These Gluten-free No Bake Bird Nest Cookies are the perfect healthier fun Easter treat. They’re a creative twist on traditional no bake cookies, are super easy to make, and are made with healthier minimal easy to find ingredients.
These adorable treats taste great and are so much fun to make with your kids. Better yet, it’s such a flexible recipe. With easy substitutions, they can work for almost any special diet.
If you’re like me, you love celebrating with food. But so much of the options out there are loaded with sugar and other ingredients you don’t want to serve your family, or they are an incredible amount of work.
Not so with these fun no-bake bird’s nest cookies. This recipe is pretty wholesome, easy, fun, and it’s super frugal too.
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What Makes This Gluten-free Bird’s Nest Cookie Recipe Special
Healthier – Most of the birds nest cookie recipes are made of chow mein noodles, chocolate chips and butterscotch chips which means a lot of processed ingredients and a LOT of sugar. This recipe is made from all very basic ingredients that are all pretty wholesome.
Frugal – So many gluten-free birds nest cookies are made with things like broken up gluten-free pretzels, slivered almonds, and of course butterscotch and/or chocolate chips. While I love using chocolate chips for convenience, specialty chocolate chips are expensive. And GF pretzels cost a literal small fortune. I think those options sound lovely but I like this recipe for making gluten-free nests without breaking the bank.
Lower-carb – Using coconut shreds together with the oats cuts the carb load and depending on what you choose to sweeten them with, you can reduce the carbs even more.
Candy Egg Options
There are so many fun and even healthy ways to top these no-bake nests.
- Candy Coated “Eggs” – Some of the photos in this post were done with Cadbury eggs, but I recommend using Trader Joe’s Candy Coated Almonds instead. They’re so yummy and have all natural colors. The almonds have a bit of dark chocolate around them and then a thin shell. They’re not sugar-free, but only 1 gram of sugar in each (tiny) candy. But they’re a lot better than most candies out there!
- Other Naturally-colored candy coated chocolates. They won’t really be egg-shaped, but they’ll be yummy. These from Lily’s would work pretty well. Or these that are like plain M&M’s could work too.
- Fresh berries (raspberries and blueberries work best)
- Homemade or Naturally-colored Jelly beans (this recipe for homemade gummy candy is a great one to use for a fun addition)
- Homemade Colored Eggs made with these fruity fat bombs
Ingredients
Following is a short list of ingredients needed with some more information about them. Please see the recipe card for amounts recipe notes and substitutions for more details.
- Cocoa powder – I love this brand. It’s rich and dark and doesn’t have alarming levels of arsenic or lead. Yes, I called and asked.
- Oats – I recommend using regular rolled oats. Some recipes state that you should only use quick oats since they are softer. We love the texture of the rolled oats and I like how they look in the cookies too. Use soaked oats for better nutrition. The oats will clump some and won’t look as nice, but they’ll digest more easily.
- Unsweetened shredded coconut – you can use all oats if you like, but I like adding coconut to cut some of the carbs. Make sure you avoid sweetened shredded coconut, or you’ll be adding lots of carbs and sugar to the cookies. Believe me, they are sweet enough without it!
- Candied eggs or other “eggs”– Disclaimer: Some of the candies in the photos are Cadbury Mini Eggs. While we really never eat artificial colors, I decided to use them for these images because they are just so cute and I couldn’t easily find natural candies that look like eggs. We had some of the photos done for this post, so it is what it is.
- Butter – grass-fed is the best way to go with this, but any butter is fine.
Ingredients Substitutions
- Oatmeal Alternatives – If you’re not avoiding gluten, you can use chow mein noodles. Gluten-free alternatives include coconut shreds, silvered almonds. or broken gluten-free pretzels. If you need 100% gluten-free oats, this brand is one that you can trust.
- Sweetener Options – This recipe is very forgiving regarding whatever sweetener you’d like to use. I haven’t tried with a liquid sweetener, but it should work. Coconut sugar is a great option as is honey and xylitol, erythritol / monk blend and allulose all will work too.
- Peanut Butter Alternative – Again, this is an easily substitutable option. I made this with almond butter and also a combination of almond and sunflower seed butter. You can also use sunflower seed butter or pumpkin seed butter to make nut-free nests.
- Cocoa – Carob can be substituted but it will add sweetness and carbs so you might want to reduce the sweetener.
- Butter – Coconut oil or another alternative should work as well, but I haven’t tried it.
- Keto / Low-carb – Substitute all oats for the coconut and use a low-carb sweetener. Use almond butter or another nut / seed butter combination and use a low-carb candy or berry option for the eggs.
The MOST Important Tip for Perfect No Bake Cookie Easter Nests
It’s VERY important to follow the boiling instructions for the chocolate mixture. If they don’t boil for 1 1/2 to 2 minutes at a rolling boil, the cookies will be very sticky and will take a long time to harden. They might not even harden at all.
