Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

Here’s the very best chocolate chip oatmeal cookies recipe you’ll find! Chewy and packed with chocolate, a hint of molasses makes them utterly irresistible.

You’re in for a treat with this one! This is our very favorite oatmeal chocolate chip cookies recipe. And let me start with a disclaimer: I have a very high bar for cookies! Most cookies to me just taste like sugar. But these cookies…let me tell you! These are full of texture and flavor. They’re gooey and chewy, loaded with dark chocolate and topped with sea salt. They’re just sweet enough, and filled with just the right amount of oats. The best part? They’re flavored with a hint of molasses, which makes them utterly irresistible. Ready to bake?

The secrets to the best oatmeal chocolate chip cookies

Alex and I made quite a few batches of these oatmeal chocolate chip cookies to make them just perfect. (One of the pitfalls of our job, I guess!) We served the final “perfect” batch we served to some friends as a birthday treat, and let me tell you: they disappeared very quickly! The birthday boy gave them a hearty “WOW,” which made our day. These cookies work for any occasion: the holidays, birthdays, or just a sweet treat to celebrate any occasion. What’s the secret to wow’ing your friends and family with these easy cookies?

Use a hint of molasses. In our research, we found that adding molasses to your oatmeal chocolate chip cookies can bring out an extra nuance. Do not omit! It makes a rich and satisfying flavor.
Lots of oatmeal, stirred in at the end. To get that perfect cookie texture, stir in the rolled oats after you’ve mixed up the dough (with the chocolate chips). This way the oats make for a fluffy texture, instead of getting deflated in the mixer.
Dark chocolate chips + flaky sea salt. Dark chocolate gives a depth that just doesn’t work with semi-sweet. And the sweet and salty combo is truly irresistible.

Try to scoop them as evenly as possible (2 tablespoons dough per cookie.

Here’s another secret to pro-level oatmeal chocolate chip cookies! Make sure that when you scoop out the dough, it’s as even as possible. Here you’ll want to scoop it into 2-tablespoon balls. To do this, Alex and I used our 1/8 cup measure. If you know your kitchen math, you’ll know that 2 tablespoons equals 1/8 cup!

An aside: I’m nerd-ily obsessed with our 1/8 cup measure. Anytime something calls for 2 tablespoons, I use the 1/8 cup and then secretly am proud of my conversion skills (ha!). Alex and I would recommend getting one for your kitchen: we’re surprised at how much we use ours! If you’d like one for yourself, you can grab an 1/8 cup measure on Amazon.

Of course, if you don’t have an 1/8 cup you can approximate 2 tablespoons. But you’ll want to get them as even as possible. Otherwise you’ll end up with some small cookies and some large, and the bake time is a little different if the size is off. So work for the more uniform dough balls you can!

Press in extra chocolate to the tops.

For the best-looking oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, it’s nice to press a few additional chocolate chips into the tops of the cookies. Of course this is not required, but if you don’t do this, some cookies come out looking “bare” whereas others have some chocolate towards the top. Pressing in additional chocolate helps for a more uniform look.

When you do press in the chocolate chips, here’s a tip: add them in irregular patterns! If you top each cookie with 3 chocolate chips in the same design, they’re all going to look weirdly symmetrical. Alex and I tried to add them quickly without thinking too hard, but do a different amount per cookie. And if a cookie has some chocolate chips already towards the top, feel free to skip it! You want it to look organic and natural.

How to make chewy oatmeal chocolate chip cookies

One last tip before we get to this recipe! For the very best chewy texture on these oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, here’s what we do: slightly underbake them. But only in the slightest bit! Pull them out of the oven when they’re just set. Getting them out just before they’re fully set makes for a cookie that stays chewy for days afterward. If you prefer your cookies a little more done, by all means: bake them longer! But we love them chewy, so we highly recommend this method.

What’s the best way to store oatmeal cookies?

Of course, these oatmeal chocolate chip cookies taste best right out of the oven! (What cookie doesn’t?) They’re just as fantastic the day of baking. But don’t worry: they save well too! Just keep them in a sealed container at room temperature for up to 5 days. You can also freeze them for up to 3 months.

If you do slightly underbake to keep them on the chewy side: do not add a piece of bread to the container when you store them! Adding a piece of bread helps to retain moisture for certain types of cookies. But we tested and for these cookies, the bread adds too much moisture and makes them a little gooey. They stay good and chewy on their own: so no need to store with bread!

Is there a vegan or dairy free variation?

Yes! You can make these cookies dairy free by using coconut oil (or vegan butter) instead of the butter. If you do this, you can use an extra 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt to make up for the salt that’s in salted butter.

To make these cookies vegan, try substituting flax eggs for the eggs. We haven’t tried it yet, but we’ve tried it in other cookies and it should work well here!

This oatmeal chocolate chip cookies recipe is…

Vegetarian. For vegan, plant based and dairy free, see the substitutes in the recipe below.