Soft and Chewy Oatmeal Scotchies — 😍❤️🎉 Soft, chewy, and hearty without being too dense! They’re thick enough, but not overly thick, and are just enough to sink your teeth into. Best of all, they’re loaded with sweet butterscotch chips!
Table of Contents
Oatmeal Scotchies Recipe
These butterscotch chip cookies are a tasty trip down memory lane. My grandma used to make them, and I hadn’t had them in ages. So, I changed that.
They turned out to be my favorite oatmeal cookie to date. They’re soft, chewy, and hearty without feeling like I need to strap a backpack on and take them mountain hiking. Sometimes oatmeal cookies get a little too oaty and hearty. I want a cookie, not a granola bar.
They’re also thick enough, but not too thick. Sometimes really thick oatmeal cookies turn dry or cakey, a total deal-breaker. Plus, really thick cookies take longer to bake, and you run the risk of the bottoms getting too dark before the tops are set.
And they’re not too thin. There’s nothing worse than biting into a paper-thin cookie that just sort of disappears. I don’t like thin cookies in general, but thin oatmeal cookies are particularly unsatisfying.
Best of all, they use butterscotch chips. I just love butterscotch and I find it’s very under-represented in recipes in general. After making my favorite peanut butter to date, I vowed to use more butterscotch in my baking.
For anyone who dislikes raisins in your oatmeal cookies, your wishes have been granted. No raisins, nor chocolate chips. Just loads of butterscotch.
Oatmeal cookies, when done right, are some of my favorite cookies. I found myself going back for one more, one more. The chewiness, the hearty texture, the nuttiness of the oats, and nostalgic memories of gobbling vast quantities of my Grandma’s oatmeal cookies make these my new favorite oatmeal cookies. And the abundance of sweet butterscotch chips doesn’t hurt, either.
What’s in Oatmeal Scotchies?
To make these oatmeal butterscotch cookies, you’ll need:
- Egg
- Unsalted butter
- Light brown sugar and granulated sugar
- Vanilla extract
- Old-fashioned oats
- All-purpose flour
- Cinnamon and nutmeg – I prefer my oatmeal scotchies to be well-spiced, so I wasn’t shy about adding the cinnamon or nutmeg. Adjust to your preferences, as needed
- Baking soda
- Salt
- Butterscotch chips – When measuring the butterscotch chips, I measured 1 heaping cup. Don’t be skimpy on the butterscotch
Note: Scroll down to the recipe card section of the post for the ingredients with amounts included and for more complete directions.
How to Make Oatmeal Scotchies
These oat scotchies require a bit of planning, but they’re simple to make. Here’s an overview of the process:
- Cream the egg, butter, sugars, and vanilla until light and fluffy.
- Scrape down the sides of the bowl, add the dry ingredients, and beat again. Incorporate the butterscotch chips.
- Use a 2-inch medium cookie scoop to portion the dough into about 20 mounts, place them on a plate, and flatten them slightly. Cover the plate with plastic wrap, and chill.
- Arrange the cookie dough on two baking sheets lined with Silpat mats or parchment paper greased with cooking spray, leaving space between each cookie.
- Bake just until the edges are soft and the tops are barely set. Cool on the trays for about 5 minutes, and transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely.
Recipe FAQs
Yes! Before baking, you must chill the dough. It’s too soft coming out of the mixing bowl for immediate baking, and if you don’t chill it first, I guarantee the cookies will spread out into thin puddles.
Chill it for at least 3 hours or up to 5 days. Bake as many mounds as you want at one time, and keep the remaining dough in the fridge.
No, quick oats are more finely ground than old-fashioned oats and will make your oatmeal scotchies dry.
You can store leftover cookies in an airtight at room temperature for up to 1 week. Or, freeze them for up to 3 months.
Yes! Unbaked cookie dough can be stored airtight in the refrigerator for up to 5 days. So, consider baking only as many cookies as desired, and save the remaining dough to be baked in the future when desired.
Pin This Recipe
Enjoy AverieCooks.com Without Ads! 🆕
Go Ad Free
Soft and Chewy Oatmeal Scotchies Cookies
Equipment
- 1 Stand Mixer Fitted with a Paddle Attachment
- 1 (2 inch) Medium Cookie Scoop
- 2 Baking Sheets
- 1 Wire Rack
Ingredients
- 1 large egg
- ½ cup unsalted butter, 1 stick
- ½ cup light brown sugar, packed
- ¼ cup granulated sugar
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 1 ½ cups old-fashioned whole rolled oats, not instant or quick cook
- ¾ cup all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons cinnamon
- ¾ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- pinch salt, optional and to taste
- 1 heaping cup butterscotch chips
Instructions
- To the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment (or a large mixing bowl and hand mixer), add the egg, butter, sugars, vanilla, and beat on medium-high to cream ingredients until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes.
- Stop, scape down the sides of the bowl and add the oats, flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking soda, optional salt, and beat to just incorporate, about 1 minute.
- Add the butterscotch chips and beat momentarily to incorporate.
- Using a 2-inch medium cookie scoop (about 2 tablespoons), form dough mounds (I made 20). Place dough mounds on a large plate. Flatten mounds slightly. Cover plate with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours, and up to 5 days, before baking. Do not bake with warm dough; cookies will spread and bake thin and flat.
- Preheat oven to 350F, line 2 baking sheets with Silpat Non-Stick Baking Mats, parchment, or spray with cooking spray. Place mounds on baking sheets, spaced about 2 inches apart. I bake 8 to a tray.
