These oatmeal chocolate chip cookies are made with oats, butter, and brown sugar and are the softest, chewiest oatmeal cookies to come out of my kitchen. Use this perfect oatmeal cookie as the base for other add-ins such as raisins, dried cranberries, and nuts. Cinnamon and a touch of molasses add that little something extra.
I originally published this recipe in 2017 and have since added new photos and helpful success tips.
Today we’re mixing big chewy oats with the flavors of butter, brown sugar, a touch of molasses, a dash of cinnamon, and a mountain of chocolate chips.
One reader, Kelly commented: “These are hands down the best oatmeal choco chip cookies I’ve ever made! Soft and chewy, I followed the recipe exactly except for adding 1/2 cup chopped walnuts. Perfection. ★★★★★“
And another, Valerie, commented: “More compliments than I have ever heard from my family and friends, and I bake a lot! ★★★★★“
My Favorite Base Oatmeal Cookie Recipe
These soft & chewy oatmeal chocolate chip cookies start from my base oatmeal cookie recipe and it makes quite a few appearances in my cookbook, Sally’s Cookie Addiction. I’m a firm believer in having a handful of base recipes from which you can develop virtually hundreds of variations. For example: my standard muffin recipe. This chocolate cookie dough and this peanut butter cookie dough have both inspired quite a few spin offs as well.
The cookies have a slightly crisp edge with a soft center and enough chew that the cookie won’t immediately break when you bend it. A “slow bend cookie” as I like to call them—and this is the key difference between a regular oatmeal cookie and a really great oatmeal cookie.
They’re also:
- Supremely soft, buttery, and flavorful. Using more brown sugar than white helps guarantee a flavorful base.
- Super chewy thanks to old-fashioned oats. Thick whole rolled oats, not quick oats, guarantee a chewier cookie. Quick oats are finer; you simply don’t get the same texture.
- Loaded with chocolate chips. Lots of chocolate in every single bite. And for my fellow raisin lovers: try subbing in half raisins. The dough is pretty similar to my oatmeal raisin cookies.
- Taste just like grandma’s. I find the 1 Tablespoon of molasses is what makes these taste like grandma’s old-fashioned oatmeal cookies. I strongly encourage adding it.
About the molasses, one reader, Hannah, commented: “These cookies are FANTASTIC! I’ll admit, I was a little skeptical about adding the molasses, but it added a depth to the cookies that I wasn’t expecting. Bookmarking to use again for sure! ★★★★★“
Key Ingredients You Need & Why:
- Baking Soda: Baking soda helps the cookies rise and spread.
- Butter: Butter is the base of any delicious cookie recipe. Make sure you are using room-temperature butter.
- Brown Sugar & Granulated Sugar: Sugar is not only used for sweetness, but also for providing structure and tenderness. I like to use more brown sugar than white sugar because (1) it has incredible flavor and (2) it contains more moisture than white, which produces a softer cookie.
- Molasses: Molasses is my secret ingredient! 1 scant Tablespoon enhances all the wonderful flavors of these buttery, cinnamon-sweet cookies.
- Vanilla Extract, Cinnamon, & Salt: Each provide flavor. You can also top the cookies with a little flaky sea salt for more flavor.
- Oats: Oats provide a chewy texture, and there is no shortage in this dough! I use and recommend old fashioned whole oats here—just like I do for flourless peanut butter oatmeal cookies and big giant monster cookies.
How to Make Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
I especially love this recipe because the process is quick & simple—with minimal dough chilling.
Whisk the dry ingredients together. Just the flour, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt—you’ll add the oats later. Use an electric mixer for the wet ingredients, then add the dry ingredients and mix in the oats and chocolate chips.
The dough will be thick and sticky:
Chill the cookie dough. I recommend at least 45 minutes in the refrigerator, which helps prevent the cookies from overspreading.
How Large Do I Make the Cookies?
These are drop-style cookies, so scoop the dough and drop it onto the baking sheets. 1.5 Tablespoons (30g) for regular-size cookies, 2 T. (40g) for large cookies (pictured), or 3 T. (60g) for XL cookies!
Success Tip: Use a cookie scoop. Oatmeal cookie dough is super chunky and soft, and this one can get pretty sticky. A cookie scoop not only prevents a mess, it also helps ensure all cookies are the same size and shape.
The cookies are done when the edges are set and the centers still look soft. After baking, I like to lightly press a few more chocolate chips into the tops of the cookies while they’re still warm. This is optional and just for looks. I also add a light sprinkling of flaky sea salt, which, again, is optional.
