Soft and chewy with that trademark homemade flavor, these are the best soft and chewy oatmeal raisin cookies. Made with brown sugar, vanilla, cinnamon, chewy oats, sweet raisins, and a secret ingredient, this recipe wins for flavor and texture. Your family will love these easy oatmeal raisin cookies!
There are two types of people in this world. Raisin haters and raisin lovers. I fall into the latter category. Besides homemade apple pie, oatmeal raisin cookies are my favorite dessert. There’s something incredibly magical about the chewy texture, soft centers, plump raisins, and cinnamon flavor. Please tell me I’m not the only raisin lover!!
What Makes These Oatmeal Raisin Cookies The Best
The competition is strong, but here’s why you’ll fall in love with these cookies.
- Moist and tender centers
- Slight crisp on the edges
- Sweetened with brown sugar
- Loaded with oats
- Studded with raisins
- Cinnamon spiced
- Buttery flavor
- 30 minute chill time
It doesn’t get much better than this!
Ingredients in Oatmeal Raisin Cookies
Oatmeal raisin cookies are made with very basic ingredients.
- 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) brown sugar has incredible flavor and (2) brown sugar contains more moisture than white, which produces a softer cookie.
- Eggs: Eggs help bind everything together. You need 2 eggs in this recipe.
- Pure Vanilla Extract + Salt: Both provide flavor.
- Cinnamon: Raisins, oats, and cinnamon are winning flavor combination.
- Baking Soda: Baking soda helps the cookies rise.
- Molasses: Molasses is my secret ingredient! 1 scant Tablespoon enhances all the wonderful flavors of these buttery, cinnamon-sweet oatmeal raisin cookies.
- Flour: Flour is the structure of the cookies.
- Oats: There are a ton of oats in this recipe! Oats provide a fabulously chewy texture. I use and recommend old fashioned whole oats here—just like I do for flourless peanut butter oatmeal cookies.
- Raisins: I love to soak the raisins in warm water before using. This step is optional, but it guarantees they are plump and soft. Blot dry before adding to cookie dough. (You can also use this cookie dough to make my white chocolate chip cherry oatmeal cookies.)
I like to add chopped walnuts. Nuts are totally optional but highly recommended. These simple ingredients combine to make the best oatmeal raisin cookies!
How to Make Oatmeal Raisin Cookies
There’s only a few steps between now and a batch of warm oatmeal cookies. 🙂
- Cream butter + sugars: Use a hand or stand mixer to cream the softened butter with both sugars until smooth, about 2 minutes on medium speed.
- Add eggs, vanilla, + molasses: Add eggs, then mix on high for about 1 minute until incorporated. Add vanilla and molasses, mix until combined.
- Dry ingredients: Mix flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt together in a separate bowl. Pour this into the wet ingredients. Combine together on low.
- Add the extras: Beat in the oats and raisins on low speed. Dough will be thick and sticky.
- Chill: Refrigerate the cookie dough for 30-60 minutes.
- Roll: Roll cookie dough into balls and place on a lined baking sheet. I love using these baking mats.
- Bake: Bake the cookies at 350°F (177°C) for 12-13 minutes until lightly browned. The cookies might look under-baked, but they will continue to set as they cool. This is the secret to a soft and chewy oatmeal raisin cookie!
Oatmeal Raisin Cookie Dough is Sticky
This oatmeal raisin cookie dough is sticky, so don’t be alarmed. The cookie dough needs to chill for about 30 minutes before baking. I don’t recommend keeping this cookie dough in the refrigerator for much longer because your cookies won’t spread. The oats will begin to absorb all of the wonderful moisture from the eggs, butter, and sugar and won’t expand as they bake. Sticky dough is good dough!
More Favorite Cookie Recipes
If you love these oatmeal raisin cookies, try any of these SOFT cookie recipes. You’ll wonder why you haven’t baked them sooner!
- Iced Oatmeal Cookies
- Peanut Butter Cookies
- Oatmeal Scotchies
- Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Soft & Thick Monster Cookies
- Maple Brown Sugar Cookies
- Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
Soft and Chewy Oatmeal Raisin Cookies
- Prep Time: 45 minutes
- Cook Time: 13 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour
- Yield: 26-30 cookies
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
Soft and chewy with that trademark homemade flavor, these are the best soft and chewy oatmeal raisin cookies. Your family will love these easy oatmeal raisin cookies!
