There is nothing more delicious than these Low Carb Oatmeal Cookies. With just 11 ingredients, these Oatmeal Scotchies are perfect for the holidays. They are keto, low carb, gluten-free, and sugar-free.
I pretty much grew up eating oatmeal butterscotch cookies. However, the cookies I grew up eating were loaded with tons and tons of sugar. Just a little bit of molasses and this low carb oatmeal cookie recipe is sure to make your heart go pitter-patter.
If you ever do a holiday cookie exchange with friends or family, you should consider making these oatmeal cookies. They will impress even the difficult cookie monsters. Oatmeal cookies are seriously good for pretty much any occasion. Plus, I will admit that they are so yummy I may have sneaked a low carb cookie for breakfast here and there. I love it when I can have old favorites while on a low carb diet.
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Another favorite is these Coconut Flour Oatmeal Cookies and my Dairy-Free Peanut Butter Cookies.
What You’ll Need
- Butter - It’s best to use room temperature, softened butter.
- Sweetener - Either Trim Healthy Mama Gentle Sweet or My Sweetener.
- Molasses - You only need 1 teaspoon. I use molasses for flavor. One teaspoon has 5 net carbs and when divided by a batch of cookies it really is a negligible amount.
- Egg - Egg is the binder in these cookies. If you'd prefer them to be eggless you can sub in 2 teaspoons of gelatin for the egg.
- Vanilla - Mexican vanilla is a great budget-friendly choice.
- Almond Flour - You can use either blanched, unblanched, or even almond meal in this recipe.
- Baking Soda - Use to help cookies rise.
- Gluten-free Oats - Make sure your oats are gluten-free if that is important for your diet.
- Sugar-Free Butterscotch Chips - The star of the show, yummy!
- Unsweetened Coconut Flakes - Any size flakes can work in this recipe.
- Cinnamon - Saigon cinnamon has the most potent flavor.
How To Make Low Carb Oatmeal Cookies
Just a handful of steps and you’ll be on your way to eating these awesome oatmeal scotchies. Low carb keto oatmeal cookies are wonderful for dinner parties, gifts, or whenever you want a special treat.
First Step: Heat up the oven to 350 degrees.
Second Step: Put the butter and sweetener together in a large bowl and cream together. Then mix in the molasses, eggs, and vanilla. Combine until they are well incorporated.
Third Step: Add in the almond flour, baking soda, and cinnamon to the butter mixer.
Fourth Step: Fold in the oats, unsweetened coconut, and butterscotch chips.
Fifth Step: Roll the cookie dough into 24 cookies and place them on 2 cookie sheets that have been lined with parchment paper. Bake the oatmeal cookies for 12 minutes. When they are done baking they will be soft but will have golden edges. Cool the sugar free oatmeal cookies on a wire rack until they are all the way cool, then place them in a food storage container. Enjoy!
Oatmeal Scotchies Variations & Substitutions
- Chocolate Chips - Mix in a few sugar free chocolate chips. The flavor of the chocolate with the butterscotch is mind-blowing. Or just sub out the butterscotch to make sugar free oatmeal chocolate chip cookies
- Nuts - Sometimes, it’s nice to have a little bit of extra crunch from some nuts. We like to add in crushed pecans, sliced almonds, or walnuts every once in a while.
- Melted Butterscotch - Melt a few butterscotch chips and drizzle them over the top of the cookies. They look gorgeous and taste great too.
- Dried Cranberries - Mix in a ¼-½ cup of sugar free dried cranberries to the batter. Make sure you use the kind that doesn’t have any added sugar. If you love oatmeal raisin cookies subbing in cranberries is a great choice.
- Coconut Flour - Sorry, but it wouldn’t work to swap the almond flour for coconut flour. Using almond flour will give you the ultimate experience and give you the best oatmeal scotchies. If you cannot have almond flour a better nut-free sub would be sunflower seed flour.
- Nut Butter - The cookies would be similar to monster cookies with a little bit of peanut butter, almond butter, or cashew butter. I wouldn't add more than ¼ cup so it doesn’t mess with the texture of these keto cookies.
Common Questions
Can You Freeze Cookie Dough Before Baking?
Yes, absolutely! It’s easiest if you freeze cookie dough balls on a baking sheet for a couple of hours so they can freeze all the way. So once, the cookie balls are frozen you can remove them from the pan and put them in a food container. When you are ready to bake the cookies, put them on a baking pan frozen and cook at 350 degrees for 12-14 minutes. You don’t need to thaw the cookies at all, just add a minute or two to the baking time and enjoy!
