Oatmeal Cookies with Raisins & Pecans
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Crispy on the outside and chewy on the inside, these are the end-all-be-all oatmeal cookies.
I love to find end-all-be-all recipes for classic American desserts. This oatmeal cookie recipe is one of them (see also my favorite chocolate chip cookies and my go-to brownie recipe). You bakers out there know that it can take many attempts to get it just right, but once you find that perfect recipe, it’s your go-to forever. These are not your ordinary oatmeal cookies. The recipe calls for way fewer oats than most, which, strangely, makes for much better oatmeal cookies. They are also sweetened entirely with brown sugar, which gives them rich flavor and makes them slightly crispy on the outside and deliciously chewy on the inside. Be careful not to overcook these; oatmeal cookies get very crispy if baked too long and you’ll enjoy them so much more if they are slightly chewy.
What you’ll need to make Oatmeal Cookies with Raisins & Pecans
How to make Oatmeal Cookies with Raisins & Pecans
To begin, combine the oats, flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl.
Whisk well.
In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine the butter and brown sugar.
Beat on medium speed until creamy, about 3 minutes.
Add the egg and vanilla.
Beat until smooth, about 30 seconds.
Add the flour/oatmeal mixture.
Mix on low speed until just combined.
Add the pecans and raisins.
Mix until just combined.
Drop the dough into 1-1/2-tablespoon mounds onto the prepared baking sheets.
Bake until the edges are slightly golden but the centers are still pale, 11 to 13 minutes.
Let the cookies cool on the baking sheets for a few minutes, then either slide the papers off the pans onto cooling racks or transfer the cookies with a spatula.
Once cool, store the cookies in an air-tight container.
YOu may also like
- Best Peanut Butter Cookies
- Secret Ingredient Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Chocolate Chunk Cookies
- Spiced Pumpkin Cookies
- Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
Oatmeal Brown Sugar Cookies with Raisins & Pecans
Crispy on the outside and chewy on the inside, these are the end-all-be-all oatmeal cookies.
Ingredients
- 1 cup old-fashioned rolled oats (do not use quick cooking or instant oats)
- 1 cup all-purpose flour, spooned into measuring cup and leveled-off
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ⅛ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 stick (½ cup) unsalted butter, softened but still cool
- 1 cup packed dark brown sugar
- 1 large egg
- ¾ teaspoon vanilla extract
- ¾ cup coarsely chopped pecans
- ¾ cup raisins or currants
Instructions
- Position two racks in the upper and lower thirds of the oven and preheat to 350°F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the oats, flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
- In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat together the butter and brown sugar on medium speed until creamy, about 3 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula, then add the egg and vanilla and beat again until smooth, about 30 seconds.
- Add the flour and oatmeal mixture and mix on low speed until just combined; add the pecans and raisins and mix again until just combined. Do not over-mix.
- Drop the dough into 1½-tablespoon mounds about 2 inches apart onto the prepared baking sheets. Bake for 11 to 13 minutes, rotating the pans from top to bottom and front to back halfway through, or until the edges are slightly golden but the centers are still pale. Let the cookies cool on the baking sheets for a few minutes, then either slide the papers off the pans onto cooling racks or transfer the cookies with a spatula. Once cool, store the cookies in an air-tight container.
- Note: The recipe can easily be doubled, but keep in mind that oatmeal cookies are best enjoyed fresh on the day they are baked.
- Freezer-Friendly Instructions: The Cookie Dough can be Frozen for up to 3 Months: Scoop the dough into balls, let set on a baking sheet in the freezer, then place in a sealable bag and press out as much air as possible. Bake as needed directly from the freezer. (Allow 1 to 2 minutes longer in the oven.) To Freeze After Baking: Let the cookies cool completely and store in an airtight container separating layers with parchment paper or aluminum foil. Before serving, remove the cookies from the container and let them come to room temperature.
