These easy oatmeal chocolate chip cookies are soft and chewy, and bake up golden-brown in under 15 minutes with no chilling required! A splash of buttermilk is the secret weapon for an ultra-tender texture, giving these cookies crisp edges and chocolate-packed centers everyone will love!
Whether you need a quick weeknight dessert or a last-minute school bake, this recipe comes together fast with basic pantry staples and zero dough chilling required. Just mix, scoop, and bake for thick, tender cookies that stay soft and chewy for days!
Why This Recipe Works
- Soft & Chewy Texture: Yields tender, bakery-style centers packed with gooey chocolate chips and old-fashioned rolled oats.
- No Dough Chilling: Mix, scoop, and bake straight away with zero wait time.
- My Secret Ingredient: A splash of buttermilk reacts with the baking soda to soften the gluten structure, ensuring a tender crumb without drying out the dough.
- Simple Pantry Staples: Use standard measuring cups and everyday ingredients. This recipe makes 3 dozen cookies and is ready in just 30 minutes!
Ingredient Notes & Substitutions
- Butter – I use unsalted butter. If all you have is salted butter, just drop the total salt down to 1/2 teaspoon to account for the salt in the 2 sticks of butter.
- Light Brown Sugar – Light brown sugar gives the cookies that moist, chewy interior.
- Granulated Sugar – Granulated sugar contributes to those perfectly crisp edges and good spread on the cookie sheet while they bake.
- Eggs – Just 2 whole large eggs!
- Vanilla Extract – My favorite vanilla is this Mexican vanilla, but any vanilla will work.
- Baking Soda – That’s baking soda, not baking powder.
- All-Purpose Flour – For accurate measurement, be sure to spoon it into the measuring cups rather than scooping; then level it off with the flat edge of a knife.
- Cinnamon – Just a pinch.
- Rolled Oats – Be sure to use old-fashioned rolled oats. Do not use steel-cut oats, or else your cookies will turn out hard and crunchy. Alternatively, you can use quick oats, but they will gives the cookies a softer texture, and not as chewy as with old-fashioned oats.
- Chocolate Chips – I always add a small bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips. They’re way better than raisins!
- Buttermilk – This recipe only calls for 1/4 cup buttermilk, so I usually make a cheap homemade substitute using vinegar or lemon juice. Read on if you want to know how.
Homemade Buttermilk for Buttermilk Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
My mom taught me this little trick for making buttermilk, or souring milk way back when.
- Add about 1/2 tablespoon of one of the following to your 1/4-cup measuring cup: white vinegar, apple cider vinegar or lemon juice.
- Pour in the milk until it reaches the 1/4-cup line.
- Stir it and let sit for 5 to 10 minutes. It may start to curdle.
And that’s it! For future reference, you can usually use 1-2 tablespoons either vinegar or lemon juice for every 1 cup of milk as a substitute for almost any recipe that calls for buttermilk.
How to Make Easy Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
I’ll share a video below in case you’d prefer a visual tutorial on how to make easy oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. Otherwise, continue on down for simple, step-by-step instructions!
Before getting started, preheat your oven to 350ºF. The butter needs to be softened; if you forgot, just pop it in the microwave for 10-15 seconds to soften it up.
- Stir the baking soda into your buttermilk (or sour milk) and set aside.
- Cream (or mix) together the butter, brown sugar, and pure cane sugar in a large bowl.
- Add the eggs and vanilla extract, mixing well.
- Whisk the flour, salt and cinnamon together in a separate bowl, ’til well combined.
- Combine the dry mixture with the wet mixture, alternating with the buttermilk.
- Fold in the rolled oats and chocolate chips, mixing ’til well combined.
Drop each cookie onto a cookie sheet with a cookie scoop or small spoon. Then press or pat the cookies somewhat flat with your fingers or the bottom of a glass. I get roughly 3 dozen cookies with a 1-tablespoon cookie scoop.
How to Bake Soft and Chewy Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
Bake at 350ºF for 12-15 minutes. For soft chewy oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, don’t over-bake them; you can tell that they’re done when they’ve turned a light golden hue. Then transfer each cookie to a wire rack to cool.
Easy Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies FAQ’s
Yes, you can make gluten-free oatmeal chocolate chip cookies simply by swapping out the flour with a gluten-free all-purpose flour. You might have to add a little Xanthan gum according to the package directions if the flour doesn’t already contain it.
