Oatmeal Raisin Cookies!
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Soft, chewy reader favourite oatmeal raisin cookies with rolled oats, cinnamon and raisins throughout. With a soft middle, golden brown chewy edges and incredible easy to prep these cookies are a staple.
These cookies can be made, baked and eaten within the hour – and you can also prep them and make ahead of time as they freeze really well.
Notes from The Patisserie
These are a happy marriage of my NYC chocolate chip cookies and my chocolate oat cookies that have been on my blog for a few years… but just take out the chocolate and add in the raisins.
Oatmeal raisin cookies have been around for ages, but they are a cult classic that I wanted to be involved with, because they are delicious. These cookies are different from the rest as they merge the styles of a thick NYC-style cookie, with the classic – think better texture, larger cookies, even better bake.
What makes this recipe different to others?
The recipe is basically very similar to my NYC cookies, because this is essentially just an oat & raisin version of them. The base remains very similar, but some of the flour has been removed and replaced with oats.
I’ve seen varying recipes for these over the years, with some using far more oats, and some using far less – but I found my personal favourite was a 50/50 mix! You get enough oats for that delicious flavour, but also enough flour to make sure it remains a good cookie.
The texture for these is lovely and soft, but the outside is quite chewy – and that’s the best thing ever. The raisins give a softer texture, just like you would get with chocolate chips (side note, if you don’t like raisins, you can use chocolate chips in them!).
If you wanted to hydrate your raisins before baking, which is a common ask, you can soak them in hot water (or orange juice), for 10-15 minutes, or heat them in the microwave for 30-60 seconds and let them cool before using) – this adds extra moisture to your raisins and an even softer cookie. Make sure to pat them dry slightly before using so they are sopping wet.
Ingredient notes and tips
Like my other cookies, I love the two different sugars in the mix – the light brown sugar gives a lovely flavour, and the granulated sugar is ideal for the cookie. You can use all light brown sugar, or all white granulated sugar.
You can sub the sugars for dark brown sugar too – but generally I avoid caster sugar when it comes to cookies these days as I find it can spread too much and can create a cakey texture. For the best texture, I recommend the granulated/soft sugar sizes as it really does just create the best texture for your cookies.
When it comes to the dry ingredients for these cookies, they do swap up slightly to take in the consideration of the oats. I use plain flour, and add in baking powder – but you can use 150g of self raising, and remove the baking powder from the recipe. Make sure to still use the bicarbonate of soda however.
One thing that is different with these, is they can feel slightly softer. I use rolled oats, as I much prefer them in baking to porridge oats which I find can be too soft and can make a softer cookie – so rolled oats is best.
Tips to make these oatmeal raisin cookies the best
The full recipe and method can be found in the recipe card below
I tend to weigh the cookies out to 85g each (slightly smaller than the NYC cookies, but you can make them even smaller or bigger if you wish – weight to 120g, and bake for 12-14 minutes) – and then I freeze them for 30 minutes before baking. However, you can use the fridge for an hour instead.
I find using a 5cm scoop and just loading it slightly makes it easier to portion when weighing, but obviously just scooping with a spoon and weighing works really well. It’s important to chill the dough so that they don’t completely spread into pancakes.
You have to make sure that the oven is preheated to the hot temperature before baking the cookies as this is going to help create the texture that you are after – it will give the cookies a lovely golden glow and bake them perfectly.
FAQs
Yes, you can! Remove the extra salt in the recipe
You can, but the smaller/quick oats will likely make a softer cookie dough, and make them spread more so the texture and end result will be different.
No, you do not. You can leave it out, or swap to a preferred spice.
For sure – you can swap to sultanas, cranberries, or even a mix of all dried fruits
Definitely! Either substitute some of the raisins for chopped nuts, or add 100g.
This is usually because the cookie dough has been rolled too tightly before baking, or your oven temperature needs lowering (all ovens vary, so try 20ºc less)
Yes!! You can, double, triple, or even quadruple – just make sure to mix well so everything is incorporated.
Oatmeal Raisin Cookies Recipe
Ingredients
- 125 g unsalted butter
- 100 g light brown sugar
- 75 g white granulated sugar
- 1 medium egg
- 1 tsp vanilla (optional!)
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon (optional!)
