Dorothy Kern
I love Chewy Oatmeal Cookies!! I feel like oatmeal is the forgotten cookie, but they’re SO good. I always forget how much I love them until I make them again.
If you want to learn how to make the best oatmeal cookie recipe you’re in the right place. I’m going to teach you how to make them with four different variations AND I’m going to tell you how to make them for different diets, including gluten free or sugar free!
Oatmeal Cookies are the underdog of cookies, but don’t count them out! I think they’re actually my favorite cookie, I just forget until I make them and then I’m like, oh yeah, these are my favorite!
However, I do have some requirements for my oatmeal cookies. They must be:
- Soft (no crunchy cookies allowed)
- Chewy
- Flavorful from the cinnamon, even if I make them plain
The perfect oatmeal cookie is a blank canvas, just like a chocolate chip cookie. It’s the perfect vehicle for adding your favorite mix-ins and flavors to.
Consider this post your ULTIMATE OATMEAL COOKIE GUIDE. I’m going to teach you everything you need to know to make the BEST cookie ever!
Table of Contents
Let’s learn how to make the best oatmeal cookies from scratch!
Ingredients in Soft and Chewy Oatmeal Cookies
Like all cookies, oatmeal cookies have some basic ingredients. Let’s talk about the important ones individually:
Butter: use real butter, okay? I use unsalted butter in this recipe, and you need to start with it softened. Learn how to soften butter quickly here. Butter substitutes and low-fat butter won’t work in these cookies. The only exception to that rule is if you use Earth’s Balance Vegan Butter Sticks (those are a 1:1 sub for butter).
Brown Sugar: instead of mixing sugars in my cookies, these are a brown sugar oatmeal cookie. I love the flavor that brown sugar gives to recipes, plus it adds to the oatmeal flavor of the cookie and keeps them soft for days.
Flour: as written, the recipe uses all-purpose flour. See below for substitutions.
Quick Cooking Oats: I find that old fashioned oats are okay in these cookies but I prefer quick cooking oats because they make chewy oatmeal cookies without being too much.
You can make your own quick cooking oats from old fashioned oats by pulsing them a few times in a blender or food processor (don’t pulse too much or they’ll become oat flour).
Tips for mixing cookie dough
Cookie dough is probably one of the easiest things you can make, but these tips will make it a little bit easier.
- Be sure to cream your butter and sugar before adding any other ingredients.
- Whisk together your dry ingredients before adding to the wet ingredients.
- You can make these cookies with a hand or stand mixer.
- Be sure to use baking soda in the cookies (not baking powder).
- Don’t forget to chill the cookie dough. This ensures a puffy soft and chewy cookie!
How To Make Oatmeal Cookies From Scratch
- Step 1 – Cream – Cream the butter and sugars
- Step 2 – Add Wet Ingredients – add the egg and vanilla and mix
- Step 3 – Add Dry Ingredients – add the baking soda, cinnamon, salt then mix, then add the flour and oats
- Step 4 – Bake – Bake the cookies at 350°F. You know they’re done because they are lightly golden around the edges and they’ve just lost their glossy sheen.
Mix In Options for Oatmeal Cookies
I’m showing you four different versions of cookies today, but the options for making different flavors is endless!
- Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies are a huge hit. Simply adding chocolate chips to your batter make one of my favorite chocolate chip cookies!!
- Oatmeal Raisin Cookies are a classic. I don’t like raisins, so these aren’t my first choice, but a lot of people love them!
- M&M Oatmeal Cookies – I love adding M&Ms to cookies. I’ve done it to peanut butter, chocolate chip, and sugar cookies – any cookie can benefit from M&Ms!
Other options for add-ins (or try stuffing the cookies with candy):
- Peanut Butter Cups
- Oreo Cookies
- Rolos
- Nuts
- Pumpkin Pie Spice instead of the cinnamon
- Anything you love!
FAQs About Chewy Oatmeal Cookies
A variety of factors can make a cookie either chewy or crunchy. These are crunchy on the outside and chewy on the inside thanks to the the brown sugar and oats. To avoid crunchy cookies, make sure to use real butter and don’t over bake them.
These cookies get their chewy texture from all the oats. Oats in cookies make them chewy by default!
They are probably over baked. The brown sugar and butter in these cookies keep them nice and soft. Be sure to take them out as soon as they lose their glossy sheen for the perfectly baked cookie.
Tips for Baking THE Best Soft & Chewy Oatmeal Cookies
I prefer baking cookies on silicone baking mats (Silpats) but you can also use parchment paper.
Make these cookies any size (photos shown are 2 tablespoon size) or shape: you can make them small bite sized using a 1 tablespoon scoop, or make them into a cookie cake or bar cookie.
How do you know when your cookies are done? They’ll be golden around the edges and have just lost that glossy sheen on top.
Dietary Substitutions
I have tested these oatmeal cookies with a few different ingredients in case you’re on a special diet or can’t find certain ingredients.
