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
- Soft & Thick 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
- 2 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.
Reader Comments and Reviews
Very good! I have co-workers still talking about these cookies months later!
This recipe is underwhelming. They spread way too much and don’t look good. I’m an experienced home baker and have never had this issue before.
Hi Chris, thank you for the feedback. Were you sure to chill the cookie dough before baking?
These are superb, but I do recommend baking them at 375 instead of 350. My cookies looked shiny/greasy and raw edge to edge, even when baked at the maximum bake time. So I think next time I will bake then 375 for 8 minutes and see how they come out. They are delicious though! Nice and chewy
This was my very first Sally fail. . Like others have mentioned these were flat and nasty. Like a lace cookie gone bad. I did chill for 2 hours. I saved half the dough and will let it set up overnight and try again. I am a very experienced baker and I bake for organizations. I am hoping an overnight chill will help these hold their shape. They have an interesting flavor but should be much better if they don’t spread.
Hi Genevieve, flat cookies are usually caused by butter that is too warm or under measuring flour, even if they are sufficiently chilled. This post on how to prevent cookies from spreading will also be a helpful resource. Thank you for giving these cookies a try!
Could you use Reese’s peanut butter chips instead of butterscotch chips in the nestles oatmeal scotchies recipe?
Hi KAT, that would be delicious! Let us know if you try it.
These are crowd pleasers! Wondering if you can make them as bar cookies?
Hi Wendy, 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-inch square pan. Same temperature, we’re unsure of the exact bake time though. Hope you enjoy them!
This recipe is not good. I am an experienced baker and I should have followed my intuition with this recipe. It needs way more flour to actually hold shape in the oven. No amount of chilling helps the cookies not spread. They end up being flat crispy pancakes.
The cookies taste awesome, but I’ve been consistently having an issue with rawness in the middle. If I try to cook them longer, the edges burn, and the centers are never done. My leavener is fresh, I chilled them overnight, and I used the right type of oat, so not sure what I’ve been doing wrong.
Hi Jeremy, do they firm up as they cool? The middles will still look quite soft when they come out of the oven, but they should solidify as they cool. You can try slightly flattening the cookie dough balls before they go into the oven to help initiate spread and get the middles baking a bit faster. Glad you’re enjoying the cookies!
Outstanding cookies. Chewy and delicious.
I already can’t wait to make these again! They’re SO delicious and perfectly chewy. Everyone I have given them to has just loved them. I baked them for 15 minutes, which was perfect in my oven.
Could these oatmeal scotchies be made as a bar cookie, if so what changes would have to be made to the recipe?
Hi Ric, 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. Same temperature, we’re unsure of the exact bake time though. Hope you enjoy them!
Got this recipe from a friend & this is my favorite cookie recipe
I followed this recipe from your book and yuck! I compared the two recipes and this one online has molasses in it. The measurements of the rest of the ingredients are slightly different but it’s the same recipe. The book says to cook them for 8-10 minutes. Absolutely not done. I’ve added another 7 minutes and maybe they are sorta done. Big waste of money, time and effort. Was making them for our cookie sale at church. Now I’ll have to find something else to make. Annoying
Hi Barbara, the recipes are indeed different. Sorry you had trouble with them. Thank you for your feedback.
3 tablespoons?? That’s a ridiculously large cookie. Are you sure it’s not teaspoons?
Yes, 3 Tablespoons is correct, but you can certainly feel free to make them smaller and adjust the bake time accordingly.
This is a great recipe! I used dark mucovado sugar for the molasses content and butterscotch and white chips. Since this is for holiday baking, I also throw in a bag of dried cranberries. So good!!!
This my husbands favorite cookie and I’ve made it multiple times! However, I consistently have the same problem with any of the oatmeal base cookies – they spread far too much. Makes them much less attractive and not as chewy because they are very flat. The only times they don’t is when they are frozen, but I don’t always have the space for that. Any tips or advice to keep this from happening?
