These soft cinnamon cookies are made with a beautiful cinnamon swirl and whole wheat flour making a more healthy cookie. I know they look gourmet but truly this is an easy recipe!
I've been making cookies for more than 15 years, to me the perfect cookie has a slightly crispy outside with a soft and chewy middle. These cookies with cinnamon are exactly that. If you love that texture, next try my pumpkin seed cookies!
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Ingredients for easy cinnamon cookies
Here are a few things to note about some of the ingredients, including some insight on swaps for preferences or dietary needs.
- Brown sugar or coconut sugar: Either of these darker sugars with caramel notes works for these cinnamon cookies.
- Cane sugar: You can use cane sugar or white sugar to sweeten the lighter part of the cookie dough.
- Oil: I use cold-pressed grapeseed oil, however coconut oil, or organic cold-pressed canola would also be great options as they are mild-tasting oil. I haven't tested this recipe with butter but I don't see why melted butter wouldn't work.
- Molasses: These cookies just have a touch of molasses to make the dark cinnamon swirl and deepen the flavor.
- Whole wheat flour: I always remember one of my reading materials in my nutrition schooling explaining how so much nutrition is stripped away when whole wheat flour is made into white flour, I was shocked. Now I try to use whole grains or whole wheat flour when possible.
- Cinnamon: This warm spice is essential for these cookies! 1 ½ tablespoons is needed to make the best flavor. You can add up to 2 tablespoons if you want it extra flavorful. The taste of cinnamon may depend on how fresh your cinnamon is.
See recipe card for quantities.
How to make cinnamon swirl cookies
1 - Dry ingredients: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Mix all the dry ingredients in a mixing bowl, and use a whisk to confirm everything is incorporated well. Then remove one cup of this flour mix and set it aside.
2 - Dark mixture: In a smaller mixing bowl place the oil, egg, brown sugar, and molasses, and mix them together well. Add the one cup of flour and cinnamon mixture to make the dark brown batter.
3 - Light mixture: Place another ¼ cup oil, another egg, and white sugar into a smaller mixing bowl. Whisk to combine and then add this to the flour and cinnamon mix in the large mixing bowl.
4 - What the dough will look like: Now you will have a bowl of darker cookie dough and a mixing bowl of lighter cookie dough.
5 - Swirl cinnamon cookie dough: Add the light-colored cookie dough to the darker cookie dough and stir/fold the batter together only a very little bit. As you scoop the batter the dough will mix together.
6 - Bake: Use an ice cream scoop or tablespoon to make cookie balls, and place them on a lined cookie sheet. Bake cookies at 350 Fahrenheit for about 7 minutes, they will look puffy and not fully cooked, let them cool on the cookie sheet for 8-10 minutes to get a soft chewy texture.
Top tips for healthy cinnamon cookies
- Use fresh cinnamon for the very best taste!
- Watch the cookies in the oven so they are baked perfectly into a soft cinnamon cookie!
- Don't over-stir the light brown and dark brown batter together so the swirl is visible.
Optional add in's
Here are some ideas to change up these healthy cinnamon roll cookies!
- Healthy oatmeal cinnamon cookies: Swap 1 cup of flour for 1 cup of quick oats. Follow the rest of the recipe the same.
- Dried cranberries: Add ⅓ cup of these red berries when swirling the dough together, this will give a Christmas cinnamon cookie vibe.
- Roll cookies in cane sugar to make a similar cookie to ginger snaps!
- Chai cookies: Use chia spice instead of cinnamon.
Other homemade snacks to make
Make these soft and chewy olive oil chocolate chip cookies next! Or make a highly rated recipe, these soft cinnamon granola bars!
Did you make these healthy cinnamon cookies? Would you take 5 seconds to give a star rating and review just below the recipe? That means a lot to me and helps the growth of Beside the Mountain blog. <3
Healthy Cinnamon Cookies
Ingredients
Dry ingredients:
- 2 cups whole wheat flour
- 1 ½ tablespoons cinnamon
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
Dark brown mixture:
- ¼ cup oil (cold-pressed grapeseed oil, or melted coconut oil)
- 1 egg
- ½ cup brown sugar or coconut sugar
- 2 teaspoon molasses
Lighter mixture:
- ¼ cup oil (cold-pressed grapeseed oil, or melted coconut oil)
- 1 egg
- ½ cup cane sugar or white sugar
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Dry ingredients: In a medium bowl, place the whole wheat flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. It’s important to whisk everything together so it becomes very well combined. Remove 1 cup of this flour mixture, set aside.
- Dark brown mixture: In a smaller mixing bowl place the ¼ cup oil, 1 egg, ½ cup brown sugar, 2 teaspoons molasses. Mix together well and then add the 1 cup of removed flour mixture.
- Lighter mixture: In another small mixing bowl place ¼ cup oil, 1 egg, ½ cup white sugar. Mix until everything is glossy and smooth. Add this to the large flour bowl, and mix together well until a smooth dough is formed.
- Swirl dough: Add the dark brown cookie dough to the large bowl of light-coloured cookie dough, and fold together just 2-3 times, do not overmix so that the cinnamon swirl effect shows once the cookies are baked.
- Scoop + bake: Use an ice cream scoop or tablespoon to make cookie balls, and place them on a lined cookie sheet. Bake cookies at 350 Fahrenheit for about 7 minutes, they will look puffy and not fully cooked, let them cool on the cookie sheet for 8-10 minutes to get a soft chewy texture.
Notes
- To follow along with recipe photos from my kitchen, scroll up.
- Notes about ingredients and swaps you can make are found above.
- In the photos above I sprinkled the cookies with sea salt flakes and cinnamon before baking.
Nutrition
Danika Vanderpyl, C.H.N
I create snack recipes with healthy ingredients that are mostly already in your kitchen. Let's make snacktime nutrient-dense, and well, easy.
Hannah
These were so fun and yummy to make! I used cassava flour instead and still turned out great. 😊
Danika Vanderpyl
Hannah! Thanks you for sharing what you thought! I have never used cassava flour so I'm happy to hear you used it and it worked, that's a great gluten free and grain free option!