Extra Easy Oatmeal Cookies

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Thanks to melted butter, these easy oatmeal cookies require very little time to make and taste amazing. Pack these cookies with your favorite kind of dried fruits, nuts, and even chocolate. Make these cookies as written or follow our suggestions for making them vegan. Both versions are delicious! Jump to the Extra Easy Oatmeal Cookies Recipe or read on to see our tips for making them.

Melted Butter Makes Oatmeal Cookies Easy!

We’ve already shared one of our favorite oatmeal cookie recipes on the blog. They are soft and chewy in the middle and we truly love them. With that said, they take a little more time to make and a few more dishes to wash than these extra easy cookies. Instead of calling for room temperature butter that needs to be creamed into sugar, in these easier cookies, we use melted butter to make the cookie batter. There’s no creaming or mixers required!

By the way, if you’d prefer to use melted coconut oil instead of butter, go for it! Coconut oil is lovely in these cookies. We’ve provided our tips below in the recipe.

How to Make the Cookies

With this simple oatmeal cookies recipe, you will have less dishes to clean, there’s no time required for softening butter, chilling the cookie dough is optional, and the batter can be frozen for cookies another day. These just might be the best oatmeal cookies ever!

In one bowl, whisk the dry ingredients together (flour, baking soda, cinnamon, cardamom, and salt).
In a second bowl, whisk the sugars, egg and egg yolk, vanilla extract, and the melted (or browned) butter together. (I talk about the browned butter option below.)
Combine the two mixtures, and then add the oats, dried fruit, and nuts.

You can bake the cookies straight away and as large as you like. For extra large cookies use 3 to 4 tablespoons of dough and for smaller cookies, use about 1 1/2 tablespoons of cookie dough. I’ve given suggested bake times in the recipe below.

Try Browning the Butter for Extra Flavor

If you have an extra 5 minutes to spare, try browning the butter before adding the the cookie dough. Since the recipe calls for melted butter already, you have the option to brown the butter, which adds a nutty rich flavor to the cookies. This is optional and the cookies are fantastic when made with plain melted butter, but it’s something for you to think about.

When I have the extra 5 minutes to spare, I go for browned butter. It makes the cookies even better!

Have some rolled oats leftover? Give our everyday oatmeal recipe a try.

Turn These Into Vegan Oatmeal Cookies

Another thing I love about this easy recipe is that it’s easily adaptable to be vegan and plant-based! The vegan cookies don’t spread as much, but they taste wonderful and have a chewy texture in the middle. Here’s how to adapt the recipe:

Substitute melted vegan butter or coconut oil for the butter called for in the recipe. When using coconut oil, the batter will seem a little oily, don’t worry, the cookies bake up just fine.
Substitute flax eggs for the whole egg + egg yolk called for in the recipe. Use 1 1/2 tablespoons flaxseed meal whisked with 4 1/2 tablespoons water. Leave the mixture to sit for 5 to 10 minutes, and then use in place of the eggs in our recipe.

Make Ahead and Freezing The Cookies

The cookie dough will keep in the refrigerator up to 3 days. I like to scoop them into cookie dough balls first, which makes baking them quick and easy! Even though these cookies are amazing baked straight away, one benefit to making this batter in advance is that chilling cookie dough makes baked cookies even more chewy, thicker, and flavorful.

You can also freeze the cookie dough.

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
Scoop out cookie dough mounds onto the baking sheet. You can crowd the cookie mounds together, just do not let them touch.
Freeze until hard.
Transfer the frozen dough mounds to an airtight container or plastic bag. Store in the freezer up to 3 months.

When you are ready to bake one or more cookies, bake the frozen cookies without thawing. It will add an extra 3 to 5 minutes of bake time.

More Of Our Favorite Cookie Recipes

PREP 15mins
COOK 15mins
TOTAL 30mins

With this easy oatmeal cookies recipe, you will have less dishes to clean, there’s no time required for softening butter, chilling the cookie dough is optional, and the batter can be frozen for cookies another day. These just might be the best oatmeal cookies ever! If you have an extra five minutes to spare when making these cookies, try browning your butter before adding it to the cookie batter. Browned butter adds a nutty richness to the cookies. (Here’s our tutorial for browning butter and we provide instructions below.)

Makes 18 cookies

Watch Us Make the Recipe

You Will Need

1 cup (125 grams) all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt

3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom, optional

10 tablespoons (140 grams) unsalted butter

1/2 cup (100 grams) packed light brown sugar

1/4 cup (50 grams) granulated sugar

1 large egg

1 large egg yolk

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 ½ cups (150 grams) old-fashioned rolled oats

1/2 cup (70 grams) raisins or dried fruit

1/2 cup (60 grams) chopped nuts, optional

Directions

Prepare the Butter

You can use regular melted butter or browned butter for this cookie recipe.

For regular melted butter, melt the butter in the microwave or on the stove, and then cool. When cool to the touch, use the melted butter in the recipe below.

For browned butter (our favorite), melt the butter in a light-colored skillet over medium heat. Swirl the pan occasionally to be sure the butter is melting evenly. As it melts, the butter will begin to foam and the color will change from light yellow to golden, and finally to brown. This only takes a minute or two.

When the browned butter smells nutty and the butter is a light golden brown, transfer the browned butter to a heatproof bowl to cool. When cool to the touch, use the browned butter in the recipe below.

Prepare Cookie Batter

In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and cardamom together. Set aside.

In a large bowl, whisk the sugars, whole egg, egg yolk, vanilla, and the melted butter or browned butter together.

Switch to a large rubber spatula, and then add the flour mixture in 3 parts, stirring gently until they disappear. Fold in the oats, dried fruit, and nuts.

Bake Cookies

Heat oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit (160C) and line a cookie sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat.

Roll cookie dough into balls (about 1 1/2 tablespoons of dough) and place onto baking sheets. Leave 2 inches between the cookies to allow for spreading. (For larger cookies, use 3 to 4 tablespoons of dough and space them apart by 3 inches.) Gently press the tops of the cookies down a little to help them spread more evenly in the oven.

Bake the cookies, one sheet at a time and rotate once during cooking, for 9 to 15 minutes. The cookies should be light golden brown around the edges but look almost wet in the middles. Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Store the baked cookies in an airtight container for up to 3 days at room temperature or up to a week in the refrigerator.

Adam and Joanne’s Tips

Browning Butter: A full tutorial is found here to help you out.
Substitute Coconut Oil: We love coconut oil in these cookies. For a light coconut flavor, use unrefined coconut oil. For cookies without the coconut flavor, use refined coconut oil. After mixing the batter together, set it aside for 20 minutes to give the oats some time to absorb the oil.
Vegan oatmeal cookies: Use vegan butter or coconut oil as a substitute for the butter and flax eggs as a substitute for the eggs. See the article above for exact amounts.
Gluten free oatmeal cookies: Your favorite gluten-free all-purpose flour blend should work nicely in these cookies.
Nutrition facts: The nutrition facts provided below are estimates. We have used the USDA database to calculate approximate values.

If you make this recipe, snap a photo and hashtag it #inspiredtaste — We love to see your creations on Instagram and Facebook! Find us: @inspiredtaste

Nutrition Per Serving: Serving Size 1 cookie / Calories 184 / Total Fat 9.1g / Saturated Fat 4.5g / Cholesterol 37.9mg / Sodium 107.3mg / Carbohydrate 22.9g / Dietary Fiber 1.3g / Total Sugars 11.6g / Protein 2.8g