Soft and Chewy Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
These Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies are packed with oats, chocolate chips, and incredibly soft and chewy. These cookies are so easy to make and delicious!
Are you a fan of oatmeal raisin cookies or oatmeal chocolate chip cookies? To be honest, I actually have a hard time choosing between the two. I’ll happily take a cookie with raisins or chocolate in it any day.
Over the years, so many of you have made my oatmeal raisin cookies and absolutely loved them. So today, I wanted to share my updated oatmeal chocolate chip cookie recipe with more photos and better instructions. Plus, I couldn’t resist the opportunity to make another batch of these cookies too.
Why You’ll Love These Cookies
- Incredibly easy to make using pantry staples
- Only requires 30 minutes of dough chilling
- Super soft, chewy, and thick
- They’re loaded with tons of melty chocolate chips
This recipe makes two dozen cookies, but you can easily double it to make more if you prefer. I’m also sharing everything you need to know for making perfect oatmeal chocolate chips cookies, plus how to freeze the cookie dough to enjoy later!
Ingredients You’ll Need For This Recipe
To make these oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, you’ll be using simple pantry staples that you likely already have on hand. Here’s exactly what you’ll need to get started:
- All-Purpose Flour: This provides the structure for the cookies – just be sure to use the spoon and level method when measuring your flour. You want to avoid scooping your flour from the container, otherwise, you can end up with dry cookies that don’t spread.
- Ground Cinnamon: This is an optional ingredient, but I find that some cinnamon pairs beautifully with the oats in these cookies.
- Baking Soda & Salt: For a little lift and to enhance the flavor of the cookies.
- Old-Fashioned Rolled Oats: I find that rolled oats provide a chewier texture in these cookies. If you don’t have any, you can use quick oats, but keep in mind that the texture won’t be quite the same.
- Unsalted Butter: As always, I use unsalted butter to control the amount of salt in these cookies. Only have salted butter on hand? Just reduce the salt in these cookies to a tiny pinch.
- Sugar: I use a mix of brown sugar and granulated sugar. The brown sugar gives these cookies a little extra flavor and keeps them moist.
- Egg & Vanilla Extract: You’ll be using one room temperature egg to help bind everything together as well as some vanilla extract for flavor.
- Chocolate Chips: There’s 1 cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips for maximum chocolate flavor! Feel free to use milk chocolate or dark chocolate chips if you prefer.
How To Make Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
Once you’ve gathered your ingredients, it’s time to prepare the cookie dough. Here’s a simple breakdown of exactly how to make this cookie dough:
- Whisk together the dry ingredients: It’s best to whisk together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, salt and then stir in the oats.
- Cream the butter and sugars together: You’ll only need to mix them together for 1 to 2 minutes or until they’re well combined.
- Mix in the egg and vanilla: Once you’ve mixed in these two ingredients, it’s best to stop and scrape down the sides of your bowl, then mix again. This will ensure that all of the wet ingredients are well combined. Your mixture should look like the photo above on the left.
- Mix in the dry ingredients: I prefer to turn the mixer off, add the dry ingredients, and mix on low speed until the dry ingredients are just combined.
- Add the chocolate chips: You can mix these in on low-speed with the mixer or by hand, either ways is fine! Once the chocolate chips are added, your dough should look like the picture above on the right.
- Chill the dough: Cover tightly and let it chill in the refrigerator for 30 minutes. This will help the butter firm back up and the flavors come together a little more before baking the cookies. Colder butter = thicker cookies!
- Scoop, flatten, and bake the cookie dough: I use a 1.5 tablespoon cookie scoop and suggest slightly flattening each ball of cookie dough to help ensure that they spread a little. It’s also crucial not to over bake these cookies – check them at about 10 minutes and see how they look. The cookies are done when the tops are set and the edges are lightly browned.
The cookies will be a little soft when they come out of the oven, but the residual heat from the baking sheet will help them finish setting up. I like to let them cool on the baking sheet for 5-10 minutes, then let them cool completely on a wire rack. You can also just dig into them while they’re still warm, the choice is all yours!
Freezing Instructions
I get a lot of questions about freezing cookie dough and you can 100% freeze this dough. I suggest scooping the cookie dough onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, roll each ball of dough, and gently press each one down to slightly flatten them, then freeze them.
