This is the recipe I’ve been trying to come up with for years and I’ve finally perfected it! These are truly the best soft and chewy oatmeal cookies.
When I say that these are the best, I mean I had a conversation with my adorable 8-year-old neighbour that lasted at least 15 minutes where we were trying to describe exactly why these where the best and find the right words to describe exactly what it was that made them so good. I have a plain cookie family. By that, I mean that the cookie they’ll go for first is the most plain, simple, straightforward cookie they can find. A batch of simple sugar cookies or oatmeal cookies can be gone by the end of the day, but something with more bells and whistles might hang around for a week or more. For that reason, I’ve always thought that I should be the one to perfect the oatmeal cookie. If I’m going to be making them, they might as well be the best. I’ve tried many different variations over the years, but there was always something a little “meh” about them, which is easy to do with oatmeal cookies in general. These ones are the winners though. Soft and chewy on the inside, just a little bit of a crispness around the very edges, perfect, uniform shape with just the right amount of cracking and crinkling throughout. Just right, if you ask me and my cute little neighbor. 🙂 If you appreciate a good oatmeal cookie too, I’m excited for you to try these.
Ingredients Needed for the Soft and Chewy Oatmeal Cookies
You’ll need:
- Oatmeal
- Flour
- Cinnamon
- Salt
- Baking soda
- White sugar
- Brown sugar
- Butter or Plant-based substitute
- Vanilla
- Eggs or plant-based substitute
I’ve been using Becel brand sticks for my baking for the last few months because I know that’s what a lot of bakeries use for their plant-based treats and I find them to work really well. For the egg substitute, I’ll often use chia seeds if I’m making something with a darker batter (here’s my method for that), but for something lighter in color like these cookies, I’ll just use a pre-mixed egg substitute like this one.
Method for Preparing the Plant-Based Oatmeal Cookies
Start out by combining the flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon in a medium size bowl and set them aside.
In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together the butter and both types of sugar, then add in the eggs and the vanilla and mix until everything is incorporated.
With the mixer running on low, slowly add in your dry ingredients, a little bit at a time and keep mixing until everything is evenly mixed. Finally add in the oatmeal and mix until it’s well-distributed.
This dough does not need to be refrigerated before baking, but it can be. If you do decide to store it away in the fridge to bake later, let it sit at room temperature for about 10 minutes or so before you start working it it again.
Combine some white sugar and cinnamon in a small dish, set it aside, and begin scooping out the dough with a medium size cookie scoop. Roll the dough into a ball and dip just the top of the ball into the cinnamon sugar mixture. Place it on a silpat-lined cookie sheet.
When your cookie sheet is full, bake the cookies for 15 minutes at 350° then remove the cookies from the oven. You will see that the cookies will not have spread very much. Take a large spoon and use the back of it to press the cookie down into shape. Allow the cookies to cool for 5 minutes on the tray, then transfer to a cooling rack.
This method of squishing the cookies down after baking is a little unconventional, but it results in the best-looking, most even cookies, and the chewiest centres. A few other variations that I experimented with were squishing the cookie down before baking, which results in a less-uniform cookie with more crispy edges. I also tried squishing the cookie down mid-baking-time, but this resulted in a weird-looking cookie because it didn’t develop those little cracks through the centre that give it that oatmeal cookie look, although the centres were still an ideal chewy texture. So squishing after baking is the perfect method, I found. 🙂
Here’s the full printable recipe!
This is the recipe I've been trying to come up with for years and I've finally perfected it! These are truly the best soft and chewy oatmeal cookies.
- 2 1/2 cups Flour
- 1 tsp Baking soda
- 2 tbsp Cinnamon
- 3/4 cup Brown sugar
- 1 cup White Sugar
- 2 sticks Unsalted plant-based butter substitute, room temperature (or traditional butter)
- 3 tbsp Plant-based egg substitute prepared to package directions (or traditional eggs)
- 1 tsp Vanilla
- 1 1/2 cups Oatmeal
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Combine the flour, baking soda, and 1 tbsp of the cinnamon in a medium size bowl and set aside. In another small dish, combine the remaining 1 tbsp of cinnamon and 1/4 cup of the white sugar and set that aside as well.
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Cream together the butter, brown sugar, and remaining white sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Add in the prepared egg and vanilla, and continue mixing until everything is combined.
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With the mixer running on low, slowly add in the flour mixture, a little at a time and mix until everything comes together. Add in the oatmeal and continue mixing until the oatmeal is well-distributed throughout the dough.
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Scoop out dough with a medium size cookie scoop and roll it into balls, placing the dough balls on a silpat-lined baking sheet. When the sheet is full, bake in a 350° oven for 15 minutes, rotating the baking sheet halfway through.
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When the cookies are removed from the oven, gently squish them down into shape with the back of a spoon. Allow them to cool on the baking sheet for a few minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
MORE IDEAS LIKE THIS
- Plant-Based Pecan Snowball Cookies
- Soft and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Soft and Chewy Sprinkle Cookies
- 10 Easy Plant-Based Dessert Recipes
- Three Ingredient Banana Bread
- The Creek Line House Food and Recipe Archives
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