Throughout my childhood, Mom almost always bought gingerbread cookies from the store during the holidays. She rarely baked (mainly chocolate chip cookies and banana muffins when she did!), so she compromised with those bakery cut-out cookies carefully decorated with icing to give my brother and me a taste of those classic wintertime treats.
But when I reached middle school, my aunt volunteered to bake gingerbread cookies with us at home instead. Mom completely steered clear of the kitchen while we measured and mixed, only popping her head in briefly to help us locate the cookie cutters.
We ended up with nearly six dozen cookies to decorate in various holiday shapes: stars, bells, candy canes, Christmas trees, Santa’s sleigh, reindeer… Plus a few oddballs like Mickey Mouse and the Pillsbury Doughboy. (We own quite the random assortment of cookie cutters!)
After splitting up the cookies, we sat down at the kitchen table with bowls of pastel-colored icing to spread across the treats. Time flew by as we decorated for hours… And before we knew it, Mom finally walked into the kitchen to start cooking dinner.
From start to finish, we ended up spending all day making those gingerbread cookies… And we’ve never done it again. My family is much too lazy to go through that process another time!
I still may make a batch of my ultimate healthy gingerbread cookies this Christmas (but without any icing decorations!), but until then, I’m sticking with this easy Healthy Iced Gingerbread Oatmeal Cookies recipe to get my gingerbread cookie fix! They’re so much simpler to make and don’t require any electric mixers or cookie cutters (aka fewer dishes to wash!).
Even better? These cookies are full of the same cozy comfort food flavors, like plenty of spices and an extra chewy texture. However, they contain no refined flour or sugar and only 89 calories!
That definitely makes for one happy holiday season! ⛄️
This recipe is the next installment in my healthy oatmeal cookie recipe series. ← Have you tried any of those other recipes yet? They’re all supremely soft and chewy, just like traditional recipes, but they contain no butter, refined flour or sugar! (I highly recommend trying my carrot cake, apple pie, and classic oatmeal raisin versions after this one!)
So just like in the rest of my recipes, you’ll begin with whole wheat flour (or gluten-free!) and instant oats. Instant oats are also called “one-minute” or “quick-cooking” oats. They’re smaller and thinner than traditional rolled oats, and you can find them in canisters right next to the old-fashioned oats at the grocery store.
It’s extremely important to measure the flour and oats correctly, using this method or a kitchen scale. Too much of either will dry out your cookie dough and make your cookies taste cakey, rather than chewy. This is especially true for the oats. They act like little sponges and soak up lots of moisture from your cookie dough!
For this reason, I highly recommend a kitchen scale. ← That’s the one I own and love! It has been the best $20 I’ve ever spent. I use it to make every recipe that I share with you because it ensures my treats turn out with the perfect taste and texture every time I make them.
You’ll skip the refined sugar and sweeten your cookies with a combination of pure maple syrup (like this!) and molasses (like this!). Do not skip the molasses! It’s what gives gingerbread cookies their iconic flavor: deep, rich, cozy bliss.
Well, along with the ground ginger, of course! Molasses + ginger = gingerbread cookie perfection. Then you’ll also sprinkle in a little cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves to round out the spice flavor and give these cookies their full coziness.
Then once your cookies cool, just mix up a little icing, drizzle it on top, and…
Enjoy! ?? And when you make your own, remember to snap a picture and share it on Instagram using #amyshealthybaking and tagging @amyshealthybaking IN the photo itself! (That guarantees I’ll see your picture! ?) I’d love to see your cookies and feature them in my Sunday Spotlight series!
| Healthy Iced Gingerbread Oatmeal Cookies | | Print |
- for the cookies
- 1 cup (100g) instant oats (gluten-free if necessary and measured like this)
- ¾ cup (90g) whole wheat or gluten-free* flour (measured like this)
- 1 ½ tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp ground ginger
- ¼ tsp ground cinnamon
- ⅛ tsp ground nutmeg
- ⅛ tsp ground cloves
- ¼ tsp salt
- 2 tbsp (28g) coconut oil or unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
- 1 large egg, room temperature
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- ¼ cup (60mL) pure maple syrup, room temperature
- ¼ cup (60mL) molasses
- for the icing
- 3 tbsp (36g) confectioners’ style erythritol
- 2 tsp nonfat milk
- To prepare the cookies, whisk together the oats, flour, baking powder, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and salt in a medium bowl. In a separate bowl, whisk together the coconut oil, egg, and vanilla. Stir in the maple syrup and molasses. Add in the flour mixture, stirring just until incorporated. Chill the cookie dough for 30 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 325°F, and line a baking sheet with a silicone baking mat or parchment paper.
- Drop the cookie dough into 15 rounded scoops onto the prepared sheet, and flatten to about half of the cookie dough’s original height using a spatula. Bake at 325°F for 10-13 minutes. Cool on the pan for 10 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack.
- While the cookies bake, prepare the icing by stirring together the erythritol and milk in a small bowl. Transfer the mixture to a zip-topped bag. Once the cookies have cooled completely and just before serving, cut off a small piece of one corner of the bag, and drizzle the cookies with the icing.
