I love a good chewy oatmeal cookie, and today I’m going to share my many-times-tested recipe for oatmeal raisin cookies.
Easy to make, and even easier to eat, these big, thick, chewy cookies are fantastic, and I think you’ll love them.
For ease of browsing, you can find all my cookie recipes in the same place. Thanks so much for being here. Let’s jump in.
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Oatmeal Raisin Cookies, At a Glance
✔️Skill Level: Beginner
✔️Skills: Browning Butter (linked), The Creaming Method (linked),
✔️Type: Shaped Cookies
✔️Number of Ingredients: 13
✔️Prep Time: 30 minutes
✔️Cook Time: 18 minutes
✔️Yield: 29 cookies scaled at 1.75 oz
Jump Straight to the Recipe
Such beautiful and tasty oatmeal raisin cookies! Complex flavor, crispy edge and chewy interior…Found that a smooth edge when making the “pucks” made a beautiful shaped cookie. A keeper for sure. Thank you, Jenni!
Reader Jane
How to Make These Cookies
There’s no need to break out your
This dough comes together very quickly with just a bowl, a whisk, and a spoon.
If you don’t need any extra instruction or ideas, feel free to jump straight to the recipe. Otherwise, read on, and we’ll go over the ingredients, substitution ideas, and ways to vary these cookies to suit your taste.
A Note On the Texture of These Oatmeal Cookies
These cookies are thick and substantial.
Packed with thick-cut rolled oats and plump and juicy raisins, they are crisp around the edges and chewy in the centers with enough dough to hold everything together so they don’t crumble.
I think you’ll love these, guys!
Ingredients and Substitutions
- browned butter: Browning 5 oz of butter yields just a hair over 4 oz of browned butter with lots of caramelized milk solids that add a deep, toffee-like flavor to the cookie dough. You can use whole butter, but you will end up with a softer cookie. For a refresh on how to brown butter, click here.
- cinnamon: For a sweet-hot background flavor. If you do not want a prominent cinnamon flavor, decrease to 1 1/4 teaspoons, but please don’t omit entirely unless you just really hate cinnamon.
- nutmeg: Just a little–several gratings on a Microplane–adds a bit more depth and helps these cookies lean into a butterscotchy/toffee flavor
- vanilla: Rounds out the flavors and adds some woody, floral notes to the dough
- maple emulsion: This is a specialty ingredient, and it’s entirely optional. If you love maple adding just 1/2 teaspoon to the full recipe brings some lovely maple notes without additonal sugar or liquid. You may substitute a few drops of maple extract instead
- kosher salt: Salt helps to bring out the flavor in the oats and spices. My recipe calls for a lot more salt than most recipes call for. You can cut down to 1 1/2 teaspoons of Morton’s kosher salt (about 8 grams of any salt), but please don’t leave it out entirely. The salt really enhances all the flavors
- brown sugar: Brown sugar lends sweetness, depth, and moisture which contributes to the chewy texture of these cookies. My preference is for dark brown sugar, although you can certainly use light brown
- granulated sugar: Adds extra sweetness and is responsible for the lovely crispy edges of these cookies
- eggs: Two large eggs lend moisture, emulsifiers, and structure to the cookies
- all-purpose flour: Brings structure in the form of both starches and gluten. All-purpose flour will contibute enough gluten for a nice, chewy texture without binding up too much liquid, limiting the spread of the cookies in the oven
- rolled oats: Adds texture, flavor, and a chewy texture. I prefer and recommend you use Bob’s Red Mill extra thick oats for the most chewy goodness. If using a different brand, your cookies may be slightly less chewy but still delicious
- baking soda: Used in these cookies for leavening and neutralizing a bit of the acid in the brown sugar
- raisins: If all you have are sad, dry raisins, do buy new for this recipe. You can also use other dried fruits such as dried cranberries, cherries, blueberries, dates, or a mixture of your favorites. Other subs for raisins are chocolate chips, but stay away from milk chocolate, because the cookies will be too sweet. Toasted and chopped pecans, amonds, hazelnuts, or walnuts would also be a lovely addition
To Soak or Not To Soak the Raisins (or Other Dried Fruit)
I tested both ways, and what I found (using fresh raisins) was that it didn’t really make enough of a difference to bother.
But, if you want softer cookies, simmering the dried fruit for 10-15 minutes until they lighten in color a bit, draining, and patting them dry will ensure that the fruit holds as much moisture as possible so it won’t pull any moisture from the dough.
More moisture in the dough means a softer, cakier cookie. If you love soft cookies, that’s one of the rules: soak the fruit first.
See the Notes Section of the recipe card for changes you can make to ensure soft cinnamon raisin cookies.
Procedure
In a nutshell, here is how to make these cookies:
- Brown the butter and let it cool for a few minutes.
- Whisk together the oats, flour, and leavnings.
- Measure out spices, sugars, extracts, and salt.
- Whisk the sugar mixture into the somewhat-cooled browned butter.
