Looking for the best iced oatmeal cookie recipe? We tested 9 popular iced oatmeal cookie recipes in search of the best!
Methodology
- 35 total tasters tasted samples of all 9 cookies
- Each taster ranked each cookie on a scale from 0-10 for flavor, texture and overall as a whole (data is shown under the Results section below)
- All recipes were baked within 24 hours of the bake off for freshness
- Ingredients were measured by weight according to King Arthur (unless the recipe specified weights)
Ingredients
- Gold Medal bleached all-purpose flour
- Cup4Cup gluten-free flour
- Quaker old-fashioned oats
- Trader Joe’s unsalted butter
- Trader Joe’s vegan butter
- Sun-Maid raisins
- Wholesome organic molasses
- Nielsen-Massey vanilla extract
- Diamond Crystal kosher salt
- Imperial granulated, brown and powdered sugar
Results: The best iced oatmeal cookie recipe
After analyzing the data from all 35 tasters, results of the crowd rankings are below.
Our sole genre-defying cookie, Broma Bakery, took top honors! With brown butter, no spices and a low ratio of oats, Broma felt more like a delicious iced sugar cookie. But it was undeniably delicious–and closely followed by the more classic iced oatmeal cookie by Tara Teaspoon.
As usual, it was hard for me to pick a favorite (my four favorites are listed under Recommendations at the bottom of this post), but Broma Bakery was definitely one of them. There were several different flavor profiles among these recipes–picking the “best” really depends on whether you’re looking for a thick or thin, chewy or crisp, heavily spiced or not.
As always, I recommend reading through the entire blog post to decide which sounds best to you. I truly believe most of these recipes are delicious and would be someone’s ideal pick!
Factors for the best iced oatmeal cookies
Oats: to pulverize or not?
The grand majority of recipes I looked at called for pulsing rolled oats in a food processor to break them down slightly (so as not to get the full bumpy oat texture of a classic oatmeal cookie). Only two recipes called for whole oats: Broma Bakery and Kale Junkie. Broma had so few oats in her recipe that I don’t think it significantly affected the texture. Meanwhile, I do think Kale Junkie’s very spread-y recipe could have been enhanced by pulsing the oats to help thicken the texture.
The majority of recipes had a higher ratio of pulsed oats to flour, which I think generally provides a nice lightly bumpy texture with just enough flour to provide structure. For a classic iced oatmeal look, I think you should definitely pulse the oats. Save the rolled oats for a plain oatmeal cookie (or a non-traditional cookie like Broma).
Brown butter can be masked by spices
In the case of our top cookie, Broma Bakery, the brown butter does a lot for the flavor. Sarah was actually at the bake off and gave a little insight into the development of these cookies–she actually doesn’t prefer spices in an oatmeal cookie and feels the toasty flavor of brown butter works as a proxy for spices. And with no spices to muddy the flavor, the brown butter really shines, leading many tasters to rate this their #1 cookie.
Meanwhile, our other brown butter cookie (Meaningful Eats) landed in the middle of the pack. I do think the molasses and additional spices kind of overpowered the brown butter flavor here. So while brown butter can be an incredible flavor tool, just note that other competing flavors can overpower the delicate toasty notes.
Molasses
Even one tablespoon of molasses will really change the flavor profile of an oatmeal cookie. To me, molasses and spices go hand-in-hand for a more gingerbread-y flavor profile that feels more spiced than it actually is. I personally preferred the cookies that contained spices but no molasses. However, if you like a more gingerbread-y, spice cookie vibe, definitely look for a cookie that has molasses in it!
Raisins
Upon biting into Tara Teaspoon’s cookie (the only cookie with raisins), I immediately felt like it was a quintessential iced oatmeal cookie. And I think the raisins had a big role to play here. Tara noticed that the packaged oatmeal cookies included raisins as an ingredient and she pulverizes the raisins with the oats to add flavor and chewiness without interrupting the texture as a whole. I’m not a huge raisin person and I still really enjoyed the flavor!
I think this is a genius idea and a technique that could be applied to any recipe if you want extra moisture, chewiness and molasses flavor.
Eggs vs. egg yolks
Typically, using egg yolks vs. whole eggs in a recipe leads to a fudgier texture thanks to the extra richness from the yolks (without adding the extra water from the whites). In this bake off, I actually didn’t really notice a fudginess correlation with the recipes that used egg yolks. Instead, the main correlation seemed to be the amount of spread (more with whole eggs, less with added egg yolks).
