Made with gluten free oat flour, creamy nut butter, festive cranberries, these Vegan Almond Molasses Cranberry Cookies are a better-for-you cranberry cookie recipe perfect for every occasion. Bake them ahead of time for holiday parties, quick breakfasts, or even on-the-go snacks!
Crazy for Cranberries
This time of year cranberries seem to be everywhere and in everything! With recipes like Cranberry Balsamic Roasted Chicken, Slow Cooker Gluten Free Meatballs with Cranberry Sauce, Easy Cranberry Basil Shrimp Cocktail, and more, I’m not sure there are many foods that cranberries don’t pair well with. However, my favorite way to use this festive fruit is in cranberry cookies, especially when paired with warm spices molasses! Seriously, y’all, recipes don’t get much better than this.
Not only are these cranberry cookies soft, sweet, and delicious, but they’re also made with whole food ingredients for a dairy-free, grain-free cookie everyone can enjoy! Plus, they’re so healthy you can even eat them for breakfast. In fact, they make the perfect option for a post-workout snack to help you refuel with natural sugars and carb sources to keep you satisfied. Whether you’re making them to leave out for Santa, serve at holiday parties, or to have a quick grab-n-go option throughout the week, I guarantee you’re going to love this cranberry cookie recipe! So, if you’re ready to get baking, keep reading to find everything you’ll need to know from ingredient lists, to instructions, health benefits, and more!
Ingredients for Cranberry Cookies
This cranberry molasses cookie recipe is super simple to make and is very similar to traditional gluten free sugar cookies, with a cranberry twist! Take a look below to find everything you’ll need.
- Gluten Free Oat Flour – Oat flour is a great gluten free option that provides whole grains and fiber!
- Arrowroot Starch – Arrowroot starch works to add structure and texture to these cookies. However, if you don’t have arrowroot starch on hand, tapioca starch works just as well!
- Spices – I added cinnamon and ginger to create a rich, warm flavor that pairs nicely with the sweetness of the sugar and cranberries.
- Nut Butter – Any creamy nut butter such as almond or cashew butter can be used. Or, swap them out for sunflower seed butter, if you prefer!
- Dried Cranberries – If you want extra chunks in your cookies, feel free to add more dried cranberries! Just make sure they are dried and not fresh, because fresh cranberries throw off the ratio of wet and dry ingredients.
- Molasses – The secret ingredient that makes these cranberry cookies stand out from the rest, molasses adds sweet flavor and health benefits, but we’ll get to those later!
- Baking Staples – As with most baked goods, you’ll also need a few staple ingredients such as baking soda, salt, vanilla extract, and non-dairy milk.
- Sugar – For these cranberry cookies, you’ll need 3 different sugars including raw cane sugar, brown sugar, and cane sugar. Did you know that sugar does more than just sweeten the dough? It’s true! For instance, in this case, the brown sugar helps create slightly chewier cookies. Meanwhile, the raw sugar helps the cookies spread.
Foodie Swap: To lower the sugar content, try replacing the brown sugar with a substitute like Swerve.
How to Make this Cranberry Molasses Cookie Recipe
These cranberry cookies might look fancy, but they’re super easy to make! Take a look below to see how they’re done.
- Preheat. To begin, preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit, and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Whisk. Then, in a medium bowl, whisk together oat flour, arrowroot starch, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and ginger, and set it aside.
- Mix. In a second, larger mixing bowl, beat together the nut butter, sugar, and brown sugar. Then, add the molasses and vanilla, and combine the ingredients until the dough is nice and thick. Slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients.
Pro-Tip: Add the dry ingredients in 3 separate batches, mixing to combine the ingredients after each batch.
- Fold. Add in 4 tablespoons of milk, scrape down the batter from the sides of the bowl, and fold in the dried cranberries.
- Roll and Scoop. Add another 4 tablespoons of milk, mixing well, and roll the dough into a ball. Then, using a medium-sized cookie scoop, scoop out balls of dough, and roll them into smaller balls. Roll each ball of cookie dough in sugar, and place them on the prepared baking sheet, pressing down slightly.
Note: If the batter is too thick, add in an extra tablespoon of non-dairy milk. Or, if the batter is too thin to roll into a ball, place it in the fridge for 30 minutes.
- Bake. Place the cranberry cookies in the oven for 12-14 minutes. For chewier cookies, bake them for 11-12 minutes. Or, for crispy cookies, bake them closer to 14 minutes!
Benefits of Molasses
As if you needed another reason to enjoy cookies, it turns out molasses is actually good for you! Keep reading to learn more.
- 5 tablespoons of molasses (preferably blackstrap) contains 95 percent of your daily allowance of iron. This is great for those with anemia or vegans and vegetarians who may not get enough iron in their diet already, because too little or too much iron can make you feel tired or weak.
- Molasses is packed with minerals such as Magnesium and Potassium. These minerals are needed for bone health and metabolism. Not to mention, magnesium and potassium are great electrolyte sources, which means molasses really can help refuel muscles after a workout!
