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.
About to bake some! I noticed this in instructions butter prep #1 -“Line a large sheet pan with parchment paper or a Silpat liner (without one, the bottoms tend to burn).”
Anything else I can use to line the pan? Foil? Spray my pan?
Then #7 mentions to put them on cookie sheet, not paper or liner???
Silpat/parchment will keep the ends evenly browning and avoid any burning. I wouldn’t recommend foil, but spraying the pan is probably the next best option, (just know the bottoms will brown more without a liner). #7, I just mean putting them on the pan that has been lined; didn’t want to be redundant mentioning lining it again 🙂
My 4 year old daughter and i just made these and they are amazing!!!! We are not big on anything really sweet but my dad loves it sweet and rich! Somehow this cookie is perfect for all of us!! The flavor is amazing! I didn’t have nutmeg and can only imagine this would make them even more amazing! Honestly if you like chocolate and oatmeal you will love these!! Follow direction’s for baking exactly as written and add the extra chocolate chips at the end!
So thrilled these were a hit! Thanks for the comment Laura 🙂
Follow up: I added the nutmeg but I make double batches each time (yes because we all LOVE them that much!!) So I only add about 1/2 a tsp and I sift the nuts so I can add the “nut dust” to the oat flour, use 2 TBS cinnamon and I use vanilla paste. Some changes (even following the recipe these are the best cookies ever fyi): I add 1/8 tsp of cadamom, a large pinch of cream of tartar, and chopped crystalized ginger. I also use large dark chocolate chips. I feel the added spices just add a little touch of warmth to these already amazing cookies! Since I first tried them I have made them at least twice a week and have had several request for them from friends and family. I keep waiting to get burned out but so far I can honestly say, I’m addicted!
Awe you made my day!! And thanks so much for sharing your modifications, I can’t wait to try them 🙂 Crystalized ginger? YUM!
so if I want to make them JUMBO would I just bake longer? About 15 minutes or what do you suggest?
Thanks
I haven’t tried making these jumbo so I can’t say for sure; I’m concerned they won’t spread well being super huge though
These are SOOOOOOO awesome! I’m gluten free, so I substituted oat and rice flour for all the flour, and they turned out awesome! Thank you!!!!
I am so happy you enjoyed this Evie! Thanks so much for your comment! 🙂
This may be a silly question, but are there other names for white flour?? Every time I go looking, I cannot find it and it always mentions AP again
All purpose is white flour; same thing!
thank you!!!!!!!!!! amazing. i added pumpkin pie spice and left out chocolate. Awesome
So happy to hear you loved this! Pumpkin pie spice sounds like an amazing addition! Thanks for your comment! 🙂
I added some pieces of chopped kraft caramels to these and they turned out delicious! I put aside half the batter and mixed in raisins and walnuts. They were just as good, and tasted like a completely different cookie! Thank you so much for sharing!
Yum! I love those substitutions and need to give them a try! Thanks for the tip and for your comment! 🙂
These were THE BEST OATMEAL COOKIES I HAVE EVER EATEN!!! I am at high altitude so they did come out flat but seriously who cares when they taste this good!!!?! I only had raisins, no pecans or chocolate but omg incredible. Thank you!!
Yay!! So thrilled to hear that! Thanks Christy 🙂
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?
Grammatical correction:
In Instruction (3), the salt referenced is “fine sea salt.”