Instant oats are also known as quick-cooking or minute oats. They come in large canisters, just like old-fashioned oats. They are not the ones in the small flavored packets of oatmeal. To make your own, add the same amount of old-fashioned oats to a food processor, and pulse 10-12 times or until they're ¼ to ⅛ of their original size.
For a gluten-free version, use gluten-free instant oats and the following gluten-free flour blend: ½ cup (60g) millet flour, 2 tablespoons (15g) tapioca flour, 2 tablespoons (15g) brown rice flour, and ½ teaspoon xanthan gum. Most store-bought gluten-free flour blends will also work, if measured like this.
I do not recommend substituting anything for the molasses! Along with the ground ginger, it’s what creates the iconic gingerbread flavor: deep, complex, rich, and cozy.
Regular powdered (confectioners) sugar may be substituted for the confectioners’ style erythritol. Start with 1 teaspoon of milk to start because regular powdered sugar is much more absorbent than confectioners’ style erythritol.
Any milk may be substituted for the nonfat milk.
For answers to all other questions regarding substitutions and tips, see my Oatmeal Cookie FAQ Page.
{gluten-free, clean eating, low fat}
View Nutrition Information + Weight Watchers Points
You may also like Amy’s other recipes…
♡ The Ultimate Healthy Gingerbread Cookies
♡ Healthy Chocolate Chip Gingerbread Oatmeal Cookies
♡ Healthy Chocolate Chip Gingerbread
♡ Healthy Chocolate Chip Gingerbread Mini Muffins
♡ Healthy Soft-Baked Ginger Cookies
♡ Healthy Gingerbread Donuts + Maple Glaze
♡ …and the rest of Amy’s healthy oatmeal cookie recipes!
I made these today and they are so good! Thanks again for another great recipe, Amy!
I’m honored that you tried yet another one of my recipes, and I’m so glad you enjoyed these cookies! You’re such a sweetheart to let me know. It truly means a lot, Kally! 🙂 Happy holidays to you and your loved ones!
Can I use stevia or monk fruit instead of the maple syrup? If so, how much would you suggest?
I really appreciate your interest in my recipe, Stacey! What’s the exact stevia product or monk fruit product (both the brand and product name!) that you’d like to use in place of the pure maple syrup? Once I have that information, I’ll do a little research to determine the best way for you to modify this recipe to use either of those. 🙂
Hi Amy! Thank you!!
I use NOW BetterStevia Original liquid stevia, and I have some Whole Earth Monk Fruit with Erythritol that I;ve been trying out. Our family has just decided we are no longer going to be using maple syrup any longer after doing some reading on it. Hoping I can find ways to tweak certain recipes that look good but may have it in it.
Thanks, again, so much!!
It’s my pleasure, Stacey! I don’t have experience with the Whole Earth monk fruit with erythritol product, but I love the liquid stevia from NOW Foods. It’s the one I stock in my pantry the most (and you can use it in all 250+ of these recipes of mine too!).
If you’d like to use that in place of the pure maple syrup (the kind that comes directly from maple trees and only includes one ingredient, “maple syrup” — not pancake syrup or other maple-flavored syrups!) in these oatmeal cookies, then you’ll need a generous ½ teaspoon of liquid stevia. You’ll also need to add ¼ cup of milk (any type will work!) to compensate for the missing liquid. However, your cookies won’t spread at all while baking and will look exactly the same as when you put the baking sheet in the oven, so make sure to flatten and shape them accordingly! 🙂
I’d love to hear how your cookies turn out if you do end up making them!
I doubled the recipe, triple the spice and added date… turned out soft spicy and very yummy!
I’m so glad you enjoyed these cookies, Julz! Thanks for taking the time to let me know and share your modifications too. I always love hearing what recipe tweaks work out! 🙂
Can you freeze these? I made them last year and they were delicious!
It means so much that you’d like to make these cookies again this year, Liz! That’s the best kind of compliment there is. 😉 Yes, once fully baked and cooled, they freeze really well! I recommend waiting to ice them until after they’ve been thawed though; the icing doesn’t freeze as well as the cookie part. I hope you enjoy this year’s batch just as much!
Perfect thank you so much! I actually didn’t even ice some of them last year and they were still amazing!!
It’s my pleasure, Liz! I’m so glad you loved the cookies. Thank you again for sharing — your sweet words truly mean so much! ♡ Happy holidays to you and your loved ones!
The dough is sort of runny. Is that normal? I measured everything as directed. Will the oats soak up the liquid while in the fridge for 30 minutes?
It means a lot that you tried my recipe, Erin! Yes, the cookie dough should be rather wet and sticky when you first mix it together. It may almost look like really thick muffin batter — and that’s okay! If you’d like a visual, you can see how wet and glossy my cookie dough looks in the 5th photo of this blog post.
You’re exactly right! The oats will soak up lots of that moisture, and the cookie dough should thicken and stiffen noticeably while chilling. It’ll still be too sticky to shape with your hands after those 30 minutes, so just remember to use a spoon and spatula to transfer it to the baking sheet and shape the mounds! 🙂
I really hope you enjoy these cookies!