Learn how to make the best oatmeal chocolate chip cookies with this easy recipe. The dough for these chocolate chip cookies doesn't have to rest or chill before baking so you can make the cookies as soon as the dough is mixed. I like to add chopped salted peanuts to these.

What makes the best chocolate chip cookies? Or the best oatmeal cookie? This is such a loaded question and any answer goes because the truth is: my best oatmeal cookie recipe or perfect chocolate chip cookie recipe might not be your favourite. There are certain characteristics in a cookie that I look for that you might hate. The perfect cookie is subjective, and the answers are infinite, with no right or wrong.
I suspect these oatmeal chocolate chip cookies will rival my all-time favourite chocolate chip cookies, which are spelt flour chocolate chip cookies and these chocolate chip cookies with pecans.
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What You Need to Make Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
- butter—I tested this recipe with unsalted butter. If using salted butter, you may want to adjust the amount of salt in the dough.
- sugar—I used a combination of white granulated sugar and dark brown sugar.
- eggs—this recipe was developed with large eggs
- vanilla—I tested this recipe with pure vanilla extract. You can use artificial, but you may want to add less because it can be more potent
- flour—I tested this recipe with bleached all-purpose flour though unbleached will likely work fine
- oats—use large flake oats, also called rolled oats or old-fashioned oats. Do not use minute oats or quick oats which have a finer texture
- salt—I bake with Diamond Crystal Fine Kosher salt. If using regular table salt, add half the amount or the cookies may be too salty
- leavening—the cookie dough is made with baking soda, not baking powder. Do not substitute one for the other. They are not interchangeable without adjustments
- chocolate—I made these cookies with milk chocolate, specifically a 41% Alunga milk chocolate from Cacao Barry, which comes in 1-kilo resealable bags and is sold at IGA grocery stores in Quebec, as well as online via Vanilla Food Company
- nuts—I love the combination of peanuts with the milk chocolate chips. I used salted roasted peanuts to bump up the flavour.
Please see the recipe card for the exact ingredients and quantities.
Substitutions and Variations
Remember that in order to achieve the right texture and spread, you cannot omit an ingredient without making an adjustment elsewhere in the recipe:
- Chocolate—You can make these with white, milk, or dark chocolate, either chocolate chips or higher quality chocolate bars. Read about the types of chocolate for baking if you need more info to guide you when you are shopping for chocolate to bake with.
- Nuts—I used salted roasted peanuts but any nut will work. If you want to skip the nuts, increase the amount of chocolate or the cookies will spread more.
How to Make The Best Oatmeal Cookies
Oatmeal cookies are so easy to make. Here's how to make them with peanuts and chocolate chips:
Step 1—Combine the butter and sugars in a stand mixer (image 1) before adding the egg and vanilla (image 2). Mix these ingredients well together so that it's light and cream (image 3).
Step 2—In a separate bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients with the oats (image 4), then add them to the mixer (image 5). Finally, add the chocolate chips and nuts (image 6) and mix the dough until everything is evenly incorporated (image 7).
Step 3—Use a disher to portion out all the cookie dough, smoothing each of the 22 scoops into 22 balls using the palms of your hands.
Step 4—Place 8 scoops of cookie dough per half sheet pan, evenly spacing them. Press each one slightly to flatten the scoops out a little and then bake them until the edges begin to set.
Oatmeal Cookie Baking Tips
If you want chewy-gooey cookies, bake these for less time. If you want a more crisp outcome, bake them longer, until the edges are golden-brown. Remember you can always bake a test cookie on a mini sheet pan to test how the cookies will turn out and adjust your baking time accordingly.
Chewy cookies are highly sought-after for good reasons. Here are some ways to increase the chew factor in your oatmeal cookies to :
- Use brown sugar instead of white sugar because brown sugar will add a certain tenderness and softness to the dough while white sugar will lead to a crisp, dry cookie texture. Brown sugar also adds a lot more flavour which helps to balance out the flavour of the egg in cookies too! I like to bake with a mix of white and brown sugar for the perfect chewy cookie texture and sweet flavour.
- Oats increase the chewiness of cookies by adding a texture but also because they reduce spreading
- Bake the cookies until they are set but don't overbake the cookies and don't underbake the cookies either
- overbaked cookies will be dryer, hard, and crisper
- underbaked cookies will be softer, gooey-er in the middle
- Avoid silicone bakeware for chewy cookies: silicone bakeware results in less browning and also in softer cookies. For soft cookies, use a silicone mat between the sheet pan and the cookies. For chewy or crispy cookies, use parchment.
The tricks to baking thicker cookies that don't spread when baked:
- make a thicker dough with a higher proportion of dry ingredients and lots of add-ins (oats, chocolate, peanuts) which will impede cookie spread.
- chill the dough before baking, which means it will take longer for the butter in the dough to "melt" in the oven. Cookie spread is a balance of melting and setting. Read all about why we chill cookie dough and what it does.
