At Maxine’s Heavenly, our Cinnamon Oatmeal Raisin cookies are some of our bestsellers. As a result, we get lots of questions asked about them - so many that we decided to do a post teaching everything we know about the oatmeal raisin cookie!
Below, you’ll learn everything you could possibly want to know about oatmeal cookies, including their ingredients, health implications, and much more!
Most researchers agree that Fannie Merritt Farmer wrote the first recipe for oatmeal raisin cookies in 1896. The cookies quickly became popular as they were considered a healthier alternative to other baked goods. Quaker Oats started putting oatmeal raisin cookie recipes on their oatmeal containers as early as 1900.
Generally speaking, oats are among the healthier grains, and the vast majority of people digest them very well. This may partly be due to the fact that oats’ have a low glycemic load, which means they don’t spike blood sugar as much as other carbohydrates.
Of course, this benefit is largely negated by the large amounts of sugar used in many oatmeal raisin cookies. This is why our oatmeal raisin cookies are sweetened with organic coconut sugar and dates. These are whole foods that are as close to the plant as possible, and they don’t spike blood sugar nearly as much as refined sugar. Learn more about how we sweeten our cookies here.
While oats are naturally gluten free, cross-contamination can sometimes be an issue (this is when a gluten free food item becomes contaminated by direct or indirect contact with a gluten-containing food item).
At Maxine’s Heavenly, we use gluten free oats and are gluten free certified, which means we are required to test each batch of our cookies and ensure that they really are gluten free.
All of our cookies are also non-GMO and are glyphosate free.
We can’t speak for other cookie brands, but we don't claim to be a diabetic-friendly cookie. Decisions about what you eat should be made with your doctor.
That said, the sugars we use are low glycemic, and the fiber and nutrients in both the sugars and cookies help slow down the metabolizing process. We have heard from some diabetics that our cookies do not spike their blood sugar, but we suggest you talk to your doctor before trying them.
It depends on what you mean by “healthy.”
If you’re concerned strictly with calories, then there isn’t much difference between the two. Cup for cup, raisins and chocolate chips have about the same amount of calories. However, raisins are rich in vitamin B, potassium, and fiber, and lower in fat than chocolate. You could argue raisins are healthier than chocolate chips because of their nutrient content.
Many storebought brands of oatmeal cookies do have a lot of sugar, as do a lot of recipes. For example, Pepperidge Farm’s soft baked oatmeal raisin cookies have 12g of total sugar per serving. The good news is that there are other cookie brands like Maxine’s Heavenly which don’t use refined sugar at all, and also use less sugar in total. For example, our oatmeal cookies have just 5g of total sugar per serving.
Ingredients for oatmeal raisin cookies vary from brand to brand and recipe to recipe.
A typical oatmeal raisin cookie recipe often uses ingredients like those found in Pepperidge Farm’s soft baked oatmeal raisin cookies:
However, there are also gluten free, dairy-free, or vegan options for oatmeal cookies. Naturally, these alternatives will have slightly different ingredients. Maxine’s Heavenly oatmeal cookies are vegan, dairy-free, and gluten free, and our ingredients look like this:
Yes, you can make dairy-free oatmeal cookies. Here are our favorite ways to swap out dairy in your favorite oatmeal cookie recipes. If you prefer the ease of a storebought option, you can also purchase our oatmeal raisin cookies, which are dairy-free.
Eggs may seem like an essential cookie ingredient, but there are actually a lot of substitutes that allow you to make oatmeal cookies without eggs. Some of the most popular are applesauce, bananas, or chia seeds. There are other recipes (like this one) that even use a little bit of boiling water and baking soda to replace the egg.
Oatmeal is a “galactagogue,” meaning it can support milk production. It’s been shown in studies to increase prolactin, a hormone that plays an integral role in lactation support. To get the full scoop on oatmeal, cookies, and lactation, make sure to read our full blog here.
Oatmeal does contain soluble fiber, which reduces your low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol (the "bad" cholesterol). However, oatmeal cookies often contain butter and vegetable oils, which can raise cholesterol. We recommend speaking to your doctor and working together to decide on a diet to help support healthy cholestorol levels.
Oatmeal can help support a smoother digestive process. Oats are rich in both soluble and insoluble fiber, which helps in regulating bowel movements and preventing constipation.
You can make oatmeal cookies with a variety of different sweeteners; you don’t need to use brown sugar. You simply need to find a substitute or swap. We like to use coconut sugar in our cookies. Despite its name, coconut sugar doesn’t taste like coconut at all, and actually tastes very similar to brown sugar.
What Type of Oats are Best for Oatmeal Cookies?
If you’re making homemade oatmeal cookies, we recommend using old-fashioned rolled oats. They give the cookie a chewy, nutty texture and are thicker and heartier than quick or instant oats. Plus, rolled oats are lower on the glycemic index than their faster-cooking counterparts.
The most popular oatmeal cookie flavors include:
You can buy Oatmeal Cookies at most major retail stores. If you want to find Maxine’s Heavenly oatmeal cookies at a location near you, simply use our store locator.
Did you know that technically all of Maxine’s Heavenly cookies are oatmeal cookies? Our Cinnamon Oatmeal Raisin cookies come in the form you would expect for an oatmeal cookie, but all of our soft and crispy cookies use oats as their first ingredient.
Our soft-baked cookies have visible oats, as you’d expect in a cookie, while our crispy cookies use oat flour, which is simply ground up oats (so you don’t have the appearance of visible chunks of oats).
Try some Maxine’s Heavenly today and enjoy delicious, healthy oatmeal cookies in all of your favorite flavors!
