Soft and chewy Oatmeal Chocolate Chip cookies are quick and easy to make and come together in about 30 minutes! Packed full of toasted oats and brown butter, follow my tips and tricks for the perfect oatmeal chocolate chip cookies!
Hi hi! I am just popping in to share this oatmeal chocolate chip cookie recipe with you! These took a ton of tests and tweaking to develop, but I am so happy with the final product.
I wanted a super easy oatmeal chocolate chip cookie recipe that packed a punch, but didn't need a chill time or any fancy equipment. Enter this recipe - it is a soft and chewy oatmeal cookie, with slightly crispy edges. They are super toasty thanks to the brown butter and malted milk powder, and are stuffed with chocolate chunks. These oatmeal chocolate chip cookies keep for up to a week in a container, making them the perfect cookie to have on hand.
If you would like a dairy free version of this cookie, try my Oatmeal chocolate chip cookies made with oil! My Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies are also based off of this recipe.
Flavour packed Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
I played around loads with this oatmeal chocolate chip cookie recipe - they are great and a super easy recipe, but I knew I could pack them full of flavour and texture to make a really good oatmeal cookie. Here's what I ended up with, there are notes in each section on if you don't have these ingredients / don't want to bother with these steps (but I think they are all very worth it)
- Brown butter with added milk powder. Brown butter is amazing. Adding milk powder to the brown butter makes it mega toasty and mega delicious. More on this further down the post because it's a game changer of a technique.
- Toasted Oats. This is an optional step, but toasting the oats adds another level of flavour, but also gives them a slight crunch and chew in the cookie dough which is so delicious.
- Malted Milk Powder. Again - optional, but malted milk powder adds an amazing dimension to these oatmeal chocolate chip cookies.
- Espresso Powder. If you don't have espresso powder, fine instant coffee works great too, or you can leave it out completely. Adding espresso powder adds dimension to chocolate flavour in recipes.
Brown Butter Oatmeal Cookies - adding milk powder to butter?
I LOVE brown butter. It is my go to for almost everything - you can see in my little brown butter recipes collection that I have. I love that it adds deep flavour to a recipe without needing any extra ingredients.
There is however, a way to amp up the flavour of brown butter - adding milk powder. The process of browning butter involves cooking the milk solids in the butter until they brown - hence the name brown butter.
Adding milk powder means that you increase the amount of milk solids in the butter mixture, meaning more browned milk solids = even more toasty brown butter flavour. You add it in just after the butter is melted, and then brown butter the regular way. Make sure you stir frequently as the milk solids have a tendency to clump.
I used whole milk powder, if you can only find non-fat that should work ok too! I use it in a lot of recipes - it adds amazing softness to bread recipes, and it lasts a really long time stored in an airtight container. It's a great ingredient to have on hand.
If you do not have milk powder you can leave it out - but please note that you will only need to measure out 100g of brown butter for the recipe, as the extra 20g in the 120g called for in the recipe comes from the added milk powder.
Malted Milk Powder in baking
As well as adding in extra milk powder to the recipe, I also added in some malted milk powder. Malted milk powder is a milk powder based product with a few other ingredients added too - it was originally formulated to help babies with digestion. I love it because of the flavour it adds to baking, and it pairs especially well with chocolate.
You can get malted milk powder online - in NZ I use Horlicks from the supermarket. It tastes slightly different but you get the same outcome - very delicious cookies.
If you do not have malted milk powder on hand you can just omit it from the recipe - it is a flavour enhancer and doesn't change the texture of the recipe so you can just leave it out.
Toasted Oats for texture
Oatmeal chocolate chip cookies are great. Oatmeal chocolate chip cookies with toasted oats are AMAZING. Toasting the oats for just 10 minutes in the oven before you use them in the recipe dries them out slightly and turns them lightly golden brown, which adds an amazing nutty flavour and great texture to the cookie.
This is a totally optional step, if you don't want to toast the oats you can just use 100g Old fashioned oats in the recipe. Make sure that if you do toast them, you weigh them after toasting as they can lose some moisture in the oven - top back up to 100g worth of oats if needed.
If you wanted to bulk toast oats to have on hand if you bake a lot, just do a bunch at once on a large pan, then store in an airtight container.
Can I make these cookies without the brown butter?
Yes. If you want to make things super super easy you can make these just with plain melted butter - you will need 100g melted butter.
What are the best oats to use in oatmeal cookies?
I have only made this recipe with Old Fashioned Oats, sometimes called wholegrain oats. They are the super flat oats that still have their shape.
I have not tried this recipe with quick cooking oats or rolled oats sorry! I don't think quick cooking oats would work well at all. Rolled oats may (and this is one of the reasons why baking by weight is good because 100g oats = 100g oats), but as I said, I haven't tested them.
How do you store Oatmeal cookies?
