These brown butter oatmeal cookies are perfectly chewy with slightly crisp edges. The vanilla, cinnamon, and nutmeg in the dough create a heavenly cozy cookie perfect for fall and winter.
These also might be the most stable cookies I've ever made. I baked them room temperature, chilled overnight, flattened before baking, and rolled into a ball-- they are exactly the same every time! I love these cookies and I know you will too. If you give them a try, leave a comment below letting me know what you thought!
Brown butter oatmeal cookies are 100% a true fall or winter cookie. These would be perfect for Thanksgiving, Christmas, or even just a random chilly day that could use some delicious cozy yumminess.
I highly recommend trying my brown butter coconut pecan cookies next! I also have a yummy sourdough discard glazed oatmeal cookie recipe that is a crowd favorite here. If you want to glaze these, I recommend using the cinnamon glaze from that recipe.
Of course, I can't mention those cookies without including my sourdough malted chai chocolate chip cookies! Those just scream fall.
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Ingredients
What I love about this recipe is that the cookies taste like they are made with complex ingredients (thank you, brown butter!), but they use only a handful of kitchen staples.
- Unsalted butter - salted is fine too.
- Brown sugar - I used dark brown sugar.
- Cane sugar
- Vanilla extract
- Eggs
- All-purpose flour
- Baking soda
- Salt
- Old fashioned oats (quick oats work too)
- Cinnamon
- Nutmeg
See recipe card for quantities.
Instructions
Step 1: Brown the butter. You will start out with 170g of butter and by the end of the browning process you should have 140g.
Allow the butter to cool before mixing it with the brown sugar, cane sugar, vanilla, egg and egg yolk.
Step 2: Mix in the dry ingredients until fully combined.
Step 3: Stir in the old fashioned oats.
Chill for 30 mins to an hour before baking at 350F for best results. (I've skipped chilling and they baked fine, however, chilling or resting the dough creates a deeper flavor with an even better texture in the end).
Step 4: Bake for 11-12 mins then enjoy after cooling.
Hint: Take them out of the oven when the edges are slightly browning and the center is matte and domed (it shouldn't look shiny or raw on the outside). They will collapse a bit while cooling. Taking them out before they overbake is essential to making a perfectly chewy cookie!
Substitutions
If some of these ingredients don't work for you, that's okay! Here are some of my tried and true baking substitutions:
- Butter: Use a non-dairy butter like Country Crock's plant butter. A neutral oil (like coconut oil) would work well here too!
- Note: this butter is salted, so you might want to use a little less salt in the rest of the dough. I normally don't find the need to adjust it when using salted butter, but if you are sensitive to salt, you might want to cut the additional salt in half to start.
Variations
- Chocolate dough - Add ¼ of a cup of unsweetened cocoa powder to the recipe with the dry ingredients. (add 1-2 tablespoons of milk if batter is too dry).
- Chocolate chips - add 1 ½ cups of chocolate chips or chopped chocolate.
Equipment
- Kitchen scale
- Stand mixer
- Baking sheets
- Parchment paper
- Two-tablespoon cookie scoop
- Butter warmer saucepan
Storage
Store at room temp for 3-5 days. Freeze for up to 6 months.
Top tip
Weigh your ingredients! I can't recommend this enough. Kitchen scales are easy to find, affordable, and beneficial to your baking journey. It is the best way to make sure your recipes turn out as accurate as possible. See my "equipment" section above for links to scales I recommend.
FAQ
Yes! See my "substitutions" section for my favorite dairy-free baking ingredients. Nondairy butter might not brown the same as dairy butter. If that is the case, just use 140g of melted butter in its place.
Related
Looking for other cookie recipes? Try these:
Brown Butter Oatmeal Cookies
Equipment
- Kitchen Scale
- Stand Mixer
- Baking sheets
- Parchment Paper
- Two-tablespoon cookie scoop
- Butter warmer saucepan
Ingredients
- ¾ cup unsalted butter 170g
- 1 cup brown sugar packed (200 g)
- ¼ cup granulated sugar 50 g
- 1 egg + 1 egg yolk room temp preferred
- 3 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 ¾ cup + 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour 220 g
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon nutmeg
- ¾ teaspoon baking soda
- ¾ teaspoon salt
- 1 ¼ cups rolled oats 100g
Instructions
- Brown the butter. Start by putting your butter in a small saucepan and melt it on medium heat, stirring or whisking constantly to prevent burning. You will know when it is done browning when it starts to smell nutty and the bubbling butter develops a film on top. You will start with 170g of butter and by the end of the browning process you should have 140g. If you have less than 140g at the end, add milk to the butter until you reach 140g.
- Allow the butter to cool before mixing it with the brown sugar, cane sugar, vanilla, egg, and egg yolk.
- Mix the dry ingredients separately and mix into the liquids until fully combined.
- Stir in the rolled oats.
- Chill for 30 mins to an hour before baking at 350F for best results.*
- Bake for 11-12 mins**. Allow them to cool on the pan for 5 mins before moving them to a cooling rack.
RoganSurprise says
It could be baker error but ive attempted the recipe twice and come out with crumbly dough thays difficult to work with and doesnt bake seamlessly. Could I use more butter? Or is it better to let the dough rest at room temperature instead of chilling?
Audrey says
Hi there! I'd love to help here becasue these are delicious and I want you to enjoy them. When you say crumbly, is it dry? Are you weighing your ingredients with a kitchen scale?