Move over puffy and thick oatmeal cookies, these thin and chewy oatmeal cookies are ready to take center stage. Perfectly spiced with cinnamon and cloves, and a slightly crisp edge will satisfy your next cookie craving.
COOKIE INGREDIENTS
Let’s bake some cookies! Here’s what you’ll need for this recipe.
- Butter, browned. We’ll talk about browning butter shortly.
- Vegetable oil. This is crucial for keeping these cookies soft and not crisping up.
- All purpose flour.
- Quick oats. You’ll pulse these in a blender or food processor to create a finer oatmeal powder.
- Vanilla extract.
- An egg.
- Baking soda.
- Dark brown sugar. I aways use dark brown sugar instead light brown sugar because I love the deep color it gives to baked treats.
- Salt.
- Molasses. This helps with texture and color.
- Cinnamon and cloves.
THE SECRETS TO CHEWY OATMEAL COOKIES
These perfect thin oatmeal cookies don’t happen by accident, these are the result of more than 6 tests to get the most epic thin and chewy oatmeal cookie. Here are by most important tips.
Pulse the quick oats. Typical oatmeal cookies mix the oats directly into the cookie dough. This is all fine and acceptable for a tradition oatmeal cookie, but definitely not when we’re trying to make a thin and chewy cookie. So add the quick oats to a a food processor or blending device and pulse them until you create almost an oatmeal powder with small oat pieces.
Vegetable oil. You’ll notice these cookies contain both butter and oil. Both are necessary and can’t be substituted for each other. The oil is going to prevent these cookies for hardening and crisping up after they are baked.
Don’t overbake. The quickest way to a sad crispy cookie is overbaking it. These cookies bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes, no more! If they are a little soft coming out of the oven that’s fine. Remove them from the baking sheet to a plate and that residual heat will allow them to solidify a bit more.
BROWN BUTTER IN COOKIES
These cookies don’t use softened butter, they don’t use melted butter…they use browned butter. Brown butter is perfect in cookies because it ads depth of color and flavor that’s just essential in certain types of cookies.
If you’ve never made brown butter before I have an easy step by step guide that will help you make the perfect brown butter every time!
First. Add the butter to a pot and melt over low heat. After the butter has fully melted, adjust the heat up to medium/medium high to get the butter simmering. The butter will go from melted, to lightly bubbly, then rapidly bubbling and finally a bit foamy. As you’re constantly whisking you’ll be able to see the browning begin to happen at the bottom of the pot.
Next. You’ll hear the rapid bubbling simmer but as the milk particles separate and you get the more foamy appearance it actually gets a bit quite. Stir constantly so that the milk particles don’t burn to the bottom of the pot.
Last. After 4-5 minutes the butter will be browned. Once this stage is reached you’ll want to immediately pour it into a heat proof bowl so the cooking process stops. Brown butter can go to burned butter pretty quickly, so you want to watch it closely and move quickly!
Ready for more cookie baking? Here are some more of my favorite cookie recipes on the blog.
Brown Butter Oatmeal Cookies
Hot Cocoa Cookies
Cheesecake Cookies
Chocolate Espresso Snickerdoodles
Pumpkin Sugar Cookies
Or you can browse through my full cookie collection!
PrintThin and Chewy Oatmeal Cookies
Thin and chewy oatmeal cookies spiced with cinnamon and cloves and the perfect amount of sweet.
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 10 minutes
- Total Time: 25 minutes
- Yield: 15 – 17 cookies
- Category: Baking
- Method: Bake
Ingredients
5 tablespoons salted butter, browned
6 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup quick oats
1 cup dark brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons molasses
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon cloves
Instructions
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. Start by making the brown butter. Place a medium-sized pot over medium heat, then add the butter. After the butter is melted adjust the heat higher to medium-high. Allow the butter to come to a rapid bubbly simmer. While adjusting the heat between medium and medium-high, continually stir the butter until the milk particles have browned and the liquid is a rich caramel or amber color. I’ve found that once the butter is melted this process takes 4-5 minutes. Once fully browned, immediately turn off heat and pour into a heat proof bowl.
3. Add the quick oats to a food processor or blender and pulse a few times to until a fine oat powder is formed. It doesn’t need to be completely smooth and little pieces of visible oat pieces are ok. See photo in post. Pour into a large bowl and mix in the flour, salt, baking soda, cinnamon, and cloves.
4. To the browned butter whisk in the dark brown sugar, molasses, vegetable oil, vanilla, and the egg.
5. Add the dry ingredients into the wet and stir to fully combine.
6. Form the cookie dough balls and place on the baking sheet. Bake for 10 minutes then remove cookies to a plate to cool