Yield: 8 brown butter oatmeal chocolate chip cookies // Total Time: 40 min. // Disclaimer: This post includes affiliate links. // Recipe updated 4/14/23

Brown butter oatmeal chocolate chip cookies

I don’t know about you but oatmeal chocolate chip cookies are my FAVORITE flavor of cookie. Regular chocolate chip cookies are great and all but the texture of an oatmeal cookie is truly undefeated for me. But we’re taking these cookies to the next level by adding in some delicious brown butter. If you haven’t heard of brown butter, it’s basically made from melting your butter on the stove for longer than you need to. Doing so allows some of the water to evaporate from the butter, which allows the milk solids in the butter to be toasted. So you get this nutty, toasty flavor just from regular old butter! They’re thick and chewy with crisp edges, filled with delicious brown butter flavor, and jam-packed with chocolate.

Recipe tips and tricks

Weigh your ingredients

• Weighing your ingredients is important for getting the recipe perfect and getting consistent results. Not weighing your ingredients can lead to adding too much or too little of an ingredient which can give you some undesirable results. This kitchen scale is super cheap and worked well for me when I was starting out! If you don’t have access to a scale, here is the best way to measure flour: fluff up the flour with a fork, then use a spoon to scoop it into your measuring cup. Use a knife to level off the top of the cup, then use as directed.

Weigh the brown butter

• Going off of the above, being able to weigh the brown butter is a great way to prevent errors in the recipe. It’s possible to take the brown butter too far and lose too much moisture, which will make the cookies dry and crumbly. You should have at least 90g of butter after browning. If you have less, add water to the butter to bring it back up to 90g. Also, please do not skip freezing the brown butter for 5 minutes!

Mix the dough carefully

• When adding in the flour, only fold the mixture just until no flour streaks remain. Overmixing the dough leads to more gluten formation, which can make the cookies super tough and chewy.

Under bake your cookies

• Cookies continue baking after they have been taken out of the oven. The cookies may look a little underdone at 10 minutes, but it’s important to take them out to keep them nice and soft. Let the cookies rest on the baking sheet for an additional 5 minutes before transferring them to a wire rack to cool (or just eat them right there!)

Cookie scooting

• Wanna know the secret to perfectly round cookies? It’s cookie scooting! Right when the cookies come out of the oven, take a bowl, cup, or biscuit cutter that is just slightly larger than your cookies and place it over one of the cookies. Gently swirl the bowl around the cookie to make the cookie perfectly round (and slightly thicker). And that’s all there is to it!

How to make brown butter

• Brown butter may sound a little intimidating, but really it’s just melting the butter for longer than you need to. Add the butter to a saucepan and place it over medium heat. Occasionally swirl the butter while it is melting. Continue cooking and occasionally swirling the butter until it begins to bubble up and turn amber in color. Once the butter turns amber and you can see little brown bits in it, remove it from the heat, and now you have brown butter!

Ingredients for oatmeal chocolate chip cookies

All purpose flour: for structure and chewiness.

Rolled oats: I recommend rolled oats for the best texture.

Baking powder: for helping the cookies puff up.

Baking soda: for helping the cookies rise and giving them crisp edges.

Salt: to help balance and bring out the sweetness of the cookies

Unsalted butter: for tenderness and flavor. You can use salted butter in place of the unsalted, just be sure to omit the extra salt from the cookies.

Granulated sugar & light brown sugar: a combination of both gives us cookies with crispy edges and soft and chewy centers.

Egg: for binding and for moisture.

Vanilla: for flavor. I use and love this vanilla extract!

Chocolate: put your favorite chocolate here. I used Valrhona baking discs (these ones here) and can’t recommend them enough. Just look at those puddles! But they are definitely on the pricier side. If not using the discs, I recommend using a chocolate baking bar. You can also of course use chocolate chips here, just note that the cookies will most likely end up a little thicker. In terms of using milk, semi-sweet, or dark chocolate, use your favorite!

How to make oatmeal chocolate chip cookies

Here’s the basic rundown on making these cookies. You can find the complete recipe (which is printable!) at the end of this blog post.

1. Brown the butter. This is going to add some complex, toasty and delicious flavor to the base of the cookies. Make sure to place the brown butter in the freezer for 5 minutes to let it cool down a tad. In the meantime, you can chop up your chocolate.

2. Whisk in the wet ingredients. Once the butter has cooled a little, whisk in both sugars, followed by the egg and vanilla.

3. Fold in the dry ingredients. Add in your flour, oats, baking powder, baking soda and salt, and fold until a few flour streaks remain. Then add in your chopped chocolate and fold just until no flour streaks remain.

4. Bake. Evenly space out heaping 3 tbsp. scoops of the cookie dough on a cookie sheet and top with additional chocolate if desired. Bake until the edges are golden brown and the middles have almost completely set.

5. A tip on getting perfectly circular cookies. Once the cookies come out of the oven, I recommend “scooting” them. This just means take a bowl, cup, or biscuit cutter that is slightly larger than the cookie, place it on top of the cookie, and swirl the bowl around to make the cookie perfectly circular. It’s not needed at all but it will help you get that perfectly round cookie look! Also, leave the cookies to cool on the hot baking sheet for 5 minutes to help them set up. Enjoy!

Small batch oatmeal chocolate chip cookies Q & A

Can I make the cookie dough ahead of time?

Yep! You can keep the cookie dough tightly covered in the fridge for 2 days before baking. Just be sure to take the dough out of the fridge at least 30 minutes to 1 hour before you want to bake so that it becomes soft enough to scoop again. For longer-term storage, you can also freeze the cookie dough (I recommend freezing them already scooped).

A note on oven temperature

Ovens vary and fluctuate in temperature. For example, I always have to set my oven to 330°F if I want it to bake at 350°F. If you love to bake like I do, I highly recommend getting an oven thermometer. They are super helpful for letting you know when your oven might be lying to you! I use this one.

Tools and ingredients

You can find all my favorite tools and ingredients that I use on my Amazon Storefront page, here!