Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

These Oatmeal Raisin Cookies are perfectly crisp on the outside and soft and chewy on the inside, exactly the way you would want them to be.

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These Oatmeal Raisin Cookies hold a place near and dear to my heart. They were first published in 2020 when I made the announcement that my wonderful husband, Nathan, had left his left his position as a CTO to help me run my business and see where we can take it together. Since that announcement, my business has grown in the most beautiful way, and a huge piece of that is because of Nathan’s support.

These cookies really were the perfect way to make such an important announcement, because they are his favorite cookie. These Oatmeal Raisin Cookies went through a lot of rigorous testing until I got a cookie that as crisp on the outside, had the perfect amount of spread, and was buttery soft on the inside. I know that these are going to be perfect for celebrating in your house as well.

READER REVIEW

Oh My Word!!! Look no further. The best oatmeal raisin cookie receipe I’ve ever made. Followed receipe exactly. I’ll never use another receipe. Thank you soooo much.

How to Make Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

This is a brief overview of how simple it is to make these perfect classic cookies. For the full recipe, see the recipe card at the bottom of the post.

Mix together the dry ingredients. Whisk together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. Don’t miss my instructions for measuring flour below.
Cream the butter and sugar together. This should be done with a handheld mixer or in the bowl of a stand mixer. Read below why this is such an important step.
Add the eggs and vanilla.
Mix the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. Do this all at once to ensure that you don’t over-mix the flour.
Mix in the raisins in and oats. I like to do this step with a spatula.
Form into cookies and bake.

overhead view of six oatmeal raisin cookies on a wire cooling rack on a marble countertop

Using White and Brown Sugar in Cookies

The crispy exterior, perfect spread, and delicious chewiness of this cookie is due to one main thing: the perfect balance of white and brown sugar.

The brown sugar gives it the chewiness, while the white sugar helps them spread and form their crispy exterior. The result is a perfect cookie.

Cookie Making Tips

These are great tips to follow for any type of cookie.

Measure the flour correctly. This is such an important step that I have a whole section below about it. If the recipe doesn’t turn out, this is most likely the reason.
Use room temperature butter. This ensures the cookies spread the right amount. You should be able to push a finger in to dent the butter but not all the way through. The butter should still feel cold to the touch.
Ensure your baking soda is fresh. Test it by dropping a little in vinegar; it should bubble immediately.
Thoroughly cream together the butter and sugar. During this process, the sugar adds air to the butter. This is and is essential for a good chewy cookie but it also expands the dough and makes for a recipe that yields more cookies.
Use a good baking sheet lined with parchment paper. The baking surface changes how they bake. I love these sheets for Nordic Ware.
Pour in all the flour at once. Mix on low just enough to get most of it into the batter, and then turn to high for a few seconds to incorporate the rest. This prevents over beating the dough.
Use a 1 1/2 tablespoon cookie scoop. Not only does this make quick work of scooping cookies, it creates uniform sized cookies that will bake evenly.

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Baking Sheets

These baking sheets are perfect for baking cookies. They come out perfect every time.

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Measuring Flour

As mentioned above, it is critical to this recipe that you measure flour correctly for this recipe to turn out correctly. We want to avoid scooping the flour from the container with the measuring cup as this can result in 25% too much flour.

Your best bet with flour and baking is always to weigh it. That being said, if you don’t have a kitchen scale, this measuring technique works great.

Whisk the flour in the container you store it in. Whether that is a glass jar, a Tupperware, or the bag the flour came in, you want to whisk it in the container to help loosen it up.
Use a spoon to scoop the flour out of your flour container. Scoop it into a dry measuring cup. That is a plastic or metal measuring cup that come together in sets of 1, 1/2, 1/3, and 1/4 cups. Do not use a glass measuring cup meant for liquids.
Level off the flour. Once the flour is in the dry measuring cup, level it off with the flat edge of a spatula.

How to Measure Flour

This guide on how to measure flour will ensure that each of your baking recipes turns out fantastic regardless of whether or not you own a kitchen scale.

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Person's hands leveling off measuring cup of flour with handle of spatula over container of flour with whisk beside for How to Measure Flour

close up of an oatmeal raisin cookie on a marble surface with a bite missing

Quick Cooking vs. Old Fashioned Oats

You will notice that these call for old fashioned oats. The difference between old fashioned and quick cooking oats is the size of the oat piece. Old fashioned oats are whole while quick cooking are broken down. I prefer the chewiness that old fashioned oats adds to this recipe, but the recipe will work just fine with quick cooking oats.

Freezing the Dough

You can bake these cookies right away without chilling or you can freeze the dough balls for later. Follow the steps below for freezing this as cookie dough.

Form the dough into balls as instructed in the recipe card.
Place the dough balls on a piece of wax paper in the freezer and freeze for 1 hour.
Then transfer to an air tight container until you want to bake them.
When ready to bake, place directly from the freezer onto a parchment lined baking sheet and into the hot preheated oven.
Bake for 12 minutes at 350 degrees.

Storing

Eat these cookies warm from the oven or store in an air tight container for up to one week. This is a pretty solid cookie and would work for shipping if you are a sweet soul who does that sort of thing.

These can also be frozen as baked cookies. Simply freeze them in a single layer for a few hours before stacking them in an air-tight container and returning them to the freezer. They can be stored in the freezer for up to three months.

FAQ

My cookies didn’t spread, what went wrong?

In all likelihood there was too much flour in the recipe. Please be sure to follow the instructions above for measuring flour.

Can I swap the raisins for chocolate chips?

Absolutely! I do that in my Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies, and they are delicious.

Can I use salted butter?

I prefer to use unsalted butter because the amount of salt in butter varies greatly from brand to brand. Using unsalted butter allows you to control for saltiness. That being said, yes! You can use salted butter and omit the salt.

Can these oatmeal cookies be frozen?

Yes! Please find my freezing instructions above.

close up overhead view of a chewy oatmeal raisin cookie on a wire cooling rack

Other Delicious Cookies

If you make these soft oatmeal raisin cookies or any of my other recipes, please leave me a comment and let me know how it went!

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