The Best Soft and Chewy Oatmeal Raisin Cookies
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These soft and chewy oat and raisin cookies are perfectly textured, thanks to the ideal mix of oats and flour. With a combined baking and preparation time of just about 30 minutes, these easy drop cookies are a quick and delicious solution for your sweet cravings. The recipe’s best features? The balanced sweetness of brown and granulated sugar, and the versatility to bake and eat now or freeze and savour later!
To explore more easy-to-bake recipes, check out these chocolate chip cookies (one of my most popular recipes), or these chewy white chocolate chunk cookies and of course never forget these chocolate cookie bars!
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⭐️ Why You'll Love These Classic Oat and Raisin Cookies
- A perfect blend of sweetness and texture that enhances the cookie experience.
- The ability to make a batch now and freeze the rest for future cravings.
- The use of common pantry items makes it a hassle-free baking endeavour.
- The flexible nature of the recipe allows for numerous variations and adjustments as per personal preference.
🧾 Key ingredients for oat and raisin cookies
- Plain/ All-Purpose Flour: It forms the base of your cookies, giving them structure and shape.
- Ground Cinnamon: This spice adds a comforting, warm flavour that complements the sweetness.
- Bicarb of Soda/ Baking Soda: It makes your cookies rise and become soft and chewy.
- Old-Fashioned Rolled Oats: They provide a hearty texture and a subtle, nutty flavour to your cookies.
- Butter: It contributes to the rich, buttery flavour and softness.
- Brown Sugar & Granulated Sugar: A mix of these two gives your cookies the perfect level of sweetness and a slightly chewy texture.
- Egg: It binds all the ingredients together.
- Vanilla Extract: It adds a depth of flavour and a pleasant aroma.
- Raisins: They give your cookies a sweet, fruity bite.
See recipe card for quantities.
📖 Substitutions & Variations
- Variations
- Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies: Replace the raisins with chocolate chips for a sweet and gooey variation. You can choose from dark, milk, or even white chocolate chips.
- Nutty Oatmeal Cookies: Add a handful of chopped nuts like walnuts, pecans, or almonds to the dough. This will give your cookies a nice crunch and a boost of healthy fats.
- Dried Fruit: Try other dried fruits such as dates, cranberries or apricots instead of raisins for a unique twist to your oatmeal cookies.
- Substitutions
- If you'd like to experiment with flavours, replace granulated sugar with an equal amount of light brown sugar or a blend of molasses and white sugar for a richer colour and deeper flavour.
👩🏻🍳 Steps for making the chewiest raisin and oat cookies
Making the cookie dough
- Start by whisking together the dry ingredients in a bowl.
- In a separate bowl, beat the butter and sugars together until creamy.
- Add the egg and vanilla extract to your butter and sugar mixture and blend well.
- Gradually mix in the dry ingredients, ensuring a smooth dough.
- Stir in the raisins, distributing them evenly throughout the dough.
Opt for old-fashioned rolled oats over instant oats for a chewier texture.
Chilling the dough
- Chill the dough for about 30 minutes. This will make the dough easier to handle and also improve the texture of your cookies. Tip: The longer you chill, the chewier your cookies will be.
Baking the cookies
- Scoop out the dough, place portions onto a prepared baking sheet, and slightly flatten the dough balls. *Leave space between each cookie to ensure that they bake evenly and allow some room for spreading.
- Bake at 175ºC (350°F) for 10-12 minutes until golden brown.
💡 Top tip
To ensure even cooking, slightly flatten your dough balls before baking.
Hint Plump the raisins: You can try soaking the raisins in some water, tea or brandy for about 30 minutes before adding them to the cookie dough. This is an especially lovely idea at Christmas for a more indulgent and less wholesome oat and raisin cookie!
🔪 Equipment
- Stainless steel baking trays- These baking trays will ensure that your cookies don't burn on the bottom and bake up soft and chewy.
- Mixing bowl set- This set of lightweight mixing bowls will make weighing out ingredients really easy and they're dishwasher safe so make cleanup a cinch too!
- Wooden spoons- For mixing the perfect cookie dough.
- Electric hand whisk- For getting that butter as light and fluffy as possible!
🍯 Storage
- Fridge: The dough can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 3 days before baking.
