Soft and chewy oatmeal scotchies are cinnamon-spiced, sweetened with brown sugar, packed with oats, and loaded with butterscotch chips. With crisp edges and chewy centers, every bite is buttery, delicious, and packed with texture.
Butterscotch chips or butterscotch morsels, whatever you call them, are an oatmeal cookie’s best friend. Dare I say these two are even better friends than oatmeal cookies and raisins? And you know how I feel about oatmeal raisin cookies!
These Are the Best Oatmeal Scotchies And Here’s Why
Butterscotch brings you right back to childhood eating butterscotch candies at grandma’s kitchen table. Pair that with cinnamon and these cookies scream nostalgia. Not only are they nostalgic, they’re:
- Soft and chewy in the center
- Slightly crisp on the edges
- Loaded with oats for mega texture
- Studded with butterscotch morsels
- Cinnamon spiced
- Just like grandma’s
- No crazy ingredients or mixing techniques
I plead my case. Oatmeal scotchies rule.
Best Ingredients to Use in Oatmeal Scotchies
- Flour: All-purpose flour is the structure of the cookies.
- Baking Soda: Baking soda helps the cookies rise.
- Cinnamon: Cinnamon and butterscotch are a winning flavor combination. You’ll love the sweet cinnamon spice in each bite.
- Salt: Salt adds flavor.
- Butter: We use 1 cup of room temperature butter in this cookie recipe. Make sure your butter is at proper room temperature—if it’s too warm, your cookies will overspread. Here are my tips and tricks for how to prevent cookies from spreading. See the picture below for properly softened butter. It’s actually cool to touch, not warm. When you press it, your finger will make an indent. For even more information, here’s an in-depth post about room temperature butter. Worth the read!
- Sugar: Sugar is not only used for sweetness, but also for providing structure and tenderness. We use both brown sugar and white granulated sugar in this recipe. I like to use more brown sugar than white sugar because (1) brown sugar has incredible flavor and (2) brown sugar contains more moisture than white, which produces a softer cookie. I use the higher brown sugar to white sugar ratio in my chocolate chip cookies, too.
- Eggs: 2 eggs help bind everything together.
- Molasses: Molasses is my secret ingredient! Just 1 scant Tablespoon of molasses in oatmeal cookies enhances all the wonderful flavors of buttery sweet oatmeal butterscotch cookies.
- Vanilla Extract: Pure vanilla extract adds flavor.
- Oats: There are a ton of oats in this recipe. Whole old-fashioned oats provide a fabulously chewy texture.
- Butterscotch Morsels: Butterscotch morsels are a little smaller than chocolate chips, so you can really pack them into each cookie. I actually counted 20 of them in 1 single cookie. And that’s not an exaggeration!
Room temperature butter is about 65°F (18°C), which is likely cooler than your kitchen. So if your cookies are spreading too much, you’re probably softening your butter too much. Good rule of thumb: set your butter out on the counter 1 hour before you begin. If it gets too soft (use your finger to test), place back in the refrigerator for 10 minutes. Don’t sabotage your efforts; make sure your butter is the correct consistency before you begin.
By the way, here’s my trick to soften butter quickly.
Overview: How to Make Oatmeal Scotchies
These soft and chewy oatmeal scotchies start from my base oatmeal cookie recipe. We use the same base recipe for oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, magic 5 cookies, oatmeal raisin cookies, and many more. It’s an oatmeal cookie recipe I’ve been playing around with for years and I love creating new variations! What’s even better? They come together quickly and easily.
- Whisk the dry ingredients together, beat the wet ingredients together, then combine both. Mix in the oats and butterscotch morsels. This is a super sticky and thick cookie dough. Cover the dough and chill it in the refrigerator for at least 45 minutes, an important step for this cookie dough. When you’re ready to bake the cookies, scoop about 3 Tablespoons of cookie dough per cookie and form into balls. Here is the large cookie scoop I love and highly recommend for this sticky dough. Bake the cookies until they’re lightly browned on the sides. While the cookies are still warm, I like to press a few more butterscotch morsels into the tops—this is only for looks!
More Favorite Cookie Recipes
- Peanut Butter Cookies
- Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Oatmeal Raisin Cookies
- White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies
- Sugar Cookies
- Monster Cookies
Soft & Chewy Oatmeal Scotchies
- Prep Time: 1 hour, 10 minutes (includes dough chilling)
- Cook Time: 14 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour, 40 minutes
- Yield: 20-22 cookies
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
These soft & chewy oatmeal scotchies cookies are loaded with butterscotch chips in every bite. The centers are chewy and soft, the edges are crisp, and every bite is buttery delicious!
