Oatmeal Cookies

Oatmeal Cookies are the BEST soft and chewy cookie recipe, made with quick cooking oats, brown sugar, cinnamon, and vanilla extract, ready in under 20 minutes!

We can’t get enough of sweet and chewy oatmeal cookies including Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies, Oatmeal Scotchies, Oatmeal Raisin Cookies, and Strawberry White Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies!

OATMEAL COOKIES

Oatmeal Cookies are soft and chewy with a brown sugar, vanilla, and cinnamon flavors. This oatmeal cookie recipe is about as easy and old fashioned as it gets, and it’s definitely one of my personal favorite cookie recipes. You can add any seasonal spices you’d like to these cookies, like nutmeg, pumpkin pie spice, or allspice. I’ve also made these with dried cranberries and butterscotch chips before, and they were a big hit with my family!

As far as desserts go, these definitely disappear the fastest. I also use an ice cream scoop to help make each cookie the same size. One of the best tips I’ve learned to make tasty cookies is to mix your dry ingredients together before mixing everything else in. This makes sure everything gets mixed evenly, and you’ll have much better results for it.

Oats are an ingredients I love using in recipes including Ultimate Apple Crisp, one of the most popular dessert recipes on the site.

WHICH OATMEAL IS BEST FOR COOKIES?

You have a few options when choosing oats for oatmeal cookies. A lot of recipes will call for old fashioned rolled oats, and they do add a lot of chewy texture to the cookie.

Personally, I like to use quick cooking oats for two reasons. First, quick oats tend to make the cookie softer. Second, it’s what I always have in my house. Instant oatmeal also cooks faster (even in cookie form), and in my opinion tastes the same as the rolled oats.

Honestly, no matter which oat you choose, the cookies are going to taste incredible, it’s just a texture preference.

WHAT KIND OF NUTS CAN YOU USE IN OATMEAL COOKIES?

For this oatmeal cookie recipe you can add chopped pecans, walnuts, or almonds. Either one of these would taste good and add some crunch to the cookie.

CAN YOU FREEZE OATMEAL COOKIES?

Oatmeal cookies can be frozen in both finished cookie or dough form. For fully cooked cookies, make sure they’re at room temperature before wrapping them tightly and freezing. When you’re ready, let them come to room temperature on the counter, or warm them in the oven at 300 degrees F for about 10 minutes before serving.

If you freeze the dough, you can either defrost it in the refrigerator and scoop it onto your cookie sheet when it’s soft enough, or freeze it already scooped out into individual cookies.

To do this, scoop your cookies onto the baking sheet and place the baking sheet in the freezer for 30-45 minutes, or until the dough is just starting to freeze. Then place the cookies in an airtight container with pieces of parchment paper in-between to keep them from sticking together.

Bake your cookies straight from frozen, adding 3-4 minutes to the normal cook time.

HOW TO MAKE COOKIES CHEWY:

• Using a combo of brown sugar and white sugar like in my chocolate chip cookie recipe makes the best cookies.
• Under bake by 1-2 minutes if you find your cookies are coming out more crisp than you’d like.
• If you like your cookies crispy bake them for 12-13 minutes.
• If you mix the flour too much in the recipe the cookies can be too dry.
• If you scoop your flour instead of spooning it into your measure it can be too dry.
  • Spoon your flour into your measuring cup and level it off with a knife.
• Refrigerate your cookie dough (for at least 45 minutes) to keep the cookies thicker if you find they are baking too thin.
• Use a good quality baking sheet/cookie sheet and line with parchment paper/silicone mat. If your baking sheet warps when it bakes it is not a high quality baking sheet and should be replaced.

HOW TO MAKE THESE OATMEAL COOKIES GLUTEN-FREE:

A good substitute for flour in oatmeal cookies is instant oats. Be sure to add them to your food processor and process until its turned into a flour. Do not use rolled oats to make the flour, it will be too tough, instant oats can be pulverized much easier.

WHY ARE MY COOKIES FLAT?

Warm butter/Room temperature butter is usually the reason behind flat cookies. You need the steam from the cold butter to give the cookies that extra bit of lift to help give the extra height to these cookies. Be sure you don’t skip the refrigerating process in this recipe.

I find instant oats can sometimes disintegrate into my batter throughout the cooking process and it also doesn’t really result in a good chewy cookie. Stick with the rolled oats, you won’t be disappointed.

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HOW TO MAKE OATMEAL COOKIES WITHOUT BROWN SUGAR?

Brown sugar helps give the cookies a deep molasses flavor and golden brown color. If you find yourself without brown sugar, you can replace it cup for cup with white granulated sugar. Brown sugar also helps the cookies have their chewier texture, so watch your cooking time closely and be careful not to over bake to help keep more moisture in the cookie.

MORE COOKIE RECIPES TO TRY

• Sprinkles Birthday Cake Cookies
• Crinkly Brownie Cookies
• Flourless Peanut Butter Cookies
• Apple Crisp Cookies
• Flourless Chocolate Chewy Cookies
• Black and White Cookies

TIPS FOR MAKING SIMPLE OATMEAL COOKIES

• Add 1/2 cup of raisins to make oatmeal raisin cookies, or semisweet chocolate chips for oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. You can also use dark chocolate chips for a less sweet flavor, and butterscotch or white chocolate chips for even more sweetness.
• If your cookies are spreading too much, try adding a few tablespoons of all purpose flour to your dough, and refrigerating your dough for 20-30 minutes.
• Make your oatmeal cookies more crunchy by leaving them in the oven slightly longer than usual. This will dry out the cookie a little bit more and give it that nice crunchy texture.
• Line your baking sheet with parchment paper to keep the cookies from sticking, and to make cleaning up easier!
• If you make this with gluten free flour and certified gluten free oats, use an extra teaspoon of vanilla extract.
• Use dark brown sugar for a richer molasses flavor in the oatmeal cookies.

5 from 13 votes

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Oatmeal Cookies

Oatmeal Cookies are the BEST soft and chewy cookie recipe, made with quick cooking oats, brown sugar, cinnamon, and vanilla extract, ready in under 20 minutes!

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Keyword oatmeal cookies

Prep Time 10 minutes

Cook Time 10 minutes

Total Time 20 minutes

Servings 24 servings

Calories 208 kcal

Author Sabrina Snyder

Ingredients

• 1 cup unsalted butter softened
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 3 cups quick cooking oats

US Customary - Metric

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees and in a stand mixer cream together the butter, sugar and brown sugar until lightened and fluffy before adding in the eggs and vanilla.
2. Mix the flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon together in a small bowl and add it into the stand mixer in small batches until it is all just combined, then add in the oats.

3. Roll the dough in two tablespoon sized balls and bake for 8-10 minutes (the middles will look slightly undone, but the edges will have a hint of brown).

Recipe Notes

Note: click on times in the instructions to start a kitchen timer while cooking.

Nutrition Facts

Oatmeal Cookies

Amount Per Serving

Calories 208 Calories from Fat 72

% Daily Value*

Fat 8g12%

Saturated Fat 5g31%

Cholesterol 33mg11%

Sodium 151mg7%

Potassium 66mg2%

Carbohydrates 30g10%

Fiber 1g4%

Sugar 15g17%

Protein 3g6%

Vitamin A 255IU5%

Calcium 20mg2%

Iron 1.1mg6%

* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.