Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies
You can’t beat a classic like these soft and chewy chocolate chip oatmeal cookies! Made with butter, brown sugar, old-fashioned rolled oats, cinnamon and semi-sweet chocolate chips.
Cookies don’t get much more perfect than this— buttery flavor, soft and chewy texture, a hint of cinnamon, plenty of rolled oats, and loads of semi-sweet chocolate chips.
These are simply my famous best oatmeal cookie recipe with chocolate chips, and I know you’ll love them as much as my family does! I love to make a batch, bake a few off right away, and then store the rest in the freezer for easy baking whenever the cookie craving hits!
Ingredients you’ll need
Have fun with other mix-ins (if you want!)
These cookies don’t need anything extra to be special, but if you do want to add more fun add-ins, feel free! Substitute the semi-sweet chocolate chips with any of the following, or add up to 1 additional cup of:
- Chopped nuts such as walnuts and pecans
- Other chips such as milk chocolate chips, white chocolate chips, butterscotch chips or peanut butter chips
- Dried fruits like dried cranberries or raisins
How to make these chocolate chip oatmeal cookies
This is a classic “drop cookie” recipe—it doesn’t get much easier than this! They’re made using the creaming method:
- “Cream” butter and sugars. Beating them together until smooth and creamy incorporates air into the mixture, which affects rise, texture and structure (so the cookies hold their shape and not spread too much). More info on the science behind this here.
- Add eggs and vanilla. Adding these individually ensures we don’t overwhelm the butter mixture with too much wet ingredients all at once, and everything mixes evenly.
- Add dry ingredients. Finally we add flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and rolled oats. Mix only until dough is uniform, don’t overmix!
- Bake. I like to bake larger cookies (portioned with #20 3 Tbsp cookie scoop). Bake at 350°F for 10-12 minutes (8-10 minutes for smaller 1.5 Tbsp cookies).
How to bake pretty, picture-perfect cookies
Oatmeal cookies are notoriously dull-looking, even though they taste fantastic. But we also “eat with our eyes”, don’t we? So here’s a few tips to help these cookies look their best:
- Only mix half of the chocolate chips called for in a recipe in with the dough.
- Portion the dough with a cookie scoop, then roll into balls by hand.
- Give them plenty of space. I only bake 6-8 cookie dough balls at a time on a baking sheet pan, depending on size.
- Before baking, strategically place and press the remaining half of the chocolate chips into the tops of the dough balls.
- As soon as the cookies are pulled from the oven, and while they are still hot and pliable, use a spatula to push any uneven edges back into a perfect circle.
- Let them cool completely before packaging or storing.
More cookie tips
- Butter should be soft enough that a pressed finger will leave an indent, but not soft enough that your finger can press all the way through. Butter should not be shiny or melty at all. Are your cookies spreading too much? This could be why!
- You can use either salted or unsalted butter in these cookies, but I love the additional flavor that comes from using salted butter.
- Be sure to measure flour correctly! All of my recipes are tested using the spoon and level method (more info through that link). Are your cookies dry and cakey? This could be why!
- This recipe was only tested with old-fashioned rolled oats, quick-cooking oats should not be used for this recipe.
- These pre-cut parchment sheets are perfect for cookie baking.
- For show-stopping cookies like you see in this post, I like to make them big and use a large cookie scoop (3 tablespoon). More traditional sized cookies can be shaped with a medium cookie scoop (1½ tablespoon).
- Cookie dough freezes really well. I like to keep a stash of portioned cookie dough balls in the freezer for fresh-baked cookies on demand.
- These cookies will keep at room temperature for about a week, but are best within a few days of baking.
More oatmeal cookies you’re sure to love
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This recipe was originally published April 2017
Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup butter , at room temperature (226 grams, 2 sticks)
- 1 cup packed light or dark brown sugar (213 grams)
- ¼ cup granulated sugar (50 grams)
- 2 large eggs
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour (200 grams)
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼-½ teaspoon ground cinnamon (per your preference)
- 3 cups old-fashioned rolled oats , not quick cooking (297 grams)
- 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips (170 grams)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Line sheet pan with parchment paper.
- In bowl of stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment, or in large bowl with hand-held mixer, beat butter, brown sugar and sugar until creamy, about 2-3 minutes. Add eggs one at a time, mixing after each. Add vanilla and mix until well combined.
- In medium bowl, combine flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and oats. Add to butter mixture all at once and mix on low until combined. Stir in chocolate chips.
- Use a medium (1½ tablespoon) or large cookie scoop (3 tablespoon) to portion dough and arrange a few inches apart on sheet pans lined with parchment paper.
- Bake until edges just begin to turn golden, about 8-10 minutes for smaller cookies, 10-12 minutes for larger cookies.
- Repeat with remaining cookie dough.
- Let cookies cool on the sheet pan for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Enjoy within a few days!
Of course! The best cure for anything is surely warm cookies. These look delicious…the chunkier the cookie – the better!
These look like the perfect cure for feeling sick… It just would have been nice if someone else had made them FOR you 😉 This is a wonderful recipe. Thanks for sharing, Annalise, and I hope you feel better!
Yum, baking is a cure for illness for sure. Love the cookies, texturely they are awesome.