- 150 g plain flour
- 150 g rolled oats
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 1/2 tsp sea salt
- 200 g raisins
Instructions
- Add the butter and sugars to a bowl and beat until creamy
- Add in the egg, and beat again. If using the vanilla and cinnamon, add it in now
- Add in the plain flour, oats, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, and salt and beat until a cookie dough is formed
- Add in the raisins and beat until they're distributed well
- Weigh the cookies out into ten cookie dough balls – they're about 85g each! (Or you can do them smaller at about 60g, or even bigger at 120g)
- Roll your cookie dough into balls (don't roll it too tightly as this can cause problems with the cookie spreading) and put your cookie dough in the freezer for at least 30 minutes, or in the fridge for an hour or so
- Whilst the cookie dough is chilling, preheat your oven to 200ºc/180ºc fan. If your oven runs hot, go for 160ºc-170ºc.
- Take the cookies out of the freezer/fridge and put onto a lined baking tray. I put five cookies per tray
- Bake the cookies in the oven for 10-12 minutes.
- Once baked, leave them to cool on the tray for at least 30 minutes, as they will continue to bake whilst cooling!
- ENJOY!
Notes
- These cookies will last for 4-5 days once baked at room temperature
- You can freeze the baked cookies for 3+ months
Storage and making ahead
- These cookies will last for 4-5 days once baked at room temperature – I tend to store in a cake tin, or cake box.
- You can freeze the baked cookies for 3+ months – freeze on a tray, and then swap to a more permanent storage such as bag or freezer safe container.
- The cookies can easily be kept frozen for up to three months before baking, and you can bake from frozen. The baking time will just increase ever so slightly to probably more 14-15 minutes, but otherwise you will get the same epic result of a delicious cookie
Related recipes
After the recent successes of my red velvet NYC cookies, triple chocolate NYC cookies and of course… the classic NYC chocolate chip cookies all I had was request after request for an oat & raisin version… and here we are.
If you want to make a sourdough discard version of this recipe, have a look at this recipe instead. They are also a chewy oatmeal raisin cookie, but with a twist.
How long do I bake for if I make each cookie 120gr?
About 12-14 minutes!
Hi Jane!
I have just started getting all the ingredients out to bake these as they are my favourite and realised that I don’t have enough plain flour. Would I be able to substitute all or some for wholemeal flour?
Thanks 🙂 x
Yeah I would just use as much plain flour as you can and top it up! x
Hi Jane,
I see below to Kath that you said this would be able to be made as a cookie bar which is amazing as I was going to ask this lol … but how would you recommend freezing the dough as the need to put it into cookie dough balls first wouldn’t be necessary for a cookie bar? maybe I’m just being thick lol xx
You don’t do the freezing or shaping if you are doing the cookie bars xx
perfect, thank you Jane!! 🙂 xx
Hi Jane
Another brilliant recipe – this has to be one of my favourite cookies; they taste so good and the fact that you can freeze the dough and bake straight from the freezer is a massive bonus. Just a quick question – do you think this recipe would work as a cookie bar? x
Hey!! Ahh that’s amazing – I’m so glad! And yes I am sure it would – cookie bars are best in a 9″ square like my other recipes and baked for 20-22 minutes roughly! xx
Great recipe, works perfectly
Hi Jane
This is a fab recipe! Would I be able to add carrots in to make carrot cake cookies? Do I have to add more flour to balance it out?
Thanks so much 🙂
Meg
You can certainly give it a go – although I should have a carrot cake cookie coming out eventually! x
These are insane. I ran out of light brown sugar at 60g so I substituted with demarara as that’s all I had. I can’t stop eating them 🙈
Thanks again Jane for a fabulous recipe xx
I’ve been on the hunt for the perfect oatmeal raisin cookie – and have to say: this is the one! So soft and chewy, lots of flavour, easy to make. I used the optional extras (vanilla and cinnamon), and will make them a little smaller next time so that one batch goes even further: I got 15 x 55g-60g cookies out of the recipe, and will reduce to 45g-50g.
Easy to make. Absolutely delicious and the family loved it. To be honest anything I baked from this site has been big success ❤️
Hi Jane made these a few days ago and OMG 😲 they are delicious. Perfect texture and have stayed fresh as if just baked 3days now. One thing I wanted to ask in some recipes you advise to melt butter (not stork) and others say use Stork and just mix in like you would for cakes. Also some recipes you say chill first. Just wanted to find out whats difference please. Thanks Jane 😊
It varies recipe to recipe – and each is best as written is all. If I don’t say melt, you don’t need to x
Hi Jane,
So I done something abit silly & left out the white granulated sugar 🤦🏻♀️I added in the brown sugar, I even looked out the granulated but didn’t actually use it! Made both the oatmeal & NYC ones – they are currently in the oven. Would they still taste ok or will I need to bin them? Can’t believe I done that 🤣 thanks xx
They may just be less sweet and the texture slightly different, but other than that hopefully they still work okay for you! x
Delicious, thanks so much for the recipe 😋