This wasn’t universally true–Kale Junkie spread quite a bit with a whole egg + yolk. But looking at Sally’s vs. Sugar Spun Run (two recipes that have identical amount of butter, sugar, oats and flour), the difference of whole eggs vs. egg yolks made a huge difference in spread. Sally’s, with whole eggs, spread quite a bit and were moist and chewy compared to Sugar Spun Run’s more compact and crisp cookies.
My takeaway: while I sometimes feel that recipes with added egg yolks lead to a superior texture, I don’t think that’s true in this case–it simply predicts more or less spread. (Though of course the spread really depends on the ratios of all ingredients!)
Analysis
Kale Junkie: thin, chewy cookies with heavy gingerbread vibes
These optionally vegan and gluten-free cookies were one of three recipes that used molasses (and one of three that used additional egg yolks). Though I considered trying them with conventional butter, in the end I went mostly full send with vegan butter, brown sugar, and a Cup4Cup gluten-free flour blend. I was curious to try this one as it uses a higher ratio of oats than flour (2:1) and it uses whole oats rather than the more typical move of pulverizing the oats.
Although the yield says 16, the recipe states to divide the cookies into 12, which is a bit confusing. I divided the dough into closer to 16 balls, but found the dough quite soft (no need to flatten them prior to baking to keep them flat). Ultimately, they spread out into very soft, flat and chewy cookies that were lacking a bit in structural integrity.
These had a really nice chew with a flavor that reminded me of gingerbread or a ginger molasses cookie. Despite having a 2:1 ratio of oats to flour, these don’t feel very heavy on the oats and the glaze blends nicely into the crevices–it’s not super thick or obtrusive. While I prefer a thicker cookie, if you love a more molasses-forward flavor and thin, chewy cookie, these are perfect.
Taster comments:
- Great texture and the sweetness of the glaze is well balanced. Flavor is on the mild side.
- Thin and chewy. I liked that!
- I like the strong cinnamon flavor and dark color and chewiness. I wish it had more of a bite or snap.
- Nice and thin, is there apple or some sort of fruit taste? Kind of tastes apple-piey
- While this one doesn’t have that overwhelmingly oat-y taste of #5, it does generally have a stronger wholesome flavor profile. If not for the icing, I’d think I might be having a healthy cookie, if that’s even a thing. Of the thin and chewy options though, it’s on the drier side and ends a bit mealy, an odd combo in one cookie, to be honest.
- Didn’t like the texture or flavor. Molasses flavor heavy and a bit stale texture
- Really thin, too thin for an oatmeal cookie. Flavor isn’t bad though
Smitten Kitchen: Heavily spiced, thin and chewy oatmeal cookies with a cinnamon-y glaze
Deb’s cookies are adapted from the whole grain baking book, Good to the Grain. To make them more accessible to the average baker, she uses all-purpose flour in place of most of the whole grains (plus 1/2 cup of whole wheat flour). The oats are pulsed, the dough uses a mix of dark and granulated sugar, and there’s a full teaspoon of both cinnamon and nutmeg (but no molasses!).
I actually made these cookies twice as I accidentally scooped them with a #20 scoop (3 tbsp) rather than #40 scoop (#2 tbsp), which made them far too big and floppy. An important note that the size of the cookie ball really does matter! The recipe suggests using buttered cookie sheets to help with spread, but I found that mine spread on parchment without needing encouragement.
Like Kale Junkie, this texture was a little thinner and chewier than I prefer. The icing was by far the most heavily spiced with a full tablespoon of cinnamon, and this was the primary flavor I tasted initially. It was actually a bit difficult to get the flavor of the cookie from underneath the icing. But it’s a perfect cookie if you’re looking for thin, delicate-y chewy and cinnamon-heavy!
Taster comments:
- This cookie is so well balanced with the flavor and icing. It also is a nice mix of chewy and firm
- Firmer texture, almost reminds me of a ginger snap cookie
- A little on the thin side, too much spiced/nutmeg flavor — couldn’t tell if it came from icing or within cookie
- Love the spices in this one. Has a lot of depth of flavor. Texture has a nice bite. Cookie was a little dry though.
- Nice flavor with a bit of spice. Very pleasant overall but a little too thin and fall-apart for what I envision it should be.
Sugar Spun Run: Slightly sandy oat-y biscuits with good flavor
This was an egg yolk-only recipe with a 1:1 ratio of flour to (pulverized) rolled oats. The recipe is very similar to Sally’s Baking Addiction except that it uses 2 egg yolks instead of 2 whole eggs, melted butter instead of creamed butter, no molasses, and fewer spices. These use a mix of dark and granulated sugar, both baking powder and soda, and just a 1/2 tsp cinnamon.
