This Oatmeal Craisin Cookie is a giant, soft, delicious cookie loaded with tons of oatmeal, dried cranberries, and rich dark chocolate chips.
This one-bowl cookie recipe is a pretty and delicious treat for the holiday season and easy to make anytime you’re craving a great oatmeal cookie.
This post was revised on 5/11/22 with updated techniques.
If you’re on team “chewy cookie,” like me, you’ll love these soft oatmeal cookies. They’re kind of Levain copycat cookies — super big and thick and impressive looking, like the cookies from the famous NYC Levain Bakery.
What really makes this recipe for cranberry oatmeal cookies extra special are the cranberries and chocolate. That flavor combo packs a bigger flavor punch than a traditional oatmeal raisin cookie, IMO.
When they’re fresh from the oven they’re super gooey. After they've completely cooled, the centers are super soft, dense, and chewy.
If you love chewy oatmeal cookies, be sure to check out my Chai Spice White Chocolate Chip Cookies and Cranberry Almond Macaroons next!
You’re going to love these
The best oatmeal craisin cookie ever — these cookies are super flavorful, BIG and thick, and soft in the middle
Make them big or small — Not in the mood for big cookies? Make them small, they’ll still be thick!
Craisins and dark chocolate are awesome together in these delicious cookies
Easy recipe -- this one-bowl oatmeal cookie recipe is very straightforward
Make your own favorite cookies -- swap out the mix-ins and turn these into oatmeal raisin cookies or cranberry white chocolate chip cookies
Ingredients
Unsalted butter. Use room temperature butter for this oatmeal craisin cookie recipe. Not melted. If the butter is melted, it can make the dough and cookies greasy.
Brown sugar. Brown sugar adds richness, flavor, moisture, and chewiness to these cookies. I always use dark brown sugar because it has a deeper molasses flavor.
White sugar. White sugar helps cookies brown and become crispy.
Eggs. Use room temperature large eggs. If you forget, just place the eggs in a bowl of warm water for about ten minutes.
Cornstarch. This one might be a surprise. Cornstarch helps keep the cookies nice and tender. It also helps keep the dough from spreading so you can make your cookies big and thick.
Oatmeal. I used Quaker Oats old fashioned rolled oats for this oatmeal craisin cookie to give it as much texture and chewiness as possible. Quick oats are okay, but your cookies won’t have that nice chewy texture.
Craisins. Craisins add sweetness, chewiness, and pretty red jewels of color throughout the cookie.
Dark chocolate chips. The slight bitterness of dark chocolate chips is delicious in a sweet cookie with cranberries and oatmeal.
400-degree oven. One of the secrets to making such a big, fat, thick oatmeal cookie that’s crispy on the outside and soft on the inside is a hot oven. I know, you’re probably used to baking all your cookies at 350. But this really works.
Substitutes
Brown sugar. If you’re fresh out of brown sugar, you can make your own by adding one tablespoon of molasses to one cup of white sugar.
Craisins. If you like a different kind of dried fruit, like raisins, dried cherries, or dried blueberries, use whatever you love. Coconut would be delicious, too!
Dark chocolate chips. You can use milk chocolate chips, bittersweet chocolate chips, semi sweet chocolate chips, white chocolate chips -- or chocolate chunks! These cookies are so big and thick, they could definitely stand up to dark or white chocolate chunks.
Nuts. Feel free to add walnuts, pecans, almonds, or any kind of nuts. Cranberry pecan oatmeal cookies sound good, don't they?
How to Make Thick Cookies
This is the best oatmeal cranberry cookie for anyone who is looking for a thick, soft cookie. I see a lot of people on social media asking how to make their cookies thicker, especially after pulling a pan of flat cookies out of the oven.
These are the tricks I swear by:
Cold dough. Chill your dough for at least one hour before baking. You can even make the dough 1 to 4 days ahead of time and keep it covered in the refrigerator until you’re ready to start baking.
When you're baking, place the dough in the refrigerator between batches to keep the dough nice and cold for each batch.
Round scoops of dough. Scooping your cookie dough into big, round balls will help keep the cookies tall and thick as they bake.
Cold baking sheets. A warm pan can cause your cookies to spread. Use a cool pan for each batch of cookies.
Room temperature butter. Melted butter can cause cookie dough to spread into flat, thin cookies. If your butter is warm or extremely soft, pop it into the refrigerator for a few minutes.
One way to check is to press your finger onto the butter. Your finger should make an indentation, but not go all the way through.
Careful mixing. Be careful not to overmix the cookie dough. Overmixing can add too much air and cause the cookies to puff up and then fall into flat cookies. Mix just until everything is fully incorporated.
The right amount of flour. Your cookies need enough all purpose flour to absorb the liquid in the dough. If there isn’t enough flour, well, you can end up with flat cookies.
Be sure to measure flour by spooning the flour into the measuring cup and leveling it off with the flat edge of a knife.
Step by step instructions
Step 1
With an electric mixer, cream butter and sugars in a large bowl. Mix in the eggs until fully incorporated, then the vanilla.
Step 2
Add dry ingredients. Sift in the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, salt, and cornstarch.
