Old Fashion Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

Move over chocolate chip cookies, because these soft and chewy old fashion oatmeal raisin cookies are loaded with amazing flavor and are ready to take over the reins as the best cookie on the plate!

Ok, I’ll admit it. I’m definitely more of a chocolate chip cookie person as opposed to oatmeal raisin. If given the option between the two, I will definitely be grabbing the chocolate chip cookie as opposed to the one with raisins.

However, my son LOVES oatmeal raisin cookies. (Whose son does he think he is?!) So, I was tasked with the job of finding a delicious recipe that I could make for him when he has a craving for cookies.

After scouring the internet, I decided to look at my late grandma’s recipes and found one for old fashion oatmeal cookies. I decided to take that same recipe and tweak it a tiny bit by adding the raisins. And the outcome was delicious!! While I still prefer chocolate chips, this is a close second for sure!

You can make these cookies on their own without any special additions, and they are still delicious. Or, try your hand at using other ingredients like coconut, nuts, and of course chocolate chips instead of the raisins. It’s a great base recipe that you can really make your own.

How To Make Old Fashion Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

*Scroll down to the bottom of this post to see the full recipe, including exact measurements and amounts. You can also print out the instructions. I go into a bit more detail about the recipe here first, just in case you need it.

Ingredients

• Brown Sugar – This recipe calls for both brown and white sugars. The brown sugar provides the cookies with a moister, chewier texture. It also helps prevent the cookies from spreading out quite as much.
• Granulated Sugar
• Shortening – I follow the old fashioned recipe that my grandma wrote, but feel free to try to swap out some of the shortening for butter instead. I like to use Crisco solid shortening.
• Large Eggs – Set your eggs out for about 30 minutes prior to baking to let the eggs come to room temperature. (Or, grab them from one of your many baskets sitting around your kitchen if you are like me!)
• Vanilla Extract – Want to try making your own homemade vanilla? Check out my recipe; It is so easy to make and so much better than store bought! – “Homemade Vanilla Extract In Three Simple Steps!”
• Baking Soda
• Baking Powder
• Salt
• Flour – We love to use King Arthur Unbleached All Purpose Flour, but any AP flour will work fine.
• Old Fashioned Oats – My Grandma’s recipe calls for using quick oats, but I prefer to use old fashioned oats. I like the chewier texture that the old fashioned oats provide to the cookies. Quick oats, on the other hand, would produce softer cookies. The choice is really yours since either works well in this recipe.
• Raisins – This is the additional ingredient that the original recipe didn’t include. You can’t have oatmeal raisin cookies without the raisins! Some people like to soak the raisins before adding them to the batter, but I really don’t see the need for it.

Instructions For Old Fashion Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

Start off by preheating your oven 350º Fahrenheit. Then take a couple of baking sheets and line them with parchment paper.

You will end up making four batches of cookies with this recipe, so having a couple of baking sheets can come in handy. This allows you to have one sheet of cookies in the oven while the other is getting cooled off and loaded with more cookie dough. Set those baking sheets aside for now.

In a large mixing bowl, cream together the two sugars and the shortening until the mixture is light and fluffy. This might take a couple of minutes on medium speed. It should look like the left photo below when it’s ready for the next step.

Once your mixture is the perfect texture, add in the eggs and vanilla extract. Mix those together on low speed until all the wet ingredients are well combined.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the baking soda, baking powder, salt, and flour. Slowly add the dry ingredients into the mixing bowl with the wet ingredients on low speed. Don’t add it all at once or you might end up with a face full of powdery white stuff! Try to avoid overmixing the dough at this point.

Next, mix in the oats on a low setting until they are evenly distributed. You can even do this step by hand if you prefer.

To add in the raisins, turn off the mixer and gently fold in the raisins by hand using a spatula or large spoon. If you are using nuts, coconut, or chocolate chips as opposed to raisins, add them at this time. Or, just skip this step altogether for regular oatmeal cookies.

Scoop And Bake – Old Fashion Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

Using a 1.5 tablespoon cookie scoop, drop rounded mounds of dough onto one of your prepared baking sheets. Space them out evenly so the cookies have a bit of room to expand as they bake. (Here’s my favorite cookie scoop I use for these and my other cookie recipes – Product Link: Prep Solutions by Progressive Measuring Scoop.)

When I space most cookies out on the baking sheets I have, I can usually get 12 cookies at a time. This ends up being three rows of four cookies. That spacing seems to be about perfect. These cookies really don’t spread a whole lot thankfully.

Bake the cookies for 13 to 15 minutes. The cookies will still be soft and might look like they aren’t quite done when the time is up. However, if the center looks set, they are done and good to be pulled out.

The edges might also have just started to brown up a bit. This is when the cookies get nice and crispy on the outside but chewy in the middle – the best cookie texture in my opinion!

Remove the cookies and allow them to cool for a few minutes before transferring them to a cooling rack. If you try to do that too early, the cookies will just fall apart. Allow the old fashion oatmeal cookies to fully cool before storing in an airtight container. Enjoy!

Until next time, thanks for stopping by!
– Chelsea

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