These sweet OatmealScotchies have a thick and chewy center with crisp edges. You’ll love the deep caramel notes with a hint of cinnamon spice and all that butterscotch and crushed toffee!
Try some of our other favorite oatmeal cookies — these Coconut Oatmeal Cookies or these Caramel Oatmeal Cookies.
Oatmeal Scotchies
If you’ve never had Oatmeal Scotchies, you are in for a treat! These cookies are very sweet and rich with strong toffee and caramel-undertones. These cookies have a couple of “secrets” that I believe make them the best Scotchies around!
Read through the post and recipe before starting for ingredient notes and tips to help you be successful in baking these. I hope your family loves these as much as mine does!
Oatmeal Scotchies FAQs
1What is a Scotchie?
A Scotchie is a soft and chewy oatmeal cookie typically spiced with cinnamon and made with brown sugar, oats, and lots of butterscotch baking chips. These cookies have deep caramel and toffee notes of flavor. Scotchie is short for butterscotch.
2What kind of oats are best for cookies?
Oatmeal Scotchies are best with old-fashioned oats. You can read more about the differences between steel-cut oats, old-fashioned (or rolled) oats, and instant (or quick) oats here.
3Can you use quick oats in cookies?
While it may seem like old-fashioned oats and quick oats can be interchanged easily enough, they don’t work the same when baking. Because of their small size, quick oats act more like flour, absorbing more liquid which results in a drier, less flavorful cookie. This recipe relies on old-fashioned oats, and won’t work the same with any other oat type.
Unless the recipe specifically calls for quick oats, I would not use them in place of old-fashioned (rolled) oats.
4Why are my oatmeal cookies flat?
A few different things to consider:
- Cookies often flatten because the dough did not chill long enough. Since there is melted butter in the batter, it needs a chance to firm up again.
- If the melted butter was too hot when you added in the sugars, the cookies will likely end up a bit flat and greasy. Hot butter melts sugars so wait for the butter to cool a bit before adding in the sugars.
- If the melted butter and sugars weren’t whisked together thoroughly this can result in flatter cookies.
- Oatmeal cookies can also go flat if the flourwasunder-measured.
- One other factor that comes into play is if you live in a high-altitude area.
5How many calories are in an Oatmeal Scotchie?
There are 197 calories in these cookies.
Oatmeal Scotchie Ingredients
Four ingredients really make these Oatmeal Scotchies unique and unforgettable: molasses, dark brown sugar, toffee bits, and butterscotch baking chips or morsels. I’ll discuss each of these ingredients below:
- Molasses. We don’t use a lot of molasses in these cookies, so it isn’t overpowering. It lends a subtle toffee-like flavor, instead of making these Scotchies taste like molasses. Even though there’s just a bit of it in the recipe, the molasses is what keeps the center of these cookies soft and chewy and adds in some sweetness. I recommend dark molasses (also sometimes labeled as “robust” or “full-flavored”) and have tested these cookies with Grandma’s® Molasses. There are a lot of different molasses choices to pick from at the store that range from lighter molasses to blackstrap.
- Dark brown sugar. You’ll find dark brown sugar near the light brown and powdered sugar in the baking aisle of the grocery store. The two look similar, yet dark brown sugar is darker overall in color because it has a higher content of added molasses. Because of the increased amount of molasses, dark brown sugar has a more pronounced flavor and a rich sweetness.
- Toffee bits/crushed toffee. Adding milk chocolate English toffee bits is not something you’ll find in most Oatmeal Scotchies recipes, but it’s a total game changer for these cookies! I love adding the toffee because it further emphasizes the caramel undertones of these cookies.
- Butterscotch baking chips. Butterscotch morsels or baking chips are the classic choice for Oatmeal Scotchies. These morsels can be found in the baking aisle among other baking chips–just down the way from the brown sugar!
Recipe Tips
- Don’t skip chilling the dough! The butter needs a chance to re-solidify after melting, so the cookies won’t spread into a pancake! The sugar and oats in the dough are also gradually absorbing liquid during the chilling period. That will further prevent spreading.
- Wait for the right ingredients. This cookie recipe has been tested (and re-tested some more!). For best results, follow the recipe carefully using the right ingredients. I know there are some unique ingredients called for, but I recommend waiting to make these cookies with those ingredients instead of trying random substitutes. Baking is finicky — it’s hard to say what will and won’t work out in place of what has been tested.
- Start with room temperature ingredients. Using room temperature eggs ensures that they disperse more evenly into the batter– giving these cookies a better texture (the eggs trap air). Soaking refrigerated eggs in a bowl of warm (not hot) water for about 10 minutes is a quick way to get them warm. Otherwise, pull the eggs out of the fridge about 30 minutes before use.
- Spoon and level the flour. When you measure the flour, be sure to spoon and level the measuring cup so you aren’t adding in too much or too little flour. Too much flour yields more cake-like Oatmeal Scotchies and too little flour and these cookies will be too wet and spread too much.
- Leave ample room on the baking sheet. These cookies are large and do spread out quite a bit on a cookie sheet! I only bake 6-8 cookies at a time on a standard-size cookie sheet.
- Roll large even-sized balls. If you have a food scale, it takes out any guesswork. Each cookie dough ball should be exactly 40 grams. With even-sized cookie dough balls, you can rest assured all the cookies will bake at the same rate, instead of some being under-done while others are burnt!
