Looking for a healthy (ish) and delicious gluten-free cookie? These cream cheese cookies are soft and flavorful. A perfect base for all sorts of different types of cookies.
The secret to the success of these cookies is letting the dough rest and hydrate before baking. It’s even better if you ferment the cookie dough for up to 2 days.
Fermented Cookie Dough?!
Yes! Pre-soaking and fermenting gluten-free flour, helps to break down complex carbohydrates. This greatly improves the texture and flavor of gluten-free baked goods.
No more dry, crumbly cookies!
To make fermented cookie dough just follow the recipe using cultured soft cheese. Store-bought cream cheese usually isn’t cultured, so it won’t ferment the flour.
Here are three types of homemade cheese that are simple to make, and perfect for making fermented cookie dough:
- Homemade cream cheese
- Strained yogurt cheese or Greek yogurt
- Milk kefir cheese
Types of Drop Cookies
I will admit that chocolate chip cookies are my FAVORITE. I’m a not-so-secret chocolate addict. However, it’s fun to play with different flavors of cookies.
Each of the suggestions below is meant to be stirred into 1 batch of cream cheese oatmeal cookies.
- Chocolate chip: Add in 1 cup of chocolate chips or chopped squares of your favorite chocolate bar with 1 tsp of vanilla extract. I like to use a really dark chocolate bar for the chocolatiest cookie.
- Breakfast cookies: Skip the sugar and add in 2 Tbsp of flax, 2 Tbsp hemp hearts, 1 cup of raisins, and 1 tsp of cinnamon. The result is a dense, yet delicious cookie.
- Energy cookies: For a cookie that will give you a long, slow source of energy, replace the sugar with date sugar, and add in 1 cup of mixed sunflower seeds and pumpkin seeds (see photo below).
- Salty chocolate pecan: Always a favorite! Add 3/4 cup of chocolate chips and 1/4 cup of chopped pecans. Sprinkle each cookie with a tiny pinch of salt (see picture above).
- White chocolate macadamia nut: This is my husband’s favorite… a classic mix of 1/2 cup of sweet white chocolate and 1/4 cup of chopped macadamia nuts.
- Apple cinnamon: This is another healthy cookie option. Skip the sugar and use 1 cup of finely diced dried apple for sweetness with 1 tsp of cinnamon.
- Chocolate coconut: Similar to a macaroon, though with much less sugar, replace 1/4 cup of oat flour with 1/4 cup of cocoa powder and add in 3/4 cup of shredded coconut.
Cream Cheese Oatmeal Cookies
Looking for a soft and chewy gluten-free cookie? These cream cheese oatmeal cookies are a simple drop cookie that is perfect for all sorts of different flavors. See the section above for 7 favorite options: apple cinnamon, salty pecan, chocolate chip, and more.
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 12 minutes
- Total Time: 22 minutes
- Yield: 24 1x
- Category: Cookies
- Method: baked
- Cuisine: Canadian
- Diet: Gluten Free
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup cream cheese
- 1/4 to 1/2 cup sugar (optional -see notes)
- 2 eggs
- 1 cup GF oat flour
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- Additional flavors (see the section above for 7 delicious options)
Instructions
- Start with soft cream cheese. Either make your own (see above for 3 options) or let a store-bought block of cream cheese come to room temperature before making these cookies.
- Cream the cream cheese and sugar until smooth and light. I usually don’t use any sugar, (letting my added flavors provide the sweetness) however, most people enjoy sweeter cookies, so add up to 1/2 cup of sugar.
- Mix in the eggs, flour, baking soda, and salt, mixing until smooth. Because oat flour is gluten-free, you can really beat everything together without worrying about overmixing.
- When the cookie dough is smooth and creamy, mix in any additional flavors (see above for suggestions).
- Chill the dough in the fridge for at least 30 minutes or up to 2 days before baking.
- When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 350 F (180 C).
- Drop balls of dough (about 2 Tbsp each) on a greased baking sheet, leaving 2 inches between each ball as they will flatten as they cook. I like to use a cookie scoop to make them all the same size.
- Bake for 8-12 minutes. The cookies are done when they start browning at the edges.
- Allow to cool for 2 minutes before removing from the cookie sheet. Once the cookies are cool, store them at room temperature in an airtight container for up to 4 days. The cookies can also be frozen in a zip-top bag for up to four months.
Notes
- As I mentioned above, I usually don’t add any sugar to this recipe. However, we’re used to a zero-sugar diet. The more sugar you add, the softer and flatter the cookie. The cookies at the top of the post had 1/4 cup of sugar and the cookies at the bottom of the post had no sugar. Feel free to use the full 1/2 cup of sugar (white or brown) or replace it with an alternative sweetener. I really like date sugar
for added sweetness.
- This recipe will work with any type of whole-grain gluten-free flour. It probably will also work with whole wheat flour, but I haven’t tried it.
Keywords: soaked, pre-fermented, breakfast cookie, energy cookies, salty chocolate pecan, white chocolate macadamia nut, apple cinnamon, chocolate chip, gluten free, coconut
This looks amazing! Can’t wait to make this. Have you tried to use sourdough starter in place of cream cheese?
No… but what a good idea! Definitely on my to do list now. Thank you!
This is great! Do you think it could be made with yogurt?
★★★★★
You could use Greek yogurt (strained yogurt cheese). However, plain yogurt would add too much liquid. Cheers!