Soft and Chewy Oatmeal Cookies
If you are looking for a satisfyingly delicious simple classic oatmeal cookies - you came to the right spot! Perfectly soft, chewy with crisp edges. Very simple to make, lightly spiced and great for any occasion - snacking, a sweet treat or an edible gift. They come together quickly with only the very basic ingredients that make for a great cookie! Never under estimate a simple classic - soft chewy loaded with oats, butter, sugar and spice! We love them plain but they are great with any of your favorite add ins like raisins (for classic oatmeal raisin cookies) , nuts or chocolate. This is one of our favorite classic cookies and a keeper!
Oatmeal Cookie Recipe Ingredients
- FLOUR: All purpose flour or a good quality gluten free 1-1 all purpose flour can be used in this recipe
- OATS: Use old-fashioned oats/old fashioned rolled oats for these cookies - I don’t use quick oats in these cookies - old fashion oats have way better texture
- BUTTER: Unsalted butter is what you need for this recipe and room temperature but not warm or overly soft.
- SUGAR: Both granulated sugar and brown sugar is used in this recipe for best flavor and texture
- EGGS: 2 large eggs - and room temperature
- BAKING SODA: Helps the cookies rise.
- VANILLA & SALT: I use pure vanilla extract. Both provide flavor
- SPICES: Ground cinnamon adds just a hint of spice but feel free to adjust amount to taste and I also like to add a little ground nutmeg, if you would like more warming spice feel free to add more or less of each.
- MOLASSES: Molasses creates a moist consistency in baked goods. It’s an optional add in but makes a nice and chewy cookie.
- ALTERNATE ADD INS: 1 cup mix-ins (chocolate/white chocolate chips, toffee bits, raisins, shredded coconut, cranberries, chopped pecans, chopped walnuts, other chopped nuts of choice for extra crunchy texture, butterscotch chips)
How to Make Classic Oatmeal Cookies
They are quick and easy to make.
- WHISK the dry ingredients together except for the old fashioned rolled oats
- CREAM the butter with the sugars until fluffy. Careful not to soften butter fully or to warm it. Semi-firm butter is best and will help cookies spread less.
- ADD the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and mix until just combined
- MIX/FOLD in the oats and other add ins if using like chocolate chips or raisins
- SCOOP out the dough with a cookie scoop. Using the cookie scoop (1.5 tablespoons) is the easiest way to make these cookies uniform in size and easier to handle as the dough can get sticky
- ROLL the dough from the scoop into balls and place on a lined baking sheet.
- BAKE the cookies until the edges are set and golden brown. The centre will still look unset and that is fine - they will continue to bake even after coming out of the oven while they sit on the hot baking sheet. Make sure to bake them with the oven rack placed in the middle of the oven.
- Allow them to COOL in the baking pan 5-10 minutes and then transfer them directly to cooling rack to cool completely.
Do I Need To Chill The Cookie Dough?
NO, but if you want you cookies to spread less creating thicker chewier cookies you can chill the dough. Refrigerate the cookie dough while you reheat the oven or up to 1 hour and in-between baking batches. Then scoop and bake as directed in recipe. I usually chill dough between batches just because I have a smaller oven that can only bake one sheetpan at a time and I don’t want the dough to get warm.
Oatmeal Cookies Make Ahead, Storage & Freezing
- MAKE AHEAD: You can make the dough and chill it in the refrigerator for up to 4 days. Allow to come to room temperature then bake as normal.
- STORAGE: Baked and cooled cookies can be stored in and airtight conainer for up to 1 week.
- FREEZING DOUGH: Place dough into a large ziploc bag and flatten. Freeze up to 3 months. Let dough defrost fully (overnight in the fridge is ideal), and then continue with baking instructions.
- FREEZING DOUGH BALLS: Scoop and roll cookie dough into balls and place on lined baking sheet - place in the freezer on baking sheet a flash freeze for 1-3 hours until frozen solid. Then remove from baking sheet and place in a freezer safe bag and place back in the freezer and store for up to 3 months. Let cookies defrost to soften when ready to bake – then continue with baking directions in recipe below or bake from frozen baking them for an extra few minutes.
- FREEZING BAKED COOKIES: Allow cookies to cool completely then store in a freezer-safe zip-lock storage bag labelled. They can either be stored all together as is or individually wrapped or separated with waxed paper or parchment. When you want to eat one, take it out and let it sit at room temperature or warm it in the oven or microwave for a few minutes.