After the snafu with Smitten Kitchen, I triple checked the dough ball size of these cookies since they seemed quite small–but apparently that’s correct! This dough was on the drier side, so it really is important to flatten the dough balls prior to baking.
These baked up into thick, buttery oat biscuits. While some found these too dry, these were actually one of my favorites from a flavor perspective (possibly due to a generous 1 tsp of salt). The icing, which has a bit of vanilla and corn syrup for shine, is vanilla-forward and crusts over nicely (which Sam attributes to the corn syrup) for a bit of crunch. I liked the thick and chewy texture–though it is technically drier than the rest of the cookies in the bake off, it didn’t actually read as DRY to me. This is a great pick if you like a thicker texture and want a LOT of oats.
Taster comments:
- I really like the flavor of this cookie. And the texture has a nice chew but is still firm, so that’s also nice.
- I liked how i could taste the different spices that went into it, sweet enough and the texture is just what I like in a cookie
- Great heft and mouthiness of a chunky oatmeal cookie; good balance of oatiness to butter.
- I like that this actually contains a lot of oats. This one is also like a shortbread. A little too crumbly for me though. I love the salty and maple? flavor.
- I think the amount of oats is too high compared to dough, which leads it to feeling kind of dry. Also, it didn’t spread nicely because of the oat content
- Probably the most obviously oat-y, this is somewhat the version of oatmeal cookies that I personally dislike. A lot of prominent bits of oats in a denser cookie with some crumble to it rather than chew. It’s a good crumble though, not dry.
- Not at all chewy enough, didn’t even give oatmeal cookie to me. Dry, crumbly, salty.
Meaningful Eats: Moist, thick oatmeal cookies with a deeply toasty flavor
These were our second gluten-free cookies of the bunch and one of two brown butter cookie recipes. This one differed from the other brown butter cookie (Broma Bakery) with its whole eggs, molasses, cinnamon, nutmeg, and higher amount of sugar. It’s a fairly easy recipe once you brown the butter, though it does require a chill time of at least 2 hours to up to 3 days.
I’m surprised these only landed in 6th place because anecdotally, many people seemed to love them! These baked up beautifully with just the right amount of spread in my opinion. They’re large but not too thin with a nice chewy bite. The glaze was QUITE thick, which did make it trickier to dip and made for a thicker layer of the very sweet glaze on top. Though the thick glaze looks gorgeous, I’d prefer a thinner glaze that’s not so sugary. I loved the fudgy, chewy texure and darker, spiced flavor. I do think that the brown sugar and spices almost overpowers the brown butter, but overall this was one of my favorites.
Taster comments:
- Addicting rich toffee-like flavor and the texture is a perfect balance of oats and flour so that it’s a chewy oat cookie but lot too gritty.
- Amazing chewy, doughy texture, super super buttery. Only problem is it disintegrates
- There was a toasted flavor to this one that I liked! It was a little dry though, but sweetness was perfect
- A bit too caramelized for me. The flavors of butter, oats and spices got lost. Nice icing amount and good, moist texture.
- Interestingly, I don’t feel like having more oats inherently makes a cookie taste more oat-y; some of the other samples felt more texturally laden with oats but lacked the oat forwardness this one has in its flavor profile. It has that very hearty whole grain flavor that borders on the edge of floury, but only in taste. The actual texture is more soft and moist.
- Overall liked it but I liked the others that were a bit heavier on spices better
- It has a nice texture and chew but the icing is overbearing and drowns out the cookie’s flavor
A Cozy Kitchen/Shauna Sever: Slice and bake spiced cookies with a crisp-edged but soft-centered texture
This recipe is made entirely in a food processor (which you need for most recipes anyway to grind the oats down) which is both incredibly convenient but also inconvenient if you don’t own one/hate to clean yours. After chilling the dough for 3 hours, you’ll slice the logs into neat circles (okay, mine were a little crumbly and had to be squished back into shape) and that’s it! These are a great make-ahead option.
Texturally, these are almost a little sandy around the edges while retaining a moist and chewy center. They bear a slight resemblance in flavor and grainy texture to Sugar Spun Run but a little thinner, more moist and spiced with a lightly chewy center. I liked the salt and brown sugar levels–it felt classically spiced but not leaning as far towards gingerbread as Kale Junkie.
The glaze is made with an egg white instead of milk which I didn’t find wholly necessary. Similarly to Meaningful Eats, the glaze felt quite thick and sweet–I was glad it didn’t have more coverage on the cookie. These were another one of my favorites. While not a straightforwardly chewy or crisp cookie, I liked the mix of melt-in-your-mouth sandiness/slightly chewy centers and the balance of sweetness to spice!
