The Best Oatmeal Cookies

The Best Oatmeal Cookies are ultra chewy, extra oaty and undeniably delicious! This is a sweet cookie with a classic flavor. Enjoy these plain or add in butterscotch chips, chocolate chips, nuts, raisins or other dried fruit.

It's kind of funny how oatmeal cookies are automatically paired with raisins, when not everyone loves raisins. I do enjoy the occasional raisin, but I always felt the best part of an oatmeal raisin cookie is always the cookie!

You're going to love these. 

Why a Thinner Oatmeal Cookie Is Better

Oatmeal cookies come in all shapes and forms, but I've taken a liking to a thinner oatmeal cookie than a thicker one. To me, this is the reason these are the best oatmeal cookies. 

Here's why. 

The biggest benefit of making oatmeal cookies thinner is, the bottom surface area is larger and able to brown a little extra while baking. 

Normally, I opt for a touch of golden brown, done-ness for all of my cookies. But for this cookie, baking them a bit more totally enhances that brown sugar, caramelized flavor.

These oatmeal cookies also have a nice balance between chewiness, softness & crispness. The amount of brown sugar and white granulated sugar in this recipe is equal, giving this cookie a lot of chew but with crisp edges.

The best Oatmeal Cookie Recipe

This cookie may be lacking raisins or chocolate, but the flavor is far from plain. As I mentioned, the brown sugar lends a caramelized taste and I also added a bit of cinnamon for some background notes. 

Additionally, I leave all of the oats whole in this recipes, vs. giving them a grind in the food processor as I do with my Oatmeal Fig Cookies & Oatmeal Coconut Chocolate Chip Cookies.

Better yet, I threw in some old fashioned oats for added texture.

Let's Make Oatmeal Cookies

I have a couple of other oatmeal cookie recipes, Oatmeal Fig, Maple Oatmeal & Oatmeal Coconut with Chocolate Chips, but this one is definitely a bit more chewier which I LOVE. 

Here's what you need: 

• butter
• granulated sugar
• brown sugar
• eggs
• vanilla extract
• all purpose flour
• baking soda
• salt
• cinnamon
• oats (a combo of quick & old fashioned is best, but you can use either)

Recommended Tools

• Hand mixer (or a stand mixer)
• A sturdy spatula
• A 1.5 tablespoon cookie scoop

I want to take a moment to highlight the spatula set that I used to make this recipe, which was sent to me from my friends at Zulay Kitchen.

As someone who is passionate about sharing baking wisdom, it doesn't stop at just the recipe. I enjoy introducing you to products that I truly love and know you'll love too!

Finding good utensils isn't easy. I cannot tell you how many I've gone through over the years because they break or the silicone melts! I've tried keeping nice spatulas strictly for baking but they always somehow get used for cooking by accident, which melts the silicone.

On the other hand, the handles on a lot of the silicone utensils are too flexible, making it hard to stir thick dough or batters like this one. 

This fantastic 5 piece utensil set from Zulay Kitchen is one of my favorite things in my kitchen! 

The all natural, Acacia wood handle makes these utensils incredibly sturdy and adds a real classy touch to your kitchen decor. 

The silicone heads are heat resistant up to 464 degrees (YES! No more melted spatulas here!) The silicone part also has the perfect balance of bend and rigidness, unlike some silicone utensils that bend way too much and make it hard to stir.

I was able to throw out all my old, tired, mismatched utensils and replace them with this beautiful set! Gray and wood tones never go out of style and now all my pieces match.

Plus, they fit perfectly in my favorite owl utensil holder. 

 

Do you have to chill the dough?

For this recipe, I say you can go either way. 

I made it both ways and found that the chilled dough produced a slightly thicker cookie, so it was still on the thinner side but with a little more bite. 

If you're short on time and can't chill the dough, don't sweat it! Whether you chill your dough or skip it, these cookies will be chewy and amazing.

Should I use quick oats or old fashioned oats (rolled oats)? 

You can use both!

I personally think these cookies are best using a mix of the two types of oats. I mostly use quick oats and then I add in ½c of old fashioned / rolled oats for a little bit of extra texture.

When using just old fashioned oats, you'll have more of that whole grain-kinda chew and they will be thicker and heartier. If you want to get a little less of that 'whole oat' texture, you can experiment with putting a portion of the oats in a food processor and grinding them up a bit. 

With 100% quick cooking oats, the cookies will have less texture but will still be totally delicious.

 

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