Soft and chewy with that trademark homemade flavor, these are the best soft and chewy oatmeal raisin cookies. Made with brown sugar, vanilla, cinnamon, chewy oats, sweet raisins, and a secret ingredient, this recipe wins for flavor and texture. Your family will love these easy oatmeal raisin cookies!
There are two types of people in this world. Raisin haters and raisin lovers. I fall into the latter category. Besides homemade apple pie, oatmeal raisin cookies are my favorite dessert. There’s something incredibly magical about the chewy texture, soft centers, plump raisins, and cinnamon flavor. Please tell me I’m not the only raisin lover!!
What Makes These Oatmeal Raisin Cookies The Best
The competition is strong, but here’s why you’ll fall in love with these cookies.
- Moist and tender centers
- Slight crisp on the edges
- Sweetened with brown sugar
- Loaded with oats
- Studded with raisins
- Cinnamon spiced
- Buttery flavor
- 30 minute chill time
It doesn’t get much better than this!
Ingredients in Oatmeal Raisin Cookies
Oatmeal raisin cookies are made with very basic ingredients.
- Butter: Butter is the base of any delicious cookie recipe. Make sure you are using room temperature butter.
- Brown Sugar + Granulated Sugar: Sugar is not only used for sweetness, but also for providing structure and tenderness. 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.
- Eggs: Eggs help bind everything together. You need 2 eggs in this recipe.
- Pure Vanilla Extract + Salt: Both provide flavor.
- Cinnamon: Raisins, oats, and cinnamon are winning flavor combination.
- Baking Soda: Baking soda helps the cookies rise.
- Molasses: Molasses is my secret ingredient! 1 scant Tablespoon enhances all the wonderful flavors of these buttery, cinnamon-sweet oatmeal raisin cookies.
- Flour: Flour is the structure of the cookies.
- Oats: There are a ton of oats in this recipe! Oats provide a fabulously chewy texture. I use and recommend old fashioned whole oats here—just like I do for flourless peanut butter oatmeal cookies.
- Raisins: I love to soak the raisins in warm water before using. This step is optional, but it guarantees they are plump and soft. Blot dry before adding to cookie dough. (You can also use this cookie dough to make my white chocolate chip cherry oatmeal cookies.)
I like to add chopped walnuts. Nuts are totally optional but highly recommended. These simple ingredients combine to make the best oatmeal raisin cookies!
How to Make Oatmeal Raisin Cookies
There’s only a few steps between now and a batch of warm oatmeal cookies. 🙂
- Cream butter + sugars: Use a hand or stand mixer to cream the softened butter with both sugars until smooth, about 2 minutes on medium speed.
- Add eggs, vanilla, + molasses: Add eggs, then mix on high for about 1 minute until incorporated. Add vanilla and molasses, mix until combined.
- Dry ingredients: Mix flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt together in a separate bowl. Pour this into the wet ingredients. Combine together on low.
- Add the extras: Beat in the oats and raisins on low speed. Dough will be thick and sticky.
- Chill: Refrigerate the cookie dough for 30-60 minutes.
- Roll: Roll cookie dough into balls and place on a lined baking sheet. I love using these baking mats.
- Bake: Bake the cookies at 350°F (177°C) for 12-13 minutes until lightly browned. The cookies might look under-baked, but they will continue to set as they cool. This is the secret to a soft and chewy oatmeal raisin cookie!
Oatmeal Raisin Cookie Dough is Sticky
This oatmeal raisin cookie dough is sticky, so don’t be alarmed. The cookie dough needs to chill for about 30 minutes before baking. I don’t recommend keeping this cookie dough in the refrigerator for much longer because your cookies won’t spread. The oats will begin to absorb all of the wonderful moisture from the eggs, butter, and sugar and won’t expand as they bake. Sticky dough is good dough!
More Favorite Cookie Recipes
If you love these oatmeal raisin cookies, try any of these SOFT cookie recipes. You’ll wonder why you haven’t baked them sooner!
- Iced Oatmeal Cookies
- Peanut Butter Cookies
- Oatmeal Scotchies
- Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Soft & Thick Monster Cookies
- Maple Brown Sugar Cookies
- Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
Soft and Chewy Oatmeal Raisin Cookies
- Prep Time: 45 minutes
- Cook Time: 13 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour
- Yield: 26-30 cookies
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
Soft and chewy with that trademark homemade flavor, these are the best soft and chewy oatmeal raisin cookies. Your family will love these easy oatmeal raisin cookies!
