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
I made this recipe today for my son. He loves it. This is def a keeper. Solid
AMAZING! These cookies are excellent. Made them 2x so far – followed the recipe to the dot except that I chilled the dough overnight due time constrain. Before baking, I let it sit at room temp for for 1.5 hrs and 5 hrs resp. – both times came out perfect. Thank you – this recipe became a staple!
Hello! I use Sally’s recipes and without fail they are amazing. Today my spouse baked these oatmeal cookies. They are not as expected, not chewy but cakey. Tom is a novice baker and I don’t want to criticize his efforts; but I am wondering what could be the issue. Any thoughts are appreciated.
Hi Joann! Happy to help. Usually when cookies are thick and cakey, there’s been too much flour added to the dough. It is very important to spoon and level when measuring (or use a kitchen scale) instead of scooping the flour – this packs it in too much. You can read more about properly measuring baking ingredients if you wish!
Five star recipe. Used maple syrup instead of molasses and swapped out half of the butter with washed cannabutter. Came out perfect and soft; it smelled wonderful and tasted like heaven.
They never flattened, they remained the lumps of cookie dough I placed on the cookie sheets
I’m making these for the third time now and will use this recipe every time from now on! My family LOVES these! I added dried cranberries the first time because I didn’t have the whole cup of raisins, and guess what? Everybody loved them! Followed the recipe for everything else. Great recipe!!
These are absolutely the best oatmeal cookies I’ve ever had. So hard to find a good recipe. This one is a keeper, for sure
Thank you so much for making the recipe available to print easily. I will use your site exclusively for any baking issues/tools etc.
This recipe was great! I’ll be making these again.
These are definitely the best soft chewy oatmeal raisin cookies! I swap out the raisins for craisins and add cinnamon chips & or white chocolate chips to them. But the cinnamon chips really make them over the top good. To die for!!!
Awesome recipe. Thanks for the tip about the raisins in warm water. I’ve never heard of that before. I didn’t have molasses so I substituted pure maple syrup. I first used maple syrup in your maple cookie recipe and I love the flavor. These oatmeal raisin cookies turned out wonderful. Thanks Sally.
I put 5 stars
I think this is a good base recipe. I added the walnuts, chocolate chips, and more salt and they were really good. I also baked for 10min and that was plenty of time, 13-14 and they would have burnt. Could have been the smaller size of my cookies.
These are PERFECT! My daughter normally is not a fan of oatmeal cookies and LOVED them. They are perfectly chewy goodness. Do not overbake. Do as recipe says and let cool on pan for 5 minutes. You might think they’re raw, but they aren’t. Better the next day! I subbed 1 cup of white chocolate chips and a small bag of craisins and they were even better! I added a 1/2 tsp of pure orange extract as well. These cookies are LIMITLESS with possibilities. Leave the same, change add ins, either way you’ll love them.
Alter much ??
My “go-to never failed yet” recipe ! I use it so much my phone automatically pulls this recipe up. The cookies it produces are an exact dupe of the Wal-mart “gourmet” soft and chewy oatmeal raisin cookies that are ridiculously priced for 6. I’ve been refilling the plastic container and my family thinks I’m treating them every week to the gourmet cookies from the store Thank you for this recipe, it’s perfect and easy to follow!
I have used this recipe before and liked it. To save energy I unplugged my kitchen oven and bought a countertop convection oven. How do I adjust this recipe for use in a convection oven?
Hi John, We always recommend conventional settings for baking (not convection/fan). The flow of air from convection heat can cause baked goods to rise and bake unevenly and it also pulls moisture out of the oven. If you do use convection/fan settings for baking, lower your temperature by 25 degrees F and keep in mind that things may still take less time to bake.
Ok, I don’t usually bake (or write recipe reviews), but my wife was craving oatmeal raisin cookies, and I had all the ingredients on hand, so I thought “why not?” So glad I gave it a shot! This recipe is great – the little bit of molasses really makes a difference! I shared some with my neighbor, and right away he picked up something different, but was struggling to put his finger on it. Once I told him the secret ingredient, he snagged himself 2 more cookies lol. They came out crisp on the edges and chewy in the middle, the perfect texture, and my wife says they’re the best oatmeal raisin cookies she’s ever had. I’m going to have to bake another batch, because these will for sure be gone by the weekend.
I’m honesty disappointed..mine didn’t look like these pictures at all and I bake all the time..i decided to try a new recipe and I wish I hadn’t..they’re bland and they didn’t spread at all..what a waste of time
The cookies turned out GREAT! Crunchy and flavorful. I did change up some stuff due to lack of resources: I used 2.5 cups of oats, three tsp of baking powder instead of baking soda, and used cut-up dates instead of raisins. Nevertheless, they were the best cookies I’ve ever made! Going to make these in the future for sure. Thanks for sharing Sally and team!
I love baking, it’s my therapy for all things.your oatmeal cookie recipe is awesome. Thanks for sharing. I have a few recipes to share with you .if you’re interested.
Again thanks
Best Oatmeal Cookies I have ever made. They were a big hit at Christmas! I eat them for breakfast.
Amazing oatmeal cookies. The molasses really adds to a more brilliant flavor.
Cooked 10 minutes during the last batch much less dark on the bottom. Still at a 350 degree temp. Easy recipe , I did chill one hour as suggested. I did not have any spread and they were perfect since I used a cookie scoop. I
felt like they did not have much flavor. Someone help with suggestions to
make this recipe more flavorful.
Came out somewhat bland. I’d double the salt to 1 tsp next time if I make this again. 1/2 a tsp of salt for this large of a recipe seemed low to me.
Great recipe! I used Trader Joe’s vanilla paste instead of regular vanilla extract. I had to bake mine a bit longer but I think it’s because I made them bigger. I also added a slice of white bread to the container while storing and that old trick has made these cookies remain soft, chewy, and fresh for days.
You are the BEST! If I see your name that’s it , I found my recipe.
Love this recipe. Everyone loves it when I make them. Would love to know how many calories they have.
So disappointed. The cookies spread and were totally flat and hooked together.
Loved this so much! My absolute favorite cookies. Don’t change a thing about this recipe! Came out perfect!
Very yummy and easy to make. I felt like it was missing something though
Anything but soft and chewy… still a great cookie however not what I was expecting at all