Gluten Free Oatmeal Cookies with Raisins are soft, chewy comfort food.  They’re made with gluten free oats and gluten free oat flour, but they come across as very similar to many other oatmeal cookies.

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Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

Oatmeal raisin is Charlie’s favourite kind of cookies. Whenever we visit a coffee shop, he’ll get one if they have it. He likes them from the grocery store, the bakery, and especially at home. Sadly, they are apparently rather difficult to find.

I’m constantly trying new recipes that I come across online. However, they just never seemed to be for oatmeal raisin cookies. I was making all manner of other cookies – biscotti, ginger cookies, chocolate chip cookies, gingerbread cookies – you get the idea. From time to time, Charlie would comment that some oatmeal raisin cookies would be nice. It seemed that in five years of gluten free living, no recipe for oatmeal raisin cookies had graced my inbox!

My mother used to make a lot of oatmeal cookies. She didn’t put raisins in hers. They were soft, chewy cookies. I remember her putting in lots of butter (a whole pound, I think) and mixing them in a great big bowl. Then, she would form the dough into balls and place them onto cookie sheets. Each cookie was pressed flattish with a fork imprinting a pattern of perpendicular lines onto each one. It was always a delight to arrive home from school to trays full of cookies fresh from the oven spread out over the farmhouse kitchen table. I don’t remember her making any other kind!

Gluten Free Oatmeal Cookies with Raisins make a great after school treat!

Gluten Free Oatmeal Cookies

So a couple years ago, I decided it was time for me to develop a recipe for gluten free oatmeal raisin cookies myself. I took a look at a few recipes for regular oatmeal raisin cookies and then, with a little experimentation, developed this gluten free one. In keeping with my nutritional goals, these cookies have less sugar in them than many typical oatmeal raisin cookies do. I’m sure you won’t miss it, and you can feel good about reducing your refined sugar intake.

How many will get eaten while they are still warm?

Gluten Free Oats

If eating gluten free is important to you, be sure that you use oats and oat flour that are specifically labeled as gluten free. While some of us can get away with rice flour, potato starch, tapioca starch, etc. that are not necessarily certified gluten free, oats are different. Oats are so commonly cross-contaminated with wheat that, unless they are certified gluten free, you can assume they contain gluten.

I talk more about gluten contamination of oats on my Start Here page. Allergic Living explains it well.

Give balls of cookie dough a little space on a prepared cookie pan.

Raw Sugar

The sugar in these gluten free oatmeal cookies is raw sugar. Raw sugar is less refined than either white or brown sugar. I use it in recipes where cane sugar works better than honey, maple syrup, or coconut palm sugar as a sweetener. However, it is still sugar. As with any of these sweeteners, it’s best to enjoy them as a treat in small amounts.

Flatten the balls of dough a little with your fingers.

Room Temperature Butter and Eggs

This recipe calls for butter and eggs to be at room temperature. Your butter won’t cream properly with the sugar and then the other ingredients if it is either hard or melted. Hard butter would be frustrating to work with, while melted butter wouldn’t give your cookies the texture they should have. So, set your butter out well in advance of when you plan to bake cookies.

For best results, your eggs should also be at room temperature. This isn’t as crucial to success as is room temperature butter, though. Ideally, set your eggs out half an hour before baking.

Set the hot pan on a cooling rack for a minute or two before removing the cookies to enjoy them or to cool on the rack itself.

Gluten Free Oatmeal Cookies with Raisins

Yield: 30 cookies

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 15 minutes

Total Time: 25 minutes

CathysGlutenFree.com

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Ingredients

• 1 cup gluten free oat flour
• 2 tablespoons arrowroot flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon gluten free baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
• 1 cup butter, at room temperature
• 3/4 cup raw sugar
• 2 large eggs, at room temperature
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 3 cups gluten free oats, either coarse or fine
• 3/4 cups sultana raisins

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper, or grease them with butter.
2. Whisk together oat flour, arrowroot flour, cinnamon, baking powder, and salt.
3. With electric mixer, cream together butter and sugar. Beat in egg and vanilla. Slowly beat in the oat flour mixture. Stir in the oats and raisins.
4. Form dough into balls and press onto prepared baking sheets leaving room between each cookie for a little spreading. Bake for 15 minutes or until starting to brown around the edges. Allow to cool on baking sheet for a couple of minutes, then transfer to cooling rack.

Notes

Either coarse or fine oats will work in this recipe, according to personal preference.

Nutrition Information:

Yield: 30
Amount Per Serving:Calories: 136