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.
can i use oat flour to replace the rolled oats ?
No, I wouldn’t use any more oat flour than what is indicated on the recipe
This is my most favorite recipe I’ve ever found on the internet. It’s so versatile I can add pretty much anything I want to it. Hemp seeds, flaxseed, any kind of nuts any kind of berries. And of course cinnamon and allspice. I am going to be saving this recipe and using it every single time. Thank you!
What a compliment! Thanks so much Jennifer! 🙂
Hello.. i made this recipe for the third time now this time doubling the measurements…to my dismay . it did not flattened as compared to the first two times i made this recipe..
But upon mixing i really noticed that the dough was too dry making the oats fall apart during scooping…i followed every measurement , but what have gone wrong? Thanks
I’m not sure, but for whatever reason, sometimes doubling a recipe just doesn’t come out the same! I’m sorry the doubled version didn’t work for you Florence!
Chewy indeed! The cinnamon also complimented the vanilla bean paste. Delicious!
Thanks Hannah!
Just made these and they were excellent, nice and chewy but not too sweet. I didn’t have cinnamon or cornflour but they still turned out great. I rolled the dough into balls before refrigerating and sprinkled with sea salt before cooking.
I’m so glad you enjoyed them and were able to work with what you had! Thanks for your comment! 🙂
I made these yesterday and they were excellent. I didn’t have any cinnamon or cornflour in hand as we are social distancing but they still turned out great. I rolled the dough balls in advance to save time and it seemed to work well!
My food processor is broken. Ic possible, how do I substitute out the oat flour part?
Do you have a blender? A blender will get you oat flour as well
Awesome oatmeal cookies! I did add nutmeg and cloves to give them more of a Christmasy flavor.
So happy to hear you enjoyed these!
I am not sure where these went wrong, but they were not chewy. After refrigeration they stayed in the ball shape and never flattened when baking. They were crunchy and not much flavor. I did use a little less white sugar. I am kind of suspecting it had something to do with the ‘oatmeal flour’. I guess it is a trial and error with these random recipe blogs.
If they never flattened, they likely had too much flour in them. And if they were crunchy, probably over baked. And if you reduce the sugar, that will definitely make them less flavorful and change the end result in other ways.
The taste of these cookies is fabulous. However, I’m having a hard time with them not flattening and they are waaaay under done with the time given. What am I doing wrong? I’m following directions completely and twice they’ve ended up exactly the same. And both times I’ve gotten 12 cookies at 1.7 oz each. I’ve got to be doing something wrong…right?
It could just be differences in oven, altitude, humidity, etc. or you may like your cookies more well done than I prefer 🙂 Doesn’t mean you’re doing anything wrong if you love the taste!