These vegan and gluten free oatmeal cookies are studded with dried tart cherries, coconut flakes and dark chocolate. They’re also refined sugar free and absolutely delicious!
This post is sponsored by Montmorency US Tart Cherries and Feedfeed. All opinions are our own.
We’re so thrilled to be partnering with Montmorency US Tart Cherries and Feedfeed to bring you this cookie recipe! We are long-time fans of Montmorency Tart Cherries and have been using them in our daily diet for years.
Fun fact: Traverse City, Michigan (our home state!) is the Cherry Capital of the world. They produce a majority of the Montmorency tart cherry crop every year! Washington, New York, Wisconsin, Oregon and Pennsylvania are other prominent tart cherry-producing states! As native Michiganders, we’ve been enjoying Traverse City cherries since childhood.
We try to make a trip up north (as we call it) almost every year – it’s the highlight of my summer! Side note: northern Michigan is a truly gorgeous place to visit. Highly recommend making the trip once we're all able to travel freely again. Feel free to reach out to us for specific recommendations!
Montmorency tart cherries, have an distinct sour-sweet flavor that’s perfect for both sweet and savory recipes. You probably won’t find them fresh (unless you live near a grower), but you can buy tart cherries in dried, frozen, juiced or canned all year long.
Our entire family (especially my husband) is obsessed with Montmorency tart cherry juice and we keep it in the fridge at all times. We also always have a bag or two of dried Montmorency cherries in the pantry. They’re perfect for snacking on or using in recipes like these oatmeal tart cherry cookies!
Ingredients
These cookies are quick and easy to make. Aside from the dark chocolate, they’re completely refined sugar free, so they make for a great snack or lighter dessert!
To start, grab a mixing bowl and whisk together the dry ingredients. Instead of gluten free all-purpose flour, we use almond and oat flour in this recipe. We’ve found that they make for a soft, moist, delicious cookie!
Note: we did not test this with regular gluten free flour and wouldn’t suggest it as there are other variables you’d have to change.
In addition to the flour, we also use a small amount of xanthan gum. Xanthan gum is a stabilizing agent that helps improve the texture of gluten free baked goods.
You can find it in the baking section at grocery stores like Whole Foods or order online. It’s present in many gluten free flour blends, but since we’re using almond and oat flour in this recipe, we have to add it separately. It’s not completely essential to the recipe, but it definitely makes a difference!
In a separate bowl, use an electric mixer to cream vegan butter. It’s essential to bring the butter to room temperature before using, otherwise you’ll have quite a bit of trouble with it. We also bring the maple syrup to room temperature, otherwise it can affect the texture of the butter while mixing.
For sweeteners, we use a mixture of maple syrup and coconut sugar. Maple syrup adds extra moisture to the cookie, while coconut sugar improves the texture and adds a delicious, caramel-y undertone. Vanilla extract rounds out the wet ingredients.
Slowly incorporate the dry ingredients into the wet. Then, use a spatula to fold in the tart cherries, coconut and dark chocolate. After 10-12 minutes in a 350˚ oven, you’re good to go!
Benefits of tart cherries
Montmorency tart cherries have some remarkable benefits. Studies on tart cherries have included research on arthritis, exercise recovery, sleep, heart health and gut health.
Feel free to do a bit more research on your own, but I’m going to chat a bit about two fields I’m most interested in: exercise recovery and sleep!
Tart cherries + exercise recovery
Multiple studies have researched the beneficial role that Montmorency tart cherries may play in exercise recovery and performance.
After reading many of these studies years ago when I was running competitively, I started incorporating tart cherries into my daily diet!
Other studies on these homegrown superfruits have included research on arthritis and gout, heart health and gut health. Read more here!
Tart cherries + sleep
Montmorency tart cherries are a natural source of melatonin, which has been shown to affect quality, duration and other factors related to sleep. Preliminary research studies have shown that tart cherries may improve sleep quality and duration!
Read more about the research here.
More ways to use tart cherries
Montmorency tart cherries are less sweet and more sour than other varieties of cherries. This makes them an excellent choice for both sweet and savory applications!
Here at the Crowded Kitchen household, we eat tart cherries in some form almost every day.
Both my husband and I are former college track and cross country athletes and have been drinking tart cherry concentrate (diluted with water) for years after hard workouts. As mentioned above, there are several studies exploring tart cherries and exercise recovery, so tart cherries are very popular in the distance running community!
There’s nothing more refreshing than a glass of tart cherry juice after a long, hot run (in my opinion!). It’s such a simple way to get your daily dose!