- Bake for 9 to 10 minutes, or until edges are set and tops are barely set, even if slightly underbaked in the center and glossy. Cookies may not appear to be done, but they firm up dramatically as they cool. Baking longer results in cookies with dark or burnt bottoms and that set up too crisp and hard and don’t stay soft over time.
- Allow cookies to cool on trays for about 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to finish cooling.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
©averiecooks.com. Content and photographs are copyright protected. Sharing of this recipe is both encouraged and appreciated. Copying and/or pasting full recipes to any social media is strictly prohibited.
More Oatmeal Cookie Recipes:
ALL OF MY OATMEAL COOKIE RECIPES!
Thick and Chewy Oatmeal Raisin Cookies – The cookies are very texture-filled and are loaded with oats and an abundance of raisins in every bite. You won’t stop at just one!
Easy Oatmeal Cookies — An incredibly FAST and EASY recipe that produces perfectly thick cookies with chewy edges and soft centers! One bowl to wash, no mixer to drag out, and no waiting around!
Chocolate Chip Banana Oatmeal Cookies — These cookies are soft, moist, and oh-so chewy. They taste like banana bread and chocolate chip cookies rolled into one dessert!
The Best Chocolate Chip Oatmeal M&M’s Cookies — Soft, chewy, and LOADED with M&Ms and chocolate chips in every bite! Make them today! The cookies are SO GOOD they got me a marriage proposal!
Soft and Chewy Peanut Butter Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies — 3 favorite cookies combined into 1 so you don’t have to choose! Easy, no-mixer recipe, and always a hit!
Cowboy Cookies— These cowboy cookies are packed with oats, chocolate chips, Cornflakes, and shredded coconut. This is a flexible recipe that you can make with different mix-ins to suit whatever is in your pantry!
One-Bowl, No-Mixer, Extra-Large Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookie — A FAST and EASY recipe for ONE XL soft and chewy very THICK cookie loaded with chocolate! No mixer needed and so DELISH!
I love, love oatmeal cookies. Now I have this mad desired to bake up a bunch of your recipes!!!
And I saw that glorious cake of yours a couple squares away from me today on FG :) The density. I want.it.
These do sound like the perfect oatmeal cookie. Although I love them with raisins too. I’m looking forward to meeting you this weekend!
I love raisins, too. Strange though how many people say they don’t! I always get that in the comments with anything raisin-related in recipes.
And I am looking forward to meeting you, too! Can’t wait!! :)
I love Oatmeal Scotchies! I haven’t made them in ages, and need to do them again. The photos on the blog need a total refresher. :) These look even chunkier and awesome Averie!
I have some old recipes that I know no one will ever make b/c the photos are…hideous!
“oatmeal scotchies” is the most fun cookie to say EVER! And they look amazing!
snickerdoodle is a good one to say (or eat) as well!
oatmeal and butterscotch, they are a perfect combo aren’t they?
These look absolutely PERFECT. If I were to pick a single oatmeal cookie to eat for the rest of my life, it would have butterscotch chips, not raisins and definitely not chocolate chips.
My mom used to make these in bar form a lot. She’s always got butterscotch chips on hand even now, and I always eat them straight from the bag when I visit.
These are a blast from the past! I need to make these for my kids some time!
You just totally brought back so many good memories of baking after school with my Nana! We used to make these at least once a week and they are SO good! I’m totally going to go through her old recipes and see how close they are – they look identical! I need to make a batch of these with my boys soon :)
I wish to God I had my grandma’s recipes. She never wrote anything down, cooked by feel, and passed long before I had the sense to document it all. My mom has some stuff written down but it’s not the same. Cherish those recipes from your nana :)
yummy! i like the butterscotch!
Averie, these look wonderful! Oatmeal scotchies have been my favorite forever. When I went home the other weekend, my mom gave me the recipe that I used to make when I was in high school. And it has all things that you describe: soft, chewy, but not too “hearty” – you hit the nail on the head with that one. I had it when oatmeal cookies are too dense and yes, practically taste like granola bars. Yours look SO perfect. Beyond perfect. I love butterscotch so much and I feel like it is so underrated. Give me a butterscotch dessert over chocolate any day. Seriously! Now I have a craving for my peanut butter scotchies. :) Love these! You’re seriously the cookie queen.
No I think you’re the cookie queen :) But I try. Lol
And so glad you got your mom’s recipe! That is awesome. I love that you love oatmeal scotchies, too. Seriously they are soooo good and in a league of their own when done right!
It’s like you take the cookies in my dreams and make them a reality, Averie! These are outrageous!
These cookies bring back memories, my grandma made a very similar recipe. Love the oatmeal and butterscotch combo!
Oh that’s awesome you have family memories with a similar recipe!
These do feel so nostalgic and comforting – and I love that! I know you love making classic desserts, and this is a great one. You are churning out too many “must-try” recipes lately! No complaints here though :)
Glad you like what you’re seeing! And yes, this was a classic dessert I wanted to have on my site!
There’s just something so irresistible about a perfect oatmeal cookie. The tender inside, the chewy, nutty oats, the brown sugar that melts perfectly…and telling yourself that it’s oats so it’s totally ok to eat 3 in one sitting! :) Love them.
Yes, have been there with the 3 in a sitting with these babies. I love them so much!
What is it about butterscotch and grandmas? I have the same association with cookies like this an my grandma! :)
It’s just that grandmotherly thing :)
Oatmeal cookies are my favorite! I’ll probably make these without the butterscotch chips though cause I’m not really a fan