Nutrition Information
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- Serving size: 1 cookie
- Calories: 105
- Fat: 5 g
- Saturated fat: 2 g
- Carbohydrates: 15 g
- Sugar: 9 g
- Fiber: 1 g
- Protein: 1 g
- Sodium: 13 mg
- Cholesterol: 52 mg
This website is written and produced for informational purposes only. I am not a certified nutritionist and the nutritional data on this site has not been evaluated or approved by a nutritionist or the Food and Drug Administration. Nutritional information is offered as a courtesy and should not be construed as a guarantee. The data is calculated through an online nutritional calculator, Edamam.com. Although I do my best to provide accurate nutritional information, these figures should be considered estimates only. Varying factors such as product types or brands purchased, natural fluctuations in fresh produce, and the way ingredients are processed change the effective nutritional information in any given recipe. Furthermore, different online calculators provide different results depending on their own nutrition fact sources and algorithms. To obtain the most accurate nutritional information in a given recipe, you should calculate the nutritional information with the actual ingredients used in your recipe, using your preferred nutrition calculator.
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These cookies are so yummyyy
Once I had an oatmeal cookie that had honey in the recipe, and I LOVED that additional flavor to an already great oatmeal cookie recipe. I would like to add honey to this recipe, can I?
Hi Martha, You could replace 1/4 of the brown sugar here with an equal amount of honey. I’d love to hear how they turn out with this tweak!
These are the best oatmeal raisin cookies I have ever had. The pecans and brown sugar give them extra flavor. The are the perfect texture and taste of an oatmeal cookie. Crunchy but soft . I made mine smaller and they turned out very well. Thanks Jen for all of your great recipes!
Dear Jenn,
Hello…I dont have any baking powder, can I omit it, or can you suggest a substitution I might try? Also, may I use walnuts and should I toast them?
Hi Tom, I wouldn’t leave the baking powder out. Here are some suggestions for substitutes. Sure, you can use walnuts; and toasting them first would help to bring out the flavor.
Excellent cookie judging by the smile on my husband’s face!
I toasted almonds instead of pecans and result was delicious.
I did refrigerate for one hour( see King Arthur flour site about “chilling cookie dough”) and used a 1 5/8″ cookie scoop, leveled. Made 24 cookies and they are
perfect!
Thank you.
I’m looking for the perfect oatmeal chocolate chip cookie. Could I just sub the raisins for chocolate chips on this recipe? I would still keep the pecans. If so, would cooking times be the same? If not, please add an oatmeal chocolate chip cookie to your recipes!
Hi Nancy, you can add chocolate chips in place of (or in addition to) to the raisins. No change in baking time is needed. Enjoy!
Thought I would let you know that I tried making these, replacing the raisins with chocolate chips but keeping everything else the same and they were AMAZING. My search of the perfect oatmeal chocolate chip cookies is over (and the pecans just took it over the top)! I took these to work and these were gone in a second.
So glad you enjoyed them (and that your search is over)!
Jenn, going to make these tomorrow mornng…would a little nutmeg enhance the flavor? If so, what amount would you suggest? Thanks, Carol
Sure Carol, I think nutmeg would be a nice additon. I’d probably start with about 1/4 – 1/2 tsp. I’d love to hear how they turn out!
Hi Jenn
Made your recipe today, so deish. Cookies so moist. Another winner. Will definitely make these cookies again. It’s so nice to make cookies that are so enjoyable to eat.
Pam, the confident baker again ?
So delish! Your recipes are always guaranteed to be winners! I omitted the salt because I only had salted butter. I also used dried cranberries in place of raisins and added white chocolate chips.
I’ve eaten 3 already….
I just made these cookies yesterday and my family loves them! I am storing them in a tin. They mentioned today that the cookies were “hard” but still delicious. Do you think I overcooked them? I have never made such a “large” cookie before…
Hi Wendy, Try cooking them 1-2 minutes less next time and they will stay soft longer. For this batch, you can quickly warm the “hard” cookies in the microwave right before eating and they’ll soften up.
Hi Jenn,
Is chilling the cookie dough for a few hours recommended to enhance the flavour of the cookies?
No Meghna, No refrigeration is necessary (and wouldn’t enhance the flavor of the cookies).
Hi Jenn,
Can I use steel cut oats for this recipe?
Also, any suggestion for a butter replacement due to lactose issue?
Thank you!
Lauri
Hi Lauri, Unfortunately, steel cut oats won’t work here– they won’t soften up enough when baked. And I think you could get away with replacing the butter with margarine.
I have been weighing ingredients especially flour rather than relying on measuring cups but there seems to be such a difference in how many grams (or ounces) a cup of all purpose flour weighs. King Arthur says its all purpose flour is 4.25 oz/cup; others use 4.5 or 5 oz/cup. What to do? If you wrote this recipe in weights, what would you use? Thanks for your help,
Hi David, The conversion I use is 125 grams (or 4.4 ounces) for 1 cup of all purpose flour. Hope that helps!