Ingredients
- 1 and 1/2 cups (188g) all-purpose flour (spooned & leveled)
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 3/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup (16 Tbsp; 226g) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- 1 cup (200g) packed light or dark brown sugar
- 1/2 cup (100g) granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs, at room temperature
- 1 Tablespoon (15ml) unsulphured or dark molasses (do not use blackstrap; I prefer Grandma’s brand)
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 3 cups (255g) old-fashioned whole rolled oats
- 2Â cups (280g) butterscotch morsels
Instructions
- Whisk the flour, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt together in a medium bowl. Set aside.
- In a large bowl using a hand mixer or a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar together on medium-high speed until combined and creamy, about 2 minutes. Add the eggs, molasses, and vanilla and beat on high speed until combined, about 1 minute. Scrape down the sides and up the bottom of the bowl and beat again as needed to combine.
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix on low until combined. With the mixer running on low speed, beat in the oats and butterscotch morsels. Dough will be thick and sticky. Cover and chill the dough for at least 45 minutes in the refrigerator (and up to 4 days). If chilling for longer than a few hours, allow to sit at room temperature for at least 30 minutes before rolling and baking because the dough will be quite hard.
- Preheat oven to 350°F (177°C). Line baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats. Set aside.
- Scoop cookie dough (here’s the large cookie scoop I love), about 3 Tablespoons of dough per cookie, and place 4 inches apart on the baking sheets. Bake for 13-14 minutes or until lightly browned on the sides. The centers will look very soft.
- Remove from the oven and allow cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely. While the cookies are still warm, I like to press a few more butterscotch morsels into the tops—this is only for looks!
- Cookies stay fresh covered at room temperature for up to 1 week.
Notes
- Make Ahead Instructions: You can make the cookie dough and chill it in the refrigerator for up to 4 days. Allow to come to room temperature then continue with step 4. Baked cookies freeze well for up to 3 months. Unbaked cookie dough balls freeze well for up to 3 months. Bake frozen cookie dough balls for an extra minute, no need to thaw. Here are my tips and tricks for how to freeze cookie dough.
- Special Tools (affiliate links): Electric Mixer (Handheld or Stand) | Baking Sheet | Silicone Baking Mat or Parchment Paper | Large Cookie Scoop | Cooling Rack
- Molasses: 1 Tablespoon of molasses helps give these cookies incredible flavor. Be sure to use unsulphured or dark molasses (do not use blackstrap; I prefer Grandma’s brand). If you don’t have any, simply leave it out. Do not replace with anything else.
- Brown Sugar: I prefer using dark brown sugar in oatmeal scotchies.
- Be sure to check out my top 5 cookie baking tips AND these are my 10 must-have cookie baking tools.
Love it! The tips about butter temperature are much appreciated. My kitchen temp can vary throughout the year. I also already own molasses as I love to make and freeze gingerbread scones! The salt on top of the Scotchies made my husband very happy. Mine turned out darker than yours, but we loved the results!
I added a tablespoon of kumquat jam and some dried cranberries to my 1 cup of butterscotch morsels. Delicious
Hi!
Can I use 1 cup of applesauce instead of butter?? Just wondering if it would change the taste too drastically
Hi Grace, using applesauce instead of butter will change the texture of the cookies completely, we don’t suggest the swap. You may love these Breakfast Cookies – see recipe notes for using applesauce instead of bananas.
I just got your recipe book for Christmas (yay!) and noticed that this Oatmeal Scotchie recipe is completely different than the one listed in there. I’m trying to decide with one to bake this weekend!
Is there one that you prefer? How do the finished products of each recipe differ?
Hi Katie, This recipe is a bit softer and chewier than the one from the book. It uses whole oats instead of the quick oats which absorb more moisture, so you get more texture in every bite!
These are the best oatmeal scotchies I’ve ever eaten!! Made them per the request of my brother as this type of cookie is far from my favorite; most recipes produce dry, hard, bland cookies. These are truly amazing! Love the hint of cinnamon, slight crunch, chewy center & that they seem to melt in my mouth. I’ve never written a recipe review before but this one earned it—I’ll be making these again & often.
Once again another fantastic recipe from Sally. I am never disappointed. I actually used cinnamon chips that Hershey put out this holiday season after being off the market for a few years. Yum, yum, and yum. Plan on freezing the dough so I can make when needed for company. Wait…. no one is coming over anymore so guess I’ll eat all myself!
