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Low Carb Oatmeal Cookies

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4.94 from 31 votes
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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. 

close up of an oatmeal cookie with a bite missing

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.

poster image with balsamic chicken
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Another favorite is these Coconut Flour Oatmeal Cookies and my Dairy-Free Peanut Butter Cookies.

close up of three of the cookies on a white plate

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.

small bowls of ingredients including almond flour and sweetener

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. 

batter in a mixing bowl next to a hand mixer

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. 

oatmeal cookies on parchment paper

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 on parchment paper

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?

a hand holding one of the cookies with a bite missing

 

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close up of an oatmeal cookie with a bite missing

Low Carb Oatmeal Cookies

Taryn Scarfone
There is nothing more delicious than these Low Carb Oatmeal Cookies. With just 11 ingredients, these Oatmeal Scotchies are perfect for the holidays.
4.94 from 31 votes
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 12 minutes
Total Time 22 minutes
Course Dessert
Cuisine American
Servings 24
Calories 117

Ingredients
 
 

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

Chips: Lily's discontinued their sugar free butterscotch chips. These are just as good with other varieties like peanut butter.
Nutrition: the nutrition facts are for 1 cookie. Each serving has 4 NET carbs.
Butter: this recipe does use one whole stick (4 oz or 8 tbsp) of butter. My photo with the ingredients in bowls is incorrectly showing a lesser amount. 
Substitutions: swap the butterscotch chips for sugar-free chocolate chips. 
Prep Time: put the cookie dough into the fridge up to overnight before baking the cookies. You will need to let it come up to room temperature before you scoop the cookies. Alternatively, you can scoop the dough first and then refrigerate the balls.
To Store: keep the low carb oatmeal cookies in an airtight container at room temperature or in the refrigerator for up to 4 days. 
To Freeze: flash freeze the cookies first, then put them into a container or freezer bag. Store for up to 3 months. 
Notes on Sweeteners: 
I use my own blend of xylitol, erythritol, and stevia in my recipes. This is twice as sweet as sugar. It is comparable to Trim Healthy Mama Gentle Sweet and Truvia.
To sub in Swerve or Lakanto Monk Fruit use 1.5 times the amount of sweetener called for. 
 
To sub in Pyure or Trim Healthy Mama Super Sweet use half the amount of sweetener called for.
 
Substitutions will work in most recipes. They may not work in candies, such as caramel.

Nutrition

Calories: 117Carbohydrates: 7gProtein: 2gFat: 10gSaturated Fat: 5gCholesterol: 17mgSodium: 95mgPotassium: 29mgFiber: 3gSugar: 1gVitamin A: 128IUCalcium: 15mgIron: 1mg
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37 Comments

  1. My husband was crazy about these cookies! Unfortunately we can’t find sugar free butterscotch chips any more. He didn’t like chocolate or peanut butter chips. Any suggestions?5 stars

    1. I know! I was so sad when they stopped making them. I think you could melt sugar free white chocolate, add butterscotch flavor, and reform it. It would be easiest to just make a bar and then chop it up but if you really want chips there are molds available on amazon.

      I would try a flavoring like this: https://amzn.to/3ZOsGQX

  2. I added 1/8 c. psyllium husk to increase the fiber. Didn’t notice one bit. I might even try to up it to 1/4c. next time. That should help with the net carbs. Thank you for this recipe! I missed oatmeal cookies the most as a diabetic.5 stars

  3. Hi, I left the dough in the fridge overnight… but this made it hard and difficult to form into cookies on the baking sheet.

    1. 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.

    1. I talk about this a bit in my Oatmeal Cream Pies post:

      No, oats are not a typical keto ingredient. However, I believe that small quantities of gluten-free oats can be used in a keto diet on occasion. The key to having oats in a low carb diet is moderation. Sitting down to a big bowl of oatmeal will probably throw you out of ketosis or stall your weight loss. But having one cookie with a small number of oats and a few net carbs (or even less if you make smaller cookies) will probably be fine.

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