- Freezer: Portion the dough and freeze for up to 3 months. When you're ready to bake, there's no need to thaw. Just add a few extra minutes to the baking time.
- Reheat: Reheat baked cookies in the microwave or in the oven at a low temperature to enjoy them warm.
💡 Top tip
If baking at a higher altitude, adjust your recipe accordingly. Remember, the higher the altitude, the lower the baking temperature and the longer the baking time.
❓FAQ
Yes, you can use cold butter, but you'll need to beat it longer to achieve a creamy texture. Room-temperature butter often results in a smoother dough and softer cookies. *I personally only use room-temperature butter. Warm up the butter gently in the microwave for a few seconds.
Store them in an airtight container at room temperature. They should stay fresh for about a week.
Absolutely! This recipe is quite flexible. You can easily double or triple the quantities based on your needs.
Slightly flattening cookie dough balls before baking helps to shape the cookies and allows them to bake more evenly. Cookies made from a denser dough, like oatmeal raisin cookies, don't spread as much as other types of cookies when they bake.
Whether you're a seasoned baker or a novice, this straightforward oatmeal raisin cookie recipe ensures a great outcome. So put on your apron, gather your ingredients, and let's get baking!
Related
Looking for other more easy baking recipes? Try these:
More ways to use oats in you baking
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Chewy Oat and Raisin Cookies
Ingredients
- 185 g (¾ cups) butter , softened
- 175 g (¾ cups) light brown sugar
- 100 g (½ cups) caster sugar
- 2 (2) eggs, room temperature
- 2 teaspoon (2 teaspoon) vanilla
- 175 g (1 ⅓ cups) cups plain/all-purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon (½ teaspoon) baking soda
- ½ teaspoon (½ teaspoon) salt
- 1 teaspoon (1 teaspoon) cinnamon
- 225 g (2 ⅝ cups) rolled oats
- 170 g (1 cups) raisins
Instructions
Preparation of the Dough
- In a medium-sized bowl, whisk together the all-purpose flour, ground cinnamon, baking soda, and salt. Stir in the old-fashioned rolled oats.
- In a separate larger bowl, beat the unsalted butter, light brown sugar, and granulated sugar until creamy. This should take about 2-3 minutes with an electric mixer.
Incorporating the Ingredients
- Add the egg and vanilla extract to your butter and sugar mixture. Beat until they are well incorporated.
- Gradually add your dry ingredients to the wet mixture. Mix until just combined to avoid over-mixing, which can lead to tough cookies.
- Fold in the raisins, ensuring they're evenly distributed throughout the dough.
Chilling and Baking
- Cover your dough and chill in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes. This will prevent the cookies from spreading too much during baking.
- Preheat your oven to 180°C (350°F). Line your baking sheets with parchment paper.
- Using a cookie scoop or a tablespoon, portion the dough onto the baking sheets. Flatten each ball of dough slightly with the back of a spoon.
- Bake the cookies for 10-12 minutes or until golden brown on the edges.
Cooling and Storing
- Allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheets for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
- Store your cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to one week, or freeze them for longer storage.
Notes
- Soaking your raisins in warm water for 10 minutes before adding them to the dough can make them extra juicy and plump.
- These cookies can be frozen before or after baking. For unbaked cookies, shape the dough into balls and freeze on a lined baking sheet before transferring to a freezer bag.
- Bake from frozen, adding an extra minute or two to the baking time.
- For a slightly healthier variation, replace half of the all-purpose flour with whole wheat flour.
- Cookies can be reheated in a microwave for a few seconds or in a warm oven for a few minutes to regain their fresh-baked warmth and texture.
Absolutely delicious and 4 yr old grandson loved stirring the dry ingredients. 😋😘😇
So happy you loved this and got your grandson involved. We need to start them young! 🙂
Great recipe! Easy to make! I substituted the brown sugar and white sugar for a sugar substitute and instead of tge butter I used coconut oil. REALLY GOOD!!!
Love these - will be making them again!
Amazing! Thank you so much for taking the time to leave a comment. These cookies are one of my favourites too! 🙂
Made these cookies this morning. They are exactly what I've been looking for!
Amazing. Thanks for taking the time to leave a comment and a rating!
yummy, this recipe's amazing! the outcome is yum!