Thank you for this amazing and PERFECT recipe! I mostly appreciate all the pro tips about room temps and the reasoning behind it all! My mom used to make these cookies all the time growing up and they’re my favorite. I made them yesterday just with proportions from a different recipe and they came out harder and not as moist. I found this recipe and followed it to a T and am so happy! I highly recommend, thanks again!
Made these for nistalgia’s sake, and they are close enough to what I remember to work on that level, while having a bit more complexity of flavor, yay! Plus, as written they make a larger-than-average cookie, which I like. I made the oatmeal raisin cookie recipe from this site first, and doubled its size to a quarter cup (4 tablespoons) dough per cookie. (Made 3 trays). As this recipe was already 3T, I didn’t have to change the size. I had a serving spoon that was exactly 3 tablespoons, so I can report that with 12 cookies per tray (plus 1 xtra cookie), this recipe requires 4 trays’ worth of oven time. I had to cook them about 20 minutes each. Worth it!
I almost gave this recipe 4 s because the morsels have so many unhealthy ingredients, but that’s not your fault, so I gave it 5 s.
The morsels come in an 11 oz. bag (remember when it was 12 oz.? They’re cheating, and one bag costs almost $4!!!!) The recipe on the back says that is 1 2/3 cups. Today I’m just going to add some toasted walnuts to make up the difference. Could you please adjust your recipe to make the amount realistic based on how people would actually purchase the morsels? I prefer your recipes because they include weights, whereas the bags only use measures. Thanks 🙂
Can I ask why mine looked beautiful when they first came out… then deflated and looked icky. I weighed my ingredients where indicated, and baked on a “air” cookie sheet. Help!
I weighed my ingredients also and they turned out flat and super dark. I don’t think the flour weight is correct in this recipe. If I do it again I will be sure to measure instead.
If you cup measure the flour correctly, scoop, dump, scoop, and sweep, you will actually need closer to 2.5 cups of flour instead of the 1.5. At least, that is what I have found when I make these and it would make sense to the flour weight being off and not producing the cookies like pictured.
Would these work in bar form? If so, any idea what size pan and baking time?
Hi Julia! Yes, you can turn this cookie recipe into a cookie bar recipe. This cookie dough should fit into a 9×13 inch baking pan or for much thicker cookie bars, use a 9×9 inch. I’m unsure of the exact bake time though.
I have made these several times and they always come out so good. This is my “go to” recipe for oatmeal scotchies. I love the addition of the molasses. MMMMMGOOD!
These are so amazing, definitely a level up from the oatmeal butterscotch cookies I’m used to. The molasses and touch of cinnamon really add depth of flavor. Mine turned out with a bit of a lacy, crispy edge and perfectly chewy centers. I froze half of the dough to make later and they turned out great. I’m going to make a note on the recipe to try sprinkling a little flaky salt on them next time. Thanks for a great recipe!
Ooh, great reminder about the salt! Too bad I read it after the last tray was in the oven – hope I remember next time! 🙂
These cookies were absolutely delicious! The first batch that went in the oven spread a lot and were flat and flavorless (I had chilled the dough for just 30 minutes in the fridge). For the second batch, I put the entire tray of rolled cookie dough in the freezer for about 10 minutes and it made a huge difference. They were soft, chewy, and literally the most delicious oatmeal raisin cookie I’ve ever tasted. Thank you for this recipie!
Also, I just realized I left this review for the wrong cookie! I made Sally’s Soft and Chewy Oatmeal Raisin Cookie. But these scotchies are next on my list!
Hi Sally,
I love your recipes and I am a pretty good baker, however, my cookies came out a little dense and didn’t spread as much. I used salted butter instead of unsalted, but it shouldn’t have made the batter so dense. Any thoughts on what I can do to correct the density? I used Guittard butterscotch which is pricey and don’t want to throw out this batch. I was thinking about adding a little melted butter to moisten/increase spreadability —your thoughts?
Hi Kay! If oatmeal cookies don’t spread much, you may want to double check how you’re measuring the flour– make sure you are spooning and leveling that flour instead of scooping it. Likewise, the longer the dough sits, the more moisture the oats will absorb. If you decide to try the cookies again, I recommend only chilling the dough for 45 minutes. You can also try slightly reducing the flour by 2-3 Tbsp or adding another 1-2 Tbsp of butter.