This is the absolute BEST recipe for oatmeal cookies!! I cannot even begin to describe how perfect the cookies turned out. Crisp on the edges, soft and chewy in the centre. The toasted pecans and the sweet raisins made an absolutely amazing combination, and gave the cookies a LOT of flavour. I highly recommend trying this out; you’ll want to make this again and again, I promise.
This really is the perfect cookie recipe!!!
This was the first recipe I tried from onceuponachef and I followed the instructions exactly. These are FANTASTIC!! Truly the best oatmeal raisin cookies I or my family has ever had. The pecans are a great touch!
These are awesome!!! I had no eggs and had to substitute egg whites from a carton and they were still excellent!
I made these today, and we decided they are the perfect oatmeal cookie. Other recipes I’ve tried in the past are either too crisp, too soft, too many oats, too whatever!, but these are spot on. The ratio of flour to oatmeal is perfect, and the crispness of the edges versus the soft, chewy center is perfect too. The addition of the toasted pecans is heavenly. I did two small things differently than the original recipe. I added a smidge of freshly grated nutmeg simply because that is our personal preference, but it certainly wasn’t necessary to the success of the cookie. I also plumped the raisins by pouring boiling water over them and letting them soak for 10 minutes before draining and patting them dry. Again, not necessary, but personal preference in our household for any cookies containing raisins. I’m so glad to have finally found THE oatmeal cookie recipe!
DELICIOUS! I made these today, for a Superbowl party tonight. They are soooo good. I added of course raisins…but also, pecans, chocolate chips and sunflower seeds….I had a recipe that I lost that contained only brown sugar…so the search began, and this recipe saved the day. Quick, easy and delicious. Thanks ?
Another wonderful recipe from onceuponachef! Who would think something so simple as toasting the nuts first would make such a huge difference. These cookies are our new faves.
I have tried several different oatmeal cookie receipes and NOTHING compares to this one! I didnt have pecans on hand so I didnt use them. Other than that I got creative and used 1/3 cup raisins, 1/3 cup dried unsweetened cherries amd 1/3 cup dried juice sweetened cranberries. I also only used 1/2 cup of the dark sugar. Everything else stayed the same. Delicious! This is the way to make oatmeal cookies. Moist, soft and buttery! Perfect!
Hi Jenn,
We have a nut allergy in our family. Can I just omit the pecans, or should I add more oats or more raisins instead? I’m looking forward to making these!
Thanks, Amy
Hi Amy, I would just omit the pecans…unless you like lots of raisins, then that will work too 🙂
Delicious oatmeal cookies, nice crunchy on the outside and chewy on the inside, I loved that they were not too sweet. My favourite oatmeal cookie recipe! love the toasted pecans in there.
Hi Jenn Made these today and they were delicious. The only problem I had was they didn’t flatten out like your pictures showed. I used a 1 ounce scoop and the batter make 20 cookies, they just were thicker than shown. Where did I go wrong?
Hi Sharon, Did you use the spoon and level method to measure the flour?
Yes, I used that method, thought maybe there was too much batter in each cookie?
Hmmm, possibly. Or did you by chance chill the dough before baking the cookies?
Ohhhhhh baby. These are good… I’m not a big oatmeal raisin fan, nor do I generally enjoy cookies with nuts (I wanted dessert, not granola!) But my husband loves both, so I thought he’d get a kick out of these. I planned to follow the recipe, but couldn’t shake the urge to add some maple extract- wow! I used 1/2 t vanilla and 1/2 t maple extract. It’s just ridiculous. I can’t wait till my guy gets home and tries these!
how many calories per cookie?
Hi Clint, There are 186 calories per cookie. I’ve added all the nutritional data beneath the recipe.
I almost didn’t toast the pecans but I’m sooo glad I did. They make the cookies. I also added cinnamon (1/2 tsp) and nutmeg (1/8 tsp) and used white whole wheat flour. But seriously, the toasted pecans – yum!
Omg!,. I just made these tonight for my family and I must they are DELICIOUS!,. I love your recipes.
Thank you, Ireisha. Glad your family liked them!
You’re welcome.
Do you plump your raisins in water before adding to batter?
