You always need a one-bowl cookie recipe in your arsenal, and these Chewy Oatmeal Cookies fit the bill perfectly! Made with common pantry ingredients, and without the use of a mixer, you'll wow everyone with how tasty these are.

These oatmeal cookies are SO good, they don't even need any mix-ins to shine on your dessert table. Everything comes together in one bowl (and without a hand or stand mixer), so double the batch and freeze your dough. That way you can pull out a few cookies when the craving hits!
Ingredients

- Unsalted, Softened Butter - Take your butter out about an hour beforehand so it's super soft to the touch and easy to whisk by hand.
- Brown Sugar & White Sugar - We use both brown sugar for a moist cookie, and white sugar for stability.
- Molasses - My secret ingredient - just a touch of molasses really gives a depth of flavor that takes these cookies over the edge!
- Spices - I like to use both cinnamon and a hint of nutmeg in my oatmeal cookies. If you're using salted butter, I suggest skipping the salt.
- Quick Oats - Quick oats work perfectly for this recipe.
- Flour - A bit of all-purpose flour also helps get the chewy middle/firm bottom that we want in a cookie.
How to Make the Best Chewy Oatmeal Cookies - No Mixer Needed!
The steps don't really differ from most of my cookie recipes, but with a few tips and tricks below, I promise you'll have the perfect cookie every time.
- Start out by getting your butter as soft as it can be, without melting. Simply set it out about an hour or so on the counter before you're ready to bake.
- Add in both sugars and whisk together thoroughly, for like 5 minutes. If your butter is soft enough, everything should cream together pretty smoothly.
- Crack your room temperature eggs into the bowl. (Pro tip: set eggs in a bowl filled with warm water if you forget to set them out.)
- Add in the molasses and vanilla extract, and whisk again for another two minutes or so until fully combined.
- Pour in the dry ingredients into the bowl, as well as any mix-ins, and mix well. Be sure to scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl to get any extra flour.
- Cover, and chill the dough for two hours.
- When you're ready to bake, preheat your oven to 360°F.
- Using a cookie scoop or ice-cream scoop, spoon out even portions of the dough and roll them into balls using the palm of your hands.
- Place the dough balls on a parchment-lined baking sheet with an inch of room in between them.
- Bake for 11 minutes, then remove from the oven and let them set for about 2 minutes in the pan.
- You can eat them now if you like them warm like me, or transfer to a cooling rack so they can cool completely. That's it!
Your creamed butter and sugar should be this light brown color.
All of the dry ingredients can go right in the same bowl.
This is how the dough should look after refrigerating. Nice and solid!
This dough also freezes very well. Just portion out your balls of dough and then add to a parchment-lined baking pan. Pop that in the freezer until hard, then remove and add the cookie dough balls to a large freezer bag. When you're ready to bake, add on another 3-5 minutes to the baking time as necessary.
Variations/Substitutions
- For mix-ins, try chopped chocolate bars, pecans & dried cranberries, or mini M&Ms!
- I normally portion 1.2 oz - 1.5 oz scoops for my cookies. But for giant cookies, try to do 2.5 oz scoops!
- As mentioned above, this is a great recipe to double the batch and then freeze any extras. They can bake straight from the freezer.
Chewy Oatmeal Cookies (One-Bowl!)
Ingredients
- 1 cup unsalted butter softened
- 1 cup brown sugar light or dark
- ½ cup granulated white sugar
- 2 count eggs room temperature
- 1 tablespoon molasses
- 2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 3 cups rolled oats
Instructions
- In a large bowl, whisk the softened butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar for about 5 minutes until light yellow and fluffy. This will be a bit of a forearm/bicep workout - but it's worth it!
- Add the eggs, molasses, and vanilla extract and whisk again for another 2 minutes until fully incorporated.
- Pour the dry ingredients into the bowl. Stir well, scraping the bottom and sides of the bowl to incorporate all of the ingredients.
- If you have any mix-ins, stir these in here as well.
- Cover the dough and chill in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours.
- Preheat the oven to 360°F. Line a baking sheet with silicone baking mats or parchment paper.
- Scoop 1.2 oz spoonfuls of cookie dough and roll them into balls using the palm of your hands.
- Place the dough balls about an inch apart on the baking sheet.Pro tip: to have picture-perfect cookies of similar size, use a cookie scoop or small ice cream scoop!
- Bake for 11 minutes until lightly browned. The trick here is to slightly under-bake because the cookies will finish baking on the pan after being taken out of the oven. The middle of the cookies will look super soft.
- Take the pan out of the oven and let cookies cool for about 3 minutes on the baking sheet. This is usually as long as I can wait to eat them; but if you have more patience than me, transfer to a wire rack so they can cool completely. Enjoy!
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The Coined Breakdown
- Total Cost per cookie: $0.20
- Total Cost (about 30 cookies): $5.86
- Those Other Guys: $2.50 a cookie
Did you make this recipe? Let me know what you think!