If you don’t have a large strainer or sifter, you can also whisk them together in another bowl before adding them to the wet ingredients.
Mix until just combined. Don’t overmix.
Step 3
Combine oats, craisins, and chocolate chips into the mixture until just incorporated.
Step 4
Chill the oatmeal cranberry cookie dough for at least one hour.
Step 5
Line baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats.
Preheat the oven to 400.
Step 6
With a cookie scoop, ice cream scoop, or measuring cup, portion the dough into very large balls. I made these about the size of a baseball. These are big cookies (see my hand for reference).
If you have a kitchen scale, the dough balls should be about 4.5 ounces each. Don’t flatten the dough or press them down. Keep the dough in round ball-shaped scoops.
Place 4-6 scoops on a baking sheet.
Bake at 400 for 11-14 minutes, or until the tops are golden brown.
For Smaller Cookies:
Use different sized cookie dough scoops to make smaller cookies. Reduce the cooking time to about 9-11 minutes, or until the tops are golden brown.
Step 7
Let the cookies rest for a few minutes on the warm baking sheet, then transfer them to a wire rack.
For gooey, oozy cookies, let them sit for about 15 minutes before digging in. For thick, dense cookies, let them cool all the way, or about an hour.
This recipe makes 12 gigantic oatmeal cranberry chocolate chip cookies.
How to store oatmeal cookies
Store your cranberry oatmeal cookies in an airtight container or zip-top bag for a couple of weeks. You can also store them in the freezer for up to a couple of months.
Make Ahead Instructions
The best part about this easy recipe is you can make the oatmeal chocolate chip cookie dough ahead of time bake it a couple of days later. Just keep it covered in the refrigerator for up to 4 days, then portion out the dough and bake as directed.
Or whip up a double batch -- bake one now and roll dough into balls and freeze to bake later. Just portion out the dough and freeze them on a baking sheet lined with parchment, then transfer them to a freezer bag. Store the frozen cookie dough balls in the freezer for up to 3 months.
When you're ready to bake, pop them into the preheated oven from frozen and add a few minutes to the baking time.
Expert Tips
Use room temperature butter and eggs for best results
Chill the dough and scoop it into round balls — don’t flatten the dough— before baking
Use old fashioned rolled oats to get the best texture in this oatmeal cookie recipe
How to Get Room Temperature Butter for Baking
To get your butter to the right temperature, leave it on the counter for about 30 minutes. You can also cut the butter into cubes to help it along.
Another trick to get room temperature butter quickly is to warm up a cup of water in the microwave for a couple of minutes. Place a plate with cubed butter inside the nice, warm microwave for about ten minutes and you'll end up with perfectly softened butter.
FAQs
Old fashioned rolled oats or quick cooking oats will both work just fine in oatmeal cranberry cookies.
Old fashioned oats will add more texture and chewiness to your cookie. Quick oats, because they are cut into smaller pieces, will create a smoother textured cookie — and you might not really know there’s oatmeal in there.
Yes, you can freeze baked oatmeal cookies. Just wrap each cookie individually in plastic wrap then place them in a zip-top bag. You can store them in the freezer for up to 3 months.
You bet! You can keep your cookie dough in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to four days before baking.
Yes! Just scoop out the cookie dough portions, place them on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper, and freeze them. Then, place the frozen balls in a zip-top freezer bag. Be sure to label the bag with the date and cooking instructions. Freeze the cookie dough for up to 3 months.
No. Just preheat the oven as usual and bake them for a few extra minutes.
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Big, Fat Oatmeal Craisin Cookie
Ingredients
- 1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
- 1 cup brown sugar
- ½ cup white sugar
- 2 large eggs, room temperature
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2 ½ cups flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch
- 2 cups rolled oats
- 1 cup craisins
- 1 cup dark chocolate chips
Instructions
- With a mixer, cream together the butter and sugars. Mix in the eggs until fully incorporated, then the vanilla.
- Sift in the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, salt, and cornstarch. If you don’t have a large strainer or sifter, you can also whisk them together in another bowl before adding them to the wet ingredients. Mix until just combined. Don’t overmix.
- Mix in the oatmeal, craisins, and chocolate chips until just combined.
- Chill your dough for at least one hour.
- Line baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats.
- With a cookie scoop, ice cream scoop, or measuring cup, portion dough into very large balls. About the size of a baseball, actually. If you have a kitchen scale, go with portions that are about 4.5 ounces. Don’t flatten the dough or press them down. Keep the dough in round ball-shaped scoops.
- Place 4-6 scoops on a baking sheet.
- Bake at 400 for 11-14 minutes, or until the tops are golden brown.
- For Smaller Cookies: Use different sized cookie dough scoops to make smaller cookies. Reduce the cooking time to about 9-11 minutes, or until the tops are golden brown.
- Let the cookies rest for a few minutes on the baking sheet, then transfer them to a wire rack. For gooey, oozy cookies, let them sit for about 15 minutes. For thick, dense cookies, let them cool for at least one hour.
- This recipe makes 12 gigantic oatmeal craisin cookies.
- Store your oatmeal craisin cookies in an airtight container or zip-top bag for a couple of weeks.
