Learn how to make the best oatmeal raisin cookies with this easy recipe. These chewy oatmeal raisin cookies are flavoured with dark brown sugar, cinnamon, spices, and walnuts for a flavourful cookie that does not disappoint!
Baked goods with raisins have such a nostalgic quality to them, whether they're in easy crispy oatmeal raisin cookies or cinnamon rolls with raisins.
These oatmeal raisin cookies are thick and chewy and have a similar texture to my favourite oatmeal cookies with chocolate and peanuts. They are less finicky to make than these thick and chewy oatmeal cookies, which are baked in a muffin tin to keep them thick. And if you prefer a cake oatmeal cookie, try these banana oatmeal cookies made with rolled oats, mashed banana, chocolate chips, and toasted nuts.
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Recipe Ingredients
Oatmeal cookies are a great recipe because you likely have all the ingredients you need in your fridge and pantry at any time, so you can make these without a special trip to the store!
- butter—I used unsalted butter in this recipe. If using salted butter, you may need to adjust the salt added in the recipe to compensate.
- sugar—specifically granulated sugar and dark brown sugar for a chewy texture
- eggs—use large eggs to achieve the right cookie dough consistency
- baking soda—remember that baking soda is not the same as baking powder. If you are unsure why, read about baking soda versus baking powder.
- flour—I bake with bleached all-purpose flour, but in this recipe, unbleached should work fine
- oats—use rolled oats (or large flake oats), also called old-fashioned oats—don't use quick-cooking oats or minute oats, or steel-cut oats which will affect the texture
- spices—ground cinnamon and ginger work great here
- raisins—I like to use sultana or golden raisins
- nuts—I prefer walnuts in this recipe, personally
See recipe card for exact quantities.
Tip: use large flake or rolled oats, sometimes called old-fashioned oats. Finer quick-cooking or minute oats will change the texture of these and may lead to dryer cookies, while steel-cut oats are much too hard and coarse for cookies.
Substitutions and Variations
- nuts—replace the walnuts with your favourite chopped nuts. You could use pecans or almonds, or even peanuts! Use the same weight of your preferred nut.
- nut-free—replace the walnuts with the same weight of sunflower or pumpkin seeds (my personal preference) to make nut-free oatmeal raisin cookies
- chocolate chip—replace the raisins with the same volume of chocolate chips to make oatmeal chocolate chip cookies
- cranberry or cherry—replate the raisins with the same weight of dried cranberries or dried cherries
Remember that 1 cup of chocolate chips doesn't weigh the same as 1 cup of walnuts, so for some substitutions, you will make cup-for-cup substitutions, while for others, you may make a gram-for-gram swap. Get this ingredient conversion chart to guide you!
How To Make Oatmeal Raisin Cookies
I like to mix cookie dough using an electric mixer, either a hand mixer or a small stand mixer.
Step 1: Before making the cookies, preheat the oven to toast the walnuts (image 1) as soon as possible. You want the toasted walnuts to cool down before incorporating them in the cookie dough so you need to do this first.
Step 2: Whisk together the dry ingredients in a small bowl using a Danish dough whisk (image 2).
Step 3: Combine the butter and sugars in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment (image 3) (or in a bowl with an electric hand mixer). Mix these ingredients until well mixed.
Step 4: Add the egg and the vanilla to the mixer bowl (image 5) and beat them in until the mixture is light and fluffy (image 6). Stir in the dry ingredients (image 7) and then the toasted walnuts and raisins (image 8).
Step 5: The cookie dough will be thick once you've incorporated all the ingredients (image 9). Use a 1-¼ ounce scoop to portion even scoops of the dough (image 10). Each scoop should weigh roughly 40 grams. You should get about 22 cookies from this recipe.
Step 6: Place 8 on a parchment-lined half-sheet pan, pressing the scoops down with the palm of your hand to flatten them (image 11).
Step 7: Once you've flattened all 8 cookies on your half-sheet pan (image 12), place them in the oven and bake the cookies until the cookies look set (about 10–12 minutes).
