Gluten-free Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

While I love a good oatmeal peanut butter chocolate chip cookie, these gluten-free oatmeal raisin cookies came pretty close to tying for the ‘favorite cookie’ title. They are a hardy, sweet, soft oatmeal cookie that contain those sweet bursts of raisin goodness in every bite! I love whipping up a batch of these cookies and then keeping some in the freezer for whenever I need a sweet dessert or delicious snack. They are super easy to make and use wholesome, healthy ingredients you probably already have in your homestead pantry!

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Pioneer Recipe

These gluten-free oatmeal raisin cookies are a pioneer recipe! Yes, the early pioneers did bake cookies! Probably not as often we do nowadays, but nonetheless, cookies were a special treat during the frontier days. While I don’t know for sure that oatmeal raisin cookies were on the cookie menu back then, I do know that this recipe contains ingredients that the early pioneers would have used in their baking.

Dried fruit was a staple back in the early pioneer days because fresh fruit was hard to transport out to the frontier. Raisins would have been one of the many fruits that got stocked in the chuckwagon! I haven’t come across a heritage oatmeal raisin cookie recipe, but I did come across some other heritage recipes that used raisins, including bread pudding, ‘spotted pup’ (sweetened rice), pork cake, and mincemeat.

As a modern pioneer, I just made sure I used wholesome, simple ingredients to make these cookies with. Gluten-free oats and grain-free cassava flour are both anti-inflammatory. Coconut sugar is a natural sugar that is low on the glycemic index. Organic, grass-fed butter is easier to digest and more nutritious than any other kind of butter. Maple syrup is another natural sweetener that takes the place of unhealthy corn syrup in this cookie recipe.

Aside from containing pioneer ingredients that are both simple and wholesome, these cookies are also made to be allergy-friendly! These oatmeal raisin cookies are….

• gluten-free
• peanut free
• nut free
• corn free
• refined sugar free
• use a grain-free flour

Modern Pioneer Cookie Baking Supplies

Glass or Ceramic Mixing Bowl

I always like to use a glass or ceramic mixing bowl in my homestead baking! Plastic is not only unsustainable, but it can also leak chemicals into our foods. Not to mention it is not the hardiest material for a mixing bowl that gets used and washed on a daily basis!

My favorite mixing bowl is a large, glass mixing bowl. While my handheld beaters do scrape up the sides a little bit, I generally try to keep the beaters from hitting the sides of the bowl too much. Another favorite mixing bowl of mine is a large ceramic mixing bowl.

Both bowls are sturdy, hardy, and can be heated or cooled is needed. They are easy to wash and can even be put in the dishwasher!

Wooden Handled Silicon Spatula or Wooden Spoon

A wooden spoon is the perfect pioneer baking tool! However, most of the time I do resort back to modern pioneer baking times and use a wooden handled silicon spatula. Wooden spoons are nice for mixing ingredients, or stirring soups, pudding, and other liquid-based foods, but I have a hard time scrapping the sides of a bowl sufficiently with a wooden spoon.

I like my silicon spatula for scrapping the sides of a mixing bowl and getting all the dough or batter out of the bowl. A nice clean swipe with a silicon spatula works wonders for getting the rest of the cookie batter into a manageable ball for scooping. Or running the silicon spatula around the edges of my small saucepan ensures I get all the melted chocolate out for spreading on my moose bars.

Either way, both a wooden handled silicon spatula and a wooden spoon are modern pioneer baking essentials in my homestead kitchen!

Metal Measuring Cups

I prefer to use metal measuring cups because they are hardy and sustainable. Again, I try to avoid plastic as much as possible, so metal measuring cups are the perfect substitute.

I know of people who have a hard time finding metal measuring cups that the handles don’t break off, but I have had great success with stainless-steel measuring cups or these sturdy metal measuring cups from Hearth and Hand. They are easy to clean and hold up for all of my baking needs.

Metal Measuring Spoons

Just like with the measuring cups, I prefer to use metal or stainless-steel measuring spoons rather than plastic measuring spoons. The metal measuring spoons I have now are sturdy, easy to clean, and I have been using them ever since I started baking!

Ceramic Cookie Sheets

I avoid Teflon and non-stick cookie sheets as much as possible. Non-stick coatings contain chemicals that can leach into the food when it is baked. They also outgas when exposed to high heat, which is not good for us to breath in or be around.

Since I always cover my baking sheets with nonbleached parchment paper, using cookie sheets that are not non-stick has never been a problem for me! Metal or ceramic cookie sheets are my preferred baking sheets of choice.

My favorite cookie baking sheet is a large 11×14″, rimmed metal cookie sheet. It fits a dozen cookies and bakes evenly.