- Whisk in the eggs.
- Stir in the dry ingredients.
- Stir in the raisins.
Pro Tip: Brown butter in a stainless steel or a light-colored pan so you can judge the color of the browning milk solids. Now is not the time to use your cast iron pans!
If you’re ready to get started, you can jump straight to the recipe.
Otherwise, I’ll go over the steps in a bit more detail below.
Clockwise from top left:
- Once the browned butter cools for about 15 minutes, whisk in the brown sugar, white sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt, and vanilla. This will cool it down enough that it won’t cook the eggs when you whisk them in. The photo at the top left shows the mixture after the eggs are incorporated.
- Whisk together the rolled oats, flour, and baking soda.
- Dump the flour into the wet mixture. Switch from a whisk to a spatula and stir everything together. I find that a folding motion is helpful to make sure all the flour is evenly moistened.
- Dump in the raisins while there’s still a bit of loose flour in the bowl. You don’t want to overwork the batter.
Once the raisins or other mixin/s are evenly incorporated–and there are a lot of them!–press plastic wrap onto the dough and refrigerate for 90 minutes.
Jenni Says: Don’t skip the 90-minute rest in the fridge. Not only will the dough be easier to handle when forming balls, but the flour and oats will have a chance to hydrate fully.
Next, scale the dough into 1.75 oz/50 gram portions. Roll each portion into a ball and place on a parchment-lined baking sheet like this:
Press each ball down into a thick patty about 1/2″ diameter before baking at 325F for 16-18 minutes.
Pressing the dough into patties allows for a more even spread since there are so many oats and mixins that can keep your cookies from spreading enough.
If you prefer a soft center to your cookies, don’t press them into patties, but leave them as balls.
They won’t be quite as large, round, or pretty, but if you want soft centers, there you go.
Chef’s Touches and Variations
Sometimes it’s small refinements that can catapult a recipe from good to great. Here are a few “tricks” I use to boost flavor:
- Adding just a touch of maple emulsion adds subtle maple notes without adding extra sweetness or too much additional liquid.
- Using browned butter adds lovely butterscotchy notes to the dough, which is particularly lovely with the earthy, chewy oats.
- Resting the dough in the fridge for 90 minutes allows the flour and oats time to hydrate while making the dough much easier to shape into rounds.
- Soaking the raisins in hot water or juice helps to plump the raisins up if they are older. Using soaked raisins will also result in cakier cookies since the liquid in the dough stays in the dough rather than some getting absorbed into the already plumped and moist fruit. This is an important point. If you want chewy cookies, do NOT soak your dried fruit.
Aside from those refinements, here are some simple ways to vary your cookies:
- Substitute semi-sweet or bittersweet chopped chocolate or chocolate chips. Do NOT use milk chocolate, especially candy coated milk chocolate like M&Ms. They will make the cookies way too sweet, and reducing the amount of sugar in the dough will adversely affect the texture of the finished cookies.
- Also consider toffee chips, cinnamon chips, or butterscotch chips for at least part of your mixins.
- Depending on mix-ins, adding some orange zest to the dough would be lovely. Especially with dried cranberries or cherries.
- For maximum flavor and texture variation, use dried fruit, toasted nuts, and chopped chocolate. My favorite combo like that is dried cherries, chopped pecans, and dark and white chips.
Oatmeal Cookies Q & A
Not strictly speaking. If you use whole butter, you will end up with a cookie that is still delicious, a bit more cakey, and with less complex flavor
Although they will be best on the first two days, they will still be delicious for up to five days if kept in airtight containers at room temperature.
Either freeze “patties” of oatmeal cookie dough and then bake from frozen or freeze them after completely cool. Microwave for a few seconds before serving. When kept in airtight freezer-safe bags or containers, the unbaked cookies will be fine for a month or even two. Baked cookies will be fine for up to three months, although they’ll be better if you eat them within a month of freezing.
More Cookie Recipes from PCO
If you are a brown butter fan, you may also like my brown butter chocolate chip cookies or my peanut butter cookie recipe.
For oatmeal fan, try either my date nut bars or my mom’s wonderful raisin bar recipe.
Questions?
If you have any questions about this post or recipe, I am happy to help.
Simply leave a comment here and I will get back to you soon. I also invite you to ask question in my Facebook group, Fearless Kitchen Fun.
If your question is more pressing, please feel free to email me. I should be back in touch ASAP, as long as I’m not asleep.
A Note About Measurements
My recipes are almost all written by weight, including liquids, unless otherwise specified.
For accuracy and consistency of results, I encourage you to buy–and use–a kitchen scale.
I promise that baking and cleanup will be so much quicker and easier.
This is the scale that I recommend for home use. I have owned and used one for years.
Don't let its small price and small size fool you. The Escali Primo is an accurate and easy-to-use food scale that I have used for years. It's easy to store, easy to use, has a tare function, and easily switches between grams and ounces/pounds for accurate measurements.