Ingredients
- 1 cup (16 Tbsp; 226g) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- 1 cup (200g) packed light or dark brown sugar
- 1/4 cup (50g) granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs*
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 1 Tablespoon (15ml) unsulphured or dark molasses (do not use blackstrap; I prefer Grandma’s brand)
- 1 and 2/3 cups (209g) all-purpose flour (spooned & leveled)
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 and 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 3 cups (255g) old-fashioned whole rolled oats*
- 1 cup (140g) raisins (see Note below)
- optional: 1/2 cup (64g) chopped toasted walnuts
Instructions
- Using a hand mixer or a stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment, cream the softened butter and both sugars together on medium speed until smooth, about 3 minutes. (Here’s a helpful tutorial if you need guidance on how to cream butter and sugar.) Add the eggs and mix on high until combined, about 1 minute. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl as needed. Add the vanilla and molasses and mix on high until combined. Set aside.
- In a separate bowl, whisk the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt together. Add to the wet ingredients and mix on low until combined. Beat in the oats, raisins, and walnuts (if using) on low speed. Dough will be thick, yet very sticky. Chill the dough for 30-60 minutes in the refrigerator (do the full hour if you’re afraid of the cookies spreading too much). If chilling for longer (up to 2 days), allow to sit at room temperature for at least 30 minutes before rolling and baking.
- Preheat oven to 350°F (177°C). Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats. Set aside.
- Roll balls of dough (about 2 tablespoons of dough per cookie) and place 2 inches apart on the baking sheets. I recommend using a cookie scoop since the dough can be sticky. Bake for 12-14 minutes until lightly browned on the sides. The centers will look very soft and under-baked. Remove from the oven and let cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely. The cookies will continue to “set” on the baking sheet during this time.
Notes
- Make Ahead & Freezing Instructions: Cookies stay fresh covered at room temperature for up to 1 week. Baked cookies freeze well—up to three months. Unbaked cookie dough balls freeze well—up to three months. Bake frozen cookie dough balls for an extra minute, no need to thaw. Here’s how to freeze cookie dough.
- Special Tools (affiliate links): Electric Mixer (Handheld or Stand) | Baking Sheets | Silicone Baking Mats or Parchment Paper | Cookie Scoop | Cooling Rack
- Oats: For these oatmeal raisin cookies, I use old-fashioned whole oats. They provide the ultimate hearty, chewy, thick texture we love!
- Eggs: Room temperature eggs preferred. Good rule of thumb: always use room temperature eggs when using room temperature butter.
- Raisins: Soak your raisins in warm water for 10 minutes before using (blot very well to dry them) – this makes them nice and plump for your cookies.
- Adapted from Loaded Oatmeal Cookies & Oatmeal Creme Pies. Recipe originally published on Sally’s Baking Addiction in 2014.
Reader Comments and Reviews
Amazing!! Love these cookies. I actually substituted chopped dates for the raisins. A great chewy cookie with that kick of cinnamon.
A little bland. Too fluffy. Definitely wouldn’t advertise as “chewy”. Maybe more raisins, cinnamon and nuts. Followed the recipe e exactly and tried dough both chilled and kot chilled. Too fluffy for oatmeal.
Hi Phil, these should be chewy. Usually a fluffy cookie is caused by too much flour/oats in the dough. How did you measure the flour/oats? Make sure to spoon and level (instead of scooping) to avoid packing in too much into your measuring cups – or use a kitchen scale. You can read more about properly measuring baking ingredients in this post.
My cookies fluffed up and I had to squish them down. Kinda bland I wanted a chewy traditional flavor and it didn’t hit the way I expected.
My cookies Fluffed up also. But I ran out of brown sugar and didn’t have molasses so I subbed honey and sugar. Also because they were so risen I over backed them. I added 1/4 nutmeg and dash of carmadon so mine tastes great but dry. I ll do over.
Can you make cookie bars from this recipe??
Hi Nancy, We haven’t made this exact recipe as bars but we’d recommend making them in a 9×13 pan. We’re unsure of the exact bake time. Let us know if you give it a try.
Not a boring oatmeal raisin cookie AT ALL! Delicious. Perfect recipe. I used golden raisins and pecans because it’s what I had. It isn’t the nostalgic cookie my grandma made but it’s one I’d be happy to pass down for generations if I had my own kiddos. Excellent. I look forward to making this on repeat … as-written and with other fun variations. Thanks!
This is a VERY good recipe. Love it. Might try the bar cookie idea today.
These are the BEST oatmeal raisin cookies I’ve ever had!