- Molasses is a natural sugar that is digested more slowly than others. This slow digestion can help stabilize blood sugar. So, you see, snacking on these cranberry cookies between meals can keep insulin in check! Sounds like a plan to me!
Should I Soak Dried Cranberries Before Baking?
It’s not necessary to soak dried cranberries before baking! We already tested, tasted, and re-tested this cranberry cookie recipe to make sure that all the portions and flavors are in check. So, all you have to do is follow the instructions in the recipe card!
Vegan Almond Molasses Cranberry Cookies
- Total Time: 35 minutes
- Yield: 24
Description
These Vegan Almond Molasses Cranberry Cookies are a gluten free cookie perfect for holiday parties, post-workout fuel, and more!
Ingredients
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195 grams gluten free oat flour (or finely ground oats) (1 3/4 cup to 2 cups)
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1/4 cup arrowroot starch *
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1 teaspoon baking soda
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1 teaspoon salt
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1 teaspoon cinnamon
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Pinch of ground ginger
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1/2 cup creamy nut butter (almond, cashew, or sunflower seed butter work best)
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1/2 cup raw cane sugar
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2 Tablespoons dark brown sugar (or brown sugar substitute, I used swerve)
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4 Tablespoons molasses
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1 teaspoon vanilla extract
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8 Tablespoons non-dairy milk (divided, as needed)
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1/3 cup dried cranberries
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1/4 cup cane sugar or sparkling cane sugar for coating
Instructions
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Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Line a baking sheet with baking paper, and set it aside.
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In a medium bowl, whisk together the oat flour, arrowroot starch, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and ginger. Set aside.
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In a large mixing bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer, beat together the nut butter, sugar, and brown sugar.
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Add the molasses and vanilla and combine until the mixture is nice and thick.
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Gradually add the dry ingredients (in 3 batches) to the wet ingredients. Mix after adding each batch of dry ingredients. The batter will be thick.
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Add 4 Tablespoons of milk, mix, and scrape the batter down from the sides of the bowl. Fold in the dried cranberries.
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Add an additional 4 Tablespoons of milk, and gently mix until the batter is firm enough to roll into a large ball. If the batter is too thick, add an additional Tablespoon of milk. If the batter is too thin, place it in the fridge to firm for 30 minutes.
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Using a medium-sized cookie scoop, spoon the dough, and roll it into a ball.
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Roll the ball of dough in the sugar, and place it on a cookie sheet, pressing down slightly. Repeat until all the dough has been used.
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Place the cookies in the oven for 12-14 minutes. For chewier/soft cookies, bake for 11-12 minutes. For crispy cookies, bake longer, closer to 14 minutes. The cookies will be soft when you take them out of the oven. Allow them to cool for 10-15 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
Notes
- *Tapioca starch may be substituted
- Prep Time: 15 min
- Cook Time: 20 min
That’s it, y’all! I told you these cranberry cookies were super easy to make and nourishing, too! In fact, I’d say they provide better fuel than a lot of packaged energy bars. Plus, they contain no artificial ingredients! Regardless of whether you make these cookies for fuel or fun, they’re guaranteed to taste great. If you do give them a try, I’d love it if you let me know in the comments below!
I made these cookies using a 1 for 1 flour sub. They turned out tasting like muffins and were a complete hit. I couldn’t find my cranberries so I subbed chopped pecans and diced dried apples. Definitely keeping this recipe around.
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Do these cookies freeze well?
They should be able to!
Thank you, I like to make cookies ahead so will be making these soon and freezing, some, not all!
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They do! I have frozen some already!
Made these cookies today for a vegan, gluten-free friend. Not sure what I did wrong but they looked nothing like the pictures. They are very dark brown and the consistency is more like a very moist and chewy muffin. Several people who tried them said they were delicious, but “wouldn’t call it a cookie…” This was my first time baking anything gluten-free. Any idea what might have happened?
Totally understand! What flour did you use? And what type of molasses?
Hey! Thanks so much for your reply! I used Bob’s Red Mill Gluten-Free Baking Flour and Simply Balanced organic blackstrap molasses.
Gotcha. Ya, sometimes the gluten free flours have more xanthan or guar gum which made them chewy. Have you tried bob’s 1:1 GF flour?
also the black strap molasses could make them dark. Hey, if they are good than that’s great! vegan GF cooking is hard. Let’s call them Mookies. Muffin cookies. Haha!
Haha! Mookies! We were trying to think up another name for whatever it was that I ended up making and decided on “Molasses Morsels.” 🙂 Anyhow, they are definitely not Instagram worthy like your gorgeous pics but we love them (especially my two year old, we never let her eat cookies but these are loaded with good stuff so I’m cool with it), so thanks for the recipe! I’ll definitely be spending some more time on your site!
can you use a different flour besides cassava flour?
yep! cassava is a 1:1 ratio to most other flours. So you can use regular, multi purpose, etc.
Okay! I have ALWAYS WONDERED THIS: wtf is molasses! lol! I know it’s a sweentener but like… WHAT IS IT?!