Freezing the cookie dough first will help prevent it from sticking together when you store it in a freezer bag or container. I also suggest slightly flattening the cookie dough before freezing so that you can bake the cookies from frozen and they will still spread.
Once the cookie dough is frozen, you can store it in a freezer bag or container in the freezer for up to 3 months. Feel free to place some wax paper or parchment paper between the layers of cookie dough if you prefer too. To bake the cookie dough from frozen, just add an additional 1-2 minutes of baking time if needed.
You may also bake the cookies, let them cool completely, and freeze them in a freezer bag or container for up to 3 months. When you’re ready to enjoy them, just place them on the counter and let them come to room temperature before serving.
Baking Tips
- When measuring your flour, stir the flour around, spoon it into your measuring cup, and level it off with the back of a knife. If you scoop the flour from the container you can end up with too much flour in your cookies.
- Be sure to use old-fashioned rolled oats in these cookies for a chewier texture.
- Make sure to chill your cookie dough for at least 30 minutes. Feel free to skip this step if you prefer thinner cookies versus thicker cookies.
- These cookies will bake up pretty thick, especially if the dough is cold. I like to gently press down on each ball of cookie dough before baking them to help them spread just a bit in the oven. If you want your cookies to be thicker, you can skip this step.
More Oatmeal Cookie Recipes To Try!
Recipe Video
Soft and Chewy Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup (125 grams) all-purpose flour (spooned & leveled)
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 and ½ cups (150 grams) old-fashioned rolled oats
- ½ cup (115 grams) unsalted butter softened
- ½ cup (100 grams) light brown sugar packed
- ¼ cup (50 grams) granulated sugar
- 1 large egg room temperature
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1 cup (190 grams) semisweet chocolate chips
Instructions
- In a medium-sized mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt. Stir in the old-fashioned rolled oats and set aside.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, or in a large mixing bowl using a handheld mixer, beat the butter, light brown sugar, and granulated sugar together for 1-2 minutes or until well combined.
- Mix in the egg and vanilla extract, stopping to scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed.
- Add the dry ingredients and mix on low speed until just combined, then mix in the chocolate chips on low-speed until fully incorporated into the cookie dough. Cover tightly and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.
- Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 350°F (177°C). Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats and set aside.
- Using a 1.5 tablespoon cookie scoop, scoop the dough onto the prepared baking sheets, making sure to leave a little room between each one. Gently press down each ball of cookie dough to slightly flatten them.
- Bake at 350°F (177°C) for 10-13 minutes or until the tops of the cookies are set.
- Remove from the oven and cool on the baking sheet for 5-10 minutes, then transfer the cookies to a wire rack to cool completely.
Notes
These were delicious!!! One of my new go to cookie recipes!! Thank you ?
Ok here’s the skinny. I’m a really good cook often make up my own recipes. And I understand that baking is a science that needs a specific ingredients often in specific order and recipes need to be followed closely. And that is why I followed this oatmeal chocolate chip recipe to a tee. I didn’t omit anything, didn’t add anything and measured precisely. It definitely seemed like the batter was a bit too thin and I thought it needed more flour, but I didn’t add it. Wish I would have cuz maybe I could have saved the batch. Sorry to say that these were the WORST oatmeal cc cookies I ever made. They looked nothing like the picture and they were definitely NOT soft and chewy. They were completely flat and rock hard. I wasted 2 sticks of butter which is a tragedy to me because I buy expensive French butter. I threw them out. Here I thought I was discoing a far better recipe, but next time I’m going to use the never-fail recipe on the back of the Quacker Oats box.
Sorry to hear that, Donna. You said you followed the recipe without making any changes, but then you said you used 2 sticks of butter. This recipe calls for 1/2 cup of butter which is equal to 1 stick. It sounds like you may have used too much butter, which would explain why they spread too much and the batter was runny.