- increase the baking temperature so that the exterior of the cookie sets before the cookie has time to spread.
Tip: If you struggle with flat cookies, read about the reasons cookies spread.
Oatmeal Cookie FAQs
If you ever have cookies that burn on the bottom and stay raw in the middle, the problem could be the material of your sheet pan (dark bakeware absorbs more heat), your oven temperature, or even too much baking soda in your recipe.
Store them in an airtight container. Inevitably, these cookies will dry out. To keep them soft, add a water-soaked terracotta to the container, just like you would do to keep brown sugar soft. This works well! A piece of white sandwich bread or a marshmallow will also help.
If you somehow wind up with too many cookies for you to eat, remember that you can chop them up into small pieces and freeze them for later so that you can fold them into a custard base to make a batch of cookie ice cream! You can also freeze them whole to eat latter as is. Reheat them in a low oven (300 °F or 150 °C) for 5–10 minutes.
Other Oatmeal Cookie Recipes
If you love oatmeal cookies as much as I do, here are a few other recipes to try:
- If you like oatmeal raisin cookies, try these crispy oatmeal raisin cookies or soft and chewy oatmeal raisin cookies, depending on which texture you prefer
- If you like apples, try these apple oatmeal cookies, which you can make with fresh or dried apple
- If you like blueberries, these blueberry oatmeal cookies with white chocolate are a fun twist on a classic.
If you tried this recipe for the best chewy oatmeal chocolate chip 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
Thick Chewy Oatmeal Cookies
Equipment
Ingredients
- 188 grams bleached all-purpose flour
- 95 grams rolled oats (or large flake oats)
- 2.5 mL baking soda
- 2.5 mL Diamond Crystal fine kosher salt
- 115 grams unsalted butter softened
- 150 grams dark brown sugar
- 100 grams granulated sugar
- 1 large egg(s)
- 10 mL pure vanilla extract
- 130 grams milk chocolate (41 % cocoa content) chopped
- 75 grams roasted salted peanuts chopped
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350ºF (175 °C). Line two cookie sheets with parchment.
- In a bowl, whisk together the flour, oats, baking soda, and salt.
- In a large bowl with an electric mixer (I like this one from Braun on Amazon), cream together the butter and the sugars for several minutes.
- Add the egg and the vanilla. Mix them in well, scraping down the sides of the bowl with a spatula as needed.
- Add the dry ingredients and stir them in. When the dry ingredients are almost incorporated, add the chopped chocolate and the peanuts. Fold them in.
- Scoop the dough, rolling into even balls (40-45 grams per scoop) and place them on the cookie sheets. You may only fit 8 cookies per half sheet depending on the size of the sheet. Press the cookies lightly to flatten them out a little with the palm of your hand,
- Bake the cookies in the preheated oven for 12 minutes—less for a gooey-style softer oatmeal cookie (like 10 minutes), more for a crispy edged chewy oatmeal cookies (like 14 or even 16 minutes).
- Let cool slightly before transferring the baked cookies to a cooling rack to cool completely.
Notes
- For the milk chocolate, I used Cacao Barry Alunga 41% milk chocolate. Great chocolate makes awesome cookies so you MUST use the best chocolate for baking, a chocolate that you like to eat because this recipe is all about the chocolate. For this recipe, I made the milk chocolate ganache with Cacao Barry’s Alunga milk chocolate, which is sometimes referred to as dark milk chocolate because it has 41% cocoa solids, leading to a more complex, deeper chocolate flavour.
- Chocolate—You can make these with white, milk, or dark chocolate, either chocolate chips or higher quality chocolate bars. Read about the types of chocolate for baking if you need more info to guide you when you are shopping for chocolate to bake with.
- Nuts—I used salted roasted peanuts but any nut will work. If you want to skip the nuts, increase the amount of chocolate or the cookies will spread more.
- 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 to 325 °F (165 °C) to prevent your baked goods from browning too quickly.
Nutrition
This post is sponsored by Cacao Barry.
LindaK says
The cookies are tasty but they all stuck together in the storage container.
Janice says
So sorry that happened. The cookies didn't stick together when I packed them in a container, so I'm not sure why that happened. Ideally, a sheet of parchment would prevent this. In fact, you could just cut the parchment you used to line your baking sheets and reuse it to separate layers of cookies. Hope that helps!
Guy Gervais says
Hi,
Where can I find Cacao Barry’s Alunga milk chocolate?
I tried getting info on their website but it's very confusing.
Do you order directly fron them or do you buy from a store?
I live in downtown Montréal.
Regards,
GGervais
Janice says
Hi Guy,
Many IGA stores carry Cacao Barry (but call the one closest to you to make sure it's in stock). Otherwise, another option that Cacao Barry recommends is to order online from Vanilla Food Company and they will ship it to you. Hope that helps!
Guy Gervais says
VFC worked fine! Thx