- Slightly underbake. These cookies are best being slightly underbaked — they continue to firm up and harden after being removed from the oven. Once they’ve cooled they’re ultra soft and chewy!
QUICK TIP
We like these cookies best on days 1 and 2 of being made. They are softest and chewiest on day 1 and get more crunchy, less chewy every day after that. They do last up to a week, but they begin to lose texture and flavor. To store: Place in an airtight container and keep at room temperature. Wait until cookies are completely cooled before adding to the container. The unbaked dough for these cookies freezes wonderfully — read instruction #10 on the recipe card for more details!
More cookie recipes
- Gingersnap Cookieswith the best blend of spices
- Magic Cookie Barswith a graham cracker crust
- Brown Sugar Cookieswith a crisp sugar coating
- Animal Circus Cookieswith cream cheese frosting
- Avalanche Cookiesno baking required!
Oatmeal Scotchies
Oatmeal Scotchies
Ingredients
- 8tablespoonsunsalted butter,melted
- 1/2cuplight brown sugarpacked
- 1/4cup dark brown sugarpacked
- 1largeegg
- 1teaspoonvanilla extract
- 1tablespoonmolassesNote 1
- 1-1/2cupsold-fashioned oats(NOT quick oats)
- 1/2teaspoon EACH:baking soda, baking powder, salt
- 1/4teaspoonground cinnamon,optional
- 1cupall-purpose white flourNote 2
- 3/4cupbutterscotch chips,divided
- 1/2cuptoffee bits,optional Note 3
Instructions
-
MELT BUTTER AND COOL: Melt the butter in a very large, microwave-safe bowl and set aside for 5-10 minutes to return to room temperature. It’s important that the butter isn’t hot when you add in the sugar or it will melt the sugar and make the cookies greasy.
-
ADD WET INGREDIENTS: Once butter is cooled back to room temperature, stir in the light brown and dark brown sugar. Whisk until well combined, about a good minute of whisking. Add in the egg, vanilla extract, and molasses, scraping every bit of molasses out of the measuring cup into the dough. Stir with a wooden spoon until smooth.
-
ADD DRY INGREDIENTS: Add in the oats, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and optional cinnamon. Mix well. Stir in the flour and mix until just combined taking care not to overmix. Gently stir in 1/2 cup (91g) butterscotch chips and toffee bits.
-
CHILL DOUGH: Cover the bowl tightly and chill for 45 minutes to 1 hour.
-
PREHEAT OVEN: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line a pan with parchment paper or use a nonstick liner.
-
ROLL DOUGH BALLS: Roll large balls of dough, a leveled 2 tablespoons in size (40g). You should get about 20-22 cookies from this recipe. Place 6-8 cookie balls on the prepared sheet pan to give the cookies plenty of room to spread. Place the tray back in the fridge for 5-10 minutes. (The dough gets warmed being handled.)
-
BAKE: Bake for 9-14 minutes, erring on the side of underbaking, which keeps them soft and chewy (We like ours right at 10 minutes). The cookies will continue to slightly bake out of the oven, so take them out as soon as the edges start to lightly brown.
-
OPTIONAL: MAKE ‘EM PRETTY: Remove tray from the oven and within 1-2 minutes of pulling out the cookies, use the remaining 1/4 cup butterscotch chips to add a few more chips onto the tops of the cookies. This ensures even placement of chocolate and also makes them look pretty. Allow cookies to cool on the baking tray for 5 minutes before transferring them to a cooling rack. Repeat, baking the remaining dough balls until all the cookies are baked (see instruction #10).
-
STORAGE: We like these cookies best on days 1 and 2 of being made. (They are softest and chewiest day 1 and get more crunchy, less chewy every day after that.) They last up to a week, but they begin to lose texture and flavor. To store: place in an airtight container and keep at room temperature. Wait until cookies are completely cool before adding to the container.
-
FREEZING DOUGH: While freezing baked cookies works okay (there is some texture loss), I prefer to freeze the dough instead. Place the cookie dough balls on a large sheet pan and freeze until solid. Once solid, transfer the frozen cookie dough balls to an airtight container/bag separated by parchment paper (so they don’t all stick together in one clump); freeze for up to 3 months. To bake: You can bake straight from the freezer; just add 1-3 minutes onto the cooking time (or thaw the dough in the fridge and bake according to directions).
Video
Recipe Notes
Note 2: If you press a measuring cup into a bag of flour and scoop, you will pack in way too much flour, resulting in the wrong texture of cookie. To accurately measure the flour, spoon the flour into the measuring cup until its overfilled. Then use the back of a table knife to level the measuring cup at the top. (Video visual here).
Note 3: We love adding milk chocolate English toffee bits to this recipe, but it’s not something you’ll find in most Oatmeal Scotchies recipes. It does add even more sweetness (subtle, but sweeter) so if you’re not a fan of sweet cookies, leave it out. No additions or changes are necessary to the cookie.
Nutrition Facts
We do our best to provide accurate nutritional analysis for our recipes. Our nutritional data is calculated using a third-party algorithm and may vary, based on individual cooking styles, measurements, and ingredient sizes. Please use this information for comparison purposes and consult a health professional for nutrition guidance as needed.
