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.
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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.
Struggling with Flat or Dry Cookies?
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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.
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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.
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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
Can I replace dark brown sugar with light brown sugar?
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!
Should I use rolled oats, quick oats, or old-fashioned oats?
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.
Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
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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.
Recipe Notes
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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! You use much less flour in this recipe than in some of the other chocolate chip cookie recipes. Is that because you are using 3 cups of oats? Thx!!!
Can I use oil or margerine instead of butter
These were delicious! Going to make them again, but was thinking of using almond flour. Can I swap the flour for almond flour? 1:1 ratio?
WINNER, WINNER chicken dinner! Wow Tessa what a nice recipe! So glad I made these! They are perfect!
This were a HUGE hit. I now always have a batch of the cookie dough frozen so I can bake a couple (or four) when our craving for an oaty treat hits!
These are perfect! I keep some unbaked cookie dough in my freezer for anytime the craving strikes.
Question: I only have salted butter and regular brown sugar. Is that ok?
ys I used both Ruth, and I just made them…do you have an molasses? I used light brown sugar and compensated with a tsp of molasses…
Yes, I do have molasses! Thanks for the tip, Maria!
Yes, I do have molasses! Thanks for the tip, Maria!
I just made these cookies and it tastes so good! Just the right amount of sugar. It’s not too sweet. I still got one batch in the oven and the house smells delicious! Simple and easy to follow recipe. My family loves it Another great recipe from you, Tessa. Thank you!
Love all your cookie recipes! This was my favorite one so far.
I want to make them smaller for my children. Do I need to change anything besides cooking time? Wasn’t sure if the ratio of ingredients would change if I made them half the size?
Thanks!
Great Recipe! I often add chopped walnuts to cut down on the sweetness (not that there’s anything wrong with chocolate). Friends have said that these are the best oatmeal cookies.
These are my wife’s favourite style of cookie, and this is the best recipe! I super dig the cinnamon too. Delicious! Thank you for the recipe! (And thank you for the extra 3lbs I can now carry!)
I like this recipe a lot but my children just LOVE it. These are their absolute favourite cookies. I appreciate the simplicity of creating them, though the cookies always suggest to be from another world (where chocolate rules, of course) as soon as they leave the oven. They smell good, taste fantastic, the mix between crunch and gooeyness balanced. Perfect!
Love this! Thanks for sharing 🙂