Here are the 3 characteristics we should look for in oatmeal cookies: Slow bend, chewy goodness, and ultra soft. Check, check, check! Today’s cookies have it all.
And if you’re looking for a peanut butter version, try my peanut butter oatmeal chocolate chip cookies next! Or try the sweater-weather, festive-feeling cousin recipe, these big fat dark chocolate cranberry oatmeal cookies!
Print
Soft & Chewy Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Prep Time: 1 hour, 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 14 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour 24 minutes
- Yield: 32-35 cookies
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
With oats, butter, and mostly all brown sugar, you are guaranteed a soft and chewy oatmeal cookie. Use this perfect oatmeal cookie as the base for other add-ins such as raisins, dried cranberries, and nuts. Cinnamon and a touch of molasses add that little something extra. To prevent the cookies from over-spreading, don’t skip the brief dough refrigeration in step 4.
Ingredients
- 1 and 1/2 cups (188g) all-purpose flour (spooned & leveled)
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon (optional)
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 3/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup (16 Tbsp; 226g) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- 1 cup (200g) packed light or dark brown sugar
- 1/2 cup (100g) granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs, at room temperature
- 1 Tablespoon (15ml) unsulphured or dark molasses (do not use blackstrap; I prefer Grandma’s brand)
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 3 cups (255g) old-fashioned whole rolled oats
- 1 and 3/4 cups (315g) semi-sweet chocolate chips
- optional: flaky sea salt for sprinkling
Instructions
- In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt together. Set aside.
- In a large bowl using a hand mixer or a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar together on medium-high speed until combined and creamed, about 3 minutes. Add the eggs, molasses, and vanilla and beat on high speed until combined, about 1 minute. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl and beat again as needed to combine.
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix on low speed until combined. Beat in the oats and chocolate chips. Dough will be thick and sticky.
- Cover and refrigerate the dough for at least 45 minutes in the refrigerator (and up to 4 days). If chilling for longer than a few hours, allow to sit at room temperature for at least 30 minutes before rolling and baking because the dough will be quite firm.
- Preheat oven to 350°F (177°C). Line baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats. Set aside.
- Use a medium cookie scoop to scoop the cookie dough, about 2 Tablespoons (40g) of dough per cookie, which is a heaping cookie scoop-ful, and place 3 inches apart on the baking sheets. Bake for 13–14 minutes or until lightly browned on the sides. The centers will look very soft.
- Remove from the oven and allow cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack to cool completely. While the cookies are still warm, I like to press a few more chocolate chips into the tops and sprinkle with flaky sea salt—both are optional!
- Cookies stay fresh covered at room temperature for up to 1 week.
Notes
- Make Ahead & Freezing Instructions: You can make the cookie dough and chill it in the refrigerator for up to 4 days. See step 4. Baked cookies freeze well for up to 3 months. Unbaked cookie dough balls freeze well for up to 3 months. Bake frozen cookie dough balls for an extra minute, no need to thaw. Read my tips and tricks on how to freeze cookie dough.
- Special Tools (affiliate links): Glass Mixing Bowl | Whisk | Electric Mixer (Handheld or Stand) | Baking Sheets | Silicone Baking Mats or Parchment Paper | Medium Cookie Scoop | Cooling Rack
- Molasses: 1 Tablespoon of molasses helps give these cookies incredible flavor. Be sure to use unsulphured or dark molasses (do not use blackstrap; I prefer Grandma’s brand). If you don’t have any, simply leave it out. Do not replace with anything else. Likewise, cinnamon adds flavor as well. Not necessary, but it sure is tasty!
- Different Size Cookies: Use 1.5 Tablespoons (30g) for regular-size cookies, 2 T. (40g) for large cookies (what is pictured), or 3 T. (60g) for XL cookies. The bake time will be a minute or so shorter for regular-size and a minute or so longer for XL cookies.
- Can I Add Raisins or Chopped Nuts? Yes, you can add either. I recommend 1 cup (180g) chocolate chips and 3/4 cup either raisins (110g) or chopped walnuts or pecans (100g).
Reader Comments and Reviews
These are BY FAR the YUMMIEST cookies we’ve ever had. Don’t last more that 2 days in my house and the demand for more is CRAZY!! Thank you !! Lots of compliments by friends too!
