Crispy Buckwheat Oatmeal Cookies

These delicious buckwheat oatmeal cookies are perfectly crispy on the outside and soft and chewy on the inside! They are made with gluten-free quick oats, light buckwheat flour, brown butter, and brown sugar and have a nutty aroma with subtle caramel notes.

I love baking with buckwheat flour! My first creation was this buckwheat sourdough which was followed by this 100% buckwheat bread. Then I experimented with buckwheat flatbread and sourdough buckwheat pancakes.

Buckwheat flour seemed to work so well in baked goods that I kept trying new recipes! After making a moist buckwheat chocolate cake and buckwheat shortbread I had to try making these oat raisin cookies and they didn't disappoint!

They are so good that I might need to stop baking them to avoid the temptation of eating too many!

Light vs. dark buckwheat flour

Ingredients & substitutes

• Buckwheat flour - adds a slight earthy flavor to the cookies. You can use light or dark buckwheat flour or another gluten-free flour instead with minimal changes to the texture.
• Egg - helps hold the cookie together and adds moisture. You can use a flax/chia egg or another vegan egg substitute instead.
• Granulated sugar - you can use caster sugar (same but finer), coconut sugar, or a monkfruit sweetener. Coconut sugar is similar to white sugar, only it has a slightly lower glycemic index. Read more on sugar substitutes.
• Brown sugar - you can use dark or light brown sugar. This ingredient adds chewiness and a caramel flavor to the cookies. Again, you can use coconut sugar or a monkfruit sweetener instead.
• Butter - browning the butter adds a nutty aroma and caramel notes to the dough. You can use coconut oil instead, just skip the browning part!
• Quick oats - these quick-cooking oats are whole grain and gluten-free certified.
• Baking soda and baking powder help the cookies spread in the oven. I don't recommend changing the quantities.
• Raisins - I used sultana raisins. You can use cranberries or chocolate chips instead!

I highly recommend measuring the ingredients by weight using a digital kitchen scale to ensure consistent results!

my favorite

Digital scale

This is a good and affordable kitchen scale for baking!

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Variations

1. Use cranberries instead of raisins or do 50/50. Cranberries add a tart flavor to the cookies where raisins are rather sweet.
2. You can substitute raisins with chocolate chips. Use semi-sweet, dark, white chocolate chips, or a combination for more flavor!
3. You can soak raisins in hot orange juice instead of hot water for a citrusy flavor.
4. Substitute ¼ of oats with desiccated coconut for a coconut cookie.
5. Add crushed pecans or walnuts for some crunch!

Step-by-step instructions

Step 1. Start preheating the oven to 350F/175C.

Soak the raisins in boiling hot water to make them softer and set aside.

Then, cube the butter, and add it to a small saucepan. Use a light-colored saucepan to monitor the butter's color change.

Heat the butter over low-medium heat until it melts and starts bubbling. From that point on whisk the butter occasionally to prevent burning.

Don't walk away from the stove! The butter can go from light brown to dark brown to burnt in 1 minute.

Once you see an amber color and smell the nutty fragrance, turn off the heat and immediately pour the butter into a mixing bowl.

The residual heat of the pot can burn the butter even if it is already off the fire!

Step 2. Break up the lumps in brown sugar, then add both sugars to the melted butter, and whisk to incorporate.

Let the mixture cool before adding the egg (5-10 min). If you add the egg to the hot butter, the egg will cook and ruin the dough.

Once the butter mixture has cooled, add the egg and vanilla and whisk to incorporate.

Step 3. Now, add buckwheat flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon to the bowl with the wet ingredients and mix to combine.

You can use a whisk, a spatula, a wooden spoon, or an electric mixer for this step.

Make sure your baking powder is gluten-free and baking soda is active.

Step 4. Mix quick oats into the cookie dough with a spatula, wooden spoon, or an electric mixer.

Step 5. Finally, drain the raisins and add them to the mixing bowl. Fold the raisins in until the dough comes together and looks consistent all throughout.

The dough will be thick and somewhat sticky. You can bake the cookies right away or refrigerate the dough for up to 3 days.

You don't need to chill the dough before baking.

Step 6. Rinse your hands in water to prevent sticking and shape the dough into medium-sized balls, about 1.5 tablespoon in volume.

The recipe makes 21 cookies, so you will need 2 baking sheets lined with parchment paper or greased with non-stick spray or oil.

My baking sheets normally fit 9 balls per tray, so it takes 3 rounds of baking to make this recipe.

You can bake two trays at once, but keep in mind that the bottom sheet will have crispier cookies.

Bake the cookies for 10-12 minutes at 350F/175C, take them out, and let them sit on the baking sheet for 3-5 minutes before transferring them to a cooling rack. Enjoy!

Cookies baked for 10 minutes will be softer, while the ones baked for 12 minutes will be crispier on the outside with a softer interior.

Storage

• These cookies will keep in a bag or an air-tight container for up to 5 days or in the fridge for a week.
• You can freeze these cookies for up to 3 months. To freeze, let the cookies cool completely, place them into a freezer-friendly bag or container, and label with the date.
• To defrost, simply warm up a cookie or two in the microwave for 1-2 minutes or in the oven at 300F/150C for 5-10 minutes.

FAQ