I did change the recipe slightly. 1/2 teaspoon baking soda & 1/2 teaspoon baking powder.
They were perfect!
So, I generally follow recipes. I decided at the last minute to add dried cranberries, coconut and white chocolate chips. I also did not add the white sugar because a lot of the reviews said the cookies were a little to sweet. The way I made them turned out great. Great base recipe! Next time I will follow the recipe.
I love all Sally’s recipes! So on point with her ingredients! Easy to follow and so delicious!
These were delicious!
I followed recipe exactly but found them to be a little bland. I may try once more and increase the raisins, vanilla and cinnamon.
First timer
Omitted:white sugar
Added: 1 cup flour, 1 cup oats, 1/2 cup pure maple syrup, 1/2 cup bran buds, 1 egg, 1 Tbp ground flax, 1 tsp baking soda, also added shredded unsweetened coconut but followed all other ingredients and quantities. I’m told they are always welcome.
Thank you.
On my second batch of these favorite cookies, the second batch spread a lot more. I’ve got a problem with my oven maintaining the set temperature, so that’s one variable. The other is that I used dark brown sugar with the white. Would that change anything.
My husband’s favorite cookie, oatmeal raisin these are the best yum yum
If I could give it 10 stars I would! Fabulous, thank you. Could I add a little bit more of the raisins?
Can we use sweeter instead of sugar
I’m looking for a soft oatmeal cookie. That’s kind of gooey in the middle and fairly flat. I made these today. The taste is great and even though I only cooked them the least amount of minutes they still weren’t going in the middle. So I have frozen a bunch more cookie balls and will try to cook them a little less next time. They didn’t spread a whole lot either
I’ve baked for many years but not cookies , on the odd time I tried they were never right.
NOW just made your Oatmeal Choc Chip ones.
PERFECT instructions right down to the measured or weighed size. You think of EVERYTHING. Thankyou
I made your recipe for soft and chewy oatmeal cookies this evening and they turned out horribly! I bake every week, cookies, cakes, pies, etc. and have been baking since the age of 9 (I’m 70) with very few disasters such as these. I successfully made these cookies recently and my husband loved them, only suggestion was to add the full cup of raisins to the dough. I followed your recipe exactly as written and chilled the dough for approximately 65 minutes prior to baking. The only difference between my prior batches and today’s was that I followed your “tip” about soaking the raisins for 10 minutes in warm water and then drained and patted them dry thoroughly.
I strongly believe this “tip” is unnecessary and led to the cookies spreading so badly I had to cut them with a pizza cutter
to separate them! You may wish to revisit your “tip”-perhaps you used old dried out raisins which benefited from a bit of rehydration. Please update your recipe to advise bakers that soaking raisins may not be necessary and the raisins should be assessed before soaking.
I will bake another batch next week and DEFINITELY WON’T soak the raisins. I can only imagine what a problem these cookies would have been if I were making them for a bake sale or other fundraiser event.
I usually enjoy your recipes and was extremely disappointed that this one resulted in such a failure.
These are perfect! I turned the broiler on briefly I get a slightly toasted top.
I LOVE these cookies and I haven’t made them for a few years. Since then, a few changes were made to the recipe. In particular, I have 2 questions:
1) The vanilla was decreased to 2 tsp from 1 Tbsp. I have no access to molasses. Should I keep the vanilla 1 Tbsp in that case?
2) Flour was increased a bit. How does the added flour change the consistency from the previous version of the recipe?
Thank you!
Hi Elizabeth, the flour was increased a bit to help prevent the cookies from over-spreading. You can omit the molasses with no other changes to the recipe (keep the vanilla at 2 tsp.)–hope the cookies are even better than you remember!
Hi I tried these last night and followed the recipe to a T. Cookies didn’t spread much. The cookie was still really soft and chewy this morning. How do I decrease the sweetness without impacting the soft and chewy aspect of it?
Hi Shabana, It sounds like there may have been too much flour in the dough, soaking up all the wet ingredients and preventing spread. How did you measure your flour? Be sure to spoon and level (or use a kitchen scale) to ensure just the right amount of flour. You could also flatten out the dough balls before baking to help initiate more spread. Feel free to slightly reduce the sugar but this could also change how much the cookies spread and how they taste as well. Let us know if you do any experimenting.
I wholly skipped the instructions to refrigerate the dough, not intentionally, my bad. I also had an incident with my salt, so they’re sort of salty.
