It’s no surpirse that I love baking cookies around the holidays so I gave these old fashioned iced oatmeal cookies a festive holiday spin! They’re soft and chewy in the center, crisp around the edges and loaded with old fashioned oats, tangy dried cranberries and crunchy pistachios.

And as if that wasn’t delicious enough, I include a few secret ingredients to make these cookies extra tasty. A sprinkle of orange zest, a dash of almond extract and a pinch of cinnamon is all you need to make a tasty holiday cookie that everyone will love!

What Ingredients to Make Iced Cranberry Orange Cookies

I love baking vegan oatmeal cookies because they typically involve staple ingredients that I already have in the pantry. Which means I can pretty much make these festive holiday cookies anytime I want.

• All Purpose Flour
• Baking Powder + Baking Soda
• Old Fashioned Oats
• Ground Flax Seeds
• Vegan Butter Sticks
• Cane Sugar + Brown Sugar
• Orange Juice + Orange Zest
• Almond Extract
• Cinnamon
• Salt
• Dried Cranberries
• Pistachios

What Ingredients Do You Need to Make Vegan Icing?

• Powdered Sugar
• Almond Milk
• Vanilla Extract
• Salt

How to Make Cranberry Orange Cookies Vegan

Prep:

Start by placing the vegan butter on the counter to soften while you gather the other ingredients. Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees and line two large cookie sheets with a nonstick baking mat if desired.

Zest the orange and set aside. Combine the ground flax seeds and orange juice in a small bowl and stir to combine. Set aside to thicken.

Roughly chop the pistachios and set aside.

Mix the Dry Ingredients:

Next make the oat flour by adding the oatmeal to a blender and pulse several times until it resembles a coarse flour. Add the oat flour to a mixing bowl along with the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt and mix well. Set aside.

Mix the Wet Ingredients:

Place the softened vegan butter in a large mixing bowl along with the cane sugar and brown sugar. Beat for 1 minute using an electric mixer or for 2 minutes if mixing by hand. Once light and fluffy, add the orange zest, almond extract and the thickened flax seeds and mix for one more minute.

Combine:

Add half of the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix just until no more flour is visible. Then add the remixing dry ingredients and stir to combine.

Then fold in the dried cranberries and chopped pistachios.

Bake:

Use a medium-seized ice cream scoop like this one to portion the dough into balls and place on a lined cookie sheet. Bake for 12-15 minutes and then cool on the cookie sheet for 5 minutes.

Decorate:

Transfer the cookies to a wire cooling rack to cool completely. Then combine powdered sugar, almond milk vanilla and a pinch of salt in a bowl and mix well to combine.

To decorate, spoon the icing on top of the cookie and then u offset to spatula or a spoon to scrape off any excess icing.

Tip: Give the icing a few minutes to set before eating. Then serve with a glass of your favorite plant-milk and enjoy!

Tips for Holiday Cookie Baking

Try using an oven thermometer! All ovens are a little different and sometimes – if your oven is anything like mine – it will say it’s at 350 degrees before it actually is. Baking at the wrong temperature can effect the outcome of the cookies so an inexpensive oven thermometer like this one will be your best friend this holiday season!

Mix the wet ingredients well – when mixing the butter and sugar together, make sure to take your time and mix well. This ensures that the cookies will have a soft and chewy bakery-style texture.

Don’t over-mix the dry ingredients – the opposite is true for the dry ingredients. You’ll want to mix well to incorporate but be careful not to continuously beat the cookie dough once the wet and dry ingredients are combined or the cookies will be hard and tough.

Use vegan butter sticks instead of the tub and make sure it’s softened to room temp. The stick variety works better for baking. Here’s a fun video where I compared different vegan butters for baking to show how different the result can be! After lots of experimenting I’ve found that using Earth Balance sticks (salted) is a winner when baking cookies so that’s what I recommend. Make sure t’s softened but not melted.

Recipe FAQs

How do I keep leftover cookies soft? I recommend letting the cookies cool completely on a wire rack. Then transfer the cookies to an airtight container with a slice of sandwich bread. The bread helps keep the cookies soft. Store at room temp for 2 days. Alternatively, you can refrigerate the cookies for up to 5 days.

Can I freeze the cookie dough? Yes! Scoop the unmaking cookie dough onto a cookie sheet or plate and freeze until solid. About 1 hour. Then place the frozen cookie dough in an airtight bag and store in the freezer for up tp 6 months. When ready to bake, place the frozen cookie dough balls on a baking sheet and simply add 1-2 additional minutes to the original bake time as needed.

Can I use quick cooking oats? I didn’t have good results with quick cooking oats so I wouldn’t recommend it. 

Can I use gluten-free flour? This recipe has not been tested with gluten-free flour so I can’t guarantee results, however my recommendation is to use a gluten-free all purpose flour such as Bob’s Red Mill 1:1. Avoid subbing coconut, brown rice or almond flour.