Make these cookies Gluten-Free by using Bob’s Red Mill 1 to 1 Gluten Free Baking Flour (light blue bag). (Substitute it equally for the AP Flour.) Be sure that you use Quaker Gluten Free Oats too – regular oats are naturally gluten-free but sneaky bits of gluten can sneak into the batch, so Quaker has a completely GF line.
Make these with whole wheat flour by substituting ½ cup whole wheat flour with ½ cup all purpose flour. (Using all whole wheat flour requires other changes to the dough.)
You can substitute bread flour equally for the all purpose if you don’t have AP flour.
You can make these sugar free by using 1 ¼ cups of Swerve Brown Sugar. It’s the only completely 0 carb brown sugar on the market and really does taste good in recipes!!
Make them dairy-free by using Earths Balance Vegan Butter Sticks in place of butter (and omit any dairy add-ins, obviously).
Other Oatmeal Cookie Recipes
- Oatmeal Scotchies
- Rolo Stuffed Oatmeal Cookies
- Oatmeal Cookie Pie
- Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Peanut Butter Bars
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BEST Oatmeal Cookies Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 cup unsalted butter softened
- 1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 3 1/4 cups quick cooking oats
- 1 1/2 cups mix-ins (see below) optional
Instructions
- Note: this dough needs to be chilled. Plan ahead!
- In a medium bowl, whisk cinnamon, salt, baking soda, and flour. Set aside.
- Cream butter and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. (You can also use a large bowl and a hand mixer.) Cream until smooth, about 1-2 minutes. Mix in eggs and vanilla, beat until smooth.
- Gradually mix in dry ingredients until smooth, being careful not to over mix. Add oats and mix, then stir in desired mix-ins.
- Scoop 2 tablespoon sized balls of dough and place on a cookie sheet lined with parchment or wax paper. Cover with plastic wrap and chill for at least 1 hour.
- When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350°F. Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper or a silpat baking mat and place the cookie dough balls 2” apart.
- Bake for 10-12 minutes, until the bottom is slightly golden. Cool on cookie sheets for 10 minutes, then remove to a rack to cool completely.
- Store cookies in an airtight container for up to 4 days. They can also be frozen in an airtight container or ziploc bag for up to 2 months.
Recipe Notes
Mix in options:
Use 1 ½ cups of M&Ms, chocolate chips, chopped nuts, raisins, or other candy.Baking options:
- 1 tablespoon cookies (8-10 minutes)
- Two (9-inch) cookie cakes (18-25 minutes)
- 9×13-inch pan (20-28 minutes)
Dietary Substitutions:
- Substitute equal amount Earths Balance Vegan Butter Sticks for the butter called for.
- Substitute equal amounts of bread flour or GF 1:1 AP flour
- Substitute half whole wheat flour and use AP flour for the remaining amount
- Substitute 1 ¼ cups Swerve Sweetener Brown Sugar for the brown sugar to make them sugar-free.
Nutrition Information
Nutritional information not guaranteed to be accurate
Learn how to make the best Chewy Oatmeal Cookies in this comprehensive ULTIMATE OATMEAL COOKIE GUIDE!
All text and images © DOROTHY KERN for Crazy for Crust. Please do not use my images without prior permission. If you want to republish this recipe, please re-write the recipe in your own words, or link back to this post for the recipe. Disclaimer: Nutrition information shown is not guaranteed to be accurate.
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Published on: March 29, 2020
These cookies are seriously AMAZING!! I’ve never been a big fan of Oatmeal cookies, but this recipe definitely changed my mind! I’ve also tried your Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip cookie recipe & let me just tell you that it is SOOO TASTY as well! I am very convinced you have the best cookie recipes ever LOL!
Just made these, but used a combo of Pyure and sugar! Thank you so much. Cookies are “God’s love made edible”
Just made these and they were really good! The cinnamon and oat and salt meld amazingly well. I’ve been looking for a recipe that wasn’t obnoxiously sweet, and this one was just right! I will definitely make them again 🙂
There’s something that I don’t understand though, I shaped the cookies with the cookie scoop, chilled them for about 45 minutes and popped them in the oven and they didn’t spread at all! I had to squash the second batch and they also didn’t spread at all. The pictures here are very flat. I used whole oats and subbed half of the flour for whole wheat, used slightly less sugar than the recipe called for and used 85% cocoa chocolate, which I chopped with a knife. Also I skipped the vanilla extract because I never bother with it. I realize that’s quite a few changes, but I would like to understand why they retained their shape. I also had to bake about 5 minutes more than the recipe called for (and honestly a few more minutes wouldn’t have hurt them).
Anyway thank you, this one’s a keeper!
These turned out perfectly! I haven’t had much luck in the cookie baking department. I can’t seem to get the timing right so they turn out either over baked or under baked. But these were perfect and delicious! Definitely going to make again.