Tessa’s Recipe Rundown
Taste: Perfectly sweet with a hint of cinnamon and loads of chocolate chips. Chocolate chips > raisins.
Texture: Thick, chewy, soft, crisp at the edges, and a little chunky.
Ease: Super easy.
Pros: No raisins!! 😉
Cons: None.
Would I make this again? I’ve made these countless times!
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These Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies are the most delicious oatmeal cookies you’ll ever try. And bonus: they’re super quick and easy to make!
I love these oatmeal cookies for many reasons, but the best part is definitely the chocolate chips instead of raisins. Is there anything worse than biting into what you think is an oatmeal chocolate chip cookie, only to discover they’re RAISINS instead!? It’s such a horrendous surprise.
You think your bite is going to be full of bursts of slightly gooey chocolate gems, but instead, you’re left with the taste and texture of wrinkly, shriveled, sticky, bland bites of fruit. Can you tell I’m not a huge fan of raisins?
I’m not a huge fan of dried fruit to begin with, but raisins are certainly my least favorite. Why choose raisins when you can have chocolate chips?!
Sprinkle of Science
How to Make Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
These Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies are ready in under 30 minutes, no dough chill time required! They’re thick, chewy, and SO soft, with delicious semi-sweet chocolate chips throughout. No raisins here. 😉
How to Make Soft, Chewy Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Measure Your Flour Correctly: I highly recommend using a digital kitchen scale to measure your flour. When measuring with cups, it’s so easy to accidentally compact the flour, resulting in dry, hard cookies that don’t spread. If you don’t have a scale, use the spoon and level method instead.
- Don’t Reduce the Sugar: Sugar does SO much more than just sweeten your Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies. Learn all about sugar’s role in baking here. More on the sugars used in this recipe below.
- Eggs: This recipe uses two large eggs plus one egg yolk. This lends moisture and richness, helping to make these cookies both softer and chewier. I have not found anything that can easily replace the magic of a real egg, but feel free to experiment with egg substitutes if needed.
What Kind of Oats are Best for Oatmeal Cookies?
You can use old-fashioned or quick-cooking oats in this recipe. Quick-cooking oats are smaller in size and will provide a more uniform texture, whereas old-fashioned oats will provide a more craggy, rough texture. Oats tend to zap moisture in any recipe, which is why simply adding them into your favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe typically won’t work.
The Chocolate Chips – How to Mix it Up and Customize These Oatmeal Cookies
I love these cookies with semi-sweet chocolate chips, but feel free to change up the mix-ins as you like! Replace the semi-sweet chocolate chips with the same weight of:
- Milk chocolate chips (will make the cookies slightly sweeter)
- Butterscotch chips (will make the cookies slightly sweeter)
- Dark chocolate chips (will make the cookies slightly less sweet)
- Toasted and roughly chopped walnuts or pecans (I generally prefer to lightly toast nuts and cool nuts when baking – it adds a much nicer depth of flavor!)
- Raisins (if you must!)
- Any other mix-ins you like! Just keep to the same overall weight of mix-ins in the recipe as written for best results.
Cinnamon in Oatmeal Cookies?
A dash of cinnamon gives these oatmeal chocolate chip cookies the BEST flavor. Feel free to simply omit it if preferred.
The Sugar in Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
- This recipe calls for both granulated sugar and dark brown sugar.
- I love to use dark brown sugar in this recipe because the rich butterscotch flavor it lends complements the nutty oats beautifully.
- Dark brown sugar is made with more molasses, bringing more moisture to this dough and helping keep the baked cookies softer for longer.
- You can use light brown sugar if you need to, but definitely consider giving dark brown a try!
- If you make these oatmeal cookies without brown sugar, they won’t be as soft, chewy, or flavorful.
- P.S. If you have granulated white sugar and molasses, you can make brown sugar yourself!
Why Are My Cookies Flat?
Butter temperature is KEY!