Hi Marlee, we’re so glad these are a favorite! There are a number of reasons that cookies can over spread—this post on 10 tips to prevent cookies from spreading will be a good place to start. Hope this helps and thank you for making and trusting our recipes!
Turned it GF by using GF one 4 one flour and it turned out perfect. Subbed the molasses with honey and was very careful to do the room temp butter and eggs. Excellent.
Love the flavor of this recipe. Any suggestions on how to make them less…flat? Mine look like pancakes. Still taste great though!
Hi Becca, flat cookies are usually caused by butter that is too warm or under measuring flour. This post on how to prevent cookies from spreading will also be a helpful resource. Glad the cookies were a hit!
Delicious! I think the molasses adds nice depth of flavor
I like this recipe, but I find the three tablespoons to be too large. They get a better texture for me when I make them half as large. I also grind my oats, just as a preference. I didn’t have molasses, I did put a bit of the dark karo syrup as a sub. I also used a homemade vanilla bean paste made with watershed bourbon. I have made them without those subs as well. Both times the recipe turned out great! But if you make them big, they are undercooked in the center for my preference.
I had these at a bake sale and had to get the recipe. Made them twice last year during the holidays – they are to die for. I try not to eat sugar often so I haven’t made them in awhile because they’re hard to resist but I’m back on this site drooling over them. This time I’m going to make apple pie filling and layer that on top of vanilla ice cream with these cookies as a base. If I’m going to indulge, might as well go all the way right? These are so so so good!
It didn’t lie – no mistaken identity. They are chewy, but like raw, in my opinion. I baked them past the time suggested and I am an experienced baker. I never got anything crispy. I generally love Sally’s recipes, but this one isn’t my favorite.
Just out of curiosity, has anybody ever tried using Reeses peanut butter chips in place of the butterscotch chips only asking because I ran out of butterscotch chips
Hi Rachel, that would be delicious! Let us know if you try it.
I baked these today with my 11-yr-old granddaughter, who loves to bake. They turned out wonderfully. We followed the directions exactly. Crispy, chewy, flavorful, Heaven… Thank you for sharing!
Sensational cookie recipe! I don’t know how it is possible to love every recipe I have ever tried that is yours. Every time I try another recipe I think oh this has to be my new favourite.
The neighbor boys fight for who gets to do jobs for me. I pay in oatmeal scotchies. (plus some cash)
I only did half the butterscotch chips because I was afraid of it being too sweet and added a 1/4 cup of bittersweet chocolate chips. HEAVEN. Literal heaven the perfect sweet/salty balance.
Excellent recipe. You are the queen of baking- thought your chocolate chip cookies were the best- my sons crazy for oatmeal butterscotch Scottie’s!!
You can bake. Red velvet cake I’ve made too/ it’s amazing. So glad you tell us to follow directions exactly!!❤️Learned so much about baking from you. A million thanks!
I loved these cookies. I halved it and now
wish I had not. I subbed Caramel bits for
the butterscotch.
Made these in a pinch when one of the other cooks burnt our premises. I cook in senior care and I tripled the recipe and got 80+ good sized cookies
. I was short on butterscotch chips but added Skor toffee candy bar pieces and they turned out amazing. The residents loved them!
Meant to put pre-made not premises
I was wondering if oatmeal scotchies could be made into cupcakes or cookie bars? Recipe sounds absolutely mouthwatering.
Hi Linda, 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. Same temperature, we’re unsure of the exact bake time though.
Thank you, these were perfect, I got 42 cookies out of this recipe, the ideal size.
Delicious, I really love the texture! I browned the butter first (adding back in 2 tablespoons of vanilla whiskey to account for water evaporation) then let it cool to room temp before beating with the sugar, it worked nicely for this recipe. Also added another 1/2 tsp of salt because of how much sugar is in this, I was very happy with the balance of flavors. These are still fairly sweet, but the sugar is needed to get the softer texture. Clearly they were not overly sweet because I ate 2 warm out of the oven and then another 2 an hour later when they had cooled off!
This recipe was amazing! I have Celtic ancestry and this is the best recipe that tastes like the Emerald Isles. Bon Appetit