Easy Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies Recipe - Savory Nothings (2024)

Cozy up with a cup of tea and some homemade oatmeal chocolate chip cookies still warm from the oven. All you need are a few pantry staples to pull off this recipe!

I love a good oatmeal cookie, especially a homemade one. And especially one with plenty of chocolate chips ?

• This recipe is absolutely foolproof to put together. The dough is so easy and you don’t even need a mixer if you don’t have one. I do like using my hand mixer for even quicker prep, but it really isn’t necessary.
• The cookies come out thick, soft and chewy thanks to using both quick oats and old fashioned oats. The magic lies in the combination of both kinds of oats here!
• You can easily freeze the cookie dough balls to bake fresh cookies whenever you need them. Great for busy days and after school snacks!

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: I very strongly recommend using half quick oats and half old fashioned oats in this recipe. This nicely balances the texture of the dough to yield thick, soft cookies with a chew. If you use all quick oats, the cookies will spread more and turn out crisper. If you use all old fashioned oats, the cookies may turn out too thick/too dry.
• Butter:
  • I use unsalted butter. If you use salted, reduce the salt in the recipe to a pinch.
  • Your butter should be softened for easy beating, especially if you’re making the dough without a mixer. To quickly soften butter, unwrap it and put it on a plate. Rinse a medium bowl (one that fits over your butter) with piping hot water, then immediately invert it over the butter. It should be nicely soft in 5-10 minutes.
  • If you need to use margarine for any kind of reason, use a margarine intended for baking.
• Pecans: Adding the chopped nuts is absolutely optional and you can just skip them if you need to.
• Different mix-ins: For a variation of the recipe, try different mix-ins! You can replace the chocolate chips with cranberries or raisins (see my oatmeal raisin cookies!), or use something fun like M&M baking chips, salted peanuts or butterscotch baking chips instead.

How to make Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies

1. Beat the butter and sugar until creamy (the mixture may look crumbly at first, keep beating until it is creamy); then beat in the egg and vanilla just until incorporated.

2. Combine the flour, cinnamon, salt and baking soda in a small bowl, then beat into the egg mixture until combined. Do not overbeat!

3. Fold in both oats, the chocolate chips and the chopped pecans.

4. Scoop the dough into balls, then chill them in the refrigerator for 30-60 minutes (you can place them closely together for the chilling part).

5. Once chilled, bake the cookies in batches (spaced 2 inches apart on lined baking sheets) at 350°F for 12-15 minutes, until baked and browned to your liking.

The tops should look dry/no longer greasy from the melted butter when they are ready. Cool them on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to finish cooling.

Recipe tips

• Do not overmix the cookie dough, only beat until the ingredients are incorporated. You don’t need to cream the dough for several minutes like you would cake batter. If you overmix the dough, the cookies may come out tough.
• I very strongly recommend sticking to the two kinds of oats in the recipe. If you change this, the texture of the cookies will change significantly.
• Do not skip chilling the cookie dough. If you don’t chill it, the cookies will spread too much in the oven and turn out thin/crispy instead of soft and thick.
• I always scoop the cookie dough before chilling – it may be counterintuitive, but the warm and soft dough is much easier to scoop, and the dough chills faster once shaped.
• Do not overbake your cookies, or they will come out too crisp. The tops should look dry (the tops of the cookies start to look greasy from the melted butter about halfway through the baking time, bake the cookies right until the tops look dry/set and no longer greasy). The cookies are still soft when they are ready and need to cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before you’re able to remove them.

Storage tips

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.

PSIf you try this recipe, please leavea review in the comment section and add a star rating in the recipe card – I appreciate your feedback! Follow along onPinterest,FacebookorInstagram.

Printable recipe

Recipe first published on 01/11/2016. Updated with a better recipe, new photos and better text on 05/23/2021.

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