Be sure to use unsalted butter that’s at a cool room temperature – around 67°F is perfect (or a couple degrees cooler if your kitchen is warm). Butter that’s too warm may cause the Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies to over-spread and flatten while baking. In general, the cooler the dough is when it enters the oven, the thicker your cookies will be. If you want thicker cookies, try popping the balls of dough in the freezer while your oven preheats.
Just take a look at the impact butter temperature can have on how much a cookie spreads:
How to Make the Most Beautiful Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Use a large spring-loaded cookie scoop to portion out perfectly even and round balls of Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookie dough.
- Roll the balls of dough between your palms to smooth out, then flatten slightly so they spread evenly.
- Dot the balls of shaped dough with a few chocolate chips on top.
- Bake on a heavy-duty unlined aluminum half-sheet pan lined with parchment paper for golden brown cookies. Learn more about the importance of baking pans here!
Why Use a Cookie Scoop?
- One of the KEYS to beautiful, uniform, evenly-shaped, and evenly-baked cookies.
- My cookie scoop is one of my most frequently used kitchen gadgets.
- Saves you *so much time* in forming the balls of dough.
- Ensures each ball is evenly sized so the cookies bake evenly, so you don’t have any small overbaked cookies or large underbaked cookies.
- Learn more about Cookie Scoops and how to use them here!
Should Oatmeal Cookie Dough be Chilled Before Baking?
While Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies do not require refrigeration, chilling the dough will yield a thicker, chewier cookie. Keep the dough well-covered in the refrigerator for up to 2 days. Do not refrigerate over 48 hours as oats are a drying ingredient and really soak up moisture. Remove from the fridge and allow the dough to soften slightly before scooping and baking. Learn more about chilling cookie dough here.
How to Make Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies Cookies Ahead of Time
Freeze pre-portioned balls of Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookie dough in an airtight container for up to 6 weeks. Thaw overnight in the fridge before baking. Learn more about freezing and baking frozen cookie dough here.
More Cookie Recipes You’ll Love:
- Bakery Style Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Giant Reese’s Pieces Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Soft and Chewy Sugar Cookies
- Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Snickerdoodle Recipe
- S’mores Cookies
Previous Baking Challenge
This recipe was one of our recent picks for the Handle the Heat Baking Challenge. Every month, we select a recipe, you make it, snap a photo, and enter to win PRIZES!
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Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 3/4 cups (222 grams) all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 1/2 sticks (170 grams) unsalted butter, at cool room temperature
- 1 1/4 cups (250 grams) packed dark brown sugar
- 3/4 cup (150 grams) granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs plus one egg yolk, at cool room temperature
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 3 cups (297 grams) old-fashioned rolled oats
- 1 1/2 cups (255 grams) semisweet chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line large baking sheets with parchment paper.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, use an electric mixer to beat the butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar on medium-high speed until smooth and well combined, about 1 to 2 minutes. Beat in the eggs and vanilla. On low speed, gradually add the flour mixture and beat until just combined. Stir in the oats and chocolate chips.
- Using a large spring-loaded scoop, drop 3-tablespoon sized balls of dough onto prepared baking sheets. Flatten slightly with the bottom of a measuring cup.
- Bake for about 14 to 15 minutes, or until the edges are slightly browned, rotating baking sheets halfway through. If you prefer a slightly softer cookie, bake about 12-13 minutes, or until the edges are slightly brown but the middle still looks underdone (will firm up while cooling). Let the cookies cool on baking sheets for 5 minutes before removing to wire racks to cool completely.
This post was originally published in 2013 and recently updated with recipe improvements, recipe tips, new photos, and a new video. Photography by Ashley McLaughlin.
I was wondering, to make oatmeal raisin cookies, is the recipe the same just add raisins instead, and is the amount of raisins more than amount of chocolate chips?
Hi Darnell! You’re welcome to use raisins or a mix of both 🙂 Just keep the weight measurement of the mix-ins the same (1 1/2 cups total). Let us know what you think of this recipe when you give it a try!