These chewy and flavorful oatmeal cookies are perfect for breakfast or as a snack. Pack them with your favorite ingredients: chocolate chips, nuts, or dried fruits.
Happy New Year (again)! If there’s one thing I wish for you this year, it’s that you’ll be blessed with some of these amazing oatmeal cookies (or maybe these chocolate chip cookies). If you lived near me, I would be happy to give you some, because (1) I’m generous, and (2) I made like 60 cookies and I have no idea why. I guess I got way too excited about this new year.
Over the years, it never fails to surprise me just how many people prefer their chocolate chip cookies with oatmeal. If you’re one of these people, then I totally get you, and I’ve prepared these cookies just for you. They make a great base for anything you might want to add, not just chocolate chips.
These cookies are so soft that even when I mistakenly over bake them, they still turn out chewy. They bake thick and beautiful, and they are flavorful even on their own. For add-ins, I recommend chocolate chips or chunks, toasted nuts, dried fruits, or a combination of them.
If you like thick cookies, I highly recommend chilling the dough for a while. If you don’t have much patience (aka, you’re just like me), just chill the dough for 1 hour. The cookies will be less prone to spreading that way.
Use old-fashioned rolled oats for these cookies – no quick or instant oats. Old-fashioned oats have the best flavor and will produce the best texture. Quick oats make less chewy cookies, and instant oats make them dense and much less flavorful.
I use more brown sugar than granulated sugar for this recipe. This gives the cookies a slight caramel flavor and makes them super moist and chewy. If you want the cookies to have more crispiness and don’t mind them being sweeter, you can add a few more tablespoons of granulated sugar, making sure not to reduce the amount of brown sugar or else the cookies will lose their chewiness.
While cinnamon is a classic addition to oatmeal cookies, you can add your favorite spice (about 1/4 teaspoon). Ground ginger or cardamom work very well here. If you don’t want to use spices, make sure to at least use either the cinnamon or nutmeg for some flavor.
- 1½ cups (200g/7 oz.) all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg, optional
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup (2 sticks/225g) unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 1 cup (200g/7 oz.) light brown sugar (dark is fine, too)
- ½ cup (100g/3.5 oz.) granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs, at room temperature
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 3 cups (250g/8.8 oz.) old-fashioned oatmeal
- 2 cups add-ins (see note for options)
- Preheat oven to 350F/180C. Line pans with parchment paper and set aside. If you decide to chill your cookie dough, save this step for when you’re ready to bake the cookies.
- In a large bowl, sift together flour, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt. Set aside. In a standing mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat butter and sugars for 2-3 minutes, until fluffy. Beat in eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in vanilla extract. Add flour mixture and beat on low speed just until combined. Don’t over mix. Add in oatmeal and all other add-ins, and keep mixing on low just until combined. The less you mix, the softer the cookies will be.
- Optional: Cover bowl and chill dough in refrigerator for at least 1 hour (or up to 2 days). This will help your cookies stay thick and spread less while baking. If the dough is hard to handle after chilling, leave it on the counter for a few minutes to soften.
- Drop rounded balls of dough onto prepared baking sheet, the size of 2 tablespoons each, and spacing 2 inches apart. Bake for 10-12 minutes, until cookies just begin to brown at the edges and center is still soft. Cookies will appear undone and moist in the center, but will continue to bake on the warm baking sheet. Leave to cool for 10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
- Store cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 4 days, or freeze for up to 2 months. To thaw, leave on counter, still covered, or overnight in the fridge.
- For add-ins: A great combination of add-ins is chocolate chips, toasted nuts (pecans, walnuts, pistachios, hazelnuts), and dried fruit (raisins, dried cranberries, dried cherries). Pecans and raisins are great together, as are pistachios and cranberries and dried cherries and chocolate chips. If you only add one kind of add-in, use 1.5 cups instead of 2.
15 Comments
Winnie
January 6, 2015 at 2:46 pmמאדדדדדדדדדדד אוהבת עוגיות כאלה. שוב – במיוחד שיש בהן שיבולת שועל!
יכולה לזלול אותן כל היום!
לא בטוחה באיזה אזור אתם גרים\ אבל מאחלת לכולנו לעבור את הסערה הזאת בשלום ומהררררררררררר
Angie@Angie's Recipes
January 7, 2015 at 2:33 pmOatmeal cookies are my favourite. I baked some from Bouchon Bakery a while ago and they were very delicious too. I am saving this for my next batch. They look awesome!
Shiran
January 11, 2015 at 7:36 amI love everything from Bouchon Bakery, and love the book too!
Kelsey
January 11, 2015 at 11:03 pmI just made these exactly to your recipe and they are perfect! Sweet, salty, chewy and a little different than the usual oatmeal cookie. Thank you!
Shiran
January 12, 2015 at 5:18 amThank you so much Kelsey! 🙂 I’m so glad you like them!
claudia
February 8, 2015 at 6:52 pmDo i have to use eggs?
Shiran
February 9, 2015 at 5:35 amHi Claudia, yes, eggs are necessary for this recipe both for taste and texture.
claudia
February 14, 2015 at 9:52 amThank you Shiran! by the way i tried it. Girl best ever
Shiran
February 15, 2015 at 10:41 amGreat! I’m really glad you like them 🙂
Celia
March 17, 2015 at 8:14 amI love that you put the converted measures in grams! It makes it so much easier for me when I grow lazy converting all of them myself (I’ll never understand the sticks of butter thing… Is it like a common size available or something?)
My oven is warming up, I hope it won’t fail me on these delicious cookies 😀
Shiran
March 17, 2015 at 1:34 pmThat’s great to hear Celia, thank you! US butter is sold in packages that are divided into “sticks”, and one stick equals 4 ounces. Enjoy your cookies!
Bayan
February 11, 2017 at 11:06 amHi shiran
How Can I add banana to the recipe?
Shiran
February 15, 2017 at 5:17 amBanana will change the texture and flavor of the cookies, so I suggest using another recipe that uses it.
Luq
May 8, 2017 at 1:25 amHi Shiran. I have a question..I tried this recipe but the batter turned out quite sticky and runny. I chilled it for few hours before baking it, but the dough spreads wide, leaving the cookies become really thin. What could be the issue?
Thanks
Shiran
May 14, 2017 at 5:28 amIt shouldn’t be runny, and the longer you chill it, the less it spreads. Make sure that the butter is at room temperature, and not melted. If still runny, you can add more flour.