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
the only recipe of Sally’s that I did not have instant perfection with. I agree that these cookies needed less butter or more flour. They were very flat (even with chilling the dough). Once I saw what happened, I added more flour and kneaded it into the dough with my hands. This fixed the problem. I really feel it should be 2 cups of flour, not 1 and 1/2. Sorry Sally !
This is my second time making this recipe. I am having the same outcome where the first batch is flat then the next 2 are not. Could it possibly be the pan is hot after the first? The dough was cold for all batches. Love the recipe regardless flat or not!
Hi Kim, I was told years ago that you should always use a room temp/cooled cookie sheet when making cookies. I find if I don’t roll these cookies into balls they spread perfectly and I use a cookie sheet with no sides and on parchment. They come out perfect at 14 minutes. But the thicker cookies are delicious also, love this recipe!
If you’re in the UK, I’d say you can sub black treacle for molasses. So good!
These are the most delicious and chewy oatmeal cookies I have ever made. I omitted the chocolate chips. And, used a two TBSP scoop so decreased the baking time by three minutes. All recipes I have tried from this site are the best. Thank you, Sally!
Me again. Made a second batch with chocolate chips and scooped three TBSP portions. Still cooked a minute less. Absolute perfection!
I’ve made them 2 weeks in a row and they have been perfect. These are not puffy kinds of cookies and do spread out a bit. I just think they are perfect and I will memorize this recipe I’m sure.
Can I make 1 tablespoon size instead? How long do you think j should bake them for?
Hi Nancy, absolutely, you can make these cookies smaller if you’d like. We’re unsure of the exact bake time, but it should be a bit less. Keep a close eye on them!
Made the recipe as described substituting craisins for chocolate chips. I chilled the dough overnight.
The cookies turned out flat – because of that in 15 min the edges were overdone, except for the cookies that ended up flowing together making a giant pancake.
I Tried chilling the next sheet in the freezer. That helped a little bit but the cookies were still so flat and overdone on the edges. At least I didn’t have a giant pancake.
.
In desperation, I took the third sheet of cookies out after 14 min then used a non-stick spatula to push the edges toward the center, to attempt to make the cookies less flat. They were a bit soft in the middle.
I may try again using a scale instead of measuring cups ….or stick with the recipe from the back of the oatmeal box.
The cookies tasted great but look….like a 4 year old made them.
Hi Mary, thanks so much for giving these cookies a try. Overspreading cookies can be the result of a few different things, like not enough flour in the dough or using butter that is much softer than room temperature. You might find this post on cookie baking tips to improve your next batch of cookies helpful — see #2 for more on how to prevent excess spread. Hope this helps!
She’s right…they are the softest. Too soft. When I noticed how much brown sugar there was, I had a feeling this would happen. But I gave it a go anyway because the reviews were mostly good. I weighed out all my ingredients and cooked the appropriate time. Even after the cookies cooled, several cracked when I picked them up. Mostly likely caused by the brown sugar to white sugar ratio being too high, and I feel like it could use more flour. The flavor was okay. Was hoping this cookie would be a little thicker and firm, but still chewy.
First time making this recipe. The cookies are really tasty. My only comments are that I would use 2 cups of the chocolate chips (ie, a full bag of Nestle morsels) as they could use more chocolate, and definitely only bake for 13 minutes. Also wish I’d added chopped walnuts for more texture. But really good!
These were amazing and made way more than the 22 cookies stated. I ended up with 37 & they weren’t small!
The weight of the flour is wrong? Should be 225g I think.
Hi Dave! 1 cup all-purpose flour = 125g, so 188g is correct for 1 and 1/2 cups. You can read more about measuring baking ingredients in this post!
The only changes I made to this recipe were replacing white with whole wheat flour and reducing the sugar (brown and granulated) by half (1/2 cup & 1/4 cup, respectively). They turned out amazing – thick, chewy, moist – and are the satisfying cookie we like. But I got WAY more than 22 cookies. More like 45!
I guess we like smaller cookies? 🙂
Been making this recipe, and it is SOOO GOOD!!! Thank you for sharing it! I swapped the choc chips for dried cranberries and white choc callets. I cannot tell you enough how bomb they were! Xx
Can I use gluten free flour for these cookies?
