High altitude tested, thin and crispy oatmeal cookies, made with brown butter and spiced with cinnamon. These oatmeal crispies are crunchy, buttery, and so easy to make, with no mixer and no chill time needed.
You might also love these high altitude recipes for oatmeal cream pies, old fashioned iced oatmeal cookies, and oatmeal chocolate chip cookies.
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How to Make Thin and Crispy Oatmeal Cookies vs Soft and Chewy Oatmeal Cookies
Today’s recipe is based on my original oatmeal raisin cookies, with a few slight adjustments to make these oatmeal cookies crispy and crunchy instead of soft and chewy.
- Granulated Sugar vs Brown Sugar. In all of my oatmeal cookie recipes (no less than 10 variations) that I’ve published over the years, I use a combination of both granulated sugar and brown sugar. Brown sugar contains molasses, so it adds more moisture to cookie dough than just granulated sugar. I also usually add a few teaspoons of molasses to the dough for additional moisture and that soft, chewy texture. So to reverse this effect, I eliminated the molasses and brown sugar completely, using just granulated sugar for sweetness, resulting in a crispier cookie. Keep in mind that without the brown sugar and molasses, the flavor of the cookies won’t have quite the same depth, but the flavor of the brown butter will really shine.
- Flatten the Dough Balls. I do this anyway, but flattening the dough a bit helps it to spread more for thinner cookies.
- No Chilling. While I usually chill the dough balls for 20-30 minutes, you can skip the chill time with this recipe, since you’ll want the dough to spread a bit more.
- Longer Baking Time. This may seem obvious, but it should be stated anyway. Under-baked cookies will be softer and chewier; well-baked cookies will be crispy and crunchy.
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
No Mixer Needed. You don’t need a mixer for these cookies, just a bowl, whisk and spoon to make the cookie dough.
High Altitude Tested. I develop all the recipes on my site for Denver’s altitude of 5,280 feet. If you’re at a lower or higher elevation, please see my FAQs for guidance on adjusting recipes for your altitude.
See the recipe card at the end of the post for the full ingredients list and instructions.
Ingredients
- Unsalted Butter
- Granulated Sugar
- Egg
- Vanilla Extract
- All Purpose Flour
- Old Fashioned Oats
- Salt
- Baking Soda
- Cinnamon
Instructions
Browned Butter
- In a saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat. Continue to cook the butter for about 4-5 minutes, swirling occasionally to see the bottom of the pan, until the butter is very fragrant, and nutty, golden brown solids have formed on the bottom of the pan.
- Pour the brown butter, scraping up all of the browned bits, too, into a medium-sized mixing bowl, and let cool at room temperature for 30 minutes.
Cookie Dough
- After cooling the brown butter, add the granulated sugar, egg, and vanilla, and whisk until smooth and lightened in color.
- Separately, combine the flour, oats, salt, baking soda and cinnamon. Add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture, and stir together into a dough.
Bake
- Preheat the oven to 350 F, and position a rack in the center of the oven.
- Line two rimmed baking sheets with parchment paper.
- Use a large cookie scoop (2 1/2 – 3 tbsp capacity) with a release lever to scoop the dough into 12 portions for large cookies, or a medium cookie scoop (1 1/2 – 2 tbsp capacity) to scoop the dough into 18 portions for medium-sized cookies.
- Divide the dough balls between the two baking sheets, giving them plenty of room to spread. Use the palm of your hand to slightly flatten each portion of dough on the baking sheet.
- Bake one pan of cookies at a time for about 15-18 minutes, until the cookies are golden brown and the edges are crisp.
- Cool on the pan for several minutes, then transfer to wire racks to cool completely. Sprinkle the warm cookies with a little cinnamon sugar.
Be sure to read all of my BAKING FAQs where I discuss ingredients, substitutions and common baking questions, so that you can be successful in your own baking!
Frequently Asked Questions
Leftover cookies should be stored in an airtight container for up to 5 days. The cookies can also be wrapped well and frozen for 3-6 months.
The photographed cookies are large cookies, divided into 12 portions with a large cookie scoop/ice cream scoop. I baked them for a full 18 minutes. Medium sized cookies may need a few minutes less in the oven.
For perfectly round cookies, you can take the pan out of the oven at around 10 minutes before the cookies are fully set, and use a large round cookie cutter to quickly “scoot” it around the edges of the cookies to pull in any uneven edges. Return the pan to the oven to finish baking the cookies.
These cookies would be great with the addition of 1/2 cup mini chocolate chips.
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High Altitude Thin and Crispy Oatmeal Cookies
All recipes on Curly Girl Kitchen are developed for high altitude at 5,280 feet. See FAQs for adjusting to higher or lower elevations.
Ingredients
- ½ cup unsalted butter
- ⅔ cup granulated sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 cup all-purpose flour, fluffed, spooned and leveled
- 1 cup old-fashioned oats (see notes)
- ¾ tsp coarse Kosher salt (if using table salt, use half the amount)
- ½ tsp baking soda
- ¼ tsp ground cinnamon
Instructions
Browned Butter
- In a saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat. Continue to cook the butter for about 4-5 minutes, swirling occasionally to see the bottom of the pan, until the butter is very fragrant, and nutty, golden brown solids have formed on the bottom of the pan.
- Pour the brown butter, scraping up all of the browned bits, too, into a medium-sized mixing bowl, and let cool at room temperature for 30 minutes.
Cookie Dough
- After cooling the brown butter, add the granulated sugar, egg, and vanilla, and whisk until smooth and lightened in color.
- Separately, combine the flour, oats, salt, baking soda and cinnamon. Add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture, and stir together into a dough.
Bake
- Preheat the oven to 350 F, and position a rack in the center of the oven.
- Line two rimmed baking sheets with parchment paper.
- Use a large cookie scoop (2 1/2 – 3 tbsp capacity) with a release lever to scoop the dough into 12 portions for large cookies, or a medium cookie scoop (1 1/2 – 2 tbsp capacity) to scoop the dough into 18 portions for medium-sized cookies.
- Divide the dough balls between the two baking sheets, giving them plenty of room to spread. Use the palm of your hand to slightly flatten each portion of dough on the baking sheet.
- Bake one pan of cookies at a time for about 15-18 minutes, until the cookies are golden brown and the edges are crisp.
- Cool on the pan for several minutes, then transfer to wire racks to cool completely. Sprinkle the warm cookies with a little cinnamon sugar.
Notes
- Leftover cookies should be stored in an airtight container for up to 5 days. The cookies can also be wrapped well and frozen for 3-6 months.
- The photographed cookies are large cookies, divided into 12 portions with a large cookie scoop/ice cream scoop. I baked them for a full 18 minutes. Medium sized cookies may need a few minutes less in the oven.
- This step is optional, but I ground the oats into smaller bits before adding them to the dough – you can do this by pulsing the oats a few times in a small food processor or ninja.
- For perfectly round cookies, you can take the pan out of the oven at around 10 minutes before the cookies are fully set, and use a large round cookie cutter to quickly “scoot” it around the edges of the cookies to pull in any uneven edges. Return the pan to the oven to finish baking the cookies.
- These cookies would be great with the addition of 1/2 cup mini chocolate chips.
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