Top Tip
Oatmeal cookies don't spread as much as regular chocolate chip cookies, especially if they have a lot of oats, walnuts, and raisins, as in the recipe below. Use the palm of your hand to flatten the scoops of dough! This will increase the surface area of dough in contact with the sheet pan and help the cookies spread out a little more in the oven.
Oatmeal Cookie FAQs
For a crispier cookie, use less brown sugar and more granulated sugar, add a little more baking soda (¾ teaspoon or even 1 tsp) to help the cookies spread, or use less flour and fewer oats, nuts, and raisins to make the cookies thinner.
I always store cookies in an airtight container in a cool dry place or a resealable plastic bag (with the air removed). Unfortunately, oatmeal cookies dry out after 2–3 days, so your best bet would be to freeze the freshly baked cookies in a freezer bag or better yet, freeze the portioned-out cookie dough and bake a few when you want fresh cookies.
I have tested using a terracotta brown sugar saver soaked in water for 20 minutes. Pat it dry and then add the terracotta disk to your container of cookies. After 24 hours, the cookies will soften. They will be chewy but not as dry and hard as before. This trick works very well!
Other Oatmeal Cookies to Try
For a twist on the classic oatmeal raisin cookies, try these:
- blueberry oatmeal cookies made with chunks of white chocolate!
- thick and chewy oatmeal cookies made with milk chocolate and peanuts
- date squares, which are bars with a thick layer of date sandwiched between layers of a crumbly oat cookie
If you tried this recipe for oatmeal raisin cookies (or any other recipe on my website), please leave a ⭐ star rating and let me know how it went in the comments below. I love hearing from you!
📖 Recipe
Soft and Chewy Oatmeal Raisin Cookies
Ingredients
- 115 grams walnuts chopped
- 125 grams bleached all-purpose flour
- 150 grams rolled oats (or large flake oats) also called old fashioned oats
- 5 mL Diamond Crystal fine kosher salt
- 5 mL ground cinnamon
- 2.5 mL ground ginger
- 2.5 mL baking soda
- 1.25 mL ground nutmeg
- 115 grams unsalted butter softened
- 150 grams dark brown sugar
- 50 grams granulated sugar
- 1 large egg(s)
- 10 mL pure vanilla extract
- 160 grams sultana raisins
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 °F (175 °C) and line a couple of baking sheets with parchment.
- Place the walnuts on a sheet pan and toast them until golden brown (about 10–15 minutes). Set aside to cool completely.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, oats, salt, and spcies.
- In the bowl of an electric mixer, fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and the sugars for about a minute or until properly blended and smooth, then add the egg and vanilla, scraping down the bowl as needed with a spatula.
- Add the whisked dry ingredients to the mixer, on low, until the cookie dough is just starting to come together, then add in the raisins and toasted walnuts.
- Portion out the cookie dough and place 8 per prepared baking sheet. Flatten the scoops down with your palm.
- Bake the cookies until set, 10 to 12 minutes, depending on how well done you like them. Personally, I leave them until the edges turn golden brown.
- Let the cookies sit on the sheet pan for a minute to firm up before transferring the cookies to a wire rack to cool.
Notes
- Store these cookies in an airtight container.
- If the cookies dry out after a few days, you can soften them with a soaked terracotta brown sugar keeper. Blot it dry after soaking, and then place the brown sugar saver in the cookie container and close the lid. After a day, the cookies will have softened. They will remain pleasantly chewy but won't be as hard and brittle!
- For a thinner, crispier oatmeal cookie, try increasing the baking soda (use ¾ or 1 teaspoon) and/or decreasing the flour and/or oats, or omitting the walnuts. Or better yet, follow this crispy oatmeal raisin cookie recipe.
- If you don't love raisins (or walnuts), try dried cranberries or cherries, chopped chocolate, pecans or almonds. For a nut-free oatmeal cookie, use sunflower seeds or pumpkin seeds instead of nuts.
- Please note that I bake with uncoated aluminum sheet pans that are light in colour. If you are baking this recipe with darker bakeware, you may have to drop the oven temperature by 25 °F in order to prevent your baked goods from browning too quickly.
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