Ingredients
- 1 cup (16 Tbsp; 226g) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- 1 cup (200g) packed light or dark brown sugar
- 1/4 cup (50g) granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs*
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 1 Tablespoon (15ml) unsulphured or dark molasses (do not use blackstrap; I prefer Grandma’s brand)
- 1 and 2/3 cups (209g) all-purpose flour (spooned & leveled)
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 and 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 3 cups (255g) old-fashioned whole rolled oats*
- 1 cup (140g) raisins (see Note below)
- optional: 1/2 cup (64g) chopped toasted walnuts
Instructions
- Using a hand mixer or a stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment, cream the softened butter and both sugars together on medium speed until smooth, about 3 minutes. (Here’s a helpful tutorial if you need guidance on how to cream butter and sugar.) Add the eggs and mix on high until combined, about 1 minute. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl as needed. Add the vanilla and molasses and mix on high until combined. Set aside.
- In a separate bowl, whisk the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt together. Add to the wet ingredients and mix on low until combined. Beat in the oats, raisins, and walnuts (if using) on low speed. Dough will be thick, yet very sticky. Chill the dough for 30-60 minutes in the refrigerator (do the full hour if you’re afraid of the cookies spreading too much). If chilling for longer (up to 2 days), allow to sit at room temperature for at least 30 minutes before rolling and baking.
- Preheat oven to 350°F (177°C). Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats. Set aside.
- Roll balls of dough (about 2 tablespoons of dough per cookie) and place 2 inches apart on the baking sheets. I recommend using a cookie scoop since the dough can be sticky. Bake for 12-14 minutes until lightly browned on the sides. The centers will look very soft and under-baked. Remove from the oven and let cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely. The cookies will continue to “set” on the baking sheet during this time.
Notes
- Make Ahead & Freezing Instructions: Cookies stay fresh covered at room temperature for up to 1 week. Baked cookies freeze well—up to three months. Unbaked cookie dough balls freeze well—up to three months. Bake frozen cookie dough balls for an extra minute, no need to thaw. Here’s how to freeze cookie dough.
- Special Tools (affiliate links): Electric Mixer (Handheld or Stand) | Baking Sheets | Silicone Baking Mats or Parchment Paper | Cookie Scoop | Cooling Rack
- Oats: For these oatmeal raisin cookies, I use old-fashioned whole oats. They provide the ultimate hearty, chewy, thick texture we love!
- Eggs: Room temperature eggs preferred. Good rule of thumb: always use room temperature eggs when using room temperature butter.
- Raisins: Soak your raisins in warm water for 10 minutes before using (blot very well to dry them) – this makes them nice and plump for your cookies.
- Adapted from Loaded Oatmeal Cookies & Oatmeal Creme Pies. Recipe originally published on Sally’s Baking Addiction in 2014.
Reader Comments and Reviews
Hi! What kind of molasses should be used here? Please give top 3 in order 🙂
We like to use regular dark molasses here, but a mild or even blackstrap (but only if you really like the very dark flavor!) will work here. Enjoy!
I havent tried these yet but will this week. Im halfing your recipe and want to make them vegan. I want to use a mashed banana instead of the egg. Do think that will be ok? I noticed this recipe calls for no water,milk or oil, if substituting for a egg should i add oil/water/milk? I would appreciate any help thanks
Hi Rachel, We haven’t tested these cookies with any vegan substitutes, so sorry! Would love to hear how they go if you give it a try.
I need a smaller cookie. I want to make them with 1 Tbsp dough, and reduce the baking time, starting at 8 min and watching carefully. Do you have any advice from your testing with a smaller cookie?
Hi Lisa, Just keep a very close eye so they don’t over-bake. Enjoy!
Trina, I love Sally’s recipes and I don’t usually change a thing. I just have a need for a smaller cookie for a cookie box I’m making. I’m going to test a few out and watch carefully. I agree, this is a cookie that will not be good if overbaked.
Made these Sunday to be shipped to my sister-in-law who needed a pick me up❤️. They should arrive Thursday. Kept a few for my pleasure, delicious and easy to make. Followed directions as is …love Sallys recipes.
These really are the best flavor ever. I usually am not a fan of oatmeal raisin cookies. I make them because my husband loves them. I love these coikies!!
Thanks! Delicious Oatmeal cookies! Second time I tried them. Bake half, freeze the other half of the dough.
Made these cookies and did a split batch between raisin/nut and chocolate chip/butterscotch. OMG… I have to say this is best recipe I have ever made. Your instructions and the way you lay out your ingredients ‘why to’s’ and tips are great and easy to follow. Thank you! Instead of soaking the raisins in hot water I soaked them in bourbon overnight. The flavor didn’t transfer as much as I hoped, but the plumping of them was such a nice touch to the texture. I’ll be trying other recipes for sure.
Best oatmeal cookies ever. Thank you for this wonderful recipe.
Thank you Sally. I love this cookie recipe. So delicious BUT if using rolled oats, which is what I usually have on hand, there has to be an adjustment. I’ve tried the recipe 4 or 5 times until I got it right. If using rolled oats, you must press down the rolled balls of dough to a cookie size. Then you must bake half the time, only 6-7 minutes. This is the only way they turned out like your picture and chewy.
