

Azelia, these cookies look amazing. I love oats so I’d go crazy for these cookies if I made them. That would be almost too dangerous as I’d probably eat them all.

Renée December 10, 2010 at 10:28 pm

This is a recipe that I would love to try and I will make them without the raisins. Gabriela, I like biscuits crispy too! Yours have turned out perfectly. Very well done!

Azélia December 10, 2010 at 10:38 pm

hi Nisrine, thanks…I’m looking forward to treating myself to your pecan torte for my Christmas dessert!

Azélia December 10, 2010 at 10:42 pm

hi Renée – I will let Gabriela know…she’s made herself some chocolate rice cripies tonight. I think she’ll be a good little cook! But I must add the oldest made amazingly good brownies 2 weeks ago that her boyfriend’s mum thought they were made by me..so they both have a baking gene it appears!

Joanna December 12, 2010 at 8:12 pm

Those look like a very handy biscuit recipe to have tucked in your apron pocket and delicious too. I will pass it on to people who I know would be glad to have it :)

Azélia December 12, 2010 at 10:45 pm

hi Joanna – yes it’s a good one to file away!

Renée December 16, 2010 at 4:19 pm

Well, I made these today and they are incredible – no other word for it! I left out the baking powder and the vanilla extract, but they had a lovely buttery flavour. I didn’t leave enough space between them, but I will remember to next time. I made 12 altogether. Thank you for a lovely recipe!

Your eldest obviously has a baking gene, Azélia!

Renée December 16, 2010 at 4:21 pm
Azélia December 16, 2010 at 4:41 pm

Thanks Renée, pleased you enjoyed them…will let daughter know :)

The photo of them looks as if you did the “drying out” method so that they have a crunchy texture as appose to the chewy centre? In your oven how long did you leave them to dry out? As ovens can vary I’m always wondering how far out my timings are with my oven.

The great thing about them is you can have the dough in the fridge for a few days and bake as you want.

Renée December 16, 2010 at 8:22 pm

I left them for about 20 minutes to dry out, I think. i do prefer them nice and crunchy.
The recipe worked really well, your instructions are always very clear and the timings perfect.

Azélia December 16, 2010 at 8:36 pm

thanks Renée…so not too far out then..pleased. I worry with timings on everything! Have daughter right here with me so going to show her your biscuits now :)

Azélia December 16, 2010 at 8:41 pm

hi Renée – they look nice and crunchy. I will share more of my recipes. Gabriela.

Renée December 17, 2010 at 9:27 am

Hi Gabriela … I look forward to hearing more about your recipes. I have a 13 year old granddaughter who loves to cook and often talks about all the things that we’ve made together over the years. She now bakes bread at home, but she says that it gets eaten in a few minutes! Charlotte now wants an adult cookbook.

Emily October 25, 2012 at 6:51 pm

Thankyou so much for this recipe, I tried it at my nursery today and it was a great success! I doubled the recipe and it made 24 large cookies- amazing. Any more ideas for dairy and soya free cooking with children? :)
thanks again!

Azélia October 26, 2012 at 7:49 am

Hi Emily – the latest post Easy Quick Light Chocolate cake recipe is dairy/soya free and so quick and easy to make with and for children. I will be adding more recipes as I go.

Crystal December 11, 2012 at 11:34 am

Hi Azelia! I’m really interested in making these cookies for my daughter. She has a gluten allergy in addition to her dairy, soya, and egg allergies. Do you think I can do a direct replacement of the flour with gluten-free flour. Also, for the oats, can it be a “quick cook” oat? Thank you!

Azélia December 11, 2012 at 10:59 pm

Crystal – I wouldn’t recommend quick oats because they may make the cookies too damp but that’s only my theory because I haven’t tried it myself. I also don’t know how they would stick together without any gluten from the wheat flour or egg, I don’t know is the answer I’m afraid. If I try it and succeed will post it, or else if you try let me know how you get on, and then I can let other people in the same position know about it.

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