We typically keep our fridge stocked with a big bottle of Montmorency tart cherry juice concentrate. I pour about a tablespoon over ice and top off with a few ounces of water. Alternatively, you can buy Montmorency Tart Cherry Juice!
In addition to our daily habit of tart cherry juice, we also use dried and frozen tart cherries in a number of other recipes. Here are a few of my favorites!
- Homemade trail mix with dried Montmorency tart cherries, chocolate chips, pretzels and coconut flakes (basically these cookies in trail mix form!)
- Tart cherry, chocolate & beet smoothie (my favorite recovery smoothie!)
- Add some diced, dried tart cherries to bruschetta for a pop of sour, sweet cherry flavor
- Add a splash of tart cherry juice or concentrate to a cocktail or nonalcoholic drink like lemonade
- Toss dried cherries into your favorite salad or whisk some cherry concentrate into a vinaigrette/dressing
- Use to replace raisins or dried cranberries in just about any recipe
The options are endless! Be sure to pick up dried, frozen, canned and juiced Montmorency tart cherries so you can start experimenting.
Print
Tart Cherry Oatmeal Cookies with Coconut and Dark Chocolate
- Total Time: 25 minutes
- Yield: 2 dozen 1x
Description
These vegan and gluten free oatmeal cookies are studded with dried tart cherries, coconut flakes and dark chocolate. They’re also refined sugar free and absolutely delicious!
Ingredients
- ½ cup vegan butter, softened at room temperature
- ⅓ cup coconut sugar
- ½ cup maple syrup, room temperature
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 ½ cup almond flour
- 1 ½ cup oat flour
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp xanthan gum*
- ½ tsp salt
- ½ tsp cinnamon
- 1 cup Montmorency dried tart cherries
- ¾ cup shredded coconut
- ½ cup dark chocolate chunks
- Optional: flaky sea salt
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350˚F.
- In a mixing bowl, whisk together almond flour, oat flour, baking soda, baking powder, xanthan gum, salt, and cinnamon.
- In a separate bowl, use an electric mixer to cream butter. Add coconut sugar, maple syrup and vanilla and continue mixing until well incorporated.
- Start adding in dry mixture a little at a time (in 3-4 batches). Mix until fully incorporated.
- Use a spatula to fold in coconut, chocolate and tart cherries. Use a cookie scoop to portion dough and transfer to parchment paper-lined baking sheet.
- Gently flatten cookies with the back of a measuring cup. (They will spread some in the oven, but this helps them cook more evenly.)
- Bake for 11-13 minutes. Optional: sprinkle with flaky sea salt when they come out of the oven. Let cool for 10-15 minutes before enjoying.
Notes
*Xanthan gum is a stabilizing agent that helps improve the texture of gluten free baked goods. You can find it in the baking section at grocery stores like Whole Foods or order online. It’s present in many gluten free flour blends, but since we’re using almond and oat flour in this recipe, we have to add it separately. It’s not completely essential to the recipe, but it definitely makes a difference!
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 11-13 minutes
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Stove
- Cuisine: American
Nutrition
- Serving Size:
- Calories: 134
- Sugar: 8.4 g
- Sodium: 153.4 mg
- Fat: 4.9 g
- Saturated Fat: 1.4 g
- Trans Fat: 0 g
- Carbohydrates: 15.9 g
- Fiber: 1.7 g
- Protein: 2.3 g
- Cholesterol: 0 mg
Keywords: tart cherry chocolate chip cookies
Kathy
How could this recipe be made low carb? Sounds wonderful, but carbs are high.....would reduction of cherries used achieve this or would there need to be other differences?
Lexi
Hi Kathy, thanks for your comment! You could definitely reduce the amount of cherries (maybe by 1/4 or 1/2) and you could also reduce the amount of chocolate chips (or leave them out entirely). Hope that helps!
jenn in ga
this recipe is fantastic! the flavors together have always been a favorite, and now to be able to make them gluten free is fabulous!
i'm also an editor of Friday Favorites, and so it's nice to make another connection with the two of you. i'd found this recipe before this week's edition, so i was pleasantly surprised when i pulled up this recipe i'd screen shot and realized i had already benefitted from your work once!
★★★★★
Lexi
So glad you enjoyed these cookies and we really appreciate your comment! And thanks so much again for the Friday Favorites feature 🙂
Kiley
Just one question: The amount of vanilla extract seems high relative to the other proportions. In fact, I'm not sure I've ever seen one tablespoon of vanilla extract in any recipe for a normal batch size. Is that amount correct, or should it be one teaspoon?
Lexi
Hi Kiley, yes, that is the amount we used but you can definitely use less! 1-2 tsp will do.