Our butterscotch and oatmeal cookies recipe makes deliciously buttery, cinnamon-spiced oatmeal cookies that have a wonderful texture thanks to being loaded with just the right amount of oats and butterscotch chips. After testing several variations of this recipe to perfect the ingredient ratios, we’re confident that this recipe will give you great results! With our easy to follow directions, step-by-step photos for visual aid, and tips for success, you’ll have an excellent batch of these cookies ready in no time!
If I could only bake one type of dessert for the rest of my life, it would undoubtedly be cookies. My love for this treat began in my childhood kitchen, where the scent of freshly baked cookies was a weekly tradition, thanks to my mom and grandma who always had warm cookies ready whenever we had guests visit (my middle school and high school friends LOVED this). As someone who’s developed nearly 70 dessert recipes for this website, including over 20 cookie recipes, and has been baking for more than 30 years, I’ve learned what makes a truly exceptional cookie.
Through decades of baking, I’ve developed a particular appreciation for oatmeal varieties. There’s something special about how the oats create a treat with the perfect balance of textures. I’ve tested this oatmeal scotchies recipe countless times to get the butter-to-sugar ratio just right, determine the ideal baking time for crispy edges with chewy centers, and figure out exactly how many butterscotch chips create that caramel undertone without being overwhelming. Mix in warm spices and butterscotch chips, and you have a next level cookie that’s become one of my most requested recipes.
You’ll Love These Oatmeal Butterscotch Cookies!
Excellent texture. This recipe makes cookies with wonderfully crispy edges and ultra chewy centers. The end result is an all-around great bite.
Simple to make. You don’t need any fancy equipment to make these cookies; a large mixing bowl, a wooden spoon, and a little elbow grease will get you there if you don’t have a stand mixer.
Ready to enjoy in 30-minutes (no chill time)! This dough doesn’t take long to mix up, and there’s no need to chill it before baking! While everyone’s oven varies a bit, and the final amount of time needed will depend on how may trays you bake at once, you’ll be able to munch on a warm cookie within 30-minutes!
Small batch oatmeal cookies recipe with the option to easily double or triple! Sometimes you just don’t want to make a TON of cookies. Our base recipe makes 20-22 cookies (when using a medium cookie scoop, or about 2 Tablespoons of dough, as recommended). But you can easily double or triple the recipe as needed!
Oatmeal Scotchies Ingredients
- Salted butter. Butter adds richness, tenderness, moisture, and structure to our cookie recipe.
- Granulated sugar AND brown sugar. Using a combination of sugars for our recipe results in cookies with just the right amount of sweetness, moistness, and chewiness. A higher ratio of brown sugar in our dough also helps give our cookies a slightly caramely flavor.
- Large egg. Using a whole egg (versus using just an egg yolk or an egg white) helps give our cookies structure and moisture, as well as working as a leavening agent.
- Vanilla extract and ground cinnamon. Both of these ingredients add depth of flavor to our cookies, with the cinnamon adding a lovely warm spice profile that compliments the butterscotch and oats in just the right way.
- Salt. Used to enhance the other ingredients’ flavors.
- Baking soda. Used as our main leavening agent, baking soda contributes to the chewy texture in our oatmeal cookies.
- All-purpose flour. This type of flour is ideal for baking cookies due to it’s optimal protein range for this type of baking. All-purpose flour helps to create soft and chewy cookies.
- Old-fashioned rolled oats. Old-fashioned oats (sometimes called rolled oats) add flavor, texture, and chewiness to our cookies. This type of oat will give your cookies the very best texture, but in a pinch quick-cooking oats (NOT instant oats) will work as an alternative. You can learn more about oats in our detailed informational post about the types of oats and how to use them.
- Butterscotch chips (sometimes called butterscotch morsels). Butterscotch has a rich and sweet flavor similar to caramel (and often described as having hints of toffee flavor). Due to it’s main ingredient of brown sugar, butterscotch often gives a deeper, more complex sweetness than standard caramel. In combination with our dough’s higher brown sugar content, the butterscotch chips really give these cookies a caramel-like undertone.
