Delicious and flavorful Oatmeal Pecan Cookies — crisp on the edges and chewy in the center!
Oatmeal Pecan Cookies are a classic that everyone loves! If you aren’t sure about nuts in your cookies, this is the perfect recipe to start with! Or click if you’d like to stick with Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies (no nuts) or these Coconut Oatmeal Cookies.
Oatmeal Pecan Cookies
My favorite cookie ever is an oatmeal chocolate chip (does that make me boring?!). I have so many different oatmeal cookie variations on this site — some with caramel, some with coconut, some plain, and some with lots of chocolate. So, it was definitely necessary to add some nuts to an oatmeal cookie and share that recipe as well!
These cookies have crispy and crunchy sugary edges, a soft slightly underbaked center, plenty of melted chocolate throughout, and overall, plenty of chewiness. We’re totally obsessed with them!
How to make oat flour
To add an extra oat-y flavor to these cookies, we use oat flour. No need to run out and buy a special flour for these cookies, though — if you have oats, you can have oat flour in minutes.
- Add old-fashioned oats to a food processor or small blender jar.
- Pulse the oats until they are ground into a powder-like consistency that resembles flour.
- Stir the oats around to be sure that all the oats have been finely ground and there aren’t any whole oats left (this will affect the texture and liquid absorption of these oatmeal pecan cookies).
Quick Tip
Make sure to fill the ¼-cup measurement of oat flour to the very top. Then level off the top by scraping the backside of a table knife across the top.
Using the right ingredients
It’s important to use the right ingredients in this recipe to yield the best results.
- Margarine doesn’t substitute for real unsalted butter, a large egg is essential, and don’t use any other kinds of oats besides old-fashioned oats!
- The oats are particularly important because old-fashioned oats are what give these cookies such a great texture. When you use quick oats, they act like flour, making the cookies much drier and cake-like.
- Good-quality chocolate chips, or even chopping a high-quality chocolate bar, really heighten the flavor and give these cookies something special! I prefer Ghirardelli® or Guittard® chocolate chips for these cookies. For us, there’s nothing better than milk chocolate chips in an oatmeal cookie, but you can use semi-sweet or dark chocolate if you prefer.
Oatmeal Pecan Cookie tips
- It’s important to have room-temperature butter for this recipe. Allow the butter to come to room temperature on its own for the best results. Do not melt the butter or these cookies will spread way too much!
- Thoroughly cream the butter and brown sugar. This helps with the cookie’s structure.
- When measuring dry ingredients, spoon and level the measurements or weigh them for accurate measurements. If you scoop a measuring cup into a bag of flour you will pack in too much flour which will create cake-like cookies that don’t spread.
- Chill the cookies. Chilling matters because the fats need to re-solidify and the oats need time to absorb the liquid in this recipe. If you bake the dough immediately, the cookies will spread and become thin, hard, and crispy. The longer the fat stays solid, the less the cookies will spread.
- And then chill again. The dough is chilled again after forming the dough balls because the heat from the hands warms up that dough. We want the dough balls as cold as possible when going into the oven.
- Watch the bake time! Oatmeal Pecan Cookies go from soft, chewy, and delicious to overall crispy and blah in the blink of an eye. I pull them out of the oven even when they look a little gooey in the center because they firm up more when they set up. That makes them super soft and chewy. As soon as the edges are browned, these cookies are most likely finished baking!
More Amazing Cookie Recipes
- The best Snickerdoodle Cookies
- Toffee Cookies with crushed toffee pieces
- Oreo Truffle Cookies no baking required!
- Soft and chewy Peanut Butter Cookies
- Plain Oatmeal Cookies (no nuts, raisins, or chocolate)
Oatmeal Pecan Cookies
Delicious and flavorful Oatmeal Pecan Cookies -- crisp on the edges and chewy in the center!
Ingredients
- ½ cup (8 tablespoons/ 113g) unsalted butter at room temperature, not melted
- ½ cup (110g) dark brown sugar packed
- ½ cup (100g) white sugar
- 1 large egg
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- ½ cup + 3 tablespoons (86g) white flour (when you measure, make sure to spoon and level)
- ½ tablespoon cornstarch
- ¼ cup (25g) oat flour (See Note 1)
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon fine sea salt
- ⅛ teaspoon nutmeg
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 ½ cup (147g) old-fashioned oats (not quick oats)
- 1 cup (180g) milk chocolate chips plus more for adding to the tops of the cookies
- ⅓ cup (40g) chopped pecans
Instructions
- BUTTER PREP: Make sure the butter is at room temperature and not melted. Line a large sheet pan with parchment paper or a silicone liner (without one, the bottoms tend to burn).
- WET INGREDIENTS: Cream together the butter, brown and white sugar until light and creamy, at least 3 minutes. Beat in the egg and vanilla.
- DRY INGREDIENTS: In another bowl, add the flour and cornstarch. To make oat flour, blend regular oats in a blender or food processor until they resemble flour. Measure to get ¼ cup and add that in. Add in the baking soda, fine sea salt, nutmeg, cinnamon, and old-fashioned oats.