Oatmeal Cookie Baking Tips
Cookies can be a bit finicky sometimes. You have all your ingredients and you have read through all the directions carefully and then you bake them and they are not quite right and you just don’t know what went wrong. Here are a few things to help trouble shoot when baking a fresh batch. Each recipe can have a slight variation and that is why it’s important to try and stick as closely to the directions in the recipe. There are a few things that can effect the baking time and things to keep in mind.
- Measuring Carefully: Measure out all your ingredients carefully for best results - that goes for all baking. I always use standard Anchor Hocking Glass Measuring Cups - the ones most people have. I don’t like the scoop kinds because I have found they allow for too much variance. Too much sugar gives you flat cookies. Too much Flour creates dry cookies, too much sugar can cause cookies to spread etc…
- Size Matters: The size you make the cookies will affect the baking time. Making them larger than the recipe calls for will require longer baking time and vice versa.
- Room Temperature Ingredients: This is important for the ingredients to combine well. For the butter it’s important that it is room temperature - not warmer overly softened as this will affect the way the cookies bake up. If you are pushing your finger into it you should not be able to sink right down to the bottom of the stick - just make a nice indent. If it’s runny or too soft your cookies will spread.
- Oven rack placement: It’s important to bake them in the middle of the oven for consistent baking results. Most cookie recipes will let you know specifically where to place the rack - it will affect baking time and could cause cookies to burn if rack is low and baking time isn’t adjusted.
- Baking sheet choice: What you bake them on makes a difference too. Ideally choose a baking pan that is heavy-gauge, dull and light (in colour) aluminum. It doesn’t have to be fancy but the ones to avoid are dark nonstick ones and the very thin ones. The dark ones absorb extra heat – which causes cookies to burn or over-brown. The thin cookie sheets warp easily which means they’ll heat unevenly affecting the baking time on your cookies. Also never place cookie dough balls on warm baking sheet - cookies will spread.
More Classic Cookie Recipes You Will Love
Recipe
Yields: 20-24 cookies (medium)
Servings: 10-12
Prep Time: 15 mins
Bake Time: 8-10 mins
Total Time: 35-40 mins
Ingredients
- 1½ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- ¼ ground nutmeg
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup unsalted butter, room temperature (1 stick)
- ¾ cup brown sugar
- ¼ cup granulated sugar
- 2 eggs, room temperature
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon molasses
- 2 cups old-fashioned oats
Directions
- In a medium-sized mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt. Set aside.
- In a large bowl using an electric mixer or bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, cream together the butter, brown sugar, and sugar on medium-high speed until smooth and combined (about 1-2 minutes).
- Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each one. Then add the vanilla extract. Be sure to scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl.
- Gradually add the flour mixture and mix on low speed just until combined.
- Then gently mix in the oats. Remove the bowl from the stand and use a spatula to fold together any remaining loose ingredients. Do not over mix.
- Place bowl uncovered in the fridge while you preheat oven (optional but helps make cookies extra chewy)
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line two baking sheets with silicone baking mats or parchment paper.
- Remove bowl from fridge once oven is preheated. Use a cookie scoop (I use my 1.5 tbsp) to scoop out the dough and roll it into a ball. Place the cookie dough balls onto the prepared baking sheet, about 2-inches apart. (Place the cookie dough in the fridge between batches.)
- Bake for 8-10 minutes or until the edges are lightly browned and the tops look slightly under baked.
- Let the cookies rest on the pan for 5-10 minutes as they’ll finish baking and start to set (they may look underdone but they’re not but they will be soft on the inside and delicate). Then transfer the cookies carefully to cooling wire rack/ baking rack to cool completely.
- Serve with a little pinch of flaky sea salt if you wish
Recipe Notes
- Make them into cookie sandwiches with cream cheese frosting: 1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened, 3½ cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted, 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract. In a medium bowl with an electric mixer, combine cream cheese and confectioners’ sugar. Mix on low speed until the sugar is incorporated, increase speed to medium-high and mix for about one minute. Add in vanilla and continue mixing on low speed until vanilla in fully incorporated.To assemble the cookies, pipe or spread the filling on the bottom of one cookie. Top with another cookie and press together gently to create a sandwich cookie. Repeat with remaining cookies.
- Optional - feel free to roll the cookie dough balls into a small owl of rolled oats before they go in the oven for a little extra texture
