crispy salted oatmeal white chocolate cookies
These are scandalously good, yes, scandalously. Do you want to know why? Because I had one bite of one of these cookies and honestly think they’re one of the best cookies I have ever made. Like, top five good. Like, I think that the homemade Oreos just got the boot because I had to make room at the top. I hope the dozens of you who have made them can forgive me.
It took me a long time to get an oatmeal cookie recipe on this site, and the reason was that most people really like oatmeal cookies, but they have a very specific view of what they should be. Some people like them heavily spiced with cinnamon and nutmeg, others want them buttery and nutty and still others think that if they don’t have chocolate chips or large gobs of dried fruit, they weren’t worth the oats they were cooked with. To add further complication, 99.9 percent of oatmeal cookies fall into one of two categories: thick and cakey or thin and lacy, and oh, how it all made my head spin.
Well, meet the new category: thick and shatter-y, and you’ll have to make your own to believe it. They’re crispy, but not because they’re hard or because they’re thin but because they practically hollow out when they bake, leaving you with this… shell of an oatmeal cookie with rich bits of white chocolate scattered about and the tiniest flaking of sea salt on top.
Being not the biggest white chocolate fan and quite bored of every dessert coming with a fleck of expensive salt on top these days, I honestly didn’t expect anything this mind-boggling when I pulled a tray out of the oven, but I couldn’t be happier to be surprised. Now it’s your turn.
One year ago: Pickled Garlicky Red Peppers
Oh, and this: We’re on vacation this week, so will not be able to respond to any comments, (crossing fingers this won’t be the case) typos or questions until we return. But seeing how we’ve left you with dulce ice cream, macaroni and cheese and now these, I bet you don’t miss us at all.
Cripsy Salted Oatmeal White Chocolate Cookies
Adapted from Cook’s Illustrated
The original recipe didn’t have white chocolate in it, but it really works wonderfully in here. Even if you’re a dark chocolate fan. Watch out, use the good stuff and this may even convert you.
1 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon table salt
14 tablespoons (1 3/4 sticks) unsalted butter, slightly softened
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
6 ounces good-quality white chocolate bar, chopped (not “white chocolate” chips; they’re almost always artificial. I am adamant about this.)
1/2 teapoon flaky sea salt (like Maldon or fleur de sel) (for sprinkling on top)
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line baking sheet with parchment paper or Silpat. Whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda, and table salt in a medium bowl.
2. Beat butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Scrape down bowl with rubber spatula, then add egg and vanilla and beat until incorporated. Scrape down bowl again. Add flour mixture gradually and mix until just incorporated and smooth. Gradually add oats and white chocolate and mix until well incorporated.
3. Divide dough into 24 equal portions, each about 2 tablespoons. Roll between palms into balls, then place on lined baking sheets about 2 1/2 inches apart. Using fingertips, gently press down each ball to about ¾-inch thickness.
4. Sprinkle a flake or two of sea salt on each cookie
5. Bake until cookies are deep golden brown, about 13 to 16 minutes, rotating baking sheet halfway through. Transfer baking sheet to wire rack to cool.
Oh, Deb. Of course we still miss you! Hope you’re having a wonderful time, wherever in the world you are. Can’t wait to try these!
I don’t know; I was planning to make the oreos this weekend. I *might* have to try these instead, even though I’m not a white chocolate kind of girl.
Hm, I hesitated about these because my husband doesn’t like white chocolate and the last thing I need is 6 dozen temptation nuggets. But 2 dozen is looking mighty doable…
OMG! Those look so good! And salted sweets??!! My favorite.
When are you coming back? From where-ever you are?
Oh man, now I really wanna make those, despite the fact that my husband and I swore to forego temptation for at least a week…. I hope you are enjoying Europe and the perfect weather!
That’s OK. You can try out my “Fake-Out-Eos,” my stuffed twist on the classic oreo. http://www.oatmealcookie.typepad.com
I’m putting complete faith in you. I’m of the cakey-dried-fruit-and-pecan oatmeal cookie family and I don’t really care for white chocolate. However, the salt part of the cookie makes me want to give it a shot. Wish me luck!
This was the first time ever I dropped everything I was doing to bake. I am currently eating one of these cookies (though sorry I made them with dark chocolate because I have an almost religious prohibition in my house again the white stuff.) Salt makes sweet stuff really good. Now I need milk.
