Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

This oatmeal raisin cookie recipe is perfectly spiced. There are a lot of flavors, but they blend perfectly and taste amazing. They're wonderfully chewy and stay that way for days. I love the way they make my house smell while they're baking as much as eating them.

Looking for interesting baking ideas? Try my tomato soup cake with caramel icing. It is a lot like carrot cake but in many ways even better.

⭐ Chewy oatmeal raisin cookies

This oatmeal cookie recipe is fantastic. The taste of the old-fashioned oats, brown sugar, and raisins is soft, chewy, and ultimately perfect. One standout property here is the texture; sure, most recipes give you tasty cookies. But this one serves up the perfect mix of taste and texture!

And if this wasn't enough to sell you on this recipe being the best, it has healthy amounts of fiber and protein compared to regular chocolate chip cookies!

🍽 What you need

Despite how great the results are, this recipe doesn't call for scarce ingredients or specialized equipment. Most of the things you need to make these soft and chewy oatmeal raisin cookies are probably already in your kitchen. If you find that one or two things are missing, slip down to your local store or pop in an order for delivery.

Equipment

• large mixing bowl
• medium mixing bowl
• whisk
• electric mixer
• wooden spoon
• parchment paper
• cookie baking sheet
• wire rack
• measuring cups

Ingredients

• 1 ½ cup all-purpose flour 
• 1 teaspoon baking soda 
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• ½ teaspoon ginger, ground
• ½ teaspoon ground cloves, ground
• ½ teaspoon allspice, ground
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 1 cup butter (225 g), unsalted butter, softened
• 1 cup dark brown sugar, preferably granulated sugar
• ½ cup sugar, preferably granulated sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3 cups old fashioned oats, rolled oats
• 1 cup raisins, jumbo raisins preferred

🔪 How to make

Learn how to make the easiest soft and chew oatmeal raisin cookies with step-by-step instructions, or watch my full guided video below. Grab your grandkids to help you make these or make them for the family. Everyone will love these fantastic oatmeal cookies.

Instructions

Before you begin, you'll want to preheat the oven to a temperature of 350°F (177°C).

Step 1

Get out a medium mixing bowl. Add the cloves, ginger, allspice, flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. Then whisk the dry ingredients until combined. When this is done, set it aside for now. 

Step 2

Get your large mixing bowl. Add butter, sugar, and brown sugar (I recommend granulated white and brown sugar). Cream the white sugar, brown sugar, and butter for about three minutes using an electric mixer. This should leave you with a light and fluffy butter mixture.

Step 3

Add in the eggs one after the other. Make sure to beat the mixture properly after each egg is added.

Step 4

When the mixture looks ready, add in your vanilla extract and mix until it's combined.

Step 5

With your electric mixer on low speed, add the flour mixture from before and combine it thoroughly.

Step 6

Stir the mixture while adding in the oats and raisins. Make sure you use an old-fashioned wooden spoon here to preserve the raisins. When everything is evenly distributed, and the raisins are evenly spread out, you're ready to bake.

Step 7

Using a tablespoon or similar measure, drop the oatmeal raisin cookie dough onto the baking sheet lined with parchment paper, and flatten them slightly. Make sure that each cookie glob has enough raisins.

Step 8

Bake your oatmeal cookies for 10 - 12 minutes in a preheated oven, or at least until they're golden brown in color.

Step 9

Remove cookies from the oven and immediately transfer to a wire rack and allow to cool before serving.

💭 Top tips

Follow my top tips for the best oatmeal raisin cookies. I actually started making these with my grandma when I was 7 years old.

• To avoid overcooking, remove your cookies from the baking sheet immediately after removing them from the oven.
• Make sure that all your ingredients are thawed to room temperature before use. This is especially important when dealing with butter, and this is done to make everything more workable. Hard butter especially can work against the proper combination of ingredients. At the very least, having room-temperature ingredients saves you some effort and a bit of time.
• The oatmeal raisin cookie dough will be sticky; expect it. This isn't a bad thing, but if you want to make it easier to work with, a short half-hour stint in the fridge is all you need to make it a bit easier to work with.
• The colder the oatmeal raisin cookie dough is, the less it will spread out in the oven. This is important to note if you want your cookies to spread properly.
• Soaking the raisins and then drying them with paper towels can help you get them plump and ready. Use warm water and leave them in for about a full minute.
• For all the raisin haters, you can substitute almost anything you want into the recipe. If you prefer chocolate chip cookies over oats and raisins, you might substitute chocolate chips in your cookie dough. I can also recommend white chocolate as a wonderful alternative.
• Remember, the recipe as a whole is just a guide. Don't be afraid to try new things and make substitutions. If you don't have 1 teaspoon of baking soda, use 3 teaspoons of baking powder. Don't like vanilla extract? Use the real thing.

