Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

These Spiced Oatmeal Raisin Cookies are easy to make, with amazing flavour and texture. There’s a reason they were one of the most popular options when I was doing custom cookie trays and baking mixes!

Originally published September 27, 2020. Updated on 2/19/2022

While this chewy oatmeal raisin cookies recipe has been a favourite in our home - and beyond! - for over a decade and a half, it’s taken a weird journey to get it up on the blog!

Over the past couple of years, I’ve been investing a lot of time in updating the blog with new recipes, more information and better photos on old entries, etc. There’s been a lot of memories brought to the foreground, and some surprises.

In the case of today’s cookie recipe - chewy oatmeal cookies, it was a matter of having dropped the ball over a decade ago!

I was going through all of the several hundred recipes here in the spring of 2020, digging out original photos to update some, etc. I went looking for photos to update the Chewy Chocolate Mint Chip Cookies and my Chai Shortbread, and happened across the original photos of this recipe.

They were old - from 2007 - and not great. So, as with the other recipes, I scheduled it to be re-shot.

... and that’s when I realized that I hadn’t actually blogged the recipe yet!

Obviously, I had to rectify the situation, as these are the BEST oatmeal raisin cookies - way too good to not share this classic cookie recipe!

The Big Search

It had been a while since I made this specific oatmeal cookie recipe, as I’d long since gone gluten free, and was using my newer, GF version instead.

... and I couldn’t find the original recipe anywhere on my computer. I’ve archived things several times in the past decade, so I ended up having to go digging to find it.

The thing about these delicious cookies is that I not only made them personally and professionally, I used to make small batch mixes for sale. This was a saving grace when it came to the lost recipe, as it would turn out.

In the end, I had to go on the ingredient notes in creating the mixes, and use the instructions from the back of my mix labels to remember times and temps!

(More about those mixes at the end of this post, for posterity!)

Anyway, apologies for 10-year delay on posting the recipe for these easy oatmeal raisin cookies! Hope they’re worth the wait - that was a long time, even for me! 🙂

PS: The Chewy Chocolate Mint Chip Cookies and Chai Shortbread on here are also formerly mixes I produced. I was just way more on the ball posting those ones... A decade ago!

About These Oatmeal-Raisin Cookies

I’d been making these cookies for YEARS by the time we photographed them for the mixes... back in 2007.

They were a popular option when I was doing custom cakes and dessert trays, and I had a lot of requests for them when I’d do a yearly dessert buffet for a convention we’d go to in Chicago.

I know I’m not alone in loving a chewy cookie, and these delicious cookies are a perfect treat: soft cookies with crisp edges, the chewy oats perfectly accented by the sweet raisins... yum!

... Obviously, I’m not one of the raisin haters I keep hearing about, LOL.

Anyway, they really are the best oatmeal raisin cookies I’ve ever had, definitely one of my favorite cookies ever, and made frequent appearances in the cookie jar before I had to adapt the recipe due to my gluten issues.

Variations

While I find this to be the best oatmeal raisin cookie recipe as-is, you can definitely adjust some of the ingredients to your tastes!

The soft oatmeal cookie base is perfect for raisins, but can accommodate other ingredients in addition to or instead of the raisins.

For oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, simply swap the raisins out for the same amount of chocolate chips.

If you really want to mess with people, swap HALF of the raisins out for chocolate chips! (TBH, I really like raisin chocolate chip oatmeal cookies!).

You could even use white chocolate chips, if that’s what you’re into.

Note: While I love the warm cinnamon and clove flavours in the original recipe - spice really is the secret ingredient here! - I generally leave them out when adding chocolate.

Maybe it’s a “me thing”, but I’m just not into chocolate + cinnamon together.

Chewy Oatmeal Raisin Cookie Ingredients

* Butter - I usually use unsalted butter, but not always.

* Large Eggs

* Vanilla extract

* Light brown sugar - Dark brown sugar works just fine, if that’s what you have. It’ll give it an even richer flavour.

* Granulated / White sugar

* All purpose flour

* Baking soda

* Spices - Cinnamon & Cloves (Optional)

* Salt

* Rolled oats - AKA Old-fashioned oats. You can use quick oats, instant oats, or steel cut oats if that’s all you have, but the texture will be a bit different, usually making even chewier cookies.

* Raisins - I love using dark, plump raisins, but golden raisins also work.