Taster comments:
- Nice and buttery with good oat feel; just the right balance of hard and soft-baked
- This ones is one of the prettier looking cookies. Nice molasses flavor from the brown sugar, melt in mouth initially but chewy at the end.
- Super soft shortbread texture. I love the strong molasses flavor balanced out by the salt. This would be great for people who love shortbread but I’m more of a chewy cookie gal.
- Not too sweet but had a good medium thickness. Not as chewy as a traditional oatmeal but more true to an iced cookie.
- Good buttery flavor. Would be better if chewier
- Looked fantastic! Looked like the real packaged iced oatmeal cookies. However the texture was a bit dry. And it wasn’t in my top choices for eating.
- This one seemed closest to store bought. A little grainy
Sally’s Baking Addiction: Soft, spiced, underbaked molasses-heavy cookies
Sally’s recipe uses creamed butter, whole eggs, molasses, cinnamon and nutmeg. With a 1:1 ratio of pulsed oats to flour, these felt like a classic iced oatmeal cookie. Sally notes that the center will look very soft after baking these for 11-12 min.
As promised, the gooey, underdone-looking center cools into chewy middles with a soft, melt-in-your-mouth texture. These do have a generous spread and a bit of crisp around the edges (but feel like more of a soft/chewy cookie than a crisp one). Flavor-wise, they felt similar to Kale Junkie thanks to the molasses but with a slightly thicker, sturdier bite and less of a spice presence.
I loved the soft-baked texture and sweetness, but the flavor felt a little one-note compared to some other cookies. A few tasters noted the nutmeg felt like the prevailing flavor. These held up well over several days and I think (if wrapped well) would be a great option if you’re looking to ship cookies!
Taster comments:
- Perfect chewy texture, well balanced flavor that wasn’t too sugary or overpowering
- This felt heavy on the molasses and spice, almost like a soft gingerbread cookie with oats in it. There’s a moist and melting quality to the cookie that I really like.
- Awesome texture, so soft melt in mouth. Shape and icing looked perfect!!!
- Nutmeg hits hard; my preference is for a less spiced oatmeal cookie and a classic oats flavor; great texture though, soft baked and can still feel oats
- Potentially my favorite. Great buttery flavor, nice size, varied oatmealy texture
- This one feels almost underbaked, the texture is on the chewier side, but that could be due to bake time
- This is just like a Little Debbie’s oatmeal creme pie. Extremely soft and moist and sweet. But the flavor is a little one note.
- Too much clove or allspice. The spice hit first and I got nothing else. Not balanced.
Tutti Dolci: thin, crisp yet chewy cookies with a light glaze that almost melts in your mouth
If Sally’s Baking Addiction is our classic iced oatmeal cookie recipe, Tutti Dolci is the no-molasses sibling. With nearly the same ratio of dark to white sugar, butter and whole eggs, this recipe differs in just a few ways. No molasses, slightly less spices, and a 2:1 ratio of pulsed oats to flour (unlike Sally’s 1:1 ratio).
With a higher oat to flour ratio, these cookies had a more thin and even spread than Sally’s. The relatively thin glaze adds to the crisp bite of the exterior, but the center is still pleasantly chewy. I liked the lightly spiced flavor profile and delicately chewy, very even texture. The cookie itself felt similar to Smitten Kitchen, but the simple powdered sugar glaze (no cinnamon) gives it an edge on the classic-looking front. This might have felt like the most classic iced oatmeal cookie to me if it weren’t for Tara Teaspoon.
Taster comments:
- Great flavor!! Loves the size shape and crumblyness
- Great texture and nice flavor. Not one of my top two but a great third place. Maybe a bit too much icing for the thickness of the cookie.
- The texture of this cookie is like a chocolate chip cookie-with crispy edges, which is great but I wish there were more oats. I like that it’s not too sweet.
- This one tastes like a sugar cookie, I could eat a lot of them
- I loved the texture- it was soft and crumbly, but it was lacking a little flavor
- The icing is awesome bit the cookie flavor is a bit non-descript.
Tara Teaspoon: a classically chewy and flavorful cookie with bits of raisins
Although I typically try to standardize all the recipes in a bake off to avoid any divisive ingredients (like raisins), my curiosity was piqued by Tara’s technique. These cookies call for raisins that get pulsed in a food processor with oats until they’re finely ground and nearly undetectable to mimic the flavor and texture of storebought cookies.