That could be. Maybe I misread it as 2 sticks instead of 1/2 cup. Whatever it was I don’t remember, but I do wish recipe gurus would write it in sticks instead of cups because that’s how butter comes. In sticks. Not cups.
this is a website people from around the world use and very few countries have the butter in ‘stick’ form. it’s best that she used international measurements. if you are a seriously good cook i would have expected you knew how to read recipes but that’s clearly not the case 🙂
Holy Cow! If you are an excellent chef, you wouldn’t have made the huge mistake of adding extra butter. This recipe is THE BEST and if it didn’t come out for you, well then you’ll need to change your assessment of your so called cooking abilities. And not all sticks of butter are 1/2 cup, so get over it.
After having made a dismal batch of oatmeal chocolate chip cookies a couple months ago I decided to try again and found your recipe online. All of the cooking and preparation tips you gave were SO HELPFUL and I an happy to report that this batch came out AMAZING. Thank you so much the great recipe and going above and beyond with the detailed instructions.
Thank you, Jennifer! So glad the cookies turned out great for you!
That’s really interesting cuz I followed this recipe to a tee and they came out awful. Looked nothing like the picture. They were flat and hard. I’d tell you if they were good. They weren’t. It’s a little suspicious that every single comment says how incredible these cookies turned out. My only thought is that they don’t post comments that say otherwise. Let’s see if she posts mine. I threw the entire batch out. My family is used to good food including good cookies. No one would eat them. So they ended up in the trash.
Hi, Donna. I responded to your comment below to try to help you figure out what may have happened 🙂
I added blueberries and used white chocolate chips and a tablespoon of apple sauce. Yum!!!
I wanna prepare this cookies. I was wondering if is possible to use whole wheat flour and coconut sugar instead of the all purpose flour and the brown sugar?
It would be fine to use coconut sugar in the place of the brown sugar. I would probably use half whole wheat flour and half all-purpose flour though since whole wheat flour can dry out baked goods.
I just made a double batch of these cookies and they are DELICIOUS! I used whole wheat flour (it’s what i had on hand) and they turned out amazing. This is a recipe that I will keep in my rotation for sure! Thanks so much!
Can I use bittersweet chocolate chips 60% cacao?
That would be fine!
I absolutely love this recipe, though I want to make it for my S/O. For feb. 14. Is it possibly to shape these into hearts?
I’m not sure that they would hold there shape very well after they’re baked. I do have a cut-out sugar cookie recipe on my site that holds its shape, but it’s not quite the same thing.
These cookies turned out amazing!! We haven’t had them cooled yet but fresh out of the oven they were crisp on the bottom and chewy in the middle! Perfect amount of chips (I used milk chocolate all I had but I love semi-sweet and I’m sure they would be even better!). I will definitely make these again! My next batch I will ether add some almond extract or more vanilla (I love a lot of vanilla in my baking). I also want to try a white chocolate craisin version and a chocolate coconut!
My cookies didnt spread at all! Still taste ok but was disappointed.
Sorry to hear that, Skyla. Did you make sure to spoon and level your flour? If so, you could try slightly flattening them before you put them in the oven and that should help. Glad you liked the taste of the cookies though!
Is there any way to skip the wheat flour all together? Perhaps by using oat flour instead? I made these last night and loved them!! I have a friend who is gluten intolerant and I’d love to make them for her though.
Oat flour isn’t quite the same as all-purpose flour, it tends to dry out baked goods. You may be able to use a gluten-free flour that substitutes 1:1 for all-purpose, but I haven’t tried it.
Can you use whole wheat flour for healthier options?
If you use all whole wheat flour the cookies may be a bit dry. I would suggest using half whole wheat and half all-purpose flour.
I usually bake cakes and cupcakes and need to adjust ingredients for high altitude? Is that necessary with these cookies? I’m at about 5,000 feet.
I don’t have any experience with high altitude baking, but some readers have found this guide helpful: https://www.kingarthurflour.com/learn/high-altitude-baking.html.
I love that this recipe calls for Old Fashioned Oats!
Made a couple of changes (partly due to what I had on hand) but they turned out AMAZING, my guys love them and they will definitely become one of my go-to recipes. Thank you!
Changes: 25g of Maple Syrup and 75g of white sugar. Added 1 Tbsp flour and only 106g of Butter.