For ingredient measurements and recipe directions, refer to the recipe card at the bottom of the page.
How to Make Oatmeal Scotchies
Preheat your oven to 350°F. Set out your baking sheets, lining with parchment paper if desired (optional).
Add the the butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar to the bowl of a stand mixer (or into a large mixing bowl).
Cream the butter and sugars together with a paddle attachment on low to medium speed (or using a wooden spoon if mixing by hand) until the mixture is lighter and a bit fluffy (it will still look a kind of grainy).
Add in the egg and vanilla extract into your bowl and stir to combine into the butter and sugar mixture.
Slowly add your dry ingredients, starting with the salt, baking soda, cinnamon, and flour to form a dough.
Once combined, stir in your oats until well distributed throughout the dough.
Gently mix in the butterscotch chips until well dispersed through the dough.
Using a medium cookie scoop (equal to about 2 Tablespoons worth of dough), scoop dough balls onto the cookie sheets, keeping them about 2 inches apart.
Optionally, press an additional 3-5 butterscotch chips on top of each dough balls.
Bake for 11-14 minutes until the edges look set and the cookies look golden brown.
Remove them from the oven and allow to set on the cookie sheet for a few minutes. Then transfer to a wire cooling rack to cool completely.
Scotchies Expert Tip: Do NOT Overbake!
For the ultimate chewy texture, do not overbake your cookies! When the edges look to be set and are a light golden brown, and the centers no longer look wet and spring back slightly if you poke them (ie: they do not stay sunken in), your cookies are ready to pull out of the oven!
Overbaked cookies will be dry, hard, and too crunchy. Depending on how overbaked they are, they can become too dark and even overly crumbly. Not the texture we’re going for!
Oatmeal Scotchies Recipe Variations
Increase that pop of spice with a pinch of nutmeg. If you love spice cookies, adding in ⅛ teaspoon of nutmeg is a great option for this recipe!
Possible Dietary Restrictions?
This cookie recipe is vegetarian as written, but one easy swap makes this into a gluten free cookie recipe too! Most commercial butterscotch chips are gluten free (yay!), and you can buy gluten-free certified oats relatively easily these day (yay!), so all you need to do is swap out your all purpose flour. I’ve successfully used the Bob’s Red Mill 1 to 1 Baking Flour in all kinds of baking recipes. As the title suggestions, you swap out your regular flour one-to-one with this gluten free version.
As always, if you’re feeding these to someone with celiac disease, please check your labels to ensure you won’t have any issues.
How to Store Oatmeal Scotchie Cookies
Store fully cooled cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days (if they last that long!).
How to Freeze Oatmeal Butterscotch Cookies
This cookie recipe can also be frozen before or after baking!
To freeze before baking: Make the dough and scoop into dough balls onto a wax paper lined a baking sheet (you can place them close together, but try to avoid them touching). Place the dough balls into the freezer for 1 hour (this is called “flash freezing”). Once the cookie dough balls are cold and solid, transfer them into a large freezer bag that’s labeled with what they are, when they were made, and the cooking time and temp.
When you’re ready to enjoy, simply transfer the frozen cookie dough balls onto a baking sheet and bake from frozen! To bake from frozen, you’ll just need to add 2-3 minutes to the bake time listed in the recipe card.
I personally love this option because having a freezer stash of cookie dough balls is THE BEST. It gives you the opportunity to have freshly baked cookies any time, you can bake just a few at a time, and it’s a lifesaver if you have unexpected guests and want to share a sweet treat with them.
To freeze baked cookies: Place fully cooled cookies into a labeled freezer bag or air-tight container and store in the freezer for up to 3 months. When ready to enjoy, thaw the cookies overnight in the refrigerator. You can also pull them straight from the freezer (I’ve been known to do this…) but they will be harder.