I really like the description of these. They sound extremely flavorful. Alot of times, the oatmeal cookies that I try at bakeries are a little dense and yet not substantial enough to be thick, if that makes sense. Plus, I find them kind of lacking. But these sound like they have a lot of competing flavors like the salt and sweet white chocolate. yum!
These look so good. mrB loves flapjack, so I’m sure he’ll love these. I got all excited because I thought I’d be using up some oatmeal ground the old-fashioned way — by an East Anglian water mill. But no matter, we have plenty of rolled oats. Happy holidays!
I adore cookies but the hubby is very particular about sweets- these look like a Perfect combination though! On my Must Bake list.
These do look wonderful! I usually make my oatmeal cookies with tons of spice but this looks so much more appropriate for the warmer weather. I will definitely have to make these for our cookie jar next week.
BTW, isn’t 14 tablespoons equivalent to 1 3/4 sticks? Unless it really should be 1 1/2 sticks which would then make it 12 tablespoons. Anybody have any idea on which it should be?
I was pretty skeptical at the beginning, but by the end of your post I’m “sold” and am saving this for later use!
I don’t have any white chocolate, but right now I don’t much care and think I’ll whip up a batch of these. Though, actually, I don’t have sea salt either. My life, it seems so misery! But these cookies sound awesome and I don’t WANT to have to WAIT for them!!
you really think they top the homemade oreos? considering i’m pretty much obsessed with that recipe, i almost don’t believe it. i guess i’m going to have to try this recipe to find out!
Wow, those do look scandalously good. Looks like I can add macadamia nuts to it as well. I love white chocolate macadamia cookies.
These will be mine!
:o)
You had me at “shatter-y.” I have a very special favorite oatmeal cookie recipe, but I think I’ll have to try these, you know, for science.
This was one of those recipes that made me jump up from the computer to weigh the remainder of my white Bernard Callebaut stash. I had 7 ounces left- it was fate! They are oh, too amazing. Thanks so much for the continuing deliciousness!
The perfect combination of salty and sweet. I love sweet items that have a touch of salt at the end for a kick. My favorite is dark chocolate with salt, like the Trader Joe’s Dark Chocolate covered almonds which are then coated in sea salt and raw sugar. Mmm, I’d love one of these cookies right now.
- The Peanut Butter Boy
I make very similar cookies with salted peanuts and dried cherries. The texture is stupendously good.. I can’t wait to try the oatmeal-white chocolate combo. Perhaps with some dried cranberries, too?
These look so good, but is it 12 tablespoons (1 1/2 cups) of butter or 14 tablespoons (1 3/4 cups)?
Thanks!
these look incredible! and i love white chocolate.
but i still have yet to try the oreos!
which to make!!!!? these kinds of decisions have to be well thought out
Merav and Jacquie
The correct butter amount is 14 Tbs or 1-3/4 sticks. I’ve made these before, without the white chocolate but with dried cranberries instead, and they are to die for! I’ll have to try them with the white chocolate as well.
The thing is, white chocolate gets a bad rap - but really, it is insanely tasty in baked goods - like you said, it kicks things out of top place. I made Blondies, leaving out the traditional regular chips (using only white) - and they were beyond anything. I will never make regular “blondies” again. So, I totally concur with using the often “tres gauche” white chocolate - because it is TRES delicious!! These look wonderful.
Any baked good described as “scandalously good” is a winning recipe to me!! those cookies truly do fit your description - yum! And thank goodness for vegan white-chocolate chips :0)
deb, these sound delicious. I have been neglecting white chocolate of late (something I ate much more often during the ten years I gave up cocoa) but this recipe sounds like a nice way to bring them back into my life and reminisce!
Thank you for my daily inspiration. Today I was planning to make more cookies for a friend who is in rehab recovering from knee replacement surgery. A few days ago I brought chocolate chip cookies for her and the nursing staff, and wanted to bring something totally different. Well, this post was all it took to get the creative juices flowing once again. Having made a version of these a couple of months ago (I LOVE Cook’s) I decided to not only add the “pure” white chocolate chips and “orange” flavored cranberries, but also a touch of “orange zest” as well. The results……………..Fan-tab-u-licious! Thanks again. You solved my dilemna!
Mark
I like them, they are sweet and chewy and crispy. If you like those though you might consider another Salted Oatmeal Cookie recipe that was in the Washington Post in June 2007 which are also great — perhaps even my all-time favorite cookie. They are slightly different — no chocolate, and they bake up soft, chewy, and dense instead of shatter-y, but very awesome. This variation is a welcome change though, thank you for sharing. :)
Cripsy, huh!! Sounds better than crispy. :-)
I think this may be the first thing I ever made from a blog the day it was posted. I used dark chips since those were already in the house… but the sea salt really put them over the top!!! Thanks!