⏲️ Make ahead

These oatmeal cookies are great for preparing ahead of time! You can do this by taking the dough after mixing and flattening, and chilling them in the fridge while still on the cookie sheet with the paper. You'll want to do this for about an hour. When they're nice and firm, you can transfer them into a Ziploc and put them in the freezer.

Another great thing about this method is that it doesn't require any thawing to room temperature. Just add a minute or two to the oven time when baking it from a frozen state, and you're good to go!

Frozen cookie dough will last for about three months without going bad! Apart from the convenience of preparing ahead, there are other advantages to keeping your cookie dough stored like this for at least a night before use. These include:

• a slightly more crisp texture around the edge
• softer, thicker center for your soft and chewy oatmeal raisin cookies
• more time for the ingredients to combine

This doesn't mean you have to freeze your dough, of course. I usually bake half and freeze half for another day.

🥫 Storage

Cover your oatmeal cookies adequately at room temperature, and they'll stay fresh for up to 7 days! After your friends and family get a taste of how great these are, the cookies probably won't last that long.

Just in case you need to store the cookies longer, you can freeze them like before. They'll last 3 months like this and can be warmed up in the oven when you need them again. That's part of this recipe's beauty and is one of the things that makes it the best.

Related comfort food recipes

Check out our hearty collection of healthy comfort food recipes.

Looking for easy baking recipes? Check out my collection of fun things to bake including my thumbprint cookies, sugar cookies and oatmeal cream pie cookies.

👪 Serving size

This oatmeal raisin cookie recipe makes 3 dozen cookies, perfect for sharing with family and friends. I typically bake one and freeze two, but you do whatever works best for you.

Video

As far as oatmeal raisin cookie recipes go, this recipe is as good as they get. You can print, pin, rate, or share this recipe in the recipe card below. And be sure to checkout all of my cookie recipes.

📋 Recipe

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

This oatmeal raisin cookies recipes is perfectly spiced. There are a lot of flavors, but they blend together perfectly. They're wonderfully chewy and stay that way for days.  I love the way they make my house smell while they're baking as much (well, almost) as eating them.

4.91 from 20 votes

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Course: Snack

Cuisine: American

Prep Time: 15 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 25 minutes minutes

Total Time: 40 minutes minutes

Servings: 36 Servings

Calories: 99kcal

Author: Ben Rayl

Ingredients

 

1x2x3x

• 1 ½ cup all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• ½ teaspoon ground ginger
• ½ teaspoon ground ground cloves
• ½ teaspoon ground allspice
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 1 cup butter - softened
• 1 cup brown sugar
• ½ cup sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3 cups rolled oats
• 1 cup raisins - jumbo

Instructions

• Preheat the oven to 350°F (177°C).
• In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, allspice and salt then set aside.
• In a large mixing bowl, use an electric mixer to cream together the butter and sugars until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.
• Add the eggs, beating well after each addition, then mix in the vanilla.
• On low speed, mix in the flour mixture, then use a wooden spoon to stir in the oats and raisins.
• Drop by tablespoons full onto parchment paper lined cookie sheets, flatten slightly on top and bake for 10 - 12 minutes, until golden brown - be careful to not over bake.
• Remove cookies from the oven and immediately transfer to a wire rack and allow to cool before serving.

Video

Notes

Follow my top tips for the best oatmeal raisin cookies. I actually started making these with my grandma when I was 7 years old.

• • To avoid overcooking, remove your cookies from the baking sheet immediately after removing them from the oven.
  • Make sure that all your ingredients are thawed to room temperature before use. This is especially important when dealing with butter, and this is done to make everything more workable. Hard butter especially can work against the proper combination of ingredients. At the very least, having room-temperature ingredients saves you some effort and a bit of time.
  • The oatmeal raisin cookie dough will be sticky; expect it. This isn't a bad thing, but if you want to make it easier to work with, a short half-hour stint in the fridge is all you need to make it a bit easier to work with.
  • The colder the oatmeal raisin cookie dough is, the less it will spread out in the oven. This is important to note if you want your cookies to spread properly.
  • Soaking the raisins and then drying them with paper towels can help you get them plump and ready. Use warm water and leave them in for about a full minute.
  • For all the raisin haters, you can substitute almost anything you want into the recipe. If you prefer chocolate chip cookies over oats and raisins, you might substitute chocolate chips in your cookie dough. I can also recommend white chocolate as a wonderful alternative.
  • Remember, the recipe as a whole is just a guide. Don't be afraid to try new things and make substitutions. If you don't have 1 teaspoon of baking soda, use 3 teaspoons of baking powder. Don't like vanilla extract? Use the real thing.

Nutrition

Calories: 99kcal | Carbohydrates: 21g | Protein: 2g | Fat: 1g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Trans Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 11mg | Sodium: 77mg | Potassium: 86mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 9g | Vitamin A: 27IU | Vitamin C: 1mg | Calcium: 21mg | Iron: 1mg