You can also turn these into vegan oatmeal chocolate chip cookies by swapping out the eggs with 2 flax eggs. (Jessica in the Kitchen has a great tutorial on how to make a flax egg.) Then substitute dairy-free, plant-based butter in place of the regular butter. Also, make sure you buy dairy-free chocolate chips!
Once cooled, place them into an airtight container (like a cookie jar) or zip-loc bag. Stored right on the counter, they will stay fresh and chewy for up to 5 days.
How to Freeze Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
Oatmeal chocolate chip cookies are so easy that you can freeze them either unbaked or baked.
To freeze unbaked cookies…
Scoop your cookie dough onto a parchment paper or wax paper-lined baking sheet. Freeze for an hour or two, and then transfer all your dough balls in an airtight container or freezer bag and back into the freezer for up to 3 months. You’ll bake them just like normal, adding a few minutes extra bake time if they’re fresh out of the freezer.
To freeze already baked cookies…
Just place the cookies into an airtight container or freezer bag and freeze up to 3 months. Then reheat them in a 350ºF oven whenever you’re ready to eat them.
Optional Mix-Ins & Variations
There are a few ways you can switch up this recipe…
- Add walnuts or pecans to your cookie dough.
- Add white chocolate chips, peanut butter chips, or butterscotch chips.
- Use raisins or dried cranberries instead of chocolate chips.
- Add a bag of M&M’s.
More Easy Cookie Recipes
- White chocolate cranberry pistachio cookies
- Hot cocoa cookies
- Italian sugar cookies with a simple powdered sugar glaze
- Grandma’s gobs
Easy Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup unsalted butter
- 3/4 cup light brown sugar
- 1/2 cup pure cane sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/4 cup buttermilk*
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 3 cups rolled oats
- 12 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chips
Instructions
- Pre-heat the oven to 350°F.
- Cream (or mix) together the butter, brown sugar, and pure cane sugar.
- Add the eggs and vanilla extract to your mixture, and mix well.
- Stir the baking soda into your buttermilk (or sour milk) and set aside.
- Mix together the flour, salt, and ground cinnamon.
- Mix the dry ingredients into the creamed mixture, alternating with the buttermilk.
- Fold in the oatmeal and chocolate chips, mixing them into the dough 'til well combined.
- Using a cookie scoop or a spoon, drop each cookie onto your cookie sheet, pressing/patting the cookies somewhat flat with your fingers or the bottom of a glass.
- Bake for 12 to 15 minutes at 350ºF, or until the cookies turn a nice golden hue.
- When you remove each batch from the oven, remove the cookies from the cookie sheet and allow them to cool on a wire cooling rack.
- Serve with a nice tall glass of ice cold milk.
Video
Can you freeze these?
Yes, you can freeze these cookies. In fact, I include instructions for how to do so just above the recipe card in the post above. Hope this helps!
Absolutely the best oatmeal cookies I’ve ever made!
That’s awesome, Debra! I’m glad you liked them.
Delicious! Thank you so much!
I do have to say I wish I would have watched your video first. You made the cookies look so easy to make. It took me hours to make them as I creamed the butter and sugar forever, added one egg at a time, and over did every other step.
I’m 77 and have cooked since I was a child but never baked except a few cakes
and maybe a few cookies. Do you have a recipe for frosting that uses dark brown sugar and pecans? My Mother made her weekly yellow cake with this type of frosting. I can’t find the recipe anyplace. Also do you have an easy yellow cake recipe? Thank you again, Judy
Thank You so much for the awesome feedback, Judy! Unfortunately, I do not have a brown sugar pecan frosting recipe, but I see quite a few pulling up from a quick Google search. That said, if you head on over to my other website, adventuresofmel.com, and search for “Classic Yellow Cake Recipe” in the search bar at the top right corner, it should pull up my homemade yellow cake recipe. I hope this helps!
The printable version of recipe does not print well at all. Can you email me a better printed version? [email protected]
Sincerely want to try this,
Christina
Christina, after testing it seems this recipe is printing as it should be for me. What is not printing well?
Can I add baking powder too?
Anthony, I would not add baking powder. This will create a more cake-like consistency, which I don’t much care for in any cookie.
Interesting the addition of buttermilk/sour milk. Do you know what that is supposed to do to the final cookie outcome? Haven’t come across another recipe, yet, that uses liquid.
Thanks
Hey Barb, the buttermilk will make for a moister and slightly chewier, less crumbly final product. I hope this helps!