These sweet Oatmeal Scotchies have a thick and chewy center with crisp edges. You’ll love the deep caramel notes with a hint of cinnamon spice and all that butterscotch and crushed toffee!
Try some of our other favorite oatmeal cookies — these Coconut Oatmeal Cookies or these Caramel Oatmeal Cookies.
Oatmeal Scotchies
If you’ve never tried Oatmeal Scotchies, you’re going to love them! These cookies are super sweet and full of deep caramel flavors. They have a few special tricks that make them the best Oatmeal Scotchies ever!
Read through the post and recipe before starting for ingredient notes and tips to help you be successful in baking these. I hope your family loves these as much as mine does!
Oatmeal Scotchies FAQs
A Scotchie is a soft and chewy oatmeal cookie typically spiced with cinnamon and made with brown sugar, oats, and lots of butterscotch baking chips. These cookies have deep caramel and toffee notes of flavor. Scotchie is short for butterscotch.
Oatmeal Scotchies are best with old-fashioned oats. You can read more about the differences between steel-cut oats, old-fashioned (or rolled) oats, and instant (or quick) oats here.
While it may seem like old-fashioned oats and quick oats can be interchanged easily enough, they don’t work the same when baking. Because of their small size, quick oats act more like flour, absorbing more liquid which results in a drier, less flavorful cookie. This recipe relies on old-fashioned oats, and won’t work the same with any other oat type.
Unless the recipe specifically calls for quick oats, I would not use them in place of old-fashioned (rolled) oats.
A few different things to consider:
- Cookies often flatten because the dough did not chill long enough. Since there is melted butter in the batter, it needs a chance to firm up again.
- If the melted butter was too hot when you added in the sugars, the cookies will likely end up a bit flat and greasy. Hot butter melts sugars so wait for the butter to cool a bit before adding in the sugars.
- If the melted butter and sugars weren’t whisked together thoroughly this can result in flatter cookies.
- Oatmeal cookies can also go flat if the flour was under-measured.
- One other factor that comes into play is if you live in a high-altitude area.
There are 197 calories in these cookies.
Oatmeal Scotchie Ingredients
Four ingredients really make these Oatmeal Scotchies unique and unforgettable: molasses, dark brown sugar, toffee bits, and butterscotch baking chips or morsels. I’ll discuss each of these ingredients below:
- Molasses. We use just a little in these cookies, so it doesn’t take over the taste. It gives a hint of toffee flavor without making the cookies taste too much like molasses. This small amount makes the cookies soft and chewy in the middle and adds sweetness. I suggest using dark molasses (also called “robust” or “full-flavored”), like Grandma’s® Molasses. There are many types of molasses at the store, from light to blackstrap.
- Dark brown sugar.You can find dark brown sugar close to the light brown and powdered sugar in the baking section of the grocery store. It looks like light brown sugar but is darker because it has more molasses in it. This extra molasses gives dark brown sugar a stronger taste and makes it sweeter.
- Toffee bits/crushed toffee. Putting milk chocolate English toffee bits in these cookies isn’t common, but it really makes them special! I like adding the toffee because it makes the caramel flavors in the cookies even better.
- Butterscotch baking chips. Butterscotch morsels or baking chips are the classic choice for Oatmeal Scotchies. These morsels can be found in the baking aisle among other baking chips–just down the way from the brown sugar!
Recipe Tips
- Don’t forget to chill the dough! The butter has to harden again after melting, so your cookies don’t turn into pancakes! While the dough chills, the sugar and oats slowly soak up liquid, which also helps stop the cookies from spreading too much.
- Wait for the right ingredients. This cookie recipe has been tried many times to get it just right. To make the best cookies, use the exact ingredients the recipe says. I know it asks for some unusual ingredients, but it’s better to wait until you have them instead of guessing with other things. Baking can be tricky, and it’s hard to know if different ingredients will work as well as the ones in the recipe.
- Start with room temperature ingredients. Using eggs that are the same temperature as your room makes them mix into the dough better, which makes the cookies feel nicer to eat (the eggs help trap air). To warm up cold eggs fast, put them in a bowl of warm (not hot) water for about 10 minutes. Or, just take the eggs out of the fridge about 30 minutes before you start.
- Spoon and level the flour. When measuring flour, use a spoon to fill your measuring cup and then level it off. This way, you won’t use too much or too little flour. If you use too much flour, your Oatmeal Scotchies will be more like cake, and if you use too little, they’ll be too wet and spread out too much.
- Leave ample room on the baking sheet. These cookies are large and do spread out quite a bit on a cookie sheet! I only bake 6-8 cookies at a time on a standard-size cookie sheet.
- Roll large even-sized balls. If you have a kitchen scale, it makes things easier. Each ball of cookie dough should weigh exactly 40 grams. This way, all the cookies will bake evenly, and you won’t have some that are not cooked enough and others that are burnt!
