Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies are the BEST soft and chewy cookie recipe, made with quick cooking oats, vanilla and raisins, ready in less than 20 minutes!

If you’re looking for delicious cookie recipes you’ll also love Chocolate Chip Cookies, Lemon Cookies and Brown Sugar Cookies.

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies
OATMEAL RAISIN COOKIES RECIPE

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies are soft and chewy and full of buttery rich flavors! This 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’re always popular. Mix-ins are an easy way to take a base recipe and make Christmas baking much easier.

Assemble a double or triple batch and add different mix-ins after you separate the batter into different bowls and you’ve significantly cut down cookie prep times!

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.

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.

Chewy Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

CAN YOU FREEZE OATMEAL RAISIN COOKIES?

Oatmeal Raisin 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 to bake, 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.

SUBSTITUTE FOR BROWN SUGAR?

Brown sugar helps give the cookies a deep molasses flavor and golden brown color. If you find yourself without any, you can replace it cup for cup with white granulated sugar.

MORE COOKIE RECIPES TO TRY

TIPS FOR CLASSIC OATMEAL RAISIN COOKIES

  • Add 1/2 cup of 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.

Classic Oatmeal Raisin Cookies on tray

Pin this recipe now to remember it later

Pin Recipe
Oatmeal Raisin Cookies
5 from 12 votes
Print

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies are the BEST soft and chewy cookie recipe, made with quick cooking oats, vanilla and raisins, ready in less than 20 minutes!
Course Dessert
Cuisine American
Keyword Oatmeal Raisin Cookies
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 10 minutes
Total Time 25 minutes
Servings 18 servings
Calories 302 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
  • 1 cup raisins

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 and raisins.
  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).

Nutrition Facts
Oatmeal Raisin Cookies
Amount Per Serving
Calories 302 Calories from Fat 99
% Daily Value*
Fat 11g17%
Saturated Fat 6g38%
Cholesterol 47mg16%
Sodium 205mg9%
Potassium 156mg4%
Carbohydrates 46g15%
Fiber 2g8%
Sugar 20g22%
Protein 4g8%
Vitamin A 345IU7%
Vitamin C 0.4mg0%
Calcium 29mg3%
Iron 1.7mg9%
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

About the Author: Sabrina Snyder

Sabrina is a professionally trained Private Chef of over 10 years with ServSafe Manager certification in food safety. She creates all the recipes here on Dinner, then Dessert, fueled in no small part by her love for bacon.

Dinner, then Dessert, Inc. owns the copyright on all images and text and does not allow for its original recipes and pictures to be reproduced anywhere other than at this site unless authorization is given. If you enjoyed the recipe and would like to publish it on your own site, please re-write it in your own words, and link back to my site and recipe page. Read my disclosure and copyright policy. This post may contain affiliate links.

Categories

Leave a comment & rating

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Comments

  1. OMG!!!I I found our forever Oatmeal Raisin Cookies!!! My husband kept eating them and then barely had any room for soup!!! I will freeze the rest of the dough for sure! Moist and chewy, just like we like them!

    1. Yay!! Thanks for letting me know how much you all (especially your husband, haha!) enjoyed them.

  2. Made these this afternoon and they are wonderful! Easy recipe with ingredients that were readily available in my pantry and refrigerator. Nice and soft and chewy and full of flavor! Thank you for sharing!

  3. I followed the recipe to a T, but my cookies are
    1) a little sour
    2)they didn’t rise at all
    And they still look raw

  4. The flavor was great but my cookies were too thick and look nothing like what was pictured. Any thoughts on what I might have done wrong??

    1. It sounds like it could have been too much flour if they were too thick. I’d be happy to troubleshoot with you at contact @ dinnerthendessert .com 🙂

  5. I was a professional baker for many years & this is the best oatmeal cookie formula by far! I did substitute half the flour with cake flour & half the cinnamon with nutmeg. As always, I soaked the raisins in warm water (then drained them) for 10 minutes prior to adding to the mix. Thanks for sharing!

  6. Hi! Just wondering whether your meant degrees Fahrenheit or celsius? These cookies look delicious, I can’t wait to make them I may even add choc chips!

    1. The oven temp is Fahrenheit. And chocolate chips would be wonderful in these cookies! Let me know how you like them 🙂

  7. I just found this recipe and can’t wait to try. My house is divided between raisins and choc chips, so I’m going to make a double batch. Would I truly double everything? Or pull back on certain ingredients?

  8. I made these and they are wonderful! Crisp on outside and chewy on inside. And how cool is it that you provide metric measurements too (I used metric so I could be as accurate as possible) and a timer! thanks for the recipe 🙂

  9. Just made these cookies. They are fantastic! Soft, chewy and absolutely delicious. Such an easy, quick and foolproof recipe! Look no further….this is the perfect oatmeal raisin cookie recipe!

  10. When I couldn’t re-find this recipe, I almost decided never to make oatmeal cookies again. They came out so picture perfect and delicious, I don’t think that’s ever happened for me on the first try. I frequently have trouble with my cookies spreading, so I did refrigerate my dough for 20-30 min prior to forming the cookies.

    1. So glad you found it and that you loved them so much! Thanks for taking the time to come back and let me know.

  11. Hi, this looks great. My daughter is allergic to dairy and egg. Can I substitute the butter with oil and the egg with an egg replacer. Have you tried this?

    1. I haven’t tested it so I can’t really say. If you decide to try, I’d love to know what worked out for you. Thanks!

  12. Even though oatmeal raisin cookies are such a class, I haven’t yet found my perfect recipe. Looking forward to trying yours!

  13. I love oatmeal raisin cookies and this recipe is one of my favorites!!! Make them all the time and my family loves them!