Thick Chewy Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies with Peanuts

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.

Jump to:

• What You Need to Make Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
• Substitutions and Variations
• How to Make The Best Oatmeal Cookies
• Oatmeal Cookie Baking Tips
• Oatmeal Cookie FAQs
• Other Oatmeal Cookie Recipes
• 📖 Recipe

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 c

The tricks to baking thicker cookies that don't spread when baked:

1. make a thicker dough with a higher proportion of dry ingredients and lots of add-ins (oats, chocolate, peanuts) which will impede cookie spread.
2. 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.
3. increase the baking temperature so that the exterior of the cookie sets before the cookie has time to spread.

Chewy cookies are highly sought-after for good reasons. Here are some ways to increase the chew factor in your oatmeal cookies to :

1. 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.
2. Oats increase the chewiness of cookies by adding a texture but also because they reduce spreading
3. Bake the cookies until they are set but don't overbake the cookies and don't underbake the cookies either
   1. overbaked cookies will be dryer, hard, and crisper
   2. underbaked cookies will be softer, gooey-er in the middle
4. 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. 

Tip: If you struggle with flat cookies, read about the reasons cookies spread.

Oatmeal Cookie FAQs

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

This post is sponsored by Cacao Barry.