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 cookies turned out more doughy than chewey- any way to improve?
Hi A W, did they seem dry? How did you measure the flour and oats? Make sure to spoon and level (instead of scooping) to avoid packing in too much into your measuring cups – or use a kitchen scale. You can read more about properly measuring baking ingredients in this post.
I don’t have molasses. Is there something I can substitute or add more of to replace it?
Hi Kelli, you can leave the molasses out if needed.
What are the asterisks for beside eggs and oats?
Hi LKS, the asterisks indicate a corresponding note in the Recipe Notes section that comes right after the written recipe. For those particular notes: 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.
Don’t have molasses, ok to make without? Ok to use 1 minute oats?
Hi Lyn, you can omit the molasses and yes, quick/instant oats will work in a pinch (same amount), but your cookies won’t be as chewy since they absorb more liquid.
Hello! I have just 1.5 cops of oats at the moment. Can I just halve the ingredients in the recipe?
Hi Alka, yes, you can halve this recipe.
I use almost all of Sally’s recipes thank you
I haven’t made this yet. I have steel cut oatmeal. Can I use that?
Hi Sage, we don’t recommend steel cut oats for this recipe because they’re too coarse, but other bakers have reported success with the swap.
Your oven temp pre-heat should be step 1 in the instruction so you can mix while the oven is pre-heating.
Hi Mr. Chaos, this dough needs to chill for at least 30 minutes, so we don’t include the baking temperature right away. Let us know if you give these cookies a try!
Just tried this recipe and the cookies are amazing! Delicious! Soaking the raisins was such a great tip. Thank you for another delicious recipe. I’m a little new at this and your way of explaining every detail is so helpful.
I already provided my comments. I forgot to rate the cookies. 5 stars and then some!
The oatmeal raisins cookies is my best cookies I’ve ever bake and eaten before. The recipe is definitely on point if you follow it exactly. They will be soft and chewy, and rich in unspeakable flavor, they don’t break up if you let them cool accordingly. Just follow the directions! Hat’s off to Ms. Sally!
P.S. I also used your recipe to bake some first time dynamite chocolate Soft and chewy chips cookies and they were also unspeakable and unbelievable bursting with flavor holds together perfectly! Hat’s off again to Ms. Sally!
This recipe is my favorite one!! I’ve made it twice and both times are amazing! I did change it a bit by doing half raisins and half craisins. It was definitely a good idea!! 10/10
I was disappointed with this recipe, certainly not chewy. Would not make it again.
They taste good, but they’re not chewy. Not sure why…I followed the recipe exactly. They are more cakey and I really wanted chewy cookies! Oh well. I love your recipes and always come to your website when looking for something to make.
I make this every weekend and freeze so my husband has some to make for work as needed. l love this recipe, it turns out great every time!
Yes,these were a hit!! I’ll be baking these again
Hi bakers – I need your help, I really would like to use this recipe, just unclear about what to do regarding the “chill” portion. I posted earlier but do not see it so I post again. Could someone explain the following: “ 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.” vs. “ 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), …”. Thank you so much!
Hi Lee! The cookie dough needs to chill for at least 30 minutes. You can chill for longer if you have issues with your cookies spreading, but any longer than 60 minutes will lead to cookies that don’t spread enough. Happy baking!
So then chilling the dough for two days will ruin the cookies, because at that point the cookies will not turn out so well? I don’t think you answered question, you repeated the first part of your instruction and left out the rest. “I don’t recommend keeping this cookie dough in the refrigerator for much longer because your cookies won’t spread”. Thank you much Trina!
Hi Lee, the dough wouldn’t be ruined, it would just be too hard to roll the dough balls after chilling that long. That’s why Sally says “If chilling for longer (up to 2 days), allow to sit at room temperature for at least 30 minutes before rolling and baking.” Hope this makes sense!
Did anyone else’s cookies turn out really domed, rather than flat? I’m leaving them in for another minute, and thinking maybe they’ll fall in the cooling process?
My cookies turned out so spongey and cakey.. I don’t know what I did wrong 🙁
So good!!!
take 5 stars sally
I loved this recipe so much
These are delicious. I used about 1/2 butter and 1/2 olive oil, because that’s what I had on hand. I’m not an oatmeal raisin type of person, but my husband is. After lunch there seems to be about 6 less than we started with!
What can I use as substitute for molasses?
Hi Jan! You can leave it out if you don’t have any.
Thank you!
I used honey. The same amount. It was perfect.
This is THE BEST oatmeal raisin cookie recipe I have ever tried! I can’t make them fast enough!
Great cookie recipe! I would definitely add more cinnamon next time.
Disappointing. Followed recipe exactly and they turned out bland and doughy.
The 40+ people at an event LOVED these cookies. I did make some changes but the base recipe is so dang good you can really go a bit wild with the add-ons. No raisins, so I used dried blueberries and lemon bits I soaked. Used lemon extract and cut back a bit on the cinnamon. Big wow. Gotta add I’m a big fan of Sally.
Lemon blueberry oatmeal cookies–great idea!
I love making these cookies for my friends
You are my go to Baker and every recipe I’ve used from you comes out perfect! Thank you!
This is a very tasty very simple recipe. I made a few adjustments based on what I wanted. I replaced an extra tblsp of vanilla for the molasses. I used golden raisins as dark and I soaked the raisins in a jar with coconut rum.