Sally, I was eager to try this recipe ! I , unfortunately, did not get great response ! They are dry and crumbly . I’ve made your oatmeal raisin and oatmeal chocolate chip cookies with terrific results. I always make my oatmeal cookies with a 1+1/2 tbls scoop, the larger cookies are just too big for us. I just adjust the baking time. I ended up baking these around 13 minutes because they seemed raw. Do you have any idea what I can do to prevent this from happening again?
Hi Nancy, Make sure you are Properly Measuring your Ingredients, especially your flour. Spoon and level instead of scooping or you will end up with too much which will dry out your cookies. Also check to make sure you are using old fashioned whole oats and not quick oats. Quick oats will absorb too much liquid which dries out the cookies.
Thanks Sally!
I weighed the ingredients and I purchase whole oats from Sprouts!
Do you think maybe I baked them too long? How are they supposed to look when done? If I measured 1+1/2 tbls for each cookie, how long would you suggest baking them? I put them in the freezer until time to put them into the oven (after shaping)?
I am perplexed, actually, I am a pretty good baker, thanks in part to all of your extremely helpful hints.
Can this recipe be made as a bar?
Hi Laura! You can turn this cookie recipe into a cookie bar recipe. This cookie dough should fit into a 9×13 inch baking pan or for thicker cookie bars, a 9×9 inch. I’m unsure of the exact bake time though.
Hi Sally,
Can I add raisins, if yes, in what amount? Do I need to make any other adjustments?
Hi Carole, You can replace some of the butterscotch morsels with raisins. I recommend keeping the total amount of butterscotch morsels plus raisins to 2 cups.
Came out great! First pans came out really think. This last pan looks a little thicker. Hmmmm
Hi Sally! I see the OXO cookie scoop you linked – do you generally use the “large” option for all your cookies? Seems a bit big, but I want to go ahead and purchase if you recommend the large size!
Hi Mary! I usually use the medium size for most cookies. It scoops 1.5 Tablespoons. If I need larger cookies, I make it a heaping scoop. I love it!
Can I make the cookies smaller and lessen the cooking time?
Yes!
These are soooo good!! I will half the butterscotch morsels next time because wow they are crazy sweet! And that’s coming from me!!! Haha
ABSOLUTELY ADDICTIVE, AND MY ALL-TIME FAVORITE COOKIE !
These are absolutely amazing. Another killer recipe from your site. Whenever I need to research a recipe,I always consider your opinions at the top of my list. This cookie is to die for ! I followed this recipe exactly and sprinkle on some coconut. Everyone asks for this recipe when I share with others. Do yourself a favor,and ONLY use Guittard Butterscotch Chips.Although they are hard to find,you can order them online,and there is no equal.
I really like the flavor of this Scotchie recipe but I’ve made them twice now and they turned out flat and kind of separated twice now. I’ve checked butter temperatures and what not but I can’t seem to nail this one down, unfortunately.
Same! Tried several times. I can’t figure out where I’m going wrong.
I’ve been told too much butter. Advice was to try half butter half shortening or just find a recipe with less butter. I also tried a new unsalted butter I’d never used before for the oatmeal chocolate chip recipe on here and same exact problem as these AND they turned a deep brown before they were done with oven settings correct and all. So strange, will do some more baking and testing (more cookies, yaaaaay!!)
It’s the and I only have quick oats! Are there adjustments that need to be made for using them instead of rolled oats?
Hi Julie, You can use quick oats in a pinch but your cookies will not be as chewy.
This recipe looks amazing, I can’t wait to try this with the addition of the molasses. One trick I’ve learned that helps prevent much spreading is using parchment paper. I’ve used the silicon mats and “just” the cookie sheet and I ALWAYS go back to using the parchment paper, it makes a huge difference in preventing the spreading of the cookies. Might help someone to know that.
I’ve always loved Oatmeal Scotchies and this was perfect. I did make some minor changes: I used 1 teaspoon of vanilla and a teaspoon of orange extract or oil (it’s a European brand) and left out the molasses. I think that the original recipe from Nestles used orange extract and I’ve always loved that hint of orange. I also used muscovado dark brown sugar and added about 3/4 of a cup of chopped walnuts. Delish!
You need to add a warning here. These cookies are HIGHLY addictive! I’ve been making them forever and noone can resist. I’ve never added molasses before so I will have to try this. Sounds fabu! I always add in half a bag of chocolate chips which really ups the ante for deliciousness.
These are the best cookies! My husband asked me to make oatmeal scotchies and I went looking for something a bit better than the ones on the back of the butterscotch chip bag. These definitely have that little something extra. Delicious!
Made these tonight for a change with christmas cookies. They are an instant hit with my husband and kids!!!