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
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.
can i substitute flour for almond flour?
Hi Suzy, I haven’t tested it that way. Almond flour and regular flour aren’t always a 1:1 swap.
Why are you using eggs on this recipe, I see you substitute flax in other ones, I am vegan and would like to know if it will affect the flavor or texture to leave out the eggs.
thanks
Hi Vanessa, this recipe was from someone else’s cookbook… I haven’t tried it without eggs so I’m not sure how it would work. These other oatmeal cookies don’t have eggs and they’re delicious, maybe give these a try?: https://www.loveandlemons.com/apple-oatmeal-cookies/
Hi Jeanine! Can I use brown rice flour here instead of regular? Your website/cookbook has been a lifesaver for me!! Thank you for all the inspiration!!
Hi Liza,
No, I’m afraid the texture of brown rice flour is completely different. If that’s what you have on hand I’d search for a cookie recipe that uses it specifically. There’s a chocolate cookie recipe that uses brown rice flour in the e-book bundle that we gave away with the cookbooks – I’d go make that recipe, let me know if you received that pdf!
thank you!! My husband bought me the everyday cookbook (on amazon, I think) and so I never received a pdf. I plan on buying the original cookbook now as well!
I’ll email you the link later today 🙂
Thank you!!
Hi Jeanine,
What is the proportion for flaxseed mix if I’m substituting it for the eggs?
Thanks
Cindy
I have made this recipe 3 times in the 5 days! The cookies keep on vanishing and we are a family of three. I used butter and subbed chocolate chips for the raisins and pecans for walnuts, perfection! Thank you for sharing this amazing recipe
Hi Jessica, I’m so glad you and your family have loved them so much!
Hi, I just made these cookies, they are great. This is the best recipe I found yet it was easy and fun. My grand daughter loves to help make cookies. One Saturday I tried three different recipes, they ended up in the trash I was sad I thought I lost my baking skills. I followed your recipe exactly, right down to the timing its my new favorite thank you. The all brown sugar, melted butter and letting it rest for 20 min. made a difference. Just love it.
Using this dough as a topping for my sweet potatoes
So good!! Thank you!
This is such a perfect recipe! I tried it the only thing I added is 1/2 cup white sugar! Thank you for sharing your recipe!
Hi Michelle, I’m so glad you loved them!
Would you be so kind to update the recipe listing the ingredients by weight?
I’ve found great differences in the outcome when I fill the cups tightly. Thank you so much!
Help! My batter is not thick at all! I followed directions, I don’t know what went wrong!
Hi Laurie, Try setting the batter in the fridge until it firms up (30 minutes or so).
I did that. The batter was still wet and very sticky. I checked to be sure I had all the right amounts for the ingredients, and I did, but it was almost like there wasn’t enough flour or something. I made them anyway, and they’re good, but I wish I knew what I did wrong!!
Hmm, that’s so strange, I make these very regularly and haven’t had this happen… I wonder, did you use the walnuts? Sarah lists them as optional in the recipe but I think it might make a difference in the dough if they’re not there. The only other thing I can think of is that flour measurements can vary depending on how packed the measuring cup is – perhaps I should start listing flour in baking recipes by weight, but I wonder how many people have a kitchen scale?
These are quite nice and I would make them again. Next time I would press them down a bit before baking as they did not flatten as your photo and I thought the middle was still a bit uncooked. A nice easy cookie to whip up in a few minutes
Hi Jeanine, I just made these and they are very good! I used dried cranberries and toasted walnuts and coconut oil . While I don’t hate them with the slight coconut flavour, my next batch will be made using butter as I do prefer a buttery flavour vs. a coconut-y flavour. Thanks so much for yet another great recipe!
I’m glad you loved them! Just fyi – if you’re baking with coconut oil and don’t want the coconut-ty taste, be sure to get refined coconut oil, it’s flavor is more neutral as compared to un-refined coconut oil.
These were a total mess. Couldn’t roll them into a ball at all. Have a bowl full of oatmeal and raisins and batter that won’t stick together.
oh no, so weird. If it’s too wet, I’d try letting the dough sit in the fridge for a bit to firm up.
Thanks for your reply. I was wondering why the recipe didn’t say to put the dough in the frig for awhile as other cookie recipes do. I was able to get a few in actual cookie shape and the rest in a “brownie like” shape. I didn’t want to throw it all out. They do taste pretty good….just in weird shapes.
I just made these again myself and didn’t have a problem rolling them without chilling. I wonder if an ingredient got switched or perhaps summer humidity might have had an effect? I’m glad they tasted good!
Yep. That had to be it. It was a very hot day and I’m sure high humidity in my kitchen. I will try them again soon.
I wonder if some people might put too much butter in, reading 1/2 cup of melted butter instead of 1/2 cup of butter, melted. There’s a difference!
Taste was there but texture was bad, too flaky and dry. Not sure what I missed, when baking they stayed in a ball shape and didn’t melt into a flat cookie shape. I had to flatten the cookie with my hand after baking. Maybe I should have used more butter. I added nuts (almost a cup) perhaps that’s where I went wrong. But they’re still ok!
I think the extra nuts probably caused the texture change. I’d try without the nuts (I didn’t use any when I made mine and they flattened well) or using no more than the 1/2 cup. Hope that helps!
rather, I used walnuts, but just 1/2 cup.
There’s a difference? How about a weight, then?
Weight?
Lol worked for me guess you did it wrong 🤔 hmmmm try try again dear
Love oatmeal cookies and these were delicious. They also left a big smile on my daughters face. Thanks for the great recipe.
bit.ly/31WV5Fg
I’m so happy you both enjoyed them! 🙂
I love oatmeal cookies! They look so delicious and I love how easy this recipe is!
This is my family’s favorite oatmeal cookies. I substitute the raisins with craisins and add chopped candied ginger! Moist and chewy with a firey zing when you bite into a piece of ginger!❤
Did I miss calorie count?
Please and thanks!
we don’t count calories – plus cookies are a fun treat so they don’t have any 🙂
I’ll have to add that to my excuses. Eating at church dinners the calories don’t count. So now, apparently, fun cookies calories don’t count. Who knew?
Love the mentality😂😂
Yes
These look soooo delicious! I love the options and tips you provided; they will come in handy! I really like using dark choc chips in mine and maybe some dried cranberries 😉
I am going to try these “Perfect Oatmeal Raisin Cookies” right now!
I hope you enjoyed them 🙂