Best oatmeal cookie recipe I have ever made. THANK YOU SALLY for cracking the chewy cookie code. Just to further prove that this recipe is fool-proof: I made these last night with melted butter and incorporated everything by hand. The kids were in bed and I couldn’t run the mixer. Added a little extra flour for structure and chilled in the fridge for an hour.
Even with this shortcut – Amazing!!
Spread a little thinner because of the melted butter but still chewy and gorgeous and not at all greasy!! Your recipes are my happy place.
These cookies are perfection!! I made them as bar cookies and my whole family devoured them. I have made them twice in the last four days. This is a definite keeper recipe. Thank you!!
Loved these cookies!! I did go ahead and add an extra 1/4 or so cup flour to ensure no spreading since I didn’t have time to do a trial run before having people over. They turned out great!!
Someone help, I must be missing something! I wanted to love this recipe, and I’ve made it three times now following the directions carefully. The first time I was sure I left out a crucial ingredient by mistake because they were so flat. They just melted onto the cookie sheet. I made them again the same day and carefully followed all the steps, same thing happened! I assumed maybe my baking soda was expired or something. I just made it again 6 months later and same thing happened!? Spread so thin they weren’t even shaped like a cookie. Anyone have a clue what I’m missing!? (Yes they’re chilled plenty!)
Hi Karissa! Are you starting with proper room temperature butter? It makes a big difference and is cooler than most would think – you can read more about it here. And here’s more tips for preventing cookies from spreading!
I was hungry for some “no fuss” cookies and I loved, loved, loved these. Perfect for my cookie cravings.
As always I reduced the amount of sugar and ended up using 150 grams brown sugar and 50 grams regular sugar with no change in structure or any problems. The first time I made them they seemed very greasy, so I reduced the butter to 190 grams and that was all the tweaks this recipe needed.
If you are hungry for a really good and old-fashioned oatmeal cookie with chocolate chips, this is the one!
Sally, these cookies are really delicious! So soft and chewy! I didn’t have enough oats, so I subbed some shredded coconut and some chia seeds for the rest. They’re really good! The dough chilled overnight, and I also used your tall cookie trick to insure thick cookies! These are very good and I will make them again! Love the addition of cinnamon and molasses; two ingredients I don’t often see in chocolate chip oatmeal cookies! But those two special ingredients really add wonderful flavor to the cookies! I would definitely recommend including them! Thanks for the great recipe!
Sally, we love your recipes!
Today we adapted this one just a little – we used 1 egg, swapped othe granulated sugar with maple sirup and added peanut butter. Super yummy! Thank you for being out there and spreading your cookie magic with the world ✨
Best from Germany!
Jenny
These are absolute perfection. I had almost given up on baking oatmeal cookies because they never turn out exactly how I want them to. For some crazy reason, I signed up to bring oatmeal cookies to my daughter’s preschool bake sale tomorrow. I went in totally blind on this and made two batches of dough without a test run. Zero regrets. They are gorgeous and delicious. This will be my go-to oatmeal cookie recipe from now on. THANK YOU!
Hello Sally. I recently made your dark chocolate oatmeal cookie and they came out pretty well. What’s the difference between this dark chocolate oatmeal cookie and this one?
Thank you
Hi Alexandra! Both recipes are similar. I find these a little chewier though!
I made these cookies and they were delicious! I noticed they became hard by the third day. Any tips to keep the cookies chewy?
Hi Peggy! My secret to keeping cookies soft for days is to store them with a piece of bread. The cookies retain all of the bread’s moisture and stay soft for days. And the bread becomes super hard! It’s a fantastic trick.
Made these yesterday for the Super Bowl – huge hit! Great flavor, texture, and chewy with a good oat-y warmth for winter. Loved them! Thank you for all your great recipes.
These are my go to cookies! My fiancé and son love them so much. I’ve made this recipe more times than I can count along with several others you have. Just a huge thank you for blessing my kitchen and family with these delightful recipes. I’ve been baking since I was 14 and love it! Your tips have been super helpful and I’ve learned a lot since reading your blog the last year and a half.
Will these cookies still be as good without any chocolate chips in them? My family wants just a chewy oatmeal cookie.
Yes, they will still be great!
These cookies are fantastic!! I will be using this excellent recipe time and time again. I only had a cup of chocolate chips left so I added 3/4 cup golden raisins too. They definitely won’t be around for long lol. It seems like the last few oatmeal chocolate chip cookie recipes I tried ended up more dry and crumbly. These are the perfect texture; soft and chewy with a slight crunch on outside. Thanks for such a terrific recipe!
