Chewy and Heavenly Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

Oatmeal raisin cookies are different from other cookies. They contain amazing rolled oats and sweet gooey raisins. These cookies are soft, chewy, and crispy. The addition of brown butter sends these big boys over the top!

Below are the steps to making a wonderfully chewy and delicious oatmeal raisin cookie. This recipe is really simple, but for the best results we suggest allowing the cookie dough to refrigerate for up to 36 hours. Why refrigeration is important, is also explained below..

Step 1: Making the Brown Butter

Let’s talk about the difference between brown butter and burnt butter. Sometimes people have this misconception that brown butter means burnt butter. There is a difference between brown and simply burnt butter. Brown butter is that beautiful caramel color. The color comes from cooking the milk solids inside the butter for a few minutes. If you didn’t know butter contains 80% fat and 20% a mixture of milk solids/water.

When you allow the butter to cook for a few minutes you’ll start to notice a pleasant smell. The smell is a combination of roasted nuts and caramel. If the butter cooks for just a few minutes more. You’ll notice an unpleasant smell and unfortunately the butter is now burnt. There’s a fine line between the brown and burnt butter. It’s important to watch the butter carefully in order to avoid an undesired product.

How do you make brown butter? Using a small or medium sized saucepan add 1 cup of unsalted butter. Melt this butter over medium heat. In order to see the color of the butter, I recommend using a light colored pan or turning on the light over the stove. Whisk the pan around occasionally. The butter will begin to brown when foam occurs. Once you notice a nutty scent, remove the butter from the heat. Allow the butter to cool before preceding to the next step.

Step 2: Preparing the Oatmeal Raisin Cookie Dough

After the brown butter cools down (make sure to scrape the milk solids at the bottom of the pan as well) and transfer the butter to the bowl of an electric mixer. Next add the brown sugar and granulated sugar to the electric mixer bowl. Mix the butter and sugar on medium speed for 3-5 minutes, or until light and fluffy. Next add in the vanilla extract and two large eggs (one at a time). In a separate bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients. Then, add the dry ingredients into the electric mixer bowl.

At this time, the dough should smell amazing. Remove the bowl from the electric mixer. Lastly, fold in the rolled oats and raisins. Depending on your time, you could either preheat the oven and start baking immediately. Or allow the cookie dough to mingle with its new ingredient friends. If choosing this route, there’s still 2 options. Option 1: Leave the cookie dough at room temperature for 30 minutes to an hour. This process allows the brown butter to hydrate the flour and rolled oats. Option 2: Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate the dough for 30 minutes to 36 hours. This method creates such an amazingly fluffy and chewy cookie…we are speechless. Words cannot describe the awesomeness of this kind of cookie.

Why Refrigerate cookie dough?

If your thinking refrigerating cookie dough does not change anything…I’m sorry to say this, but you’re wrong. Refrigeration changes the game…here’s why…If you make lemonade with less water and more lemons, the flavor is more concentrated and taste more like lemons. If you make sangria with fresh fruits and refrigerate for hours to days…the flavor is more intense. The same applies for cookie dough. When you allow the dough to rest in the refrigerate for 30 minutes up to 3 days, you’ll notice a change in texture, color, and taste. So how is this possible? While, let’s break it down..

• Chilling cookie dough helps control the spreading of the cookie once baked. So the end result is fluffier/softer cookie, instead of flat dough-like cookie.
• Refrigerating the dough, concentrates the flavor of the cookie. Some of the flour breaks down into simple carbohydrates like sugar. Which makes the cookie sweeter and overall enhances the taste.
• Lastly, chilling the dough changes the texture of the cookie. Instead of a soft and dough-like texture, the cookie has more concentrated sugar. Which optimally leads to a more chewy and crispy cookie with tons of color. The main reason why the sugar content increases, is due to the dough drying out gradually.

Bottom line: The drier the cookie dough —–> the higher sugar content—-> Yielding a chewy and more flavor packed cookie

Step 3: Baking Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

Alright on to the final and best part (besides eating them all) of making oatmeal raisin cookies…baking them. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F, line a large cookie sheet with either parchment paper or silicone baking mat. Using a medium or large cookie scoop, scoop out the cookie dough and drop onto the prepared baking sheet. Make sure to leave a little room between each cookie. Bake the oatmeal raisin cookies for 10-12 minutes, or until the edges of the cookie are lightly brown and the top of the cookies are set. Remove from the oven and allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes. Next, transfer the cookies to a cooling rack and allow to cool for an additional 5 minutes before diving into them.

Enjoy.

Looking for more cookies?

Check out our brown butter chocolate chip cookies.