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it’s actually sugar beet juice which is boiled down to a syrup. So ya, you could totally bathe in it. kidding.. kinda
Super yummy and delicious. I love cranberry and these sounds just perfect!
thanks friend! i think you’d like post run too. haha. just sayin
I had no idea that molasses had that much iron! Very cool. Also, I’d gobble up these cookies. NOM.
yes! so obsessed with it because iron.. and well, yumness factor
Because molasses is good for you, I use it often: on top of a sweet potato, oatmeal, nut butter on toast or with plain yogurt and fruit.
Um, NO IDEA Molasses was so nutritious! This is why I love you. And “…or even long rides.” I die. <3
Haha well for those crazy endurance people
That much iron and magnesium is also great for people who are pregnant and maybe not wanting to eat all the greens. You’re a genius.
Did I ever tell you your almond mango bars helped get me through my first trimester? For real, I wanted virtually nothing and felt queasy all the time, yet those brought me solid food, a nice dose of vitamins and happiness.
P.S. I want to do a post sometime in the future on legit super foods, not the marketing hyped ones. We should join forces.
I can always count on you to have the best gf recipes! Looks like another great idea for holiday gifts.
Molasses is the new superfood! I knew about it’s great ability to help refuel after workouts but I didn’t know you could get that much iron from it! What a great tip!! And yes I can’t wait to bake all the cookies! These are certainly going on my list!
cookies are always a great idea and it is so much better than packaged stuff.
Gimme, gimme, gimme! I want all of these!!! Pinning!
sending you virtual cookies now! xxoo
I honestly didn’t know that molasses was that healthy! I need to try some – especially to make cookies like these delicious ones! Love the cranberry and almond combo – yum!
LOVE molasses! 🙂 these cookies have me drooling like usual!
you need! <3
One can never be too early for cookies, or have too many cookies for that matter! LOVING these cranberry almond molasses cookies, chicka! I had NO clue molasses was so good for you! That totally means I can eat a dozen of these cookies in one sitting, right? 🙂 SO YUM! Cheers – to a fabulous Thanksgiving week! <3
my thoughts exactly!
at least a dozen is recommended. 😉
You are reading my mind with these cookies!
I have been looking for GF cookie recipes to try for the holidays and these sound right up my alley! All the holiday flavours!
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so glad! let me know if you try them!
I STILL need to get my hands on the cassava flour. Love me some molasses.
girl, you’d love! it’s so versatile!
With these fun facts about molasses, you make me feel a little less bad about myself for eating it by the tablespoon 😛 These look soooo delicious though, like I said, love my molasses!
never feel bad about molasses! spoon it up! <3
Gahhhh I love molasses and Miguel hates it and I am convinced there’s something wrong with him. These photos are gorgeous Lindsay!
there is definitely something wrong with him! although my husband hates pumpkin. Weird guys
Molasses is pretty amazing! It’s the one “sugar” I don’t mind using 😉
Ooh, brilliant! I am a big fan of molasses. I remember my midwife recommending molasses tea when I was pregnant for extra iron- just a spoonful of molasses in hot water and it was delicious!
mmm i like that! i’ll have to try it next!
I go through the BIGGEST molasses obsession every year starting around this time. I think one year I even managed to polish off an entire bottle of the stuff in a couple of months 😆 But it’s so tasty! And I love what you said about being able to make cookies a nutritious snack with the right ingredients — totally the moto I live by.
i always think of you with cooking with molasses. xxoo
This recipe came at the perfect time! I just bought a jar of molasses to make some gingerbread cookies for my hubby and was wondering what else I could make with it….these are DEFINITELY getting pinned!! 🙂 Thanks for sharing…you seriously have some of the best recipes out there!!! ~P
so glad! and saw you used BOB’s 1:1. that’s a great flour! how was the sweetness?
The sweetness was perfect!! I used 3 Tablespoons of molasses & brown sugar 🙂 My 2 yr old son gobbled them right up!
wonderful!
You are the one who turned me onto molasses…I LOVE it…although I haven’t used it in a really long time…Happy Monday friend! XOXO
I did? yay! love you!
These cookies sound delicious! I love to hear that molasses is the new superfood…because I’ve been using it a lot recently! In oatmeal, in cookies, the list goes on. 🙂
oh i need it in oatmeal next, yes! genius
since these are healthy, I can eat them all in one sitting, right? Another perfect recipe, pinned 🙂
totally legit!
I love molasses! I make a gingerbread cookie every christmas with molasses. Makes them so chewy! I need to figure out more recipes that use molasses!
Considering how much I love that sweet potato sunshine cereal, you better BELIEVE I’m a molasses fan! My only problem is that I wish I could buy a little bit less of it at a time. Like buying bulk pb or honey. What if I don’t need a gallon of it?
we should ask whole foods to make a molasses fountain! haha
I don’t need an excuse to eat a cookie…holiday or healthy is just a bonus! I love molasses but certainly do not use it enough!
so true! now you better get to eatin more of it asap! LOL!
I’m a little obsessed with molasses right now and just used it for another recipe. I love how rich and how healthy it is. The cranberries make these even better though – that’s another winter cookie obsession 🙂
currently craving your gingersnaps! YES! trade you cookies