These oatmeal chocolate chip cookies store super well and almost get better with age. I store them in an airtight container at room temperature, and have found that they keep for at least 7 days - when I was testing them I had one that was a week and a bit old and while it definitely wasn't fresh, it still hit the spot.
How to freeze Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
There are two options here for freezing your oatmeal chocolate chip cookies:
- Freeze the baked cookies. I often do this when I am recipe testing and have too many on hand - I pop the baked cookies into an airtight container or ziploc bag and then freeze. To defrost frozen cookies just leave them at room temperature. I find slightly warming defrosted cookies helps a lot with texture before eating them too.
- Freeze the dough. This works great too - scoop the cookie dough out and then place onto a lined sheet pan and freeze. Store in a ziploc bag. To bake from frozen, reduce the oven temperature to 325°f / 160°c and add a few minutes to the baking time.
For all my tips and tricks on freezing cookie dough and cookies, check out my post: How to freeze cookie dough and bake from frozen
Recipe Development for Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
These Oatmeal chocolate chip cookies definitely went through a few rounds of testing, playing with variables to yield what is, in my opinion, the perfect oatmeal chocolate chip cookie recipe.
I started with my dairy free oatmeal chocolate chip cookies as a kicking off point, and changed the recipe to use butter (you usually need to add more butter in the place of oil when making this change in recipes as oil is straight fat and butter has some water in it and behaves a bit differently).
From there it was pretty straightforward, I just played around with scoop size of the cookie (I went big), and adding in malted milk powder, milk powder to the brown butter mix, and toasting the oats.
I also played around with baking temperature and chilling the dough. In this instance I found that chilling the dough didn't make a big change in the spread or texture of the cookie. Dropping the baking temperature made them spread a little too much for my liking (baking at a lower temperature gives the cookie more time to spread before it sets), so I found scooping and baking straight away at 350°f / 180°c was the sweet spot.
The best chocolate to use for cookies
I prefer to use chopped chocolate rather than chocolate chips in cookies:
- A range of sizes. Chopping the chocolate gives you a mixture of chunks, smaller pieces, and then little shards of chocolate, so you get a lovely distribution of chocolate through the cookie
- Chocolate puddles. Often stabilisers are added to chocolate chips so that they don't melt (which is great for things like muffins where you want them to stay whole), whereas a bar of chocolate melts in the cookie, giving you delicious pockets of chocolate.
- Quality. Use a chocolate that you are happy to eat on its own. I use a 72% cocoa solids chocolate for these oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, but have also made them with whatever chocolate bar is in the cupboard - mix and match!
Mix-ins for Oatmeal Chocolate Chip cookies
I haven't played around too much with adding in other things to this oatmeal chocolate chip cookie recipe, but you definitely could add in toasted nuts or dried fruit along with the chocolate.
It is a super sturdy recipe so should tolerate mix-ins!
Can I make these smaller?
I scooped these cookies with a size #24 cookie scoop (fun fact, the size on a cookie scoop means how many scoops of that size fit in a quart, which tbh isn't a helpful measurement at all).
If you don't have a cookie scoop you can weigh out your dough balls - I made mine all about 75g each. This gives a pretty big cookie - they are defintely more on the bakery style side size wise, aka large and in charge. The recipe yields 12 large cookies.
If you wanted to make more smaller cookies, you can use a smaller cookie scoop. I did find that when they are baked smaller they don't spread as much in the oven so just keep this in mind - you can always give the tray a few bangs on the oven rack half way through baking to help them spread a little bit more, or a quick bang on the counter when they first come out of the oven.
Frequently Asked Questions
What tools and equipment do you use?
You can find a full list of the tools and equipment I use on my products page
Can I make these cookies Gluten / dairy / Egg free?
I haven't tried it sorry - I have only made these as written. You can try my oatmeal chocolate chip cookies made with oil for a dairy free cookie if you need.
For more chocolate chip cookie recipes, check out:
❤️ Made this recipe and love it? ❤️
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Answers to your baking questions
Over the years, many of you have asked me questions about:
- baking in grams
- adjusting oven temperatures
- what kind of salt to use
- and many more!
I've curated and answered them all for your easy reference in this frequently asked questions post!
30 Minute Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 15 minutes
- Total Time: 30 minutes
- Yield: 12 cookies 1x
- Category: cookies
- Method: baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
Soft and chewy Oatmeal Chocolate Chip cookies are quick and easy to make and come together in about 30 minutes! Packed full of toasted oats and brown butter, follow my tips and tricks for the perfect oatmeal chocolate chip cookies!