How to Make Spiced Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

Full recipe follows, but here’s a pictorial overview!

Pre heat oven to 350 F (180 C), line baking sheets with parchment paper. Let the butter come up to room temperature.

In a large bowl - or using a stand mixer on medium speed - cream butter and sugars until fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla extract, beat until everything is fully incorporated and smooth.

In a large bowl, make your flour mixture: mix together flour, baking soda, spices, and salt.

Slowly add this dry ingredients mix to the mixer bowl, and carefully mix on low speed until well incorporated and smooth.

Add oats and raisins to the oatmeal cookie dough, continue mixing just until well incorporated.

Roll 1" balls of cookie dough, arrange oatmeal raisin cookie dough balls on prepared baking sheet.. Leave at least 2" between cookies - they flatten out a fair amount.

Note: I generally use an ice cream scoop to portion out my cookie dough. Using a large cookie scoop like this is much cleaner than not, and easier to get even sizing!

Gently press the tops of each slightly - flatten JUST enough to prevent the dough from rolling.

Bake cookie for 11-13 minutes. Cookies will look puffy, but flatten out as they cool. Do not overbake!

Before and after cooling a bit.

Allow cookies to cool for 2 minutes before removing them from baking sheets. If you have a cooling rack, feel free to use it. I usually don’t bother, and just transfer the cookies to parchment paper on a cooler surface.

Cool completely before storing in an airtight container

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4 from 3 votes

Spiced Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

These Spiced Oatmeal Raisin Cookies were one of the most popular options when I was doing custom cookie trays and baking mixes. Now you can make them yourself!

Prep Time15 minutes mins

Cook Time13 minutes mins

Total Time28 minutes mins

Course: Dessert, Snack

Cuisine: American, Scottish

Servings: 30 large cookies

Calories: 153kcal

Author: Marie Porter

Equipment

Parchment Paper

2 Baking Sheets

Ingredients

• 1 cup Butter softened
• 2 Large eggs
• 1 teaspoon Vanilla extract
• 1 cup packed light brown sugar
• ½ cup granulated sugar
• 1-½ cups All-Purpose flour
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. ground cinnamon
• ½ tsp. ground cloves
• ½ tsp. salt
• 3 cups rolled oats
• 1 cup raisins

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 350 F (180 C), line baking sheets with parchment paper.
• In stand mixer, cream butter and sugars until fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla extract, beat until everything is fully incorporated and smooth.
• In a large bowl, mix together flour, baking soda, spices, and salt.
• Slowly add this dry mix to the mixer bowl, and carefully mix until well incorporated and smooth. Add oats and raisins, continue mixing just until well incorporated.
• Roll 1" balls out of the cookie dough, arrange dough balls on baking sheets. Leave at least 2" between cookies - they flatten out a fair amount.
• Gently press the tops of each slightly - flatten JUST enough to prevent the dough from rolling.
• Bake for 11-13 minutes. Cookies will look puffy, but flatten out as they cool. Do not over bake!
• Allow cookies to cool for 2 minutes before removing from baking sheets.
• Cool completely before storing in an airtight container

Nutrition

Calories: 153kcal | Carbohydrates: 22g | Protein: 2g | Fat: 7g | Saturated Fat: 4g | Cholesterol: 27mg | Sodium: 139mg | Potassium: 87mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 11g | Vitamin A: 205IU | Vitamin C: 1mg | Calcium: 17mg | Iron: 1mg

Spiced Oatmeal Raisin Cookie Mix!

After years of including these cookies in my dessert buffet and holiday gift boxes - back when I had a cake business - one thing led to another, and I started producing small batch cookie mixes for people to make at home.

First, it was for friends from that convention we catered in Chicago, as it seemed a perfect way to get fresh baked cookies to everyone - better than shipping them!

Then I sold them at farmer’s markets, gift shows, etc. Look at the labels I found just now, when looking for the recipe!

Eventually, I got really bored and burnt out from making the mixes - which I packaged by hand, each individually measured out - so I stopped making the mixes, AND the cookies.

Couldn’t bear to measure those particular ingredients out again! This was about... 2010?

I didn’t make the cookies again until I adapted a gluten-free version from it in 2014 or 2015, for Beyond Flour 2.

Up until reshooting this recently, I hadn’t made the original recipe in about a decade.

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