Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies are an easy baking recipe for a delicious homemade treat. Try them this weekend – they bake up soft and make your home smell amazing!

I absolutely love oatmeal cookies, and as much as I love-love oatmeal chocolate chip cookies – I do also enjoy a good oatmeal raisin cookie. Sorry, raisin haters, this one isn’t for you ?

If you’re on team raisin, bake a batch of these oatmeal raisin cookies whenever you’re in need of a treat. They are easy to pull together and come out soft, chewy and delicious.

Ingredients you’ll need

Here is a visual overview of the ingredients in the recipe. Scroll down to the printable recipe card at the bottom of this post for quantities!

Ingredient notes

• Oats: You can use old-fashioned oats instead of quick-cooking oats (or a mix of both) for chewier, more textured cookies.
• Spices: You can also switch up the spices – try adding ¼ teaspoon of ground ginger, or a few pinches of nutmeg or cardamom.
• Sugar: If you don’t have any brown sugar, you can use all white sugar.
• Nuts: Feel free to leave out the nuts if you prefer!

How to make Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

Start by creaming the butter and both sugars together until they’re very creamy (1).

Then, add the egg and vanilla extract. Mix just until combined (2) – if you overmix the egg, the cookies may come out tough!

Next, combine all dry ingredients in a separate bowl. I like to use a whisk for this to make sure the baking soda is evenly distributed (3).

Then, add the dry ingredients to the bowl with the creamed ingredients and mix just until combined (4). Again – do not overmix!

Finally, use a spatula to fold the oats, raisins and chopped nuts into the cookie dough (5).

Scoop the dough into balls and set them 2 inches apart on lined baking sheets (6).

At this point, you’ll want to refrigerate the shaped cookie dough for 30-60 minutes. If you don’t have enough space in the refrigerator , you can place the cookie dough balls on a couple of plates lined with baking parchment, then transfer them to the baking sheets later.

Once you’re ready to bake the cookies, bake them one tray at a time until lightly golden. The cookies will still be very soft when they’re ready, make sure you don’t overbake them or they’ll lose their soft texture!

Recipe tips

• Don’t overmix the egg. A quick mix until combined is enough or you’ll have tough cookies.
• Don’t skip the chilling. These really do need to chill. The dough is very soft (which yields a soft cookie!) and spreads too much without at LEAST 30 minutes of chilling.
• Use a cookie scoop. It really makes portioning out cookie dough so much easier and faster!
• Leave enough space on the baking sheet. This recipe makes too many cookies to bake on one baking sheet. Space them apart at least 2 inches to keep them from spreading into each other.

Freezer instructions

To freeze the cookie dough: I find it’s easiest to scoop the cookies, then freeze them in a single layer for about 6 hours (either on the lined cookie sheet or, if you don’t have the freezer space, on a plate lined with baking parchment.

Then, bag them in bags or containers suitable for freezing. Label with the name and use-by date (freeze for up to 3 months).

Bake straight from frozen as directed in the recipe, adding a few extra minutes to the baking time. Make sure the cookies are no longer frozen in the middle and piping hot all the way through!

To freeze the baked cookies: Place the cookies in freezer-friendly containers, separating layers with wax paper. Label with the name and use-by date (freeze for up to 3 months) before placing in the freezer.

To defrost, unpack the cookies and place them on a wire rack on the counter. Allow to defrost for a couple of hours.

For that freshly baked cookie taste, warm them in the microwave for a few seconds, or in the oven for a few minutes.

More oatmeal cookie recipes

PS If you try this recipe, please leave a review in the comment section and add a star rating in the recipe card – I appreciate your feedback! Follow along on Pinterest, Facebook or Instagram.

Printable recipe