Scotchies FAQs
Flat cookies usually happen for a few reasons. The most common is using melted butter instead of softened butter (especially since we do not have chill time on this recipe). Make sure your butter is softened to room temperature but not melted, as melted butter causes cookies to spread too much. Also make sure your baking soda is fresh, as old leavening agents won’t give cookies the lift they need. Finally, using a baking sheet that’s too hot from a previous batch can cause spreading, so let your baking sheets cool between batches.
Old-fashioned rolled oats are the best choice for oatmeal cookies and give you the ideal chewy texture and hearty oat flavor. These oats hold their shape during baking and create that perfect balance of chewiness without being mushy. Quick cooking oats can work in a pinch, but they’ll give you a slightly softer, less chewy texture since they’re more processed. Never use instant oats for cookies as they’re too fine and will turn mushy, creating an unpleasant texture. Steel cut oats are also not recommended for cookies as they’re too hard and won’t soften enough during the short baking time. If you’d like to learn more, I’ve put together a complete guide on types of oats that is helpful!
The combination of brown sugar, oats, and slightly underbaking your cookies creates that perfect chewy texture. Brown sugar contains molasses, which adds moisture and chewiness that white sugar alone can’t provide. That’s why this recipe uses more brown sugar than white sugar. The oats themselves also contribute to chewiness as they absorb moisture from the dough during baking. The key is pulling your cookies from the oven when the edges are set and the centers look JUST done (no longer shiny and won’t sink in when touched gently, but JUST barely). They’ll continue to set as they cool on the baking sheet, resulting in that ideal chewy center with crispy edges.
No, you don’t need to flatten these oatmeal scotchies before baking! The dough balls will spread naturally in the oven to create cookies with the right thickness and texture. If you flatten them before baking, they’ll spread too thin and become overly crispy rather than having that perfect chewy center.
More like this Oatmeal Scotchies Recipe
Chewy Oatmeal Scotchies Recipe
Equipment
- Large Mixing Bowl and Wooden Spoon -OR- Bowl of a Stand Mixer with a Paddle Attachment
- Medium Cookie Scoop (not required, but helpful!)
Ingredients
- ½ Cup salted butter, softened
- ½ Cup brown sugar (light or dark)
- ¼ Cup granulated sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ¾ Cup all-purpose flour
- 1 + ½ Cups old fashioned rolled oats
- 1 Cup butterscotch chips
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Set out baking sheets.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment (or in a large mixing bowl with a wooden spoon), cream together the butter and both sugars until the mixture is lighter and fluffy (it will still look a little grainy).½ Cup salted butter, softened½ Cup brown sugar¼ Cup granulated sugar
- Add in the egg and vanilla and stir to combine.1 large egg1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- Slowly mix in the dry ingredients, starting with the baking soda, then salt and cinnamon, then the flour until a uniform mixture has been created.½ teaspoon baking soda¼ teaspoon salt½ teaspoon ground cinnamon¾ Cup all-purpose flour
- Mix in the rolled oats until distributed throughout the dough.1 + ½ Cups old fashioned rolled oats
- Gently mix in the butterscotch chips.1 Cup butterscotch chips
- Using a medium cookie scoop (equal to about 2 Tablespoons of dough), scoop dough balls onto the baking sheets, spacing them about 2 inches apart. If desired, press an additional 3-5 butterscotch chips onto the top of each dough ball.
- Bake for 11-14 minutes, until the edges are set and the tops are lightly golden brown (if you poke them gently, the top should spring back slightly not totally sink in).*For best results, do NOT overbake. They will continue to set up on the baking sheet after being pulled from the oven.
- Allow the cookies to rest on the baking sheet for 3-5 minutes, then transfer to a wire cooling rack to cool completely.
David says
Love me some butterscotch, and these cookies were AWESOME .
Meredith says
🙌🙌🙌🙌 so happy you loved these oatmeal scotchies too!
Meredith says
These are a family favorite! Awesome texture, and the perfect amount of cinnamon with the butterscotch. YUM