Besides the raisin trick, Tara’s recipe also stood out of its use of half butter, half shortening, an ingredient that typically helps prevent spread and contributes to a softer, tender texture. This recipe also uses an unusual spice mix: cinnamon, ginger and cloves vs. the more typical cinnamon and nutmeg. Lastly, the glaze uses meringue powder and water (no milk) and Tara calls for using a pastry brush to brush on the glaze.
As someone who’s not crazy about raisins, I was surprised to find that I still loved this cookie! This felt like the most quintessential oatmeal cookie texture with a melt-in-your-mouth crunch around the edges and just-thick-enough chewy center. The texture felt perfectly grainy from the oats. And even though my food processor didn’t process the raisins as finely as they should have been, they were still small enough to contribute a chewy texture and light molasses-y flavor rather than sticking out as distinct raisins.
The spice mix felt present but not heavy-handed, which I think reflects my preference for ginger over nutmeg, which can feel a bit strong. I also loved the technique of using a pastry brush to brush on the glaze. This felt both easier and faster than trying to perfectly dip the tops of the cookies and letting the excess drip off (the technique of most other recipes). This is a great classic option to try!
Taster comments:
- My fav, soft and not too sweet but had the original oatmeal flavor
- This is most like an oat cookie. The texture was too gritty for me at first and way too sugary, now after trying the rest of the cookies, I Iike this one the best. Great balance of oats with a soft nice chew.
- Are there raisins in this?? I didn’t even realize until I came back for its individual notes and ratings. I’m not usually a fan of raisins in cookies, but these seem pretty finely chopped, which makes them way less texturally noticeable while still lending that acidic contrast of fruit in a cookie. The actual cookie texture is a little crumbly and heavy on oats.
- Visually the most iced oatmeal looking. I like the small raisins but I don’t think of raisins when I think of iced oatmeal.
- Very solid cookie, but too chewy. I wanted more crunch. The sweetness was excellent tho.
Broma Bakery: Brown butter-forward, doughy-centered cookies with crisp edges and a generous amount of vanilla icing
I selected this recipe as one of two recipes to use brown butter. It wasn’t until I started making the cookie that I realized there’s actually no spices in the recipe whatsoever–something I thought was required for an iced oatmeal cookie. Sarah’s recipe is also notable in a few other ways–she adds an extra egg yolk, uses a 3:1 ratio of light brown to granulated sugar, and uses less than a 1:1 ratio of whole rolled oats to flour for a dough that felt quite light on the oats. This was also the only icing that called for microwaving in order to thin it out for the frosting process, and allowing it to harden once it cools.
And the result? What feels like a frosted sugar cookie that just happens to have a few oats with a deeply brown butter-y flavor. Sarah says she prefers to have brown butter serve as a proxy for spices, and most tasters (including me) really liked this despite it not having a classic spiced profile. Texturally, these had beautifully crisp edges with chewy, fudgy centers.
The very vanilla-forward icing contributes even more to the sugar cookie vibe. While I actually found microwaving the icing to make it more difficult to spread (it cooled and congealed quite quickly), it did feel like this icing hardened to appealing crusty edges. Personally, I would have preferred these with a non-microwaved glaze that could be spread more thinly across the cookie for less in-your-face sweetness on top, but if you like a lot of icing, try following the recipe as written.
I LOVED these cookies for both their texture and flavor. While they’re not traditional, I could easily see this making it into my holiday cookie box every year. This was a clear crowd favorite for a reason!
Taster comments:
- This is the clear winner imo. Perfect texture and flavor, and the sweetness is complimentary – it doesn’t overpower the cookie. I love it!
- This tastes like the perfect sugar cookie. So yummy. Fantastic flavor. So chewy and moist, my fave.
- A really nice nostalgic flavor
- I think the only weakness of this one is that it’s quite sweet, which I don’t personally mind since I have a sweet tooth. It feels less spice forward, but it has a toasty brown butter note, the perfect level of chew, and very little of my archnemesis, that slightly resistant, sometimes gritty bite from oats that haven’t really blended in well with the rest of the cookie.
- Super buttery. I taste mostly butter. And sugar. It is delicious but too sweet for me. The texture is chewy and soft with good amount of oats without being dry and gritty.
- Good texture, but tastes more like a frosted sugar cookie than oatmeal
Recommendations
- Erika’s picks: Broma Bakery, Meaningful Eats, Sugar Spun Run, A Cozy Kitchen
- Crowd favorite: Broma Bakery
- Best classic iced oatmeal cookie: Tara Teaspoon, Sally’s Baking Addiction, Tutti Dolci
- Best thin and chewy cookies: Kale Junkie
- Best thick and chewy cookies: Meaningful Eats
- Best crisp and chewy cookies: A Cozy Kitchen, Spun Sugar Run