Nonbleached Parchment Paper

Another cookie baking essential in my homestead kitchen is nonbleached parchment paper. I use this stuff for everything, not just cookies! It works great as a natural non-stick surface. I always line my cookie baking sheets with non-bleached parchment paper and have never had any sticking issues.

I can also recycle the parchment paper when I’m done using it or I can repurpose the parchment paper for stacking the cookies in storage containers or for photography purposes!

Non-bleached parchment paper is a natural brown in color. While bleached parchment paper works the same way, it has been treated with chlorine to make it white in color, more like traditional baking paper. Bleached parchment paper may leak dioxin into foods when used for baking.

Non-bleached parchment paper is healthier and more sustainable!

After you make these gluten-free oatmeal raisin cookies, save that parchment paper for whipping up a batch of these grain-free chocolate chip cookies or these grain-free peanut butter cookies!

Electric Handheld Beaters

Lastly, electric handheld beaters are another cookie baking tool that I use quite frequently in the homestead kitchen. While there are some tips for beating cookie dough (more on that in a minute), handheld beaters do come in ‘handy’ for creaming together ingredients and making a smooth cookie dough.

I prefer handheld beaters over a stand mixer because they take up less storage space, are easier to control, and are all I have ever needed for my baking adventures!

Baking Tips: IMPORTANT!

Cream ONLY these ingredients:

While creaming the cookie batter may seem like a good idea, it is important to note that you should ONLY cream together the butter and sugar. Don’t beat in the eggs! Creaming together the butter and sugar makes the mixture light and airy, which is perfect for cookies. Beating in the eggs actually messes with the protein composition of the eggs and can make your cookies spread out more when baked.

If you do beat in the eggs, it’s not the end of the world! But if you are going for the perfect oatmeal cookie look, then switch to hand mixing with a spatula after you cream together the butter and sugar.

Softened butter or melted butter?

This is an important distinction to make when baking oatmeal cookies. Butter that is too melted will make the cookies spread out too much on the baking sheet. The butter must be just softened to help the cookies hold their shape.

Softened butter is not room temperature butter. I consider softened butter to be mushy but not melted. Usually, a few seconds in the microwave will get me softened butter that is just barely starting to melt.

Hand stir or beat?

We already discussed which ingredients can be creamed with handheld beaters, so, as you may have guessed, the rest of the ingredients should be hand stirred with a spatula or wooden spoon!

Of course, you can hand mix all of the ingredients if you choose! However, creaming the butter and sugar with beaters incorporates more air into them and makes for fluffier, creamier cookies.

DIY oat flour:

This recipe does call for oat flour, which is easy to DIY right in the homestead kitchen! All you need is a high-power blender or food processor and some gluten-free whole oats. For these cookies, it doesn’t matter if the oat flour is not ground into a super fine flour. It just needs to be coarsely ground to function as a flour base in the recipe and help hold the cookies together.

However much oat flour you want to end up with is how much oats you should measure out to blend into flour. Process the oats in your blender or food processor until a coarse flour-like consistency has been achieved.

To flatten or not to flatten?

Oatmeal cookies flatten themselves when they are baked. With this recipe, you can decide how flat you want your cookies. For more rounded cookies that are still flatten slightly, just leave the cookie dough balls as they are prior to baking.

For flatter oatmeal cookies, you can flatten each cookie dough ball slightly with a metal spoon. Don’t flatten them too much though because they will spread out more once they are baked!

Use parchment paper

Parchment paper not only makes clean-up go so much quicker, but it also provides a layer between the cookies and the baking sheet. This prevents the cookies from over-browning or spreading out too much when baked.

These gluten-free oatmeal raisin cookies are super easy to make and even easier to eat! You will have a hard time stopping at just one cookie! These cookies are my go-to recipe when I want to change things up from my usual peanut butter oatmeal chocolate chip cookies!

Where to Find the Ingredients

• Bob’s Red Mill gluten-free old fashioned rolled oats
• Redmond sea salt
• Bob’s Red Mill baking soda
• Simply Organic cinnamon
• Nutiva coconut sugar
• Otto’s Naturals cassava flour
• Woodstock organic raisins
• Supplies: unbleached parchment paper, handheld beaters, stainless steel cookie sheet

These gluten-free oatmeal raisin cookies are the perfect healthy modern pioneer dessert that are made with simple, heritage ingredients! Since these cookies contain dried fruit rather than chocolate chips, they are a great recipe to make when you are trying to avoid cane sugar (a sugar commonly found in chocolate chips). I love having one of these cookies warm, when they come straight out of the oven, but I also find them sweeter after they have cooled or been chilled for a little while. Either way, they are the perfect soft and sweet cookie for snacking on after homestead chores!

Want more tips for baking like a modern pioneer? Get started on your modern pioneer journey with our Modern Pioneer Starter Package! Feel free to reach out with any questions you might have too!

by Alexa