I must commend you on a great recipe, I’ve baked the box top version from Quaker Oats for years and these cookies turned out better than I can remember. The only difference between the two that I could tell is the extra butter and brown sugar.
I split the recipe in half, oatmeal and rasin and oatmeal and chocalate chips, ( I used Ghirardelli milk chocalate chips). The last batch out of the oven I put a few chocalate chips on the oatmeal rasin and additional chips on just the oatmeal chocalate, so four different versions, (finsing purposes of course).
I did not use molases for anyone reading.
I’m so glad you decided to try these, Bryan! Great tip on dividing the dough with different mix-ins!
Hey Sally! I just made these cookies and WOW. They were easy to do, I’m sad that I didn’t have the full ingredient list for the full batch! I halved the recipe since I only had one egg and half of the oatmeal. I subbed a little extra flour for the oatmeal I was lacking but otherwise I made them just as you suggested. They smelled amazing and tasted so good. The molasses added a nice extra flavor to them. I thought they were perfect. Thank you for sharing your wisdom with us. I enjoy your blog immensely!
These cookies are amazing! I baked them with my two-year-old niece and they were super simple and delicious! Everyone couldn’t stop eating them! They were very full of flavor! I would most definitely make these again!
Have you tried using white chocolate chips instead? Curious how that would alter the taste of the cookie! I looooooove White chocolate almost as much as oatmeal.
I love white chocolate in oatmeal cookies– you can switch out the chocolate chips for white chocolate.
Hi!
I was wondering what the texture/consistency would be like if I didn’t chill the dough for over (I was thinking of chilling it just for 10-15 mins) and if I didn’t add the molasses (because they don’t sell molasses where I live!). These cookies look great and I really want to bake them as soon as possible!
Thanks
Hi Emma! The cookie dough will over-spread, so I do recommend chilling in the refrigerator a little longer. You can leave out the molasses 🙂
Hi, I just wanted to say thank you for the great recipe! These turned out great and were gobbled up super fast!
Hi Sally. Tried these cookies and they came out simply yum. Want to check can I use Whole wheat flour instead of all purpose flour with the same exact recipe?
Yes, absolutely– same amount!
These are by far the best oatmeal cookies I have ever made. They remain moist, have body, are chewy and just down right flavorful. I love them. We live at high altitude (6200ft) and had no problem baking these. We refrigerate the dough for a good amount of time and use 2 scoops of a regular cookie dough scoop. Perfection. Major win.
Baked these last night and LOVED them! Think they may be a little dry though. Possibly over baked them, although I only baked them for 13 minutes. Still very good cookies. Thanks Sally!
Sally I made these and they were incredible! I thought nothing would come close to your chocolate chunk cookie recipe but this is equally good! I gave some to my mom and I told her “I’m tempted not to tell you where I got the recipe from so you can’t challenge my baking skills.” She goes, “oh is this another Sally’s Baking Addiction recipe?” I said, “damnit!” This is the 7th recipe of yours I’ve made (the 4th sweet one) and they have all been great. Thank you my very favorite food blogger!
Haha – mom’s always know 😉 I’m glad you like these as much the chewy chocolate chunk cookies. They are good when you want a different texture!
I made a batch of these cookies this past weekend, and they turned out perfectly. I used good quality Ghirardelli chocolate chips, both regular and mini. What an awesome tip. Being a chocolate lover, these definitely delivered. I absolutely love your monster cookie recipe, and this is a new favorite as well. Thanks!
Hi Sally! What do you think about browning the butter for these cookies? I just love brown butter.
Would be delicious HOWEVER, you’d have to make sure the browned butter is solidified so it can be creamed. Butter than is melted (browned) will cause the cookies to spread everywhere.
Made these last night – so good! I made an oatmeal cookie recipe a few weeks ago – and it BARELY had any oats! It tasted like there was oatmeal in a REGULAR cookie not like an OATMEAL cookie! So I was determined to make a real oatmeal cookie so I was looking around but then I saw you just posted this and I was so glad you posted this recipe! I made it last night and they were heavenly! Super chewy, soft and delicious. I didn’t add the molasses but I used dark brown sugar and they still had a very good flavor 🙂
I have the dough chilling in the fridge right now! Plumped for some raisins too for the chew! If the dough is anything to go by these are going to be delicious. Super easy and cinnamony. Thanks Sally!