Now that fall is just around the corner, I was inspired to create a cookie perfect for the season. We’ve all had gingersnaps or gingerbread type of treats. Who doesn’t love those?! I just love spice in sweets. I wanted mine to have a nice presence of spice but also decided to add in some oats, so they aren’t like a typical gingersnap. They have a wonderful chewy oatmeal cookie type of texture.
These Vegan Autumn Maple Spice Cookies are so full of flavor and so easy to make. They are vegan, dairy-free, egg-free and nut-free, too!
Please note: I wrote this recipe in September of 2012, this was before I started writing all oil-free recipes and before I started my blog, The Vegan 8, so there is vegan butter in this recipe and it’s more than 8 ingredients. It does NOT work with subbing with applesauce. I have tried it and they were way too dry and terrible.
Autumn Maple Spice Cookies
Ingredients
Dry ingredients:
- 1 cup (145g) whole wheat pastry flour
- 1/2 cup (50g) quick cooking oats
- 1 tablespoon cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon allspice
- 1 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger spice
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon fine salt
- 1/4 cup + 1 tablespoon packed vegan buttery spread (or you can make these with softened, not melted, coconut oil, but only use 1/4 cup)
- 1/2 cup pure grade a maple syrup or agave will work
- 1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line 2 sheet pans with parchment paper.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, oats, spices, baking powder, baking soda and salt until well combined.
- In a large bowl, beat together the vegan butter, maple syrup, and brown sugar until creamy. Beat in the vanilla.
- Carefully fold in the dry ingredients with a spoon until just combined. Be careful not to overmix. I like to add half the dry ingredients, gently fold them in, then the other half.
- Drop by tablespoonfuls using a cookie scoop onto the prepared sheet pans (9 on each pan). Bake one pan at a time. Bake for about 10 minutes or until golden and the tops are slightly cracked. They will still look a little underdone when you remove them. Do not over bake them, they will harden while cooling. Let them cool at least 10 minutes and transfer them to cool completely on a rack.
Thank you for your quick reply! I tried this recipe this evening and they are all almost GONE!!! From the 3 year old, to the 44 year old – we all loved them <3
Wonderful! So very happy to hear that!
am I reading this right? no egg or egg substitute for binding?? I will try these soon, they look delicious! Thank you
Hi Paris, yes, that is correct! Egg replacers are not needed in most cases, the flour and fat themselves do plenty of binding 🙂
Would regular whole wheat flour work, instead of pastry flour?
I’ve never used pastry flour before so I have no idea!
Hi Melissa! I wouldn’t use whole wheat as the gluten content is much higher and will make the cookies too tough. Regular white all-purpose flour would work better, as it behaves basically the same as pastry flour in baking 🙂
I did half all purpose and half whole wheat and they came out amazing! I also used regular butter as I am not vegan and don’t have vegan butter. Nuts thought I would share in case anyone else wanted to try with regular butter and a 50/50 split of whole wheat and all white all purpose. They were sooo delicious and the perfect fall cookie!! I’m about to make another batch! Definitely follow her instructions on baking too!! I accidentally overcooked my second sheet and they turned out a little hard. I still ate them because they had such great flavor but the ones that look a little more undercooked come out so perfect!!
I’m so happy you loved these Danielle!!
Hi Brandi!
These cookies are loooovely!!
I’ve just made them and I’m delighted with the result even though I had to swap the vegan buttery spread for coconut oil (solid form) but I think next time ( yes, definitely I’m gonna be making them again) I will use only 1/4 of a cup of coconut oil.
Another great recipe, thank you!! xx
Hi Esther! I’m so glad to hear that you loved them! Yes, coconut oil is much more greasy so I can definitely see only 1/4 cup being needed. Updating recipe to reflect that as well. Thank you for the feedback!
Thanks Brandi! I did notice it was an old recipe :). I will certainly let you know if I try it!
Is there any way to make these without vegan buttery spread? I’d love to make them palm oil free and I can’t find any vegan buttery spread without palm oil. Thank you – they seem so delicious!
Hi Melinda! Yes, just sub with softened (not melted) coconut oil and I think that should work perfectly. Sorry about the vegan butter..this is one of my older recipes before I stopped using it. The cookies are very delicious and think they’d work great with the coconut oil. Unfortunately, I tried them with applesauce before and they were not good, so the oil is the way to go. Let me know if you try it!
Beautiful 🙂 Cookies look yummy.
Thank you so much Lilly Sue!! 🙂
Thanks Victoria!! Bourbon vanilla has such an incredible and richer flavor than regular vanilla, and the smell…WOW! Thank you for stopping by 🙂
I think you must call these cookies: magic cookies! They look just wonderful! I also am a big fan of spelt flour! Do you use light spelt flour or wholemeal spelt flour in here?
MMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!!! lovely pics too!
Thank you so much Sophie!! It is Bob’s red mill stoneground wholegrain spelt flour. Super yummy and healthy. I just love it! Magic cookies…yes haha!
Thank you so much Crista for the compliment!! I have so much fun with food photography and am constantly working to improve 🙂 Thanks so much for stopping by!
The spices, the oats AND maple Syrup?? I’m in! And the bow is beautiful any friend would be floored to receive this gift!
Thank you so much! Yes! I tried to use mostly natural sweetener in these cookies with just a small amount of dark brown sugar for that deep sweetness. Maple gives them a nice chewiness too that compliments the spices really well, yum!! And thank you..I love bows/ribbons hehe 🙂
Sounds Increadable Brandi! I will be making these during the fall for a gift!! You so rock!!
On this cold snowy day I just made these simply delicious cookies. Instead of whole wheat flour I used barley flour and omitted the sugar using only the 1/2 c. of maple syrup and they are still quite sweet. My husband is posted at the kitchen door like a sentry just eating them up! I give you a zillion stars! thanks soo much!
This recipe is amazing……
There are so so so good and way more better then the store buy one!!!!!
Thank you for sharing!!!!!
I’m so happy to hear you loved these Hanchi! Thank you so much for the wonderful feedback!