The best high altitude marry me cookies with crisp edges and soft chewy centers, loaded with chocolate chips, pecans and toffee bits. If you love soft and chewy oatmeal cookies, this delicious variation on a classic recipe may just become your new favorite.
You might also love these high altitude recipes for oatmeal cream pie cookie bars, old fashioned iced oatmeal cookies, and oatmeal scotchies.
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What are Marry Me Cookies?
“Marry me” cookies are a twist on a classic oatmeal cookie recipe. They almost always contain brown butter, oats, pecans, chocolate chips and white chocolate chips. My family doesn’t love white chocolate chips, though, so I added toffee bits to mine instead, which were delicious. And a little espresso powder and molasses adds the most wonderful depth of flavor.
The cookies are aptly named, because they are thought to be so good that you might even get a proposal if you make them for your significant other! After eating one of these cookies, my five-year-old announced that he wants to marry me so I can make him cookies forever.
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
No Mixer Needed. You won’t need a mixer for today’s oatmeal cookie recipe, just a bowl, whisk and spoon to make the cookie dough. And the dough only needs a brief chill time before you can bake the cookies.
Salty, Sweet, Nutty, Buttery. The browned butter in these cookies adds so much flavor, complemented by the nuttiness of the pecans, the creamy chocolate chips and the sweet and crunchy toffee bits.
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
- Butter. Use unsalted butter, otherwise, you’ll need to reduce the amount of added salt in the recipe. I brown the butter first, which adds a rich, nutty flavor that you’ll love.
- Sugar. You’ll use both granulated sugar and light brown sugar for sweetness, to promote spreading, and for crisp, caramelized edges.
- Eggs. Add moisture, structure and strength.
- Flour. Gives the cookies strength and structure.
- Oats. Use old fashioned rolled oats, not quick oats or steel cut oats.
- Baking Soda. Leavening agent.
- Add-Ins. A combination of chocolate chips, pecans and toffee bits add lots of texture and flavor.
- Spices. To flavor the cookies, you’ll need vanilla extract, molasses, espresso powder (optional) and salt to balance the sweetness.
Instructions
Make the Dough.
- 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, a layer of foam forms on top of the butter, 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.
- After cooling the brown butter, add the granulated sugar and brown sugar, and whisk for 1 minute.
- Add the molasses, eggs and vanilla extract, and whisk until smooth and lightened in color.
- Separately, whisk together the flour, oats, salt, baking soda and espresso powder. Add the flour mixture, chocolate chips, pecans and toffee bits to the butter mixture, and stir together into a thick dough.
- Divide the dough into 20 portions using a cupcake or ice cream scoop with a release lever. Roll the dough into balls, and flatten the balls just slightly with the palm of your hand. Cover with plastic wrap and chill the dough balls in the refrigerator for 20 minutes.
Bake the Cookies.
- While the dough is chilling, preheat the oven to 350 F, and position a rack in the center of your oven. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper or baking paper.
- Place the chilled dough 3 inches apart on the baking sheet (keeping the remainder of the dough in the refrigerator while you bake the first batch). Bake the cookies for about 10 minutes. They should appear set around the edges and underdone in the middle. Do not over bake, or they will end up dry. The cookies will continue to bake and set on the baking sheet after you take them out of the oven.
- Cool the cookies for 5 minutes on the baking sheet, then transfer to a cooling rack to cool and set completely.
Pro Tip: While the cookies are hot from the oven, immediately use a round cookie cutter that’s larger than the circumference of the cookies and “scoot” it around the cookies, pulling in the uneven edges to make perfectly round cookies. Then decorate the tops of the cookies with extra chocolate chips, pecans and flaky finishing salt.
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 2-3 days. Since oats are very absorbent, oatmeal cookies tend to dry out faster than other cookies, but a slice of plain sandwich bread in a cookie jar does wonders to keep them soft for days.
The cookies can also be wrapped well and frozen for 3-6 months.
While this may work, I haven’t tested this option, since I prefer to bake all the cookies at once and freeze cookies for later. If baking frozen dough balls, you’ll likely need to add a few more minutes to the bake time.
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High Altitude Marry Me Cookies (Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Pecan)
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
- 1 cup unsalted butter
- ⅔ cup granulated sugar
- ⅔ cup light brown sugar, lightly packed
- 2 tsp old-fashioned molasses (NOT "blackstrap")
- 2 large eggs
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 cups all-purpose flour, fluffed, spooned and leveled
- 2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
- 1 ½ tsp coarse Kosher salt (if using table salt, use half the amount)
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp instant espresso powder (optional)
- ¾ cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
- ½ cup pecans, roughly chopped
- ¼ cup toffee bits (or white chocolate chips)
Instructions
- 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, a layer of foam forms on top of the butter, 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.
- After cooling the brown butter, add the granulated sugar and brown sugar, and whisk for 1 minute.
- Add the molasses, eggs and vanilla extract, and whisk until smooth and lightened in color.
- Separately, whisk together the flour, oats, salt, baking soda and espresso powder. Add the flour mixture, chocolate chips, pecans and toffee bits to the butter mixture, and stir together into a thick dough.
- Divide the dough into 20 portions using a cupcake or ice cream scoop with a release lever. Roll the dough into balls, and flatten the balls just slightly with the palm of your hand. Cover with plastic wrap and chill the dough balls in the refrigerator for 20 minutes.
- While the dough is chilling, preheat the oven to 350 F, and position a rack in the center of your oven. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper or baking paper.
- Place the chilled dough 3 inches apart on the baking sheet (keeping the remainder of the dough in the refrigerator while you bake the first batch). Bake the cookies for about 10 minutes. They should appear set around the edges and underdone in the middle. Do not over bake, or they will end up dry. The cookies will continue to bake and set on the baking sheet after you take them out of the oven.
- Cool the cookies for 5 minutes on the baking sheet, then transfer to a cooling rack to cool and set completely.Pro Tip: While the cookies are hot from the oven, immediately use a round cookie cutter that's larger than the circumference of the cookies and "scoot" it around the cookies, pulling in the uneven edges to make perfectly round cookies. Then decorate the tops of the cookies with extra chocolate chips, pecans and flaky finishing salt.
Notes
- Leftover cookies should be stored in an airtight container for 2-3 days. Since oats are very absorbent, oatmeal cookies tend to dry out faster than other cookies, but a slice of plain sandwich bread in a cookie jar does wonders to keep them soft for days.
- The cookies can also be wrapped well and frozen for 3-6 months.
Made exactly as written. Really easy, very tasty. The bake time instructions were spot on. I have to say, every recipe I’ve made from this site has turned out perfectly!
I just made these cookies, I didn’t have espresso powder but I must say these are the best CHOCOLATE CHIP cookies I have ever made! I have made a ton of cookies in my life and love baking, so I will certainly return to try more of your recipes. I live in Colorado Springs and followed the recipe exactly with the one exception of the espresso.
So yummy! The cookies came out perfectly. The brown butter makes such a difference. I might have to do that more often with other cookies 😋. My husband couldn’t stop eating them, and since they were actually for someone else, I have to make another batch…🤭🍪🍪🍪
I’m so happy you both loved them 🙂
My husband is eighty years old, has a vicious sweet tooth and said these are the best cookies he’s ever had in his life. In the Midwest, my mom had the best oatmeal chocolate chip recipe, but I just couldn’t get it to work at altitude. We’re at 6300 feet in Colorado and the batch required a couple more minutes in the oven.
That’s so nice to hear, I’m happy he loved them!