I’ve heard a rumor that crispy oatmeal cookies can match or even beat the soft, chewy, raisin-packed oatmeal cookies that I know and love. I was skeptical (very), but I decided to give them a shot a few weekends ago. The idea behind these cookies is that you use a bit more leavening powder to make the oatmeal cookies spread out during baking and therefore crisp up.
But are crispy oatmeal cookies really good?
YES! And they are stackable.
Stacks nicely.
In the cookie universe, I like to think of oatmeal cookies as healthy. Sure, they have some butter and sugar as all cookies do, but the oats lend a real heartiness and lots of fiber. So they’re kinda healthy cookies!
Crispy Oatmeal Cookies (From The Best of America’s Test Kitchen)
- 14 Tablespoons (1 3/4 sticks) unsalted butter, room temp
- 1 Cup granulated sugar
- 1/4 Cup brown sugar
- Zest of one orange (optional)
- 1 large egg
- 1 Teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 Cup all-purpose flour
- 3/4 Teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 Teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 Teaspoon salt
- 2 1/2 Cups rolled oats
It might look like a lot of ingredients for cookies, but most of them are standard pantry ingredients.
A cookie is born.
Making the Batter. This dough is really no different for from a standard dough. Start by adding your butter, sugars, and orange zest if your using it (I totally recommend it) to a large bowl. Using a hand mixer or stand mixer (or I guess a fork/whisk combo attack), cream the butter into the sugar on medium speed.
Ok. I added an orange also.
After a few minutes you should have a smooth, thick mixture that would be delicious if you were to eat it with a spoon.
Don’t eat it though!
Instead, add a large egg and your vanilla extract.
Just one.
In a separate bowl, combine your dry ingredients except the rolled oats.
Then slowly incorporate your dry ingredients into your batter.
After everything is mixed together well, mix in your oats, 1/2 Cup at a time. Don’t mix your oats into your dry ingredients first because it will make it hard to get your flour and leavening things equally distributed.
My measuring cups are color coded.
Cooking the Cookies. Once your batter is mixed well, preheat your oven to 350 degrees. On a parchment-lined baking sheet place 2 Tablespoon balls of batter with a good amount of space in between each ball.
You should get 24 balls out of the batter. I only got 23 because I’m crazy like that and I didn’t really measure them.
Seriously though, don’t put more than 8 of these on a sheet at a time. You’ll thank me later.
I arranged mine like this:
Nice and neat.
Then, using a spatula (fingers), mush the batter down until you have small disks that are about 1/2 inch high.
Squished.
Bake these for 14-16 minutes and if they appear to be cooking unevenly, rotate the sheet halfway through.
Once the cookies are lightly browned around the edges, take them out and let them cool on a wire rack. And here is the important trick to these cookies: Let them cool on their baking sheet. Don’t take them off.
This will mean they’ll continue to crisp up a bit while they cool, but they won’t burn. If you’re cookies are touching, feel free to cut them apart a bit.
Wow. These seriously spread out.
After they cool completely, you can eat them immediately or, if you’re like me, form a cookie structure of some sort.
Fantastic texture and flavor.
It’s very possible that these crispy cookies converted me from the oatmeal cookies I know and love. They were packed with flavor but still really light and had a perfect texture.
Plus they’re pretty straightforward to make. And they’re healthy!
Basically, there’s no reason to not make these cookies! And that rumor I was talking about at the beginning of this post… yea… I think I’m going to start spreading it.
Mmm, classic cookies!
I love crisp cookies, these look perfect!
That’s how I like them…crispy! Never understood why folks like them chewy.
I’m curious…could I put raisins in these crispy cookies? Or are raisins really more of a soft oatmeal cookie thing?
~Claire
@ Claire… I wouldn’t. I think they might just caramelize and/or burn and they might stop the cookies from spreading evenly and therefore crisping up.
You could try it but I make no guarantees :) I would stick with zest. It works great to add flavor.
My grandmother’s friend used to make these. They are some of the best cookies I’ve ever had. Delicious!
Yikes! These oatmeal cookies have more butter than flour and hardly look healthy. Is it possible to cut out half the butter and lighten up cookie?
I like ‘em crispy and chewy. And raw, if I’m being completely honest. ‘Cause there’s nothing better than cookie dough. These look great! Thanks for the recipe!
This recipe is right out of Cooks Illustrated, Jan 08, I think. For a variation, add toasted chopped walnuts and dried cranberries while cutting the oatmeal to 2 cups.
My cookies have ended up like a mound and chewy. I yearn to make thin crispy like yours!
@Iona. But there’s 2.5 Cups of oats! :) It works out to be about 1 1/2 – 2 Teaspoons of butter per cookie. I wouldn’t substitute it because they turned out so perfect. They are actually very light as is.
@Wennie. Yep! The book I linked to is just a compilation from Cook’s Illustrated. It’s an excellent book.
These look delicious! I love a crispy cookie.
I love watching America’s Test Kitchen and they always have such good pointers! I think I prefer crispy cookies too especially when it comes to oatmeal. They just taste more wholesome that way.
I managed to get 14 cookies out of this recipe, though I have that problem with all cookie recipes. :P I always make big cookies! They turned out awesome though! Great recipe. Maybe next time I’ll try and make them smaller (or you know, not).
These look awesome. I have a suggestion for a somewhat healthier (less butter) recipe for chewier oatmeal raisin cookies: http://www.goeggless.com/2008/11/eggless-chewy-oatmeal-raisin-cookies.html. I made them (substituting a frozen banana for the apple sauce) a few weeks ago, and they were the best I’ve ever made. Check it.
I’m so used to trying to perfect the chewy cookie, I haven’t even tried a crispy one. Maybe I’ll fair better with this one. It looks great!
I sent this link to my Dad, who likes to try new things and loves oatmeal cookies, and he has made them twice since. His favorite, now. He didn’t have a tool to grate the orange peel so he just squished up the orange pulp and juice and threw it in (no rind) and he loved them. He may have increased the oatmeal a bit to absorb some juice, but they turned out perfect.
[...] Crispy Oatmeal Cookies have always been a favorite of mine. I mean, the soft chewy ones are nice, don’t get me wrong. But the crispy ones just have that extra “something” that the soft, cakey ones do not. [...]