Oatmeal Cookies Recipe

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This simple recipe gives you easy oatmeal cookies with three different flavor options. Plain, oatmeal raisin, or oatmeal chocolate chip!

Oatmeal Cookies

Oatmeal cookies are an American classic. They started out as oatmeal raisin cookies and have evolved over time. But no matter what version you enjoy most, they are good just about any way you make them.

Most research found that the first recorded oatmeal raisin cookie recipe was written by Fannie Merritt Farmer in 1896. Considered a health food, the cookies quickly became popular. By the early 1900s, a recipe for the delicious treats appeared on containers of Quaker Oats.

Source: National Day Calendar

The recipe below is a base recipe for plain oatmeal cookies. But I also give you options for additions.

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

If you just can’t imagine an oatmeal cookie without raisins, you’ll be happy to know they are easy to add here.

• Light raisins – Add 1 cup of raisins to this dough
• Medium raisins – Add 1 ½ cups raisins
• Heavy raisins – Add 2 cups of raisins to the dough

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

Some people prefer oatmeal cookies to be a true dessert cookie instead of something that tastes like breakfast. If that’s you, chocolate chips are super easy to substitute here.

Recipe tip: Stir the chocolate chips into the dry mix instead of kneading them in at the end. Coating the chocolate chips in dry flour before adding wet ingredients has been reportedly said to help keep them from sinking to the bottom during baking.

I have tested this theory, and while there isn’t a huge difference with cookies (it’s more noticeable in things like cakes or larger baked goods), it does seem to help somewhat.

Oatmeal Peanut Butter Cookies

If you like a little peanut butter with your oatmeal cookies, you’ll be happy to know that that is totally doable here too.

Simply add ½ a cup of natural peanut butter (no sugar added) to the dough.

If you want the texture of whole peanuts, chop up about ½ a cup of peanuts in addition to the peanut butter and knead those into the dough.

Your dough will be a little softer from the peanut butter and may need to bake a minute or two longer, but test the first batch and see. Mine did fine with the regular baking time mentioned in the recipe.

Gluten Free Options

As with many gluten-free recipes, as long as you make sure your individual ingredients are gluten-free, these will be naturally gluten-free because they don’t contain any wheat flour. So just make sure you get oats and oat flour labeled gluten-free, as well as any other ingredients that may be of concern and these will be totally gluten-free.

Fiber In Oatmeal Cookies

Lots of people think that eating oatmeal cookies is healthier because of the fiber in the oats. While this may be true in part, please keep in mind that it’s still a sweetened dessert.

That being said, there are 4 grams of fiber in 1 cup of oats. There are 3 cups of oats in this recipe and the yield is 22 cookies if you use a uniform scoop. So that’s roughly half a gram of fiber per cookie.

That’s not a terribly high amount of fiber, but it all adds up, so it’s better than none at all!

What You’ll Need

• 2 cups oat flour – You can buy this or grind your own oats at home. Just make sure you get a fine grind, or these will become far too crumbly. Use gluten free oats if needed.
  
• 1½ cups granular sweetener – I used brown xylitol because that’s what works best for my blood sugar. But easy alternatives here are Sucanat, coconut sugar, maple sugar or even monk fruit.
  
• 2 tsp. baking powder – Make sure it’s fresh! Old baking powder loses it’s potency and won’t do the job it’s supposed to do.
  
• ½ tsp. salt – I used pink Himalayan salt, but use whatever salt you have on hand.
  
• 3 cups old fashioned oats – Do not substitute for other types of oats. Quick cooking oats or steel cut will not work here. Again, use gluten free if needed.
  
• 1 cup coconut oil – If you can have dairy, you can substitute with 1 cup of butter if you wish. I used virgin coconut oil.
  
• 3 large eggs – Some people believe the eggs should be room temperature. But I took mine straight from the fridge and it was just fine. If you happen to have some at room temperature, great!
  
• 2 tsp. maple extract – Much like vanilla extract, you’ll want the pure stuff here. You don’t want maple flavoring. Get the real stuff.
  
• 2 tsp. pure vanilla extract – I used bourbon vanilla, but any type of real vanilla you have on hand will work well here.

How To Make Oatmeal Cookies

Preheat oven to 350 F.

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together all the dry ingredients.

Add in the wet ingredients and stir until it becomes too difficult to stir the dough together.

Knead with your hands. Add any additions you want to add if doing so.

Scoop the dough out onto parchment-lined cookie sheets.

Flatten the cookies with your hand.

Bake for 15-20 minutes. Cool completely before eating.

How To Store Cookies

As long as you keep these in an air-tight container, oatmeal cookies will store at room temperature for about 2 days.

They will keep in the fridge for up to a week in an air-tight container.

Can You Freeze Oatmeal Cookies?

Yes, you can! Again, you’ll need to keep them in an air-tight container. They can be in the freezer for up to 1 month. If you keep them in the freezer any longer than that, they will start to lose flavor, and eventually texture as well.

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More Homemade Cookie Recipes

• Easy Snickerdoodles
• Peanut Butter Cookies
• Cut Out Cookies

Oatmeal Cookies Recipe

Recipe adapted from Sally’s Baking Addiction