Tessa's Recipe Rundown
Taste: Incredibly sweet, rich, and buttery, with a cozy element, courtesy of the cinnamon!
Texture: Soft and dense. Chewy in the center and crispy around the edges.
Ease: Almost effortless!
Why You’ll Love This Recipe: It’s a slightly different take on classic chocolate chip cookies, making it just unique enough not to mess with a good thing. It’s also quick and easy, with a total prep time of only 30 minutes.
This post may contain affiliate links. Read our disclosure policy.
This classic, quick oatmeal chocolate chip cookies recipe combines hearty rolled oats, cozy brown sugar, and warm hints of cinnamon. Think oatmeal raisin cookies, but better!
After years of testing cookie recipes, I wanted a version that combined that nostalgic oatmeal chew with the rich flavor of a classic chocolate chip cookie. These bake up soft in the middle, crisp at the edges, and perfectly cozy! This is the kind of cookie that disappears faster than you expect — every time.
If you’re looking for a classic, no-oats version, try my soft chocolate chip cookies! They’re chewy, gooey, and one of the most popular recipes on the site.
Reader Love
These cookies are a perfect addition to a cookie box or all on their own. A true classic, you can’t go wrong with this recipe at any time of the year.
–
Ingredient Notes
Each ingredient for this recipe plays an important role in creating a fun twist on classic chocolate chip cookies. The key ingredients include:
- Oats: Old-fashioned or quick oats work for this recipe, but I recommend old-fashioned oats. They create a heartier and chewier cookie texture and hold their shape better. Oats generally steal moisture (in any recipe), but old-fashioned oats are a little less absorbent than quick oats.
- Chocolate chips: I use semi-sweet chocolate chips, but you can substitute them for the same amount of milk chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, or bittersweet chocolate chips. These swaps will vary the cookie’s sweetness, so keep that in mind. You can also swap them out for chopped nuts — like walnuts or pecans — or raisins at a 1:1 ratio.
- Cinnamon: I love adding a pinch of cinnamon to complement the other flavors, but you can leave it out if you prefer.
- Sugars: For this recipe, you’ll need granulated sugar and dark brown sugar. The molasses in the dark brown sugar adds a delicious caramel element and helps keep the dough moist.
- Eggs: The eggs and egg yolk add richness and additional moisture. I haven’t found any easy substitutes, but feel free to experiment if needed.
- Butter: Make sure you’re using room-temperature unsalted butter. Around 67°F is ideal (or even a few degrees cooler). Too warm butter can cause the cookies to overspread and flatten while baking.
Reader Love
I just got done making these cookies and they turned out amazing. Thank you so much for sharing the recipe. Since I started following your advice to weigh rather than measure, my baking has gone up several notches.
–
Sprinkle of Science
How to Make Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
These cookies come together quickly, but a few small details make all the difference between good and perfectly chewy results. Here’s how to make them step by step:
- Preheat the oven and pans. Preheat the oven to 350°F and line baking sheets with parchment paper.
- Combine the dry ingredients. Whisk together all-purpose flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon. Mix well to evenly distribute the dry ingredients before mixing with the wet ingredients.
- Cream the butter and sugars. Beat the butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar on medium-high until the mixture looks smooth and well combined — about a minute or two.
- Add eggs and vanilla. Mix until the dough looks cohesive and glossy.
- Mix everything together. At low speed, gradually add the flour mixture and beat until it is just combined. Stir in the oats and semisweet chocolate chips. You’ll have a thick, chunky dough.
- Portion and bake. Portion the dough with a large spring-loaded scoop (about 3 tablespoons). Flatten slightly with the bottom of a measuring cup, and bake 14-15 minutes, rotating the pans halfway through. The edges should be lightly golden.
- Cool. Let the cookies rest on the baking sheets for 5 minutes before transferring to cooling racks.
The Perfect Cookie Baking Tips
These are so simple to pull together, and with a few small technique tweaks, your cookies will look just as good as they taste. Here are some things to keep in mind:
- Use a digital kitchen scale to measure the flour. It’s easy to accidentally compact the flour with measuring cups. Compacted flour means 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 more in a recipe than create sweetness — it also affects the moisture, chewiness, and spread. If you decrease the sugar, the cookies will be less sweet, harder, drier, crumblier, and spread far less. I experimented with reducing sugar and found that it resulted in one fewer cookie dough ball.
- Be sure to use unsalted butter at a cool room temperature. Too warm butter can cause the cookies to overspread and flatten while baking.
- For thicker cookies, put the dough balls in the freezer while the oven preheats. The cooler the dough is when placed in the oven, the thicker and chewier the cookies will turn out. You can also refrigerate the dough balls for up to 2 days before baking — just keep them well-covered and don’t leave them any longer than that!
For pretty cookies:
- Use a large spring-loaded cookie scoop to create perfectly round and even dough balls.
- Roll the dough balls between your palms to smooth out, then flatten slightly so they spread evenly.
- Dot the already shaped dough balls with a few more chocolate chips.
- Bake on a heavy-duty, unlined aluminum half-sheet pan lined with parchment paper for golden brown cookies.
Check out my giant chocolate chip cookies for even more cookie science and bakery-style tips!