Please Take a Moment to Rate and Review
It will help me and other readers so much if you take a moment to rate and leave a review for this recipe.
You can use the stars to rate 1-5 (5 is best), and leave a review in the comments. It helps me make adjustments if any are needed, and comments help others decide whether the recipe is worth making.
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Thank you so much for taking the time!
Oatmeal Raisin Cookie Recipe
Ingredients
- 10 oz butter 2 1/2 sticks or 284 grams
- 2 ½ tsp cinnamon 6.5 grams
- pinch nutmeg about 1/8-1/4 teaspoon, I grate a little in using a Microplane
- 6 oz dark brown sugar 170 grams or 3/4 cup, well-packed
- 3.9 oz granulated sugar 110 grams or 1/2 cup
- 2 ½ tsp Morton's kosher salt if using a different type of salt, please weigh 13 grams of salt for accuracy
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- ½ tsp maple emulsion optional, but really lovely
- 2 large eggs at cool room temperature
- 8 oz all-purpose flour 227 grams or 2 scant cups
- 10 oz rolled oats 284 grams or 2 1/2 cups (I use Bob's Red Mill extra thick for maximum chew)
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 10.6 oz plump raisins 300 grams or 2 cups
Instructions
- In a small saucepan with a silver or white interior, melt the butter over medium-low heat, swirling the pan occasionally.
- When the butter is melted, turn the heat to medium-high and continue to cook until the milk-solids fall to the bottom of the pan and turn a medium brown. You can read more about how to brown butter here.
- Immediately pour the browned butter into a medium mixing bowl, lightly scraping the pan to get as much of the milk solids as you can. Allow to cool for about 10 minutes.
- While the butter is cooling, in a medium bowl, combine the flour, oats, and baking soda. Whisk well.
- In a small bowl, combine the cinnamon, nutmeg, brown sugar, granulated sugar, salt, maple emulsion (if using), and vanilla extract.
- Whisk the sugar mixture into the browned butter until smooth. Whisk in the eggs, one at a time, until completely incorporated.
- Dump in the dry ingredients and stir until mostly combined.
- Add the raisins, and stir them in until uniformly distributed and no loose flour remains.
- Press plastic wrap directly onto the surface of the dough and refrigerate for 90 minutes to give the flour and oats a time to hydrate and to make the dough easier to handle.
To Bake
- Place a rack in the center of your oven, and heat to 325F/160C.
- Line two half-sheet pans with parchment.
- Scoop 1.75 oz portions of dough, roll them into balls, and then press them into "patties," about 1/2" thick. Place cookies, 8 to a tray (3-2-3 to accommodate spreading), cover and return the remaining dough to the fridge, and bake, one tray at a time until set and golden brown around the edges and a little underdone on the tops, about 16-18 minutes. For crisp cookies, scale at 1 oz apiece and bake for the same amount of time. Or bake larger cookies until uniformly golden brown.
- When the cookies are done, allow to cool on the trays for 1-2 minutes before using a spatula to remove them to a cooling rack to cool completely.
- Repeat with the remaining dough.
- Once cool, store in air-tight containers at room temperature for up to 5 days or freeze for longer storage.
Did You Make Any Changes?
Notes
Soft Oatmeal Raisin Cookie Variation
Instead of browned butter, use 5 oz whole butter, very soft but not melted. Substitute half the granulated sugar, by weight, with an equal weight of maple syrup. Soak the raisins in boiling water or simmering apple juice or white grape juice for 15 minutes. Then drain, pat dry, and cool to room temperature before adding to the dough. The procedure in the main recipe remains the same. The combination of additional liquid in the whole butter, maple syrup, and the soaked raisins will yield a cakier cookie that may start with crisp edges as soon as they cool but will soften up as they sit. These softer cookies would be great sandwiched together with cream cheese frosting as oatmeal whoopie pies.To Make a Half Recipe, 14-15 cookies
- 5 oz butter
- 1 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/8 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
- 3 oz dark brown sugar
- 1.9 oz granulated sugar
- 6 grams salt, 1 1/4 teaspoon Morton’s kosher salt or 2 teaspoons Diamond crystal
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1/4 teaspoon maple emulsion, optional
- 1 large egg
- 4 oz all-purpose flour
- 5 oz rolled oats
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 5.3 oz / 1 cup plump raisins (don’t soak them unless they are super old and dried up)
Nutrition
And it, friends. I really hope you love this many-times-tested oatmeal raisin cookie recipe. I made it for y’all!
Enjoy the cookies, take care, and have a lovely day.
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Such beautiful and tasty oatmeal raisin cookies! Complex flavor, crispy edge and chewy interior. I didn’t have maple emulsion but used a couple of drops of maple extract. Found that a smooth edge when making the “pucks” made a beautiful shaped cookie. A keeper for sure. Thank you, Jenni!
I am thrilled you enjoyed them, Jane! Thanks very much for leaving a comment, too. Much appreciated, and it will help others!