These look great! I’m not a big fan of oatmeal raisin cookies so I always sub out the raisins with chocolate chips, but I have yet to find a recipe I really like–this recipe looks like it might just be the one I have been looking for 🙂
These are the perfect comfort food.
Your blog is beauuuuutiful!! Congratulations!! I also love to bake!
I followed the instructions but I think i must have accidentally added to much salt. But they came out pretty good regardless. thanks for good sunday night cookies!
Made these yesterday and they are SO good! I tried them while still warm and I didn’t think that much of them, but once they were completely cool they were like a totally different cookie. This recipe is definitely a keeper.
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These truly look amazingly delicious! I’ve been all about dark chocolate lately and have been replacing the milk one with it in every recipe involving chocolate I can get my hands on…so, yes, basically these cookie are definitely going to happen during the weekend!
xo, Elisa
These look and sound wonderful. Thank you for the lovely recipe!
drooling! the photos are so lovely and delicious… obviously I need to make these!
What I wouldn’t do for a cookie and glass of wine right now!! These look divine, Annalise!
Those are some pretty perfect looking cookies, if I do say so myself!
Oh, my gosh! This looks perfect! I have an oatmeal cookie recipe I’ve been using for years, fiddled this way and that, but I’ve never been completely happy with it. Oatmeal cookies can be tricky because the oats are dry and can suck all the moisture up, which makes it hard for me to get the butter and sugar quantities just right. But yours look like just the thing and I’m printing this recipe right now. This will be the next batch of cookies I make. Ooh, I’m excited! Thanks!
Oatmeal cookies make me so happy. Love this!
Darn good Annalise!
Love oatmeal chocolate chunk (or chip) cookies! Yours are truly gorgeous! I’ll be making these this weekend!
Love that these are so big you only have six on the baking sheet! And the strategically placed chocolate chunks makes them look perfect! Can’t wait to try them – thanks for sharing.
Well, as it happened, my husb was up for a batch of cookies this weekend. (grin) Very reliable, he is. So I followed the recipe exactly except I had to add about 2 T of extra flour to de-sticky the dough just a bit. Otherwise followed along exactly. They were stellar. Not overly sugary or greasy as you reined it in perfectly with the butter and sugar measurements. The cinnamon was a nice little hint but not dominant. The cookies held together nicely and didn’t crumble at all! Yay! You were also spot on with the 5 minutes setting time on the baking sheets. I tried to move a couple too soon and they broke apart, but after five minutes the rest were set.
So, in conclusion, I’m junking my old oatmeal cookie recipe and keeping this one forever. I have finally found oatmeal success! Thank you thank you! My perfect O.C.C.C. recipe has eluded me for years, but you came through with a great save.
Yay! So glad they turned out so well!! 🙂
There is no such thing as a bad oatmeal chocolate chip cookie. It can only be made better with CHUNKS of chocolate! Gf, you rock these! They’re perfect!
This looks so delicious. I used to make Outmeal paincakes with rasins and they were good as well, but with CHUNKS of chocolate I have never tryed it before. I think now is the time 🙂
I just want everyone to know they are really deliciuous. I made them yestrday for my kids. Thanks Annalise 🙂
So glad you enjoyed them, Thanks Emma!
I try to make them with white chocolate! All I can say mmmmm 🙂 I make them a lot this weekend for the trip we went with my family. Thanks for the recipe Annalise
White chocolate sounds like such a fun addition, glad you enjoyed the cookies!
Just made these this week-end, they are amazing! Regular style though, not your super monster cookies… otherwise, I’d keep saying I can eat some, “but only two”, and then indulge sliiiiiightly too much at a time… Haha.
Next time (because there will be a next time, and soon), I think I will flatten the dough a bit more, so the cookies spread more too. Mine pretty much kept the thick rounded form of the dough balls, but I love how yours have the perfect round cookie look! They still were perfectly tender and chewy, pretty with their chocolate chips on top thanks to you, and not too sweet, just as I like them.
So happy to hear you liked the cookies! Try beating the sugar and butter for a few minutes longer next time, that should make the dough creamier and encourage the cookies to spread a bit more during baking. 🙂
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Hi!!! I’m Italian and I just come back home from NYC ='(
I loved those cookies and I’d love to make them here in Italy. I don’t understand what is the old-fashioned oatmeal … is not the same thing as the normal oatmeal?
Old-fashioned rolled oats are the basic oats we find here in the states, though I’m not sure what your options are in Italy. Stay away from “instant” or “quick-cooking” oats and “steel-cut” oats.
I’m just about to mix these up… do you refrigerate the batter? I doubled your recipe in anticipation of their popularity. I’m adding craisins to the mix. ?
Nope, no need to chill the batter.
I am a terrible cookie maker so I was doubly impressed when these turned out great! Thanks for the delicious recipe.
Best cookies I think I have ever made. Family loved them! Thank you for sharing your recipe.
The flavor is good but they are extremely dry and they do not spread out at all while baking. I had to flatten them down before baking on my second batch so they weren’t dry little mounds. I will double the butter and cut the flour by 1/2 cup on my next batch and they need more chocolate so I’ll add that too.
Made these cookies today. Yum
Used dark brown sugar as that is all I had. Maybe that’s why darker than your picture of them. Great taste.
Tried the Oatmeal