More Cookie Recipes You’ll Love:
- Biscoff Browned Butter Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Bakery Style Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Peanut Butter Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Browned Butter Toffee Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Bourbon Rye Oatmeal Chocolate Chunk Cookies
FAQs
You can use light brown sugar instead at a 1:1 ratio. Light brown sugar has less molasses so the taste will be milder, and the cookies will be more golden than deep brown. You can also try making dark brown sugar at home!
Rolled oats (also called old-fashioned oats) are best here because they provide a hearty, chewy texture. On the other hand, quick oats are more processed and will not create a mushy dough.
Email This Recipe
Enter your email, and we’ll send it to your inbox.
Ingredients
- 1 ¾ cups (222 grams) all-purpose flour, measured correctly
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt (fine sea salt)
- ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 ½ sticks (170 grams) unsalted butter, at cool room temperature
- 1 ¼ cups (250 grams) packed dark brown sugar
- ¾ 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 ½ cups (255 grams) semisweet chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F and 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 a stand 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, and then, 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 cookie scoop, drop 3-tablespoon-sized balls of dough onto prepared cookie sheets and flatten slightly with the bottom of a measuring cup.
- Bake for 14 to 15 minutes, or until the edges are slightly browned, rotating cookie sheets halfway through. If you prefer a slightly softer cookie, bake for about 12-13 minutes, or until the edges are slightly brown but the middle still looks underdone (it will firm up while cooling).
- Let the cookies cool on baking sheets for 5 minutes before removing to wire racks to cool completely.
Notes
This post was originally published in 2013 and has been updated with recipe improvements, recipe tips, new photos, and a new video. Photography by Ashley McLaughlin.
Hi Tessa. Do you have a recipe for whole wheatchocolatechip oatmeal cookies?
Thank you your delicious cookie recipes.
I didnt have any chocolate chips so I used butterscotch chips and these cookies were just perfect and delicious! Im making them with chocolate chips next. Thank you Tessa for all your recipes. I need your cookbook.
My husband has been wanting Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies for some time. Instead of going to my usual recipe books I did a google search, finding your recipe.
To get that perfect chewy center, definitely need to be mindful of taking them out at the right time, and knowing the heat of your oven, as they all seem to vary. I was good to take out between 11-12 minutes.
My husband raved about how good they were ! We thank you for putting together such a yummy cookie recipe for so many to enjoy.
Thanks so much for your 5-star review, Cindy! Your cookies look absolutely delicious 🙂
Hi … like all of your recipes, these cookies are delicious. Only question … I don’t want to add 400 grams of sugar. Can I back off on either the dark brown or granulated? If so, do I need to bump up elsewhere (like more butter??). Thanks!
Help! My cookies did not turn out right at all! They burnt, huge, and flat. I did not have time to put the dough in the fridge for 24 hours, so I put the rolled balls in the freezer as you suggested while preheating the oven. I cooked them for 15 minutes and they are dark brown and sooo flat (about 5″ wide). I was making these to send to my son in college, but I can’t give them to him anymore. I tried this recipe instead of my old stand by because your other recipes have such rave reviews. What did I do wrong? 😳
Oh no! How frustrating. Typically when cookies come out too flat, it’s because the butter and/or the dough got too warm at some point before baking. However, based on your photo, I have to say it appears something more dramatic happened along the way. Is it possible an ingredient was forgotten, or mis-measured?
I made these cookies. I prepped the dough and let chill as a whole in the fridge for 24 hrs.
I took out of the fridge and made it to balls. Then baked for 15 mins at 350. They were flatter than expected.
I didn’t add any chocolate chips.
They were a little flat. I did have the butter at 67′.
Should I have baked at a different size or different amount of time since I chilled the dough and didn’t have chocolate chips?
Is there anything I should have done
Hi Katie, sometimes eliminating a mix-in (the chocolate chips in this case) will reduce the height of a cookie. However, since you chilled the dough I’m surprised they still baked up a little flat! If you live in a humid climate or at altitude, you may need to add a few tablespoons of additional flour. Another thing to check is your oven temperature with an oven thermometer. If your oven runs cold, it will increase the spread of your cookies. Also, be sure that your leaveners are fresh, especially the baking powder!
I made these today and I divided the dough in three parts
One plain oatmeal, one raisen and one chocolate chip.
This pleased everyone in the family.
Great recipe, lots of cookies.
Just a general ingredient question: I’ve noticed sometimes the weight and volume measurements in the recipe is a bit different from the weight and volume on the package of the ingredient. The oats package says 3 cups weighs 240g vs. 297 in the recipe. Which do you recommend? I think splitting the difference worked out but I’m hesitant to mess with a tested formula
This is the recipe that led me to this website and really kickstarted my interest in baking. I’ve made these a number of times and they’re reliably excellent! Today, I made them again, but half of the cookies have both butterscotch chips and chocolate chips instead of just chocolate, and half of the cookies are normal. The butterscotch is a total GAME CHANGER – just incredible.
Me and my family really love this!! Just wanna ask what is the shelf life of this?
Hi Jana! So glad to hear that you family enjoys these cookies! They keep fresh for up to 3 days. Store inside an airtight container with a tortilla to keep them softer longer. If you need to prep them further in advance, check out Tessa’s freezing instructions just above the recipe 🙂 Happy baking!
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!