Soft, chewy, and flavorful Oatmeal Cookies — enjoy these cookies as is, or read on to add in raisins, nuts, and/or chocolate chips!
Once you’re totally in love with these cookies, don’t stop there—give our Snickerdoodle, Costco Raspberry Crumble Cookies, or Peanut Butter Cookies a try!
Oatmeal Cookies
While I’m ALL about chocolate, sometimes an old-fashioned oatmeal cookie is exactly the treat I’m craving. Soft, buttery, chewy, and flavorful–this is the recipe! I’ve been working on this recipe for months, and am finally ready for the big reveal. Are you ready??
If you’re looking for chocolate chips, raisins, or nuts in your cookies, you can add them to this base recipe OR, try these Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies or these Oatmeal Pecan Cookies. And for something even better than oatmeal raisin cookies, try this recipe using dried cranberries in place of raisins!
What ingredients do you need for oatmeal cookies?
The main ingredients in a classic, simple Oatmeal Cookie recipe are sugar, butter, flour, eggs, and of course, the old-fashioned oats.
In addition to these basic ingredients, we also use a few unique products to get these Oatmeal Cookies to taste their very best! Those ingredients are:
- Cornstarch: This keeps the cookies nice and soft.
- Oat flour: This gives the cookies a more intense oat-y flavor.
- Dark brown sugar: Gives these cookies a chewy consistency as well as a deeper molasses flavor. Don’t worry — light brown sugar also works!)
Now that we’ve talked ingredients, let’s talk process and tips!
Tips for making perfect oatmeal cookies:
- Precise measuring: Too much flour will give you dense cookies. Spoon your flour into the measuring cup (if you scoop it into a measuring cup, it usually gets packed in too tightly) and level it off with the flat edge of a butter knife.
- Slightly under-bake: This ensures the soft and chewy texture we all love! Over-baked Oatmeal Cookies lose their delicious chewy texture and a lot of flavor.
- Don’t over-mix: If you over-mix the batter, the cookies will become denser and less soft and chewy.
- Properly chill the dough: Chilling the dough makes a huge difference in both the flavor and the texture of the cookies. It allows the sugar and flavors to absorb and meld together.
I’ve talked a lot about how to make these Oatmeal Cookies chewy. But what makes a cookie chewy anyway? This is determined by the amount of moisture in the cookie. The extra butter and the dark brown sugar add moisture to the oatmeal cookie mixture in this chewy cookie recipe.
The number one tip to keeping a cookie chewy: Do not over-bake the cookies (because this dries the cookies out)!
A common question I get is “Can you use quick oats in cookies?” And the answer is generally no. When you use quick oats, the cookies are much drier and become cake-like. Definitely NOT what we’re going for with these Oatmeal Cookies:)
ENJOY!
More Amazing Cookie Recipes:
- The Best Snickerdoodle Recipe (all five-star tar reviews)
- Oatmeal Creme Pie
- Toffee-Pecan Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Oreo Truffle Cookies (No-Bake)
- Soft and Chewy Peanut Butter Cookies
- Edible Cookie Dough
Oatmeal Cookies
Ingredients
- ½ cup (equivalent to 8 tablespoons) unsalted butter at room temperature, NOT melted
- ½ cup dark brown sugar, packed (light brown sugar also works)
- ½ cup white sugar
- 1 large egg
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- ¼ cup oat flour, Note 1
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt (I use fine sea salt)
- ½ tablespoon cornstarch
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon, optional* (Note 1)
- 1 ½ cups old-fashioned oats, ( Note 2) not quick oats
- ½ cup + 3 tablespoons white all-purpose flour,
- Optional: flaky sea salt for topping cookies
Instructions
- BUTTER: Remove butter from refrigerator 30 minutes in advance so it reaches room temperature.
- MIX: Using a hand mixer, cream together the butter, brown sugar, and white sugar until light and creamy, at least 3 minutes. Beat in the egg and vanilla extract until smooth.
- OATS: To make oat flour, blend up regular oats in a blender or food processor until they resemble flour. Measure to get a leveled 1/4 cup. Add to the same bowl on top of the wet ingredients: oat flour, baking soda, sea salt, cornstarch, cinnamon, and old-fashioned oats. Beat until ingredients are well combined.
- fLOUR: Add the flour (measure by spooning the flour in the measuring cups and then leveling). Mix until JUST combined. Cover dough tightly and chill for 1 hour. These cookies will spread without being chilled.
- DOUGH BALLS: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Scoop out balls of dough (if you have a food scale, do cookie balls about 1.7 ounces in size; this will yield exactly 15 cookies)
- CHILL: Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper or a baking liner. Place balls of dough (no more than 9 cookies at a time) on the cookie sheet. Return the tray of cookies to the fridge for 10 minutes.
- BAKE: Bake for 7-9 minutes or until lightly browned at the edges (even if the center looks a little under-done -- they cook a bit more after being pulled out of the oven). These cookies set up and become extremely delicious and chewy if they're slightly underbaked. Err on the side of slightly under-baking these cookies for soft, chewy, and tender cookies! Add a sprinkle of sea salt if desired to the cookies. Cookies are best enjoyed within 2-3 days
Recipe Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Delicious! I substituted almond flour for white flour to make the GF. Added nuts and raisins and extra cinnamon too.
Delish! I’m so happy to hear this! Thanks Terry! 🙂
I think something was off in my measurements….their was WAYYYYY too much butter to oats in this recipe. I had to covert a 16oz block of butter to Tbs which came out to 32. This meant i would have to quadruple the recipe to follow the 8 Tbs butter per recipe direction. This was not the case! I’m crossing my fingers my addition of oats will help but I know if I put the mix in on as is, it would have been a buttery ( and delicious) mess!!!
I’m not sure how you came up with adding 32 tablespoons; the recipe says to add 8 tablespoons. I can’t imagine it working with 32 either, sorry!
Very delicious! I added some more spices e.g. ginger and cloves, and omitted the all-purpose flour, using solely oat flour! They are, again, very delicious and I will be making more in the future. Thank you for sharing!
So happy you enjoyed these cookies! Thank you for the comment and review 🙂
These are the best cookies I’ve ever had! Thank you for sharing this recipe!
That makes my day to hear that! Thank you Celine!
If I had more stars for you they would be infinite! My daughter has been a professional baker for 20 yrs. & when I made your cookie she said it felt like someone wrapped her in a warm blanket. The only thing I did different I added 2 eggs, a pinch of nutmeg with the cinnamon & I folded the dry ingredients including the different ingredients for types. So far I have made cranberry-pecan, raisin-pecan & plain-pecan. Next chocolate chips. O yea!
You made my day!! That is so fun to hear and glad she enjoyed the cookie! 🙂 Thank you so much for the comment Sheila!
This was the most A+MAZING Oatmeal Cookie I ever made! They were beyond soft & so moist. My family went crazy! One of my daughter is a professional baker & gave it the best review! I’m getting ready to make a triple batch for others. This time I’m making some raisin, cranberry & pecan.
Amazing cookies!
So happy you enjoyed! 🙂
fantastic recipe!!! I used oat flour in place of the rolled oats. Cut back a bit on sugar. Added a few semi sweet chocolate chips and turned out yummy!! Although my baking time was longer.
I’m so glad you enjoyed these Oatmeal Cookies! Thanks so much for your comment! 🙂