Is Oatmeal Gluten Free?
The short answer is sometimes. For a more detailed response check out this article: Are Oats Gluten-Free?
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Ingredients
- 4 oz butter softened
- ½ cup Joy Filled Eats Sweetener (or see alternatives in recipe notes)
- 1 teaspoon molasses
- 1 egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 cup almond flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 cup gluten-free oats
- 1 cup sugar-free butterscotch chips
- ½ cup unsweetened coconut flakes
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350.
- Cream together the butter and sweetener in a large bowl. Add in molasses, eggs, and vanilla and mix well.
- Add the almond flour, baking soda, and cinnamon.
- Stir in the oats, butterscotch chips, and coconut.
- Form 24 cookies on 2 parchment-lined cookie sheets. Bake for 12 minutes. They will be soft but golden around the edges. Cool completely on the trays before transferring to a storage container.
Notes
Nutrition
marjory brunsdon says
Hi, I left the dough in the fridge overnight... but this made it hard and difficult to form into cookies on the baking sheet.
Taryn says
It makes sense it firmed up in the fridge. Next time I would scoop it first if you want to make the dough ahead. I will add more tips to the notes section.
Kae says
Hi! Is Oatmeal keto friendly?
Taryn says
I talk about this a bit in my Oatmeal Cream Pies post:
Joy says
I don't have enough almond flour. Can I use THM baking blend? Thanks! Can't wait to try these!
Taryn says
Yes, baking blend should be fine.
Sarah says
I never thought that I could do a low carb cookie using oats! I'm super excited to try this recipe. Thanks
Lisa says
Just getting ready to make these and I noticed you listed 4 ounces butter. Your picture looks more like 4 Tblsps. When I weighed out 4 ounces on a food scale, it's almost an entire stick. I'm going to try with the 1/2 stick. Just thought this may be causing some of the flat cookies.
Taryn says
4 oz is correct. The error is the photo. I'll make a note on it. My assistant measured wrong and we went back and added the rest of the butter in the next step. The dough for these is the same as this recipe on which you can see the full stick of butter.
Jen in T-Town says
Delicious! Based on the comments about them crumbling, I added an egg. Also, I had to sub shredded coconut. I tried one batch with dough chilled for about 15 minutes while I baked the first tray. The unchilled batch spread and were flat. The chilled batch stayed a little taller than I like because I left them as round balls when I put them in the oven. Both batches were tasty, though! Texture was chewy and soft. Definitely a keeper! Thank you for the recipe!!
Daniel Loraditch says
What about coconut oil instead of butter.
It is like room temperature butter in consistentcy. Add more flour or oatmeal if needed. Or less coconut.
Taryn says
Coconut oil should work.
Tammy Graybeal says
I love butterscotch cookies and was excited to find that Lilly's makes a sf version of chips! The reason I gave this 3 stars is cookies came out flat and when I tried to take off parchment paper they just crumbled.
Having said that, they taste really good! Just not sure what to do about holding cookie together.
Taryn says
They hold together better after chilling. Was your butter too soft? Mine definitely do not come out flat, as you can see in the photos.
Vicky says
These are fantastic Taryn. Another winner.
Sara Frankenberg says
These are delicious. The Lily’s butterscotch are great - I found them at Walmart. I have made twice and both times they came out very flat - this doesn’t really matter as the cookies disappear but any suggestions? I tried two different kinds of gluten free oats but it didn’t make a difference.
Julie says
I wish I had the butterscotch chips but since I didn't and I was anxious to try these, I did half milk chocolate and half white chocolate. Very delicious! Basically, a person should stick to one if trying to stick to S mode?
Taryn says
Yes. Glad you liked them!
Marti Buurkarl says
Question, please? Could you substitute hemp hearts for the oatmeal? If yes, 1:1? I think it would cut the carbs by 1.5 per cookie.
Taryn says
I've never eaten or baked with hemp hearts so I'm not sure. Sorry! I will add them to my list for recipe testing.
Gamom says
Yum!
Gloria Wade says
I’m on the Keto diet and thought I would never have another oatmeal cookie. I cant wait to try
them! Thank you 😊
Janet Johnson says
I haven't made these yet but will as soon as I get some oatmeal. I just wanted to recommend Lily's butterscotch chips for this - they are amazing!! Sugar is not missed at all.
Sherri says
Hi, could I use Trim Healthy Mama Baking Blend instead of the almond flour?
Aretha says
Can I leave out the coconut?