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
These are the absolute best chewy oatmeal cookies I’ve ever had! Thank you!
I loved this recipe so much I make it for my husband all the time! He has recently become diabetic and obviously these contain a lot of sugar is there anyway I can use this same recipe and just use a sugar substitute for the white and brown sugar? I would hate to find a new recipe as this one is so loved!
Hi Jennifer! We’re so glad these cookies are a favorite. We’d love to help but we are not trained in baking with sugar substitutes. 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!
These are the best. Didn’t last long enough to store.
Two questions! Does this recipe use the same oats variety as your iced oatmeal cookie recipe? And, these oats should *not* be pulsed but left whole, correct?
Hi Kathleen, this recipe uses whole oats, but we do not pulse them in this recipe. We leave them whole for the ultimate hearty, chewy, thick texture.
To make these GF, can you substitute OneForOne flour? Or are other modifications necessary?
Hi Karen, we haven’t tested these cookies using gluten free flour, so we’re unsure of the results. Let us know if you do give it a try.
The flavor is great, but they thinned out too much while baking and looked more like an oatmeal cookie brittle. They fell apart. Not sure why. My butter was cool and I followed the recipe. Do you know why this would happen?
Hi Sheri, If you try the recipe again you can let them cool for longer on baking sheets before transferring to a wire rack. The cookies will continue to “set” on the baking sheet during this time.
Delicious! Followed recipe exactly. Cookies maintained drop shape, chewy inside and lightly crispy outside. Will make again!
Great Recipe. Hadn’t seen the recipe called for molasses and it took me back Turns out makes a great soft chewy cookie
The recipe are the perfect chewiness even after a few days! I have used this recipe multiple times.
Great recipe! But I have one question: What kind of heat are you using ? Circulating air heat or traditional standard heating?
Hi Geo, 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.
I changed to 50% receipe; used 1/2c Ben sugar, 1/4 c coconut palm sugar ( less sweet but same volume)… added a bit of ground cardamom seeds…soaked raisins in Kraken Spiced rum ( made rum/ pineapple cocktail with the raisin rum!)… best oatmeal cookie I EVER had!
This recipe is terrific! The only addition I made was more cinnamon. It is a keeper!
These are great!I What should the internal temp be on the finished cookies?
Hi Dave, I don’t typically determine cookies’ doneness using a thermometer, but if you are curious, for bacterial purposes, it’s always good to bake items to at least 160°F (71°C) to ensure the bacteria is killed. (And these certainly will get there in this amount of time.)
Love these cookies just as written. However, am wondering if I can use chocolate chips in place of raisins for those grandkids that don’t fall into our raisin loving category?
Hi Tamara, absolutely! We swap for chocolate chips in these chocolate chip oatmeal cookies all the time.
Me and my family absolutely loved this recipe. The only adjustment I made was using golden raisins and that turned out great.
Have you ever tried steel cut oats/Irish oats in this cookie recipe? How would you adapt it?
Hi John, old-fashioned whole oats are essential for this recipe- they provide the ultimate hearty, chewy, thick texture we love. We don’t recommend using steel cut or Irish oats here.
These are the best oatmeal raisin cookies I’ve ever had. I followed the recipe exactly and wouldn’t change a thing. They got rave reviews at my work. Will keep this one for sure!
Love this recipe! Used dried cranberries and white chocolate chips. My husband said best cookies ever!!!!
Great cookies. Will use this recipe again. (I used currants which I often use instead of raisins. Sometimes hard to find.)
My whole family loves these cookies. I can’t keep them in the house.!
Can I make these but spread in a 9 x 13 pan?
Hi Laurie, we haven’t tried these as bars, but they should work! We’re unsure of the exact bake time.
Husband’s favorite cookie! He loves cinnamon so I triple the amount.
great recipe turned out exactly as described, these are not overly sweet. Soaking the raisins is great advice.
FINALLY A GREAT OATMEAL RAISIN COOKIE!
These are hearty and filling cookies, however, for me they seemed to lack spice flavor. I doubled the cinnamon and also added 1/4 tsp of cardamon and 1/4 tsp of allspice, based on other reviews (all my spices were replaced within the last month). They were more like a granola type of cookie/bar. I did enjoy them and will make them again.
This is a great recipe. 🙂 just as described
These are the best oatmeal raisin cookies and so easy to make. I like to change up the mix-ins and my favorite combo has been toffee chips and toasted pecans. It’s just the two of us so I just halve the ingredients and the cookies come out perfectly every time.
I really want to try these, but I’m not fond of raisins. How about dried cherries? Craisins?
Hi Mary, absolutely, you can use the same amount of dried cherries or craisins in place of the raisins.
These cookies are so good. I like that they’re not real sweet, just right. I will be making these for my family and friends for many years to come. Thank you Sally.
I made a split batch of these today! Half to recipe, half with choc chips and almonds instead of raisins. What a hit with family and friends! Delicious and tender!