- Slightly underbake. These cookies are best when they’re a little underbaked. They keep getting firmer after you take them out of the oven. When they cool down, they become super soft and chewy!
Quick Tip
We like these cookies best on days 1 and 2 of being made. They are softest and chewiest on day 1 and get more crunchy, less chewy every day after that. They do last up to a week, but they begin to lose texture and flavor. To store: Place in an airtight container and keep at room temperature. Wait until cookies are completely cooled before adding to the container. The unbaked dough for these cookies freezes wonderfully — read instruction #10 on the recipe card for more details!
More cookie recipes
- Gingersnap Cookies with the best blend of spices
- Magic Cookie Bars with a graham cracker crust
- Brown Sugar Cookies with a crisp sugar coating
- Animal Circus Cookies with cream cheese frosting
- Avalanche Cookies no baking required!
Oatmeal Scotchies
Ingredients
- 8 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
- 1/2 cup light brown sugar packed
- 1/4 cup dark brown sugar packed
- 1 large egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 tablespoon molasses Note 1
- 1-1/2 cups old-fashioned oats (NOT quick oats)
- 1/2 teaspoon EACH: baking soda, baking powder, salt
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon, optional
- 1 cup white all-purpose flour Note 2
- 3/4 cup butterscotch chips, divided
- 1/2 cup toffee bits, optional Note 3
Instructions
- MELT BUTTER AND COOL: Melt the butter in a very large, microwave-safe bowl and set aside for 5-10 minutes to return to room temperature. It's important that the butter isn't hot when you add in the sugar or it will melt the sugar and make the cookies greasy.
- ADD WET INGREDIENTS: Once butter is cooled back to room temperature, stir in the light brown and dark brown sugar. Whisk until well combined, about a good minute of whisking. Add in the egg, vanilla extract, and molasses, scraping every bit of molasses out of the measuring cup into the dough. Stir with a wooden spoon until smooth.
- ADD DRY INGREDIENTS: Add in the oats, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and optional cinnamon. Mix well. Stir in the flour and mix until just combined taking care not to overmix. Gently stir in 1/2 cup (91g) butterscotch chips and toffee bits.
- CHILL DOUGH: Cover the bowl tightly and chill for 45 minutes to 1 hour.
- PREHEAT OVEN: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line a pan with parchment paper or use a nonstick liner.
- ROLL DOUGH BALLS: Roll large balls of dough, a leveled 2 tablespoons in size (40g). You should get about 20-22 cookies from this recipe. Place 6-8 cookie balls on the prepared sheet pan to give the cookies plenty of room to spread. Place the tray back in the fridge for 5-10 minutes. (The dough gets warmed being handled.)
- BAKE: Bake for 9-14 minutes, erring on the side of underbaking, which keeps them soft and chewy (We like ours right at 10 minutes). The cookies will continue to slightly bake out of the oven, so take them out as soon as the edges start to lightly brown.
- OPTIONAL: MAKE 'EM PRETTY: Remove tray from the oven and within 1-2 minutes of pulling out the cookies, use the remaining 1/4 cup butterscotch chips to add a few more chips onto the tops of the cookies. This ensures even placement of chocolate and also makes them look pretty. Allow cookies to cool on the baking tray for 5 minutes before transferring them to a cooling rack. Repeat, baking the remaining dough balls until all the cookies are baked (see instruction #10).
- STORAGE: We like these cookies best on days 1 and 2 of being made. (They are softest and chewiest day 1 and get more crunchy, less chewy every day after that.) They last up to a week, but they begin to lose texture and flavor. To store: place in an airtight container and keep at room temperature. Wait until cookies are completely cool before adding to the container.
- FREEZING DOUGH: While freezing baked cookies works okay (there is some texture loss), I prefer to freeze the dough instead. Place the cookie dough balls on a large sheet pan and freeze until solid. Once solid, transfer the frozen cookie dough balls to an airtight container/bag separated by parchment paper (so they don't all stick together in one clump); freeze for up to 3 months. To bake: You can bake straight from the freezer; just add 1-3 minutes onto the cooking time (or thaw the dough in the fridge and bake according to directions).
Video
Recipe Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
These are absolutely amazing! The best Oatmeal Scotchies I have ever had. I made them with gluten free flour (better batter or cup 4 cup) and they turned out great! The toffee bits and molasses are total game changers for so much flavor. Your instructions and notes are super easy to follow and helpful. Thank you!!!
I am thrilled to hear this! Thanks Michelle! 🙂
sorry just saw this now will be making this soon can i use coconut oil and flax eggs instead as am a vegan i never had oatmeal scotchies before perfect for my office snacks will dm you if i make this and let you know how it goes Thanks Ramya
Hope you love them!