I don't often call recipes perfect, but these oatmeal cookies are soft, chewy, and warmly spiced—everything a good oatmeal raisin cookie should be.
These oatmeal cookies are truly the best! From Sarah Copeland’s cookbook Every Day Is Saturday, they’re soft and chewy, warmly spiced, and flecked with raisins and nuts. Perfect, if you ask me.
A few weeks ago, I got an intense craving for good oatmeal raisin cookies and hastily threw together ingredients that I had on hand. I ended up with oat-ball-type cookies that were…just ok, and my craving continued. So when I flipped through Every Day Is Saturday this week, Sarah’s oatmeal cookie recipe grabbed my attention.
She writes, “these [oatmeal cookies are] little nuggets of joy you can’t stop eating—that just-right kind of cookie.” I completely agree. These oatmeal cookies were exactly what I was craving. The only problem was that they disappeared too quickly!
Oatmeal Cookie Recipe Ingredients
This recipe has simple ingredients. You likely have them in your pantry already! Here’s what you’ll need:
- All-purpose flour and whole rolled oats form the base of the dough. Old fashioned oats give these cookies the best chewy texture. I don’t recommend using quick oats instead!
- Baking powder and baking soda make them nice and puffy.
- Brown sugar adds the perfect caramelized sweetness.
- Sea salt offsets the sweet sugar and raisins.
- Cinnamon and vanilla extract give them that delicious warm, spiced oatmeal cookie flavor.
- Coconut oil or melted butter adds moisture and richness. I used coconut oil, and these tasted wonderfully buttery just the same!
- 1 large egg + an extra egg yolk give them a rich, thick dough and a moist, light final texture.
- Raisins dot them with chewy pops of sweetness.
- And walnuts add nuttiness and crunch.
Find the complete recipe with measurements below.
How to Make Oatmeal Raisin Cookies
Making this oatmeal raisin cookie recipe couldn’t be easier. No stand mixer (or even hand mixer) required! Here’s what you need to do:
First, make the dough. Whisk together the wet ingredients in one mixing bowl and the flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt in another.
Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix until just combined. Then, fold in the walnuts, oats, and raisins. The mixture will be thick!
Next, let the dough rest for 20 minutes. This time gives the wet ingredients a chance to hydrate the flour and oats, making it easier to work with the dough. The cookies come out chewier, too!
Then, shape and bake the cookies. Roll the dough into balls and place them on parchment-lined baking sheets. Bake at 350°F for 10 to 11 minutes, or until golden brown.
Let the cookies cool for 5 minutes on the baking sheet before transferring them to wire racks to cool completely. Enjoy!
Oatmeal Cookie Recipe Tips
Sarah has a few excellent pointers in her book. These are her tips for making the best oatmeal raisin cookies:
- Use brown sugar. Instead of using a mix of brown sugar and granulated sugar, Sarah opts for all brown sugar. It gives these oatmeal raisin cookies a delicious caramelized sweetness.
- Go for melted, not creamed, butter. According to Sarah, creamed butter cookies are unpredictable: they can easily spread too much or be too firm. With melted butter, though, you’ll get moist, chewy cookies every time.
- Let the dough rest for 20 minutes before baking. Those 20 minutes will make your dough easier to roll into balls, so the cookies will keep their shape and develop a yummy chewy texture in the oven.
- Allow the cookies to cool completely for the best texture and flavor. It may be agony, but letting these oatmeal raisin cookies cool completely only makes them better. They’ll be chewier and fully infused with brown sugar flavor. Sarah likes these best a few hours to 1 day after baking. (Though I can attest that they’re still good if you can’t wait that long.)
Oatmeal Cookies Variations
If you follow this recipe as written, you won’t be disappointed. These oatmeal cookies are buttery, nutty, and perfectly spiced. But if you want to step outside the traditional oatmeal raisin cookie box, feel free. Here are a few great ways to change up this recipe:
- Substitute chocolate chips for the raisins to make oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, or use a mix of both. White chocolate chips are a fun option too.
- Use pecans instead of walnuts.
- Swap the raisins for dried cherries or cranberries.
- Add a dash of cardamom or ginger to the dough.
- Replace the raisins with butterscotch chips to give the cookies an extra-buttery taste.
How do you like to make oatmeal cookies? Let me know in the comments!
How to Store Oatmeal Cookies
To keep these oatmeal cookies soft and chewy, store them in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 4 days. They also freeze well for up to 3 months.
Make-Ahead Oatmeal Cookies
If you’re someone who likes to keep cookie dough on hand in the fridge or freezer, this oatmeal cookie recipe is for you. You can store the cookie dough in the fridge for 7 to 10 days or freeze it for up to a month.
To store the dough, roll it into balls and freeze them briefly. Then, transfer the cookie dough balls to airtight containers or Ziploc bags and refrigerate or freeze. You can also roll the dough into a log, using an 8×12-inch piece of parchment paper as a guide. Wrap the log tightly in parchment to refrigerate or freeze, and slice the cookies into rounds before baking.