Ingredients
- 130g unsalted butter, cold from the fridge is fine
- 20g milk powder
- 95g Light or dark brown Sugar
- 65g granulated sugar
- 1 large egg (50g without the shell), at room temperature
- 120g All-Purpose Flour
- 120g old fashioned oats (toasts down to 100g, see recipe method)
- 45g malted milk powder
- 1 tsp (3g) kosher salt or ½ tsp table salt
- 1 tsp espresso powder
- ¼ tsp baking soda
- ¼ tsp baking powder
- 180g dark chocolate, coarsely chopped, plus extra for the tops if desired
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°f / 180°c. Place the oats on a sheet pan. Bake, stirring occasionally, until the oats are lightly golden brown, 10-15 minutes. Remove from the oven and leave to cool - this should happen in the time you are browning the butter and mixing up the wet ingredients.
- Weigh out 100g of the toasted oats (they shrink down in the oven a tiny bit so you may need to top up again if needed).
- While the oats are toasting, brown the butter. Place the butter into a small saucepan and melt over medium heat. Once the butter is melted, add the milk powder. Cook the butter, whisking frequently, until the milk solids begin to brown. Continue to cook until the butter and milk mixture is medium brown and nutty smelling. It is important to whisk thoroughly as the milk powder will clump slightly.
- Weigh out 120g (see Notes section below) of the brown butter into a medium bowl and leave to cool for about 10 minutes so that it does not scramble your eggs. If you want to do this quickly you can place the bowl in the fridge and stir regularly, or place the bowl into a larger bowl of ice and stir regularly until cool.
- Once the butter is cooled, add the brown sugar and granulated sugar and mix briefly to combine. Add the egg and mix with a whisk or handheld mixer until the mixture is thickened slightly and lightened in color.
- Add the flour, 100g of the toasted oats, malted milk powder, salt, espresso powder, baking soda, and baking powder, and mix with a spatula until only just combined - you want a few flour streaks remaining. Add the chopped chocolate and mix to combine.
- Using a #24 cookie scoop (2.5 tbsp), scoop balls of cookie dough - each should weigh about 75g. Roll into balls and arrange on the trays - I can fit 6 per tray. If you would like to add chocolate puddles, flatten each ball of dough, press more chocolate pieces on the top, and roll into a ball.
- Bake the cookies one tray at a time (or two if your oven can handle it), for 12 to 14 minutes, until the cookies are set and lightly golden around the edges. Remove from the oven and if desired, scoot into a perfectly round shape with a cookie cutter slightly larger than the cookies.
- Sprinkle the tops of the cookies with flaky sea salt. Allow to cool on the pan for 10 minutes then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
- Repeat the baking process with the remainder of the cookies. Store cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 7 days.
Notes
If you are not toasting the oats for the recipe, use 100g old fashioned oats.
Milk powder is also called 'dry milk powder' or 'instant milk powder'. I used whole milk powder but if you can only find non-fat, that is fine. If you do not have it, you can leave it out, but you will only need 100g of brown butter, not 120g as called for in the recipe.
If you do not have espresso powder, you can use fine instant coffee. You can also leave it out.
Malted milk powder is also optional. You can leave it out if you like - you do not need to adjust the flour quantity if you leave it out.
You will notice that there are two quantities of butter in the recipe - the initial quantity of butter, then a second measurement in the method which is the quantity of brown butter. The larger initial quantity is to account for water loss when browning - read more about that in my FAQ.
If you are using the recipe scaling feature (2x or 3x) be aware that any quantities, measurements, pan sizes, and cooking times given in the method do not scale automatically - it's only the quantities in the Ingredient List that scale automatically.
Keywords: Oatmeal Cookies, oatmeal chocolate chip cookies
Comments
So so good!
★★★★★
I love the process detail and the rationale provided for everything! I suspect up reactions and contributes to the browning. And for those who don’t have or can’t find powdered milk in small quantities you might want to try using some unsweetened condensed milk while adjusting the liquids to hold the viscosity.
There's notes in the recipe on what to do if people don't have powdered milk - it can just be left out!
Great recipe as always thanks Erin! Made these low gluten using Healtheries baking mix, and they are just so good! Don't forget the 'puddles of choc', totally finishes them!
★★★★★
Have just finished baking these, now waiting for them to cool down 😋. The only changes I made was to omit the malt powder, use less chocolate as I found the chocolate was too much for the ratio of dough that I like and also rolled them in only one tablespoon amount which gave me more biscuits of a normal size. Cooked for 10 minutes. They taste lovely.
★★★★
Lovely biscuits. I did use less chocolate as I found the ratio of chocolate to dough was too much for my liking. Also omitted the malt powder. Rolled in one tablespoons amount so got about 20 biscuits to a batch. Baked for 10 minutes.
Make these cookies! I just did and they’re amazing. Crisp edge chewy center and the flavor is 🔥. The chocolate plays so nicely with the toasted oats, browned butter is always a plus! These are going in my cookie rotation.
★★★★★
Hi Erin. Thanks for an awesome cookie. I followed your ingredients list and the cookie had mega flavor! I had to chill the dough due to time constraints and can't bake immediately. It didn't spread as much as yours but they tasted so good warm from oven. Going to try your peanut butter version. Thanks again.
★★★★★