Hi Monica, We haven’t tested GF flour in this recipe, but let us know if you do!
Oh my re these ever good, but insted of usung 2tsp of vnilla I did 1 and 1tsp of Cabot Maple cream oh Yummy thanks for a soft oatmeal cookie there usually hard,especially store cookies
Easy to make and delicious! Especially when warm. I make mine a bit smaller than the recommended size and reduce baking time to 10 min. I also love your scones and your « one recipe » muffins.
Made these last night and followed all instructions. then added 1/2 cup of Dried Cranberry and 1/2 cup of Pecans. LOVED, LOVED, LOVED THEM! Hubby who can eat one cookie and be happy, went for three and back this morning for a few with coffee. Thanks for a new favorite recipe.
The flavor is good, but like so many others I followed this recipe to the letter and the cookies flowed out like water, far too thin. There’s potential here, but it’s not a reliable recipe as written.
I have been making these cookies every Saturday for months now. My husband and my grandsons love them and so do I. Have not made any changes. Love the suggestions at the end of the recipe. My favorite cookie recipe
Hi, I don’t really want to use brown sugar AND granulated sugar, so could I just use 1 cup and 1/2 cup of a 1:1 sugar replacment?
Hi Anne, you can certainly give it a try, but the taste and texture can change with a sugar substitute. For best taste and texture (and so you don’t waste your time trying to adapt this recipe since it may not work properly), it may be more useful to find a recipe that is specifically formulated for sugar substitutes. Thank you!
Hi will I be able to use quick oats instead of rolled oats?
Hi Vivienne, if you use quick oats just keep in mind that because they are are thinner and more powder-y the cookies won’t have the same texture.
First time trying this recipe and they turned out really chewy. The molasses was an amazing ingredient. My husband couldn’t help eating one each batch that came out of the oven.
Delicious! The only change I made was adding a touch of extra molasses. My husband is particular about the chewiness of an oatmeal cookie and these were perfect.
Hi! I made these cookies exactly as written with the exception of cane sugar in place of granulated, as that’s what I had – they turned out delicious, but they spread a lot and were super thin! Still pretty chewy, but not thick like in the photos. Do you think that the cane sugar could have something to do with it? I’m also baking at high altitude (Denver), and I really don’t typically have to make any adjustments to cookie recipes, but I’m wondering if maybe the high brown sugar/molasses content + baking at altitude might be what happened…any recommendations for next time? Because I will definitely be making these again!
Hi Lizzie! The altitude could be it. Is the cane sugar particularly coarse? There are also other factors such as how soft the butter is or even spooning/leveling your flour. Great news is that over-spreading is an easy fix for next time, whether or not you are at high altitude. Simply add another 1/4 cup (about 30g) of spooned & leveled flour to the dry ingredients. If you need more help, here are 10 ways to prevent cookies from over-spreading.
These were a huge hit in my house! Everyone was excitedly eating them as soon as they could touch them (gave them maybe 5min to cool off before they began to snatch them up!)
This recipe is going in the books!
The dough tasted great, but the cookies turned out thin and dark. I measured everything by gram and followed the recipe to a tee. Such a bummer!
First time making one of Sally’s recipes and enjoyed these cookies. I loved how crisp the edges were and the center so soft and chewy. Next time, I will omit the molasses and the cinnamon but other than that we enjoyed them.
I didn’t use molasses or cinnamon in mine, but I used dark brown sugar (instead of light) which does contain a hint of molasses. They tasted just like I wanted them to, like a traditional oatmeal without anything extra or overpowering. I think you’ll be happy if you omit those two ingredients!
Delicious and fun! I made this with a 3 year old boy and it was great! He helped me measure all the ingredients and mix them together. Good recipe for baking with children and absolutely delicious!
Just finished making these – superb recipe! Followed the recipe as instructed and the cookies turned out fantastic, family approved!
This has been my favorite and “go to” cookie dough recipe for over a year.
I would like to try adding sour cream. Any thoughts?
Hi Susan! Sour cream would add quite a bit of moisture to this dough, and would require some testing. Let us know if you try anything!
Can I use quick oats, I really never buy the other kind……
Hi Colleen, if you use quick oats just keep in mind that because they are are thinner and more powder-y the cookies won’t have the same texture.