Oatmeal Raisin Cookies!

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

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.