One question: why do so many recipes call for preheating the oven when you set something in the fridge before baking? It seems silly that the oven runs while the dough is chilling. …
I do typically write in my recipes to wait to preheat the oven until the dough has chilled for a little while, I’ll fix that! Glad you liked the cookies 🙂
These are so delicious. Very simple to make. I followed the recipe exactly and was very happy. Thank you
Great recipe!
I don’t bake, so I was amazed that these truned out amazingly! I couldn’t find vanilla extract in the house, so I used almond extract instead. So good! Thank you!
Mine flattened out? all i had was dark brown sugar too…. think that made the taste different?
Sorry to hear that, Mallie. I don’t think the dark brown sugar would have made a huge difference. Did you make sure to chill the cookie dough? If so, was the cookie dough warm when you put it in the oven?
I made these today and they are now my favorite cookie recipe! Thank you for the tip on refrigerating them before cooking, they are awesome!
Will it mess up too much if I use regular butter instead of unsalted? My family doesn’t have unsalted, and I’m making these tonight for an event tomorrow, and I won’t be able to go to a store before then.
Salted butter would be fine! Just make sure to reduce the salt to a tiny pinch or about 1/8 teaspoon if the butter doesn’t have too much salt in it.
Made these! Cooked for 10 minutes and let them “finish” on the pan outside the oven and they were nice and chewy for a week. Will be using this again! Thank you!
So glad you liked the cookies, Beth!
Made these (Oatmeal Chocolate Chip version) today for the third time in four weeks. Wow. My husband calls them “heaven” and I have to agree the recipe is magnificent. I love the cinnamon! I followed it pretty much exactly the first and second time and they were wonderful. Today I had run out of regular old-fashioned oats and forgot to buy a new container. So I used the quick oats I had on hand – and they were still “heaven” in the hubs’ experience. Thank you so much for this fun, quick and easy recipe for the best cookies ever!!!
So glad you and your husband liked the cookies, Shannon!
I love these. I have made so many since I found the recipe. My boyfriend and his friends all love them also.
So happy to hear that, Laura!
Have you tried shortening instead of butter? I have an old family recipe that calls for the shortening. Normally I bake with butter.
I prefer the taste of butter in these cookies. Shortening would probably be fine, but it has a higher melting point than butter so I would definitely make sure to flatten the cookies or they may not spread.
Not sure what I did wrong, but my cookies completely flattened out and melted in the oven. I completely trust that this was my mistake, and not the recipes, but I was wondering if anyone else had the same problem, and what they did to fix it. They are still delicious, they just taste/look more like buttery oatmeal crisps.
Sorry to hear that, Jenna. Did you make sure to refrigerate the cookie dough? Did you happen to melt the butter or was the cookie dough warm when you put it in the oven?
I made the oatmeal chocolate chip cookies tonight. Cookies have a slight crunch on outside and chewy inside. Absolutely delicious. They definitely will not last long. Love the baking tips too. Thank you.
So glad you liked the cookies!
I want to add equal parts walnuts and chocolate chips. Will 3/4 cup each alter the texture? Also, I will be tripleing the recipe, anything to watch out for? Thanks!
That should be fine, Alina! If you triple the recipe, I would just make sure to double check the measurements. I’ve doubled it without any problems.
Can I replace brown sugar with raw cane sugar? the one ingredient I don’t have!
You do need brown sugar for this recipe. If you have molasses you can add 1/2 tablespoon to 1/2 cup of sugar and make your own brown sugar.
Hi!
I made these yesterday, I was so excited to have all the ingredients at hand. Then while they were in the oven, I finally saw the note ‘don’t use quick cooking oats’… This was my first time even buying oats so I didn’t realize there were different types. I was anxious while they were cooking, did I ruin it all ? Will they be awful ? But I’m happy to report they were absolutely delicious even with the quick cooking oats!! Loved them, thanks for the recipe 🙂
The old-fashioned oats help make the cookies chewier, but quick oats are okay. Glad you liked them!
Can I use milk chocolate chips instead of semi sweet and can I add raisins?
Yes, absolutely! You can use 3/4 cup of each one.
Just made these and they turned out great! I didn’t chill them for 30 minutes. Instead I spooned them on the baking tray and stuck them in the freezer for a minute, then popped them in the oven.