The BEST Oatmeal Raisin Cookies: These chewy oatmeal cookies combine simple ingredients like quick oats, sugar, butter, flour, and raisins to create the BEST oatmeal raisin cookie ever!
Quick Overview: Mix dry ingredients, cream butter, and sugars and combine everything together. Chill the dough, roll into dough balls, and bake at 350°!
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
I think everyone needs a few recipes for classic cookies in their back pocket, and oatmeal raisin cookies are one of them!
This easy oatmeal raisin cookies recipe requires simple ingredients you probably have in your pantry, it comes together in just over 30 minutes, and it gives you a chewy, soft oatmeal raisin cookie every time. It’s really the BEST oatmeal raisin cookie recipe ever!
These would make a perfect gift, too! Next time, make a double batch (or also make these banana chocolate cookies to give with them) and give some to your friends, family or neighbors (because who doesn’t love homemade cookies).
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Ingredients
The ingredients for this chewy oatmeal cookies recipe are ones you probably have in your house already, but if you don’t you can for sure find them at your local grocery store!
Every good oatmeal raisin cookie needs:
- ¾ cup quick oats (aka instant oats)
- 8 tablespoons butter (unsalted, room temperature)
- ½ cup white sugar
- ¼ cup light muscovado sugar (can use dark or brown sugar)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 large egg (room temperature)
- ¾ cup all purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ⅔ cup raisins (can add more if you like)
Instructions
- Heat oven to 350 degrees f.
- Line 2 large cookie sheets with parchment paper or silicone mats and set aside.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, oats, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Mix well and set aside.
- With a hand mixer in a large bowl or in a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, beat the butter with both sugars until creamy, about 2 minutes.
(Note: I don’t recommend substituting brown sugar for white sugar entirely. It’s been tested and a mix of both gives the best results!)
- Add egg, vanilla and beat on low.
- Add the flour mixture in batches and mix on low until thoroughly combined.
- Stir in the raisins with a wooden spoon.
- For best results, put the dough in the freezer for 10-15 minutes until it resembles soft playdough. If you are short on time, you can still bake the cookies right away without chilling. (If you don’t chill them, the cookies will spread out more and may be a bit more crispy, but the flavor shouldn’t change.)
- Roll the dough into 12-13 balls (about 2 tablespoons of dough per ball), lay on the prepared baking sheets (don’t flatten them). Make sure there is about 2-3 inches between each cookie to allow for spreading.
- Bake cookies for 10-12 minutes. (If you need to make two batches, be sure to pop the dough back in the freezer while the first batch is baking)
- Let the cookies sit on the baking tray for a few minutes, then transfer them to a wire rack to cool to the touch. Enjoy the best oatmeal cookies ever!
Substitutions
- Light Muscovado Sugar – you can use dark muscovado sugar in place of light which will give the cookie more of a toffee like flavor due to its high molasses content. You could also use regular brown sugar in place of light muscovado, but know that muscovado melts beautifully and has very small sugar crystals that help the texture of the cookie.
- Egg – if you can’t have eggs, you can use a flax egg or chia egg in this recipe. It changes the taste a bit but it shouldn’t affect the texture of the cookie.
Variations
We think this cookie recipe is a classic and we love it just as it is, but if you want to change it up here are a few suggestions…
- Chocolate Chips – the most obvious suggestion is to add chocolate chips. You can add them in addition to the raisins (maybe reducing the raisins to ½ cup and adding ½ cup chocolate chips) or you can replace the raisins entirely!
- Other Chips – you could also replace the raising (half of the raisins or all of them) with other types of chips like white chocolate chips, dark chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, peanut butter chips…the options are endless!
- Coconut – if you like oatmeal cookies with a bit of coconut in them, you could try mixing in ¼ cup of unsweetened, shredded oatmeal. I haven’t tried this, but I bet it would be delicious (oatmeal and coconut are the perfect combination, in my opinion).
Storage
Store these oatmeal raisin cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to a week. You could also freeze these in an airtight, freezer-safe container for up to a month.
Freezing Oatmeal Raisin Cookie Dough Balls
Yes, you read that right! You can freeze the uncooked dough.
I like to form them into a ball, freeze them for 20 minutes on a plate lined with parchment paper then put them into a plastic freezer bag or freezer-safe container. Doing it this way they all freeze individually, and it is easier for me to pick only a few out when I am ready to cook them.
You can store these dough balls in the freezer for up to 6 weeks (which is perfect if you want to be able to whip up fresh cookies for company in mere minutes- just pop these in the oven and voila!).