This recipe was a total disaster. Forming the ingredients into a baseball only allowed the exterior to burn.
I pressed them down after 10 minutes and they came out of the oven dry and hard after another 5 minutes. Threw the whole thing into the trash. I made the recipe exactly as it was written.
Oh no, I’m so sorry to hear this! I wonder if the oven was too hot? They should have been almost done at the 10-minute mark, since the baking time is only 11-14 minutes. Sounds like they overbaked after flattening and 5 more minutes of baking. Should you decide to give them another go, try lowering the oven temperature. I really hope this helps!
Delicious chewy thick cookies. I used this to make oatmeal raisin cookies and it worked well for that as well.
Thank you so much, Toni, I'm glad you enjoyed them :). Cara
Flavor is good but they seem a bit dry, like too much flour or not enough butter/oil. I followed the recipe except I added a tbsp of my favorite sweetener. Like someone else said, they were thick and raw in the center so I flattened them a little for the next batch and they were fine. I will try the recipe again but with a few tweaks.
Hi, thank you so much for trying this recipe and leaving your comments. I'm sorry they didn't turn out perfectly -- which is always my hope. I take your comments to heart and use them to make improvements. I baked these cookies again and played around with the baking temp and time and made some adjustments to the recipe. I found that a 400 degree oven and an extended baking time of 11-14 minutes still makes a really gooey cookie when it's warm and a nice, soft, tender cookie when it's cooled. I hope these changes work better for you and would love to hear what tweaks you end up trying. Thank you, again, for the note!
The taste was great! and I loved the addition of the baking powder, but on my first batch the huge cookies just stayed ball-shaped and were raw in the inside. I smooshed them down and cut them into four pieces each and cooked for an additional 4-5 minutes to make sure they weren't raw. Not sure what I did wrong. next time I'll just make regular sized cookies and i'm sure they'll be great. Thanks!
Hi, Alana! Thanks for the note. These cookies should definitely be thick (about an inch and a half or even more) and really gooey inside when they come out of the oven, but not a round ball that is still raw. I'm so sorry they didn't turn out perfectly for you.
A couple of thoughts for you:
First, if they truly didn't spread out even a little bit, which sounds like what happened, it may be that there was too much flour in them? This can easily happen if flour is scooped into the measuring cup from the bag or canister. If you didn't do this the first time around, I would suggest spooning the flour into the measuring cup, then leveling the top off with a knife.
Another thought might be that your oven wasn't preheated long enough or didn't get as hot as it said it did. If you think this could be the case, it might be worth checking your oven temperature with an oven thermometer.
And finally, when these cookies come out of the oven, they should be golden brown on top and really, really gooey in the middle -- so they can seem underdone. If you eat them while they're still warm, they will be extremely ooey and gooey. And when they rest for a full hour, they will be very soft and dense inside.
I'm hoping some of this will help your cookies turn out just the way you want them to! Please let me know how they turn out next time, if you have any other questions, or how I can assist further. Thank you again for trying this recipe and allowing me to help troubleshoot, I really appreciate it! Cara
These were soooo good. I ate them all myself…over a week. I refrigerated the batter overnight and only got ten cookies. I left them in the oven just a little too long and had to scrape the bottom…but, they were still soooo good. I only used cranberries, two big cups full. They were crunchy on the outside and moist inside. Will make them again this weekend as I try to find the right spot in my oven where they won’t burn.
Hi, Odecca, I'm so happy you enjoyed these cookies! I'm quite impressed they lasted a week -- they never last that long here, haha! I bet with all those cranberries they were bursting with tart-sweet yumminess! If you think your oven runs hot, perhaps try a little lower temperature? Also, a silicone mat or parchment paper should help with the sticking. Happy baking this weekend! Thank you so much for your note, you made my day! Cara
I made them a little smaller so I would have some to share and I used white chocolate morsels. They were a big hot! Going to make them again soon!
Hi, Yvonne, Thank you for stopping by to leave this note :). How fun that you made them smaller so you could share them. And white chocolate is always a great combo with craisins! I'm so glad they were a hit and hope you'll enjoy making them again and again.
How many cookies in a serving?
Hi, Judy, One serving is one, big, giant cookie :). You can also make them smaller if you like and reduce the baking time.
hi! how are you? can we get this recipe in grams? i'm from argentina and we don't use cups, thank you for reading and for share your recipes❤️
Hi! Thank you for your request, I'm so glad you asked. I have enabled the functionality on the recipe card that automatically converts the ingredients. Please take a look and let me know if this is helpful? If you see anything that looks off to you or doesn't make sense, please let me know. This is the first recipe I've done this way :).
Cara, this recipe is fantastic. Will share for others to enjoy a taste of your tantalizing recipes, culinary expertise and tips that make life in the kitchen easier, along with inviting photos and your gifted writing style that informs with a personal touch of home, humor, heart and mind. Love watching your journey blossom and shine. Cheers, Miss Vickie🎶
Thank you, Miss Vickie, I hope you will have fun making and sharing these cookies. Your generous words and support mean the world to me. Thank you, thank you, thank you! Love, Cara