Even with my mistakes, these are still amazing cookies. Molasses is truly an elevative ingredient. I may have to re purpose some of these as like, a crumble topping on ice cream, because wow did the salt mishap mess them up more than forgetting to refrigerate.
Good recipe, I wish I wasnt rushing to pull them together for guests. Love Sally’s, thanks for being so awesome and dependable.
Hi Sally.
Do you have substitute recommendations for the molasses?
Thanks!
Hi Jennifer, there’s no substitute for the molasses, but you can leave it out if needed.
I subbed in honey for it. Worked fine.
Im from Australia and our substitute is golden syrup or treacle
These are the BEST oatmeal raisin cookies I’ve ever made!!!!
The ABSOLUTE BEST oatmeal raisin cookies you will ever eat!! Every SBA recipe I have made (and I have made ALOT) has turned out to be the best of anything!! Thank you for sharing your talent and recipes with us, Sally!!
Hi,
I wanted to know if there is a way to make these like your big chocolate chip cookies?
Hi D., you can certainly make them larger. Bake time will need to be increased, too.
I absolutely adore this recipe! I’ve been using it for over 8 years! It’s definitely a go-to and I’ve even used chocolate chunks. Any suggestions on adapting these into soft, square bars? Not like a sheet pan bar cookie, but similar to he shape of an oatmeal breakfast bar. I love this recipe, I just want to make the texture softer for the seniors I take care of. I’m trying not to overthink it!
Hi Ash, you can certainly make these as cookie bars, but if you’re looking for something closer to an oatmeal consistency, you might enjoy these peanut butter banana oatmeal bars or even this baked oatmeal instead!
Have you ever tried soaking the raisins in alcohol (rum, bourbon , etc…,) I heard it tastes good too. Just curious
Hi Scott, you can absolutely do that here!
Hello, I’ve tried this a few times and they tasted really good. Just that I couldn’t get the texture to look like yours. Mine appeared smoother on the surface and I’m hoping to achieve a more crater-like surface. What do you think might have gone wrong?
Hi Steph, we’re happy to help! Instead of rolling the dough to be completely smooth, you can put some indents into the tops of the dough balls and that should help. We’re glad you enjoyed the cookies!
Oatmeal raisin cookies are my husband’s favourite cookie. After 50+ years of searching for the perfect recipe I have finally found it! These cookies are the best ever. I think it is the molasses that give them that extra something. Highly recommend this recipe. Made exactly as written, 13 minutes in my oven.
Made these soft oatmeal/raisin cookies for the staff at work to try. They were gone in a blink and they asked if I had extras . My answer was yes but I had made some with dried cranberries and some with dates. All were sampled and I was asked if I would take orders.These are so so good but it is hard to only have a few
Best cookie recipe ever! Made these several times and I’m making them now! Followed your instructions and these cookies are perfect every time!
Thank you !!!!
These oatmeal-raisin cookies are a hit with the family. The secret ingredient adds an extra element to the taste. The recipe is very clear and arranged to assist in prep.
I substituted dates (which my husband loves) for the raisins. The dates made the dough even stickier and they came out almost like candy — very sweet. Next time, if I use dates, I’ll cut the sugar in half and add a little more flour. We usually eat our cookies directly from the freezer so these will be very good that way.
why did some of my cookies break.apart? They are fabulous!!
Hi Stephanie! Were they cooled enough to move? Were they perhaps a bit under-baked? Glad you enjoyed them!
How long should they cool for? Cookie was spectacular!! Making another batch this weekend. Been making your chocolate chip cookies for years now. Grandkids love them.
Hi Stephanie, we recommend letting them cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack to complete cooling, which can vary by baker. We’re glad they were a hit!
If I only have quick oats on hand are they ok to use? Or, will it change the outcome of the cookie drastically?
Hi Marlene, quick oats will work in a pinch (same amount), but your cookies won’t be as chewy since they absorb more liquid.
These are really good. My husband said they are the best ever !!!!!
I am not a baker and never cookies. Oatmeal raisin are his favorite, and we happened to have some bourbon soaked raisins on hand. Followed recipe as written. Please note, living at 7000 elevation. First sheet. Dough chilled 30 minutes and baked 15 min. Cookies tasted great, but fell all apart when trying to pick up. Second sheet, dough chilled at least an hour, cooked 17 minutes. Turned out great. Hubby wants me to make them again.
Do you have any other suggestions for high altitude?
Hi Kathy, I wish we could help, but have no experience baking at high altitude. Some readers have found this chart helpful: https://www.kingarthurflour.com/learn/high-altitude-baking.html