Baking Frozen Cookie Dough
You have two options for baking frozen dough balls…
1. You put them on the prepared baking sheet and let them thaw, then you cook them as the recipe states, or
2. You lower the oven temperature by 15°, put the frozen dough on the prepared baking sheet and bake it for 3-5 minutes longer than the recipe says (watching closely at the end to see when they are done).
Expert Tips and FAQs
This isn’t necessary, but you sure can! If you want to make your cookies extra soft and your raisins extra plump, soak your raisins in some warm water for 10 minutes before adding them to the recipe.
Be warned: we haven’t tried this recipe with soaked raisins and we aren’t sure how it will affect the bake time.
Getting a nice, soft oatmeal raisin cookie has to do with the way you bake it! There are a few things to note:
1. If you don’t freeze your dough it will spread out faster, resulting in a flatter cookie with a crisp edge.
2. If you make your dough balls too small (and don’t reduce the baking time accordingly), the cookies will spread out more and become crispier.
3. DON’T OVERBAKE! The secret to a soft, chewy oatmeal raisin cookie is to just bake the cookies until they edges are golden brown and the middle looks set (not jiggly). Remember, you can always pop it back in the oven for a bit longer but you can’t un-bake a cookie.
This question is answered in detail just above, but the most likely reason for this is over-baking. Your cookies will also get hard if you don’t store them in an airtight container!
A few things contribute to this – making sure you don’t over-bake them, chilling the dough before baking, and using a white sugar/brown sugar mixture in the recipe!
If you want a softer cookie, be sure to use the white sugar and muscovado sugar listed in this recipe and watch the bake time carefully!
More great recipes like this one
If you’re looking for more easy cookie recipes your kids will love, you’ll really love these no bake chocolate oatmeal cookies, these ranger cookies, and these no bake energy bites with oats. Or, check out these new cookie recipes, here:
Recipe
The BEST Oatmeal Raisin Cookies
Ingredients
- ¾ cup quick oats
- 8 tablespoons butter unsalted, room temperature
- ½ cup white sugar
- ¼ cup light muscovado sugar can use dark or brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 large egg room temperature
- ¾ cup all purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ⅔ cup raisins can add more if you like
Instructions
- Heat oven to 350 degrees f.
- Line 2 large cookie sheets with parchment paper or silicone mats and set aside.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, oats, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Mix well and set aside.
- With a hand mixer in a large bowl or in a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, beat the butter with both sugars until creamy, about 2 minutes. (Note: I don’t recommend substituting brown sugar for white sugar entirely. It's been tested and a mix of both gives the best results!)
- Add egg, vanilla and beat on low.
- Add the flour mixture in batches and mix on low until thoroughly combined.
- Stir in the raisins with a wooden spoon.
- For best results, put the dough in the freezer for 10-15 minutes until it resembles soft playdough. If you are short on time, you can still bake the cookies right away without chilling. (If you don't chill them, the cookies will spread out more and may be a bit more crispy, but the flavor shouldn't change.)
- Roll the dough into 12-13 balls (about 2 tablespoons of dough per ball), lay on the prepared baking sheets (don’t flatten them). Make sure there is about 2-3 inches between each cookie to allow for spreading.
- Bake for 10-12 minutes. (If you need to make two batches, be sure to pop the dough back in the freezer while the first batch is baking)
- Let the cookies sit on the baking tray for a few minutes, then transfer them to a wire rack to cool to the touch. Enjoy!
Nutrition
Nutritional information is based on third-party calculations and should be considered estimates. Actual nutritional content will vary with brands used, measuring methods, portion sizes and more.
Deb says
I agree, the best Oatmeal cookies I’ve eaten!! Delicious!
Jessica says
So glad that you like them Deb! Thank you!
Paula says
How can you adjust if not using “quick” oats?
Jessica says
Hi Paula! I’ve used old fashioned oats in this recipe as well. They turn out really chewy, which I love. I hope that helps!
Bunga says
This recipe is really easy to make. And taste wonderful! Since I have all the ingredients at home, I made it right away.. I also add sliced almond 😊
Jessica says
Oh this is WONDERFUL to hear! Thank you so much for sharing that you liked these oatmeal raisin cookies too! Adding the sliced almonds sounds amazing.
Eden says
These were so great! Chewy and flavorful, loved them!
Kara says
Nice and chewy. I put Craisins in half of them for my family that doesn’t like raisins, and those were tasty too!
April says
These really are the best! Perfectly sweetened and chewy – absolute yum!