Ideally you want the mixture to reach 230 degrees Fahrenheit. You can use a candy thermometer if you’d like but the boiling will be intense and the mixture will be foamy.
Technically, boiling the mixture like this is making fudge out of the ingredients, so that’s why they hold together after cooling.
If you boil them too long, the cookies might not stay together. We certainly don’t want that!
Recipe Notes
- Sweetener Amount – I personally like using the lower amount, but use whatever you like.
- Don’t let the cookies cool completely before adding the “eggs” or they won’t stick.
- Stir the chocolate mixture often while heating to prevent it from burning around the edge and bottom of the pan.
- Toasting the oats and the coconut will lead to better flavor.
- You can even omit the peanut butter or other nut or seed butter if you like and the cookies will still turn out fine.
- We tried a bunch of versions of these cookies. Our hands down favorite version was with mostly rolled oats, but about 1/3 coconut (as the recipe is written), and almond butter.
Special Diet Options
- AIP – Use carob and an AIP sweetener and coconut oil for the fat. Use all coconut shreds instead of the oats. I think this option will work but I haven’t tried it.
- Vegan – Use coconut oil or another dairy-free option for the butter.
- Keto / Low-carb – use all coconut shreds and a low-carb sweetener. Use berries for the “eggs.”
More Gluten-free Easter Recipes
Here are some more healthy gluten-free recipes that can help you celebrate Easter without all the sugar.
Recipe
- 1 1/4 – 1 3/4 cups low carb sweetener or other sweetener.
- 1/2 cup coconut milk or other dairy-free or regular milk
- 1//2 cup butter (1 stick. Coconut oil may be used as well.)
- 1/4 cup cocoa
- 3/4 cup peanut butter or other nut or seed butter
- 2 1/2 cups rolled oats
- 1 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
- 72 candied chocolate eggs or berries, etc.
In a medium saucepan, combine the first 4 ingredients.
Melt over medium heat and bring to a rolling boil.
Allow mixture to boil vigorously for 2 minutes.
Add in vanilla, peanut butter (or other nut or seed butter), oats, and shredded coconut.
Mix all ingredients until combined.
Using a 1 tablespoon cookie scoop, drop the cookies mixture onto a parchment lined baking sheet, silicone mat, or baking stone.
Allow cookies to cool somewhat, but don’t allow them to completely harden.
Using the back of a spoon or the back of your cookie scoop, form a little indentation to make the nest shape,
Add the candy eggs or other “egg.” into the center of each cookie.
Serve once cookies have hardened completely and are no longer sticky.
Place in the fridge for to speed up the hardening.
Store in an airtight container at room temperature. Can also be stored in the fridge or freezer.
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- Boiling Information: It’s VERY important to follow the boiling instructions for the chocolate mixture. If they don’t boil for 1 1/2 to 2 minutes at a rolling boil, the cookies will be very sticky and will take a long time to harden. They might not even harden at all. Ideally you want the mixture to reach 230 degrees Fahrenheit. You can use a candy thermometer if you’d like but the boiling will be intense and the mixture will be foamy.
- Sweetener Amount – I personally like using the lower amount, but use whatever you like.
- Oatmeal Alternatives – If you’re not avoiding gluten, you can use chow mein noodles. Gluten-free alternatives include coconut shreds, silvered almonds. or broken gluten-free pretzels. If you need 100% gluten-free oats, this brand is one that you can trust.
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- Sweetener Options – This recipe is very forgiving regarding whatever sweetener you’d like to use. I haven’t tried with a liquid sweetener, but it should work.
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- Peanut Butter Alternative – Again, this is an easily substitutable option. I made this with almond butter and also a combination of almond and sunflower seed butter. You can also use sunflower seed butter or pumpkin seed butter to make nut-free nests.
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- Cocoa – Carob can be substituted but it will add sweetness and carbs so you might want to reduce the sweetener.
-
- Butter – coconut oil or another alternative should work as well, but I haven’t tried it.
- Don’t let the cookies cool completely before adding the “eggs” or they won’t stick.
- Stir the chocolate mixture often while heating to prevent it from burning around the edge and bottom of the pan.
- Toasting the oats and the coconut will lead to better flavor.
- Peanut Butter: You can even omit the peanut butter or other nut or seed butter if you like and the cookies will still turn out fine
Nutritional information is provided as a courtesy and is merely an approximation. Optional ingredients are not included and when there is an alternative, the primary ingredient is typically used. We cannot guarantee the accuracy of the nutritional information given for any recipe on this site. Erythritol carbs are not included in carb counts since they have been shown not to impact blood sugar. Net carbs are the total carbs minus fiber.
I’d love to hear what you think about these cookies once you try them!
This post was originally published in March 2016. It was rewritten with completely new photos. Here is an original photo for reference.