- COMBINE WET AND DRY: Add the dry to the wet and mix until just combined. Stir in the chocolate chips. Coarsely chop the pecans and add them in.
- CHILL DOUGH: Stir all the ingredients together, cover tightly and chill for at least an hour. These cookies don't bake well without being chilled.
- PREHEAT OVEN: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Scoop out balls of dough (if you have a food scale, make cookie balls about 1.8 ounces in size or about 2½ tablespoons in size). Roll into even-sized balls.
- CHILL AGAIN: Place balls of dough (no more than 8 cookies at a time; these cookies spread a lot) on the cookie sheet. Return the tray of cookies to the fridge for 10 minutes.
- BAKE: Bake for 10-15 minutes or until lightly browned at the edges (even if the center looks a little underdone -- cookies continue to bake after being pulled out of the oven). These cookies set up and become extremely delicious and chewy if they're slightly underbaked; they firm up more as they cool. (Err on the side of slightly underbaking for soft, chewy, and tender cookies!)
- MAKE 'EM PRETTY: Press some extra chocolate chips onto the tops of the cookies if desired. If desired, add a sprinkle of sea salt to the cookies. Cookies are best enjoyed within 2-3 days.
Video
Recipe Notes
Note 1: Oat flour: Making oat flour takes just a minute to do! Here's all you need to do
- Add some old-fashioned oats to a food processor or small blender jar.
- Pulse the oats until they are ground into a powder-like consistency that resembles flour.
- Stir the oats around to be sure that all the oats have been finely ground and there aren’t any whole oats left--this will affect the texture and liquid absorption of these oatmeal pecan cookies.
- Measure: make sure to fill the ¼-cup measurement of oat flour to the very top. Then level off the top by scraping the backside of a table knife across the top.
Nutrition
Calories: 289kcal | Carbohydrates: 40g | Protein: 4g | Fat: 13g | Saturated Fat: 6g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 2g | Monounsaturated Fat: 3g | Trans Fat: 0.2g | Cholesterol: 22mg | Sodium: 93mg | Potassium: 148mg | Fiber: 3g | Sugar: 19g | Vitamin A: 164IU | Vitamin C: 0.05mg | Calcium: 32mg | Iron: 1mg
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
In “Ingredients,” you list “1/2 teaspoon salt.” In “Instruction“ (#3), you the salt referenced is “fine seal salt.”
Why the difference in referring to this ingredient?
That’s the salt I use, feel free to use whatever salt you have on hand
What if the salt isn’t fine?
I mean it’s ok but it better have more than a bag of chips
The recipe calls for milk chocolate chips…would I change the sugar ratio if I wanted to use dark chocolate?
I wouldn’t change anything; dark chocolate will be great in these!
Hi! The fam says they are good, but um… they came out so thin and flat. I used a small ice cream scoop to make the balls. I read the entire post including your tips. I cant figure out why their so flat. Thoughts?
Did you chill the dough long enough? Do you live at a high altitude?
I love oatmeal, pecans and chocolate. You put them all together for me. Thank you!
Yay!! I’m sooo glad you love the combination! Thanks for your comment! 🙂
If I don’t want to add pecans should I add more chocolate chips or just leave it without?
You can just leave them out! 🙂
I don’t want to add any chocolate chips. Is there anything I should change to it or add more pecans?
I’d add in some more pecans! Here’s a plain oatmeal cookie recipe if you’d rather have nothing added 🙂
These cookies are amazing! They came out of the oven picture perfect and are delicious. Thank you!
SO happy to hear that! Thank you so much for the comment Cindy 🙂
These were good, but I like my cookies a bit fluffier. I should’ve done more regular flour and less oatmeal. Tasty, but I won’t make them again.
Thanks for your feedback Margaret! 🙂
Chelsea, have you ever had the problem with these cookies not really spreading? Ive made them two years straight for Christmas cookie exchange, and I cant get mine to spread out hardly at all. Im not high altitude (OHIO), please help!
Hey Heather! I haven’t had that problem; but I believe a little less flour would quickly remedy it 🙂 (Either that or less chilling time! Are you chilling for longer than an hour by chance?) Try with 3 tablespoons less flour and/or chilling for only 30 minutes and I’m betting you’ll get cookies that spread. (Also when you measure your flour, be sure to spoon the flour in and level it off to avoid packing in too much flour) Enjoy!
I had this same issue. Thanks for the tip!
I had the same problem. I followed the directions exactly. I’m not at high altitude and the cookies did not spread. ????
Did you spoon and level the flour? Did you chill the dough for longer than an hour?
I made these for the grocery store cashier. I was only going to try one to see how they tasted with nutmeg in them, since I usually only add the cinnamon. I’m having a very hard time stopping at one. I need to do something {anything } outside the kitchen. These are very very good. Thank you. If he gets any, I’m sure he will agree, but at this point, that’s a big if!!!
Would I be able to make the dough, form the cookie balls, then freeze them for a later date? For example if i wanted to make just 5 cookies out of the 20 which the recipe yeilds,
Yes! I do this all the time! Sometimes I almost like the way the frozen ones bake more!