Today’s recipe is for the best high altitude tested, soft and chewy oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, made with brown butter and spiced with cardamom. These oatmeal cookies are quick and easy to make, they stay soft for days, and they’re full of dark chocolate chips and the most delicious flavor.
You might also love these chocolate chip oatmeal cookie bars, oatmeal cream pies, and rhubarb oatmeal bars.
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Why You’ll Love This Recipe
Quick and Easy. After browning the butter, you can quickly mix up the cookie dough with a bowl and spoon, no mixer needed. Then the dough just needs a quick chill time before the cookies are ready to bake, from start to finish, you’ll have fresh cookies done in less than an hour and a half.
Stays Soft for Days. Oatmeal cookies have a bit of a reputation for being hard, dry and crumbly. I’ve carefully tested the ingredients and baking method to ensure mine stay so soft for up to 4-5 days.
Complex Flavor. The browned butter adds a rich, nutty flavor to complement the oats, and a pinch of cardamom adds more depth and complexity that’s so good with the dark chocolate chips.
See the recipe card at the end of the post for the full ingredients list and instructions.
Ingredients
- Unsalted Butter. Adds moisture and flavor, while browning the butter adds a rich nuttiness.
- Granulated Sugar + Dark Brown Sugar. Adds moisture and sweetness, with a subtle hint of molasses.
- Molasses. Deepens the flavor and makes the cookies soft and chewy.
- Eggs. Binds the dough together and adds moisture.
- Vanilla Extract. Flavor.
- All-Purpose Flour. Provides structure to the cookies.
- Oats. I use old-fashioned oats in my baking, and they add a lovely texture to these oatmeal chocolate chip cookies.
- Salt. Balances the sweetness.
- Baking Soda. Leavens the cookies, making them puff up a bit as they bake.
- Cardamom. A really beautiful spice for baking, the cardamom complements the flavor of the browned butter, oats and chocolate chips.
- Chocolate Chips. I prefer dark or semi-sweet chocolate chips for baking, but you can use milk chocolate if that’s what you like.
Instructions
Make the cookie 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, 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 mix vigorously with a wooden spoon for 1 minute.
- Stir in the molasses, eggs and vanilla extract until smooth.
- Separately, whisk together the flour, oats, salt, baking soda and cardamom. Add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture, and stir together into a dough. Stir in the chocolate chips.
- 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 slightly with the palm of your hand. Cover with plastic wrap and chill the dough balls 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 9 minutes. They should appear set around the edges, underdone in the middle, and very pale. Do not over bake, or they will end up dry.
- Cool the cookies for 5 minutes on the baking sheet, then transfer to a cooling rack to cool and set completely.
TIP: Do NOT over bake oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, or they will end up dry and crumbly. Even if they seem underdone after 9 minutes, trust me, they will be perfect after they cool and set.
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
What kind of oats do you use?
I use old-fashioned oats, not quick oats or steel cut oats.
Can I make these into smaller cookies?
You can try it, but you’ll need to shorten the bake time. This recipe really works best as written for 20 cookies. For a smaller batch, simply cut the recipe in half to make 10 cookies.
How long will these stay soft?
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 or Tupperware does wonders to keep them soft for 5 days or longer. Make sure the bread is not directly touching the cookies, or it will make them sticky.
Can I freeze these cookies?
You can wrap the oatmeal chocolate chip cookies and freeze them for up to 3-6 months.
Can I add raisins or nuts to the cookie dough?
Yes, of course. Oatmeal cookies are great with chocolate chips, raisins, dried cranberries, pecans, walnuts or almonds.
You Might Also Like
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Oatmeal Cream Pies Oatmeal with Caramelized Bourbon Bananas
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Soft and Chewy High Altitude Oatmeal Chocolate Chip 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
- 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, spooned and leveled
- 2 cups old-fashioned oats
- 1 ½ tsp coarse Kosher salt (if using table salt, use half the amount)
- 1 tsp baking soda
- ¼ tsp ground cardamom
- 1 cup semi-sweet 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, 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 mix vigorously with a wooden spoon for 1 minute.
- Stir in the molasses, eggs and vanilla extract until smooth.
- Separately, whisk together the flour, oats, salt, baking soda and cardamom. Add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture, and stir together into a dough. Stir in the chocolate chips.
- 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 slightly with the palm of your hand. Cover with plastic wrap and chill the dough balls 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 9 minutes. They should appear set around the edges, underdone in the middle, and very pale. Do not over bake, or they will end up dry. (For a more well-done cookie, bake for 10-11 minutes, but honestly, 9 minutes is just right since they continue to bake as they sit on the hot baking sheet.)
- Cool the cookies for 5 minutes on the baking sheet, then transfer to a cooling rack to cool and set completely.
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.
Very tasty 😋 I used whole wheat flour and found I needed to bake a touch longer— possibly bc I chilled them for longer too. Love a high-altitude recipe that works!