Easy Browned Butter Oatmeal Cookies
These easy Browned Butter Oatmeal Cookies are chewy, rich, and just the right amount of sweet, with crispy edges, gooey centres, and not a raisin in sight. If you’re chasing chewy oatmeal cookies that taste like a bakery treat, you’ve found ’em.
You know those old-school oatmeal cookies that always showed up in lunchboxes? Yeah, those. The ones studded with raisins. Well… I always wanted to love them. But raisins in cookies? They’ve never really been the hero, especially with my boys. So I gave the classic a little facelift.
I ditched the raisins (sorry not sorry), browned the butter for extra flavour, and added dark chocolate chips instead. The result? A rich, chewy cookie with crisp edges and melty chocolate pockets. They hit all the right notes….comforting, familiar, but just a bit fancy.
❤️ Why You’ll Love These Cookies
- That nutty, toasted flavour from brown butter? Game changer.
- Chewy oats + crisp edges = the perfect cookie texture
- No fancy gear or fuss -just stir, chill, bake, done
- Dough freezes like a dream (unless someone finds it and eats it frozen… again, Harvey.)
🍫 Key Ingredients
- Browned Butter: Toasty, nutty, and makes everything taste like it’s come form a bakery!
- Rolled Oats: The original, chunkier kind. They give that satisfying bite and soak up all the buttery goodness.
- Brown Sugar: Softens the cookie and adds that hint of caramel.
- Dark Choc Chips: Sweet, dark, and totally melt-in-your-mouth.
🔄 Variations & Substitutions
- Swap-ins: Chopped walnuts, raisins (if you must), or white chocolate
- Spice swaps: A pinch of nutmeg or my Speculaas Spice Mix = instant cosy vibes
- Flour swap: Self-raising flour? Use it -just skip the bicarb
- Gluten-free twist: GF plain flour + ½ tsp baking soda + certified GF oats
📝 Looking for a no-oat version? Check out my No-Chill Chocolate Chip Cookies.
🥣 Step-by-Step Instructions
-
Brown the butter.
Add your butter to a small saucepan over medium heat. Let it melt, then stir gently as it bubbles and foams. After a few minutes, it’ll start to smell nutty and you’ll notice golden brown bits forming on the bottom. That’s when it’s ready! Pour it into a heatproof bowl and make sure to scrape in all those flavour-packed brown bits. Let it cool for 10–15 minutes before using.🔥 Pro Tip: Don’t walk away while browning the butter -it can go from golden to burnt in a flash. Once it smells amazing and looks toasty, pull it off the heat.
- Mix wet ingredients: Beat butter with the sugars until creamy. Add eggs and vanilla.
- Combine the dry: Oats, flour, bicarb, cinnamon, and salt all added to a bowl and mix together with a spatula.
- Stir everything: stir through the dry ingredients, then add the choc chips.
- Chill the dough for at least 20 minutes, then scoop onto a lined tray ( I usually fit 6 on my large cookie trays)
- Bake at 180°C for 13–15 mins. You want golden edges, soft middles.
🔥 Expert Baking Tip
Cool your browned butter before mixing, or you’ll melt your sugars and end up with cookie pancakes. Want thicker cookies? Chill the dough overnight. They’ll be amazing!
🧊 Storage Suggestions
- Bench: Airtight container. Good for 5 days.
- Fridge: Keep dough in the fridge up to a week. Let it soften before scooping and baking.
- Freezer: Freeze dough balls, then bake from frozen. Just pop them onto your tray while the oven heats up -no need for extra baking time.
🍨 How to Serve Them
- Sandwich with Maple Cream Cheese Frosting for deliciously oaty sandwich cookie.
- Crumble over Homemade Vanilla Ice Cream or Greek yogurt and berries.
- Dip into Salted Caramel Sauce if you think you can handle it (I’m always up for a challenge).
❓FAQs
Can I just use regular melted butter?
You can. But you’ll miss the brown butter magic. It’s 100% worth the extra 5 minutes.
What happens if I don’t chill the dough?
The dough will be too runny to scoop and you’ll get cookie puddles. Tasty puddles, but still puddles. Chill = structure.
Are they gluten-free friendly?
Yep! Just use a 1:1 GF baking flour and certified GF oats. 
🍪 If You Love These, Try These:
- No-Chill Chocolate Chip Cookies – for when patience is not your thing.
- Espresso Brownies – same browned butter flavour magic, with a sneaky coffee hit.
- ANZAC Biscuits – the OG oat cookie that everyone loves!
💌 Sweet Connections
Wanna hang out in your inbox once a week? I send recipes, behind-the-scenes baking chaos, and early access to the newest treats
📸 Share Your Bake
Made these? I wanna see!
Tag me on Instagram @apple.cake.annie or leave a review below. I’ll be cheering you on with a cup of tea and a cookie in hand.
These cookies are everything: chewy, rich, a little crispy at the edge, and deeply satisfying in a “maybe just one more” kind of way. No one misses the raisins, and I’m not sorry about it.
Happy baking!
Browned Butter Oatmeal Cookies
Equipment
Ingredients
- 250 grams Unsalted butter browned, to make 200g (see notes)
- 220 grams Brown sugar
- 110 grams White sugar
- 2 Eggs XL, room temp
- 2 tsp Vanilla extract
- ½ tsp Flaky sea salt
- 1½ tsp Bi carb soda
- 1 tsp Cinnamon
- 250 grams Plain flour
- 190 grams Rolled oats traditional, not microwave oats
- 175 grams Dark chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 180℃ or 350℉ and line 2 cookie trays with baking paper.
- Melt 250g butter in a saucepan until foamy and golden. Pour into a heatproof bowl and let cool (you’ll have about 200g).
- Using a hand or stand mixer, beat the cooled butter with brown and white sugars until creamy.
- Mix in eggs and vanilla extract.
- In a separate bowl, combine plain flour, rolled oats, bicarb soda, cinnamon and salt, using a spatula. Fold dry ingredients into the wet mixture, then stir in the chocolate chips.
- Cover and chill the dough for 20 minutes.
- While the mixture chills, preheat your oven to 180°C/350℉ or 160℃ fan.
- Using a large cookie scoop, scoop dough balls onto lined trays. I place 6 per tray (you will need to bake in batches if you're not freezing dough balls for later)
- Bake for 13-15 minutes, until lightly golden. Remove from the oven, then scoot the cookies back into shape with a round cookie cutter if desired