Nope! 🙂
Hi Jenn,
Why aren’tmy cookies flat like the ones you show on the photo? The taste is good but they are not shaped like cookies. They are a bid mound and didn’t flatten out. Please tell me why.
Thanks.
Hi Lucy, Hmmm, not sure. Did you measure the flour using the spoon and level method? Did you by chance refrigerate the dough before baking the cookies?
No, I did not do refrigerate the dough before baking but I did measure the flour correctly. Was I supposed to refrigerate the dough? I didn’t use room temperature butter though. It was still cold from the fridge. Is that the reason?
Hi Lucy, No you are not supposed to refrigerate the dough. The cold butter might be the problem, as cold dough makes much “puffier” cookies.
My cookies too are mounds and I measured flour by spoon and the butter was soft…should I flatten them slightly.
If you measured the flour correctly and the butter was not too cold, then yes, I think you could flatten them a bit to make them less puffy.
Me and my husband made these and we both devoured them. They were sooo delicious and chewy!
I don’t have parchment paper what should I do?
Hi Nuray, You can grease a baking sheet with nonstick cooking spray.
One of my favorites, added it to my bookmarks years ago and keep referring back when I feel like baking cookies at home. It’s easy to swap out ingredients – I’ve used dried cherries or blueberries and almonds, pecans or walnuts, depending upon what I have on hand. The standard recipe with raisins and pecans is the best so far.
I thought these were delicious. The only thing I did was leave out the raisins – personal preference. But I think I will put chocolate chips in with them next time. Great recipe.
jjsell76 at yahoo dot ocm
I would never try another recipe again!
These are the best oatmeal cookies I have tried. Thanks.
Thanks for the reply, I really appreciate it.
These look great! Do you think i could sub some ww flour for some or all of the white? Thanks!
Hi Laura, I don’t see why not, although you might want to use a tad less as whole wheat flour tends to dry out baked goods.
This is my new favorite oatmeal cookie. I made these for a potluck and ate almost half of them myself before I even got there! I ended up needing to make another batch in a big hurry. Fantastic with a glass of cold milk.
I will not make another oatmeal cookie again! these are addicting. I used the next day cookies and put into homemade apple pie ice cream for the “crust”- so good!
I just made these and they turned out fabulous. I didn’t measure the flour by tablespoonfuls, I just stuck my cup right into the bin and scooped. I soaked the raisins in spiced rum and left off the vanilla. I added a small handful of wheat bran, a large pinch of cinn and nutmeg,a few goopy twirls of molasses and I didn’t beat the sugar, egg, butter, I just mixed it up with a spoon (no licking, that’s gross), then plopped it in with all the ingredients and baked the heck out them. Thanks for the recipe!
We have been snowed in for a week and I was looking for a good oatmeal raisin cookie….as if we needed something else to eat!!! I always read the reviews and I must say the one above has made my day!! Funniest review EVER!! “I just made these…” NO you did not make these … you made an entirely different cookie. Thanks for the entertainment!!! Let’s bake!!! I cannot rate yet….but what the heck….
I just made these using dried cherries and toasted macadamia nuts. I followed the recipe and baking instructions to the letter, and this is the PERFECT oatmeal cookie recipe! My cookies have crispy edges and soft, chewy centers and golden brown bottoms… just the way I like my cookies! THANK YOU for sharing this recipe.
Great recipe!
I just did a post on oatmeal cookies the other day. I think I will add this, they look too good!
Another HUGELY successful recipe! You consistently give us the best recipes and every one of them is terrific! Thank you so much!
Oh these look sooo good… my hubby would love them. I owe him some good cookies, lol. I know how hard it is to get readers~ doesn’t it make you crazy when some sites get 20+ comments?! I struggle to get 5, lol. I will forward your link on my FB page- and when I get around to making these cookies, I will give ya a shout out on my site! 🙂
Love love oatmeal cookies these look so good I can not resist must make
Ok ok ok..I take your word for it..they do look perfect!
I love the addition of pecans here! So much more interesting than walnuts. And all brown sugar anything is all right by me. I am totally making these the next time I’m craving oatmeal cookies.
I love these cookies, hard to stop eating I must say! Thank you for the delicious recipe! 🤤
I posted oatmeal cookies today too:) Will have to try adding in pecans next time!
I love oatmeal raisin cookies and I can’t wait to try this recipe. They look delicious.