Oatmeal cookies are getting a major upgrade! Brown butter, brown sugar, and molasses combine to make a warm, chewy, and irresistible brown butter oatmeal cookie.
These definitely aren’t your average oatmeal cookie. Honestly, oatmeal cookies really weren’t my favorite growing up. I’d reach for a chocolate chip cookie or a gingerbread before even thinking of touch an oatmeal cookie. But, once I discovered that brown butter can make just about anything better I knew I had to create a recipe for an oatmeal cookie.
The result was just as I’d hoped, an oatmeal cookie that can stand up next to the coveted chocolate chip cookies!
Trust me, the chewiness, softness, warm and rich flavor from the brown butter and molasses in these cookies will make you choose these over the favorite chocolate cookies of the season. The molasses in here to help create and even richer flavor, totally unlike the oatmeal cookie you’re used too!
How to make brown butter
Using brown butter in a recipe is a great way to instantly elevate it and add a robust rich flavor!
It’s very easy to make, the only thing is you need to keep a close eye on it towards the end! You want browned butter, but burned butter.
- Place your stick of butter in a sauce pan or pot and melt it over medium low heat.
- Once the butter is melted, turn the heat up until the butter simmers and cook 4-5 minutes.
- Whisk constantly and keep an eye on this because butter can burn fast. You don’t want a roaring boil, you want a light bubbly simmer. What you’re doing is browning the milk proteins in the butter. You’ll notice it will get a rich nutty smell and the color will start to turn a caramel brown. I’ve found 4 minutes has worked well for me.
- Once browned, pour butter into a heat safe bowl and let it cool slightly. If you’re adding to a mixture with raw egg, or adding the egg to the butter you want to make sure the butter has cooled or you’ll start to scramble the egg! And no one wants cookies with scrambled eggs.
These cookies have the right amount of sugar without being overly sweet. I tested these two ways regarding the sugar. The first way I included 1/4 cup of white sugar in addition to the 1 cup of dark brown sugar.
And when I tested them a second time, I removed the white sugar. Which way won????
The dark brown sugar version!
Since these have the addition of molasses, in the first test while I liked the cookies a lot I found that they might be a bit too sweet. With only brown sugar, they came out perfect.
So why didn’t I reduce the brown sugar and keep the white sugar levels as they were? Well the answer is that the brown sugar is actually doing more than just sweetening the cookies.
Brown sugar helps keep cookies moist and chewy, which is exactly what I wanted here. Less added white sugar means a soft and chewy brown sugar oatmeal cookie that’s not overwhelmingly sweet.
Add these to your Christmas cookie baking list this year! Brown Butter Chewy Oatmeal Cookies will become a family favorite. You might also want to checkout these cookies for Christmas baking:
Almond Sugar Cookie Squares
Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
Soft and Chewy Molasses Cookies
And, if you like cooking tips, food pics, and recipes following me on Instagram at ASeasonedGreeting!
Brown Butter Chewy Oatmeal Cookies
Brown Butter Chewy Oatmeal Cookies are extra soft and chewy from brown sugar and molasses. Warm and robust flavors from the brown butter, this oatmeal cookie will become a family favorite every Holiday season!
- Prep Time: 40 minutes
- Cook Time: 9 minutes
- Total Time: 49 minutes
- Yield: 24 cookies 1x
- Category: Baking
- Method: Bake
- Cuisine: American
Ingredients
1 stick salted butter
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup dark brown sugar, packed
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 and 1/2 cups quick oats
1 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 and 1/2 tablespoons molasses
Instructions
1. To make the browned butter, place the butter in a sauce pan or pot and melt. Once the butter is melted, turn the heat up until the butter simmers and cook 4-5 minutes. Whisk constantly and keep an eye on this because butter can burn fast. You don’t want a roaring boil, you want a light bubbly simmer. What you’re doing is browning the milk proteins in the butter. You’ll notice it will get a rich nutty smell and the color will start to turn a caramel brown. I’ve found 4 minutes has worked well for me. Once browned, pour butter into a heat safe bowl and let it cool slightly.
2. To the bowl of brown butter, add the dark brown sugar, vanilla, molasses, vegetable oil, and the egg. You want to make sure the mixture is not hot before adding the egg since adding an egg to mixture that is too hot will scramble your egg!
3. In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour, salt, baking soda, and quick oats. Stir so everything has blending together. Pour the butter mixture into this flour mixture and stir so everything has combined and there’s no dry ingredients left in the bowl. Place bowl in the fridge for 30 minutes.
4. Once the 30 minutes is nearly up, preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Drop the cookie batter onto the baking sheet in sizes about the size of a golf ball. Bake for 9 minutes, then remove onto a cooling rack or plate to cool.
Notes
I found 9 minutes is the perfect baking time for these. Any longer and they will come out crunchy!
Keywords: brown butter oatmeal cookies
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