Best Oatmeal Raisin Cookies ever! I even bought the Molasses. Love the flavor and the texture. They were a big hit. I am going to have to double the recipe next time.
I’m 46 years old and these are the best cookies I’ve ever baked in my life. Perfect.
These are the very best! Definitely worth the extra time to soak the raisins, and toast the walnuts! Also, the molasses is a GREAT addition. Thanks for a great recipe!
I followed the recipe exactly, and these cookies did not spread at all. The flavour was good, but it would have been better to flatten them a bit.
Hi RB! Thank you so much for giving these cookies a try. It could be a variety of things such as the oats soaking up more liquid or the weather being too dry. If you try the recipe again, we recommend you reduce the flour by a couple Tbsp or removing 1/4 cup of oats from the recipe. Less dry ingredients = more spread.
I made these cookies today, and WOW! I am never ever ever gonna bake any other cookies again! They are the best oatmeal raisin cookies I have ever tasted.
Thank you so much for sharing this recipe with us!
I will make these the rest of my life, and share them with family members too.
Thanks again!
These cookies are amazing. It’s now my go to recipe. All of your recipes I have tried are now my favorite. Thanks for sharing.
Here it is March 9th, 2021 at 2:40 am (lol) … baking cookies!!!! This is a keeper!!!! thx for the recipe.
I used freeze dried crushed cranberries instead of raisins. Awesome!!!!!
I made these cookies but they flattened super, super thin. Had wonderful flavor, but I’m wondering why they spread and flattened out to almost a paper thin? Any advice for the rest of my cookies that I froze so they don’t bake paper thin?
Hi Daphne, there are a few different possibilities as to why your cookies were overspreading. We recommend taking a look at this blog post on 5 Cookie Baking Tips to Improve Your Next Batch — see #2 for “How to Prevent Excess Spreading”. Hope this helps!
Sally, this is a very good recipe, and while I enjoyed the extra flavor that the molasses adds to the cookies, I found the baking time for my oven a little too long. Maybe I made my cookies too small but the first batch I baked at 12 minutes we’re very brown. I adjusted the second batch to bake at only 10 minutes and they came out fine.
Delicious cookie, not too sweet, nice chew to it. I definately agree with you about the “secret ingredient” …the molasses definately enhances the flavours, making it a little bit different from all the other oatmeal cookie recipes:) Thank you for putting a little spin on the oatmeal cookie!
I was tired of having dry oatmeal raisin cookies. This recipe is phenomenal! So moist. The flavor is so good. Definitely a keeper recipe
Literally so delicious
These were absolutely delicious! I loved every aspect of the cookies, especially their amazing texture. Using less butter didn’t seem to affect the final product too much, which was a plus. Definitely going to make these again.
I have made a couple of your recipes before and they have always turned out well.
I was “surfing” your blog/recipes and found this one. I read all of your hints before making the cookies. They turned out fabulous! My husband loved them and a friend came by for a walk and also said they were great! Thank you.
While I was waiting for my butter to soften, I found your “helpful hints” and read several of them. I tried your method of heating water in the microwave to soften to butter. I also used the warm water to warm the eggs! Great suggestions that worked! I also followed your instructions and refrigerated my dough for 1.5 hours and as my friend (we are both fully vaccinated!) was here, I put the mixer bowl back in the refrigerator as we were sitting visiting. It worked. My cookies spread a little bit but not much. I am definitely going to follow you blog and I have 4-5 other cookie recipes to try soon. This is now my favorite baking blog!
Sally eres mi héroe, todas las recetas que he probado me salen perfectas y estas galletas de avena no son la excepción, mil gracias !!!
First ever time trying to make oatmeal and raisin cookies! They were amazing. My other half normally can’t stand this kind of cookie and is a convert!
I used black treacle instead of molasses
Really great cookies! I will definitely make them again.
I made your recipe today. Easy to follow and liked suggestions at the end of the recipe.
My question is the cookies did not flatten out much. They stayed more or less in a mound.
Is that because I used an ice cream scoop?
Hi Deb! It could be a variety of things such as the oats soaking up more liquid or the weather being too dry. If you try the recipe again, we recommend you reduce the flour by a couple Tbsp or removing 1/4 cup of oats from the recipe. Less dry ingredients = more spread.
These came out so good! Perfect taste and texture.
First time making cookies from scratch and I loved this recipe! I used maple syrup instead of molasses and they turned out great. People with complaints must not have followed the recipe ♀️
I absolutely love this recipe and so does everyone who’s eaten it so far. I have to stop myself from eating the whole batch! Lol
I’ve used this recipes many times and keep coming back to it. They came out great!