Bake your cookie dough straight from the fridge. If it’s frozen, allow it to rest for 15 minutes at room temperature before putting it in the oven.
More Favorite Cookie Recipes
If you love these oatmeal cookies, try one of these yummy cookie recipes next:
- Snickerdoodle Cookies
- Easy Sugar Cookies
- Best Peanut Butter Cookies
- No Bake Cookies
- Thumbprint Cookies
- Chewy Molasses Cookies
- Homemade Brownies (not a cookie, but still delicious…)
- Or any of these 17 Easy Cookie Recipes!
Perfect Oatmeal Raisin Cookies
Equipment
- Cookie Scoop (I use this one)
Ingredients
- 1 cup all-purpose flour,
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/2 cup coconut oil or unsalted butter, melted
- 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1 large egg yolk
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
- 1 1/2 cup whole rolled oats
- 3/4 cup raisins
- 1/2 cup chopped walnuts, optional
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F and line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
- Combine the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon in a large bowl. In a separate bowl, whisk together the melted coconut oil, sugar, whole egg, egg yolk, and vanilla, whisking vigorously.
- Stir the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. Stir in the oats, raisins, and walnuts, if using, folding into a tight batter. Set the dough aside for 20 minutes while the oven preheats. (Note: if your dough seems too wet to become scoop-able, chill it in the fridge for this 20 minutes and it'll firm up). If your dough is too crumbly, stir in 2 to 3 tablespoons water.
- Use a cookie scoop to divide the dough into 20 tablespoon-sized balls. Roll lightly in barely damp hands to make them round. Spread out onto the prepared baking sheets and bake until puffed, golden, and a touch underbaked-looking, 10 to 11 minutes. Let cool on the pans for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
I made oatmeal chocolate cranberry cookies by substituting cranberries for raisins and chocolate chips for walnuts, delicious!
Also substituted honey for vanilla and added two whole eggs as opposed to just one egg and one yolk.
Made 12 cookies with about 2 1/2 cookies worth of extra dough, looked a tad under baked but I left them in the warm oven to cool a bit and they hardened perfectly.
Overall would definitely recommend! Pretty easy recipe to follow and were nice and soft to the bite.
Divine!
I made with pecans instead of walnuts, chocolate chips and chocolate toffee chips. About the best cookie I’ve ever had.
Thank you!
Hello, Thank you for the recipe. I made them and trying to figure out what may have gone wrong. Q: when you say brown sugar would this be the dark or light? Thank you for your help and time 🙂
Hi Brandon, either works, I’ve used both.
How many calories are the oatmeal raisin walnut
Cookies.
Best oatmeal cookies ever! Made without vanilla, I was out of vanilla. PERFECT
These are absolutely perfect! Thank you so much for this above the top recipe. I’m a cookie snob and they turned out exactly as promised.
Hi 😉 i love your website. Have baked so many wonderful recipes. So im about to bake these and am curious if i could use whole wheat flour instead of AP?
Will make them just like the recipe this time. Just curious if you think it would be ok for the next batch?
Also, do you recommend using metric measurements for your recipes? Or does it matter? I am used to weighing everything. But it does take more time. Just curious if u think it’s okay not to for these?
Thanks soo much! ?❤️??
This has been my go to oatmeal cookie base. No matter what I add to it, raisins, craisins, chocolate, nuts, the cookie is always perfectly chewy with a slightly crisp edge.
I made it with dried cranberries and 1/2 cup of dark chocolate chunks. Sooo good!
Yum, I’m glad you enjoyed them!
Great cookie!
OMG!! These really are perfect! Just the right amount of cinnamon. Added both raisins and walnuts. Delightful!! Thx for sharing?
I’m so glad you loved them!
Made these today. The top tray caramelised beautifully but the bottom tray less so. Will definitely bake in 2 batches next time. Needs a little more cinnamon. Otherwise perfect! Keeping this recipe.
I’m glad you loved them!
I made a double batch of these for a church bake sale. I started on Tuesday afternoon, but was interrupted by a mandatory evacuation warning due to a wildfire in our area. Due to time constraints, I was unable to follow that proper instructions, and just wrapped the whole lump of dough in plastic wrap, put it in a freezer bag, and when I thawed it out three days later, it was a big, hard rock! LOL!
After a little experimentation, I found microwaving the dough, in thick slices, for a few seconds, with a little water softened it up enough to mold it to form balls, AND add Raisins. They came out FABULOUS! AND they’re still soft and chewy the next day, which is a game-changer for my husband, who judges all cookies by their “softness”.
I also added a lot more spice to mine, which I always do. I don’t think a recipe exists that has enough cinnamon for me. But I also add nutmeg, cloves, allspice, and sometimes other goodies. Just the nutmeg and cloves for these, though. They came out awesome!
We LOVE these cookies. I make a double batch once a week. But. And I’m sure it’s user error, mine run all over the pan while baking. Chilling the dough doesn’t seem to be helping. What can I do?
I used less salt and my legs feel heavy, tight and very sore.. My pressure tends to be low so I don’t suffer from hypertension. I’m going to toss out the cookies because I’m seriously worried about my health.