I made them. They were awesome. Just like the mac and cheese. Maybe you should go out of the country more often :) Nah, I take it back!
I just made these… they are delicious but they didn’t rise enough… I think I put too much baking soda and made them too big.. But they’re good enough that I’m on my third one and I’ll make them again!
These are so good. I was reading Cooks magazine once while waiting for an oil change, and I saw this cookie recipe. I fumbled for a piece of paper, and wrote out the recipe. Having once had a subscription to Cooks Illustrated, I didn’t feel like buying the magazine (I was tired of “I started out with a teaspoon of salt, but the end product was too salty. A half teaspoon proved to be not salty enough. Three-quarters of a teaspoon ended up being the perfect amount.”). You’re spot on calling these a shell of an oatmeal cookie. Haven’t tried them with white chocolate though…I do have a big hunk of that in my pantry, and some of the oatmeal dough in the freezer. I’m sure I could defrost and knead it in. Yum!
It’s almost 1am now. I saw this recipe at 11:30pm. I really tried to avoid temptation. It didn’t work. The good thing is I didn’t run to the store and get white chocolate. I used dark as that was all I had in the house. Poor hubby, he had spent a few hours working out and it’s to waste after I pulled the cookies out. I also used a tablespoon cookie scoop and left them at tablespoon size. We like our cookies a little smaller, we can eat more!
I saw this recipe around 9:30 AM, and had whipped up a batch by noon. I swapped in bittersweet chocolate instead of white, but I think I’ll go with semisweet or white next time. There wasn’t enough sweetness in the chocolate to balance out that subtle bit of salt, but the texture was great! “Shatter-y” is a great descriptor for it, and I don’t normally like crispy cookies!
Thanks Deb, hope your vacation’s going great.
Oh, awesome. I love white chocolate, but the only white chocolate cookies I ever find are the kind with macadamia nuts - yuck. These sound amazing — I will definitely make them!
Wow - I ran right to the market to get real white chocolate, but all they had was coconut white chocolate, I think made by Lindt. I couldn’t be persuaded not to make these though, and I thought the coconut might actually go nicely in the cookie. This is now my favorite cookie recipe ever!! Wow - the texture is amazing - the caramelization is fantastic. The hint of coconut was lovely (just used the 3.5 oz bar in the cookies instead of the 6 oz called for, as the bar was almost $4.) I want to have other people taste these wonderful cookies, but it’s very very hard for me to share them. Thanks so much for this great recipe!
I can’t wait to give this one a try!! when my ovens fixed…..
WANT.
WANT NOW.
Oh, how perfect! I must try; putting it on my list! I have been printing and saving a lot of cookie recipes lately…
Hope you’re having fun. I have a request, though, for when you get back: can you please post some healthier stuff? I need to look good in a swimsuit this summer! ;)
Thanks Deb. I’ve also added coconut before, and it rocks!
Mark
Oh, how I love oatmeal cookies!
you had me at crispy and salted… anything else? i am going to need a tall glass of cold milk to go with these. beautiful!!
I got a Kitchen Aid mixer partly because of this blog so it goes without saying that I also made these cookies. EVERYONE loved them and I’m not much of a baker. I would have never thought that salt, white chocolate and oatmeal would have made such a nice combination. Delicious!
LOVE these cookies. I’ve made two batches since you posted this recipe. I added about 1/3 cup toffee bits to the second batch to up the sweet/salty combo. Highly recommend the addition. Thanks for this recipe!
Just made a batch of these (original recipe, without white chocolate or sea salt, although I think the cookies would support these add.s very nicely) as a Mother’s Day present, and they were very warmly received. The texture is perfect, crisp and light without being crunchy or hard, and is improved by refrigeration of the dough.
Wow, these look yummy! I want to just reach in and lick the beaters!
I love this flavor combo! I think I really might try these out…I might try adding dried cranberries to it! Yummy!
This is so going on the “to try” list. Have a great vacation! :)
These cookies sound delicious. I am going to have to make a batch this week!
So these won out over the oreos for the cookies of the week(end). I was just checking on the comments and the 14 tbsp vs. 1 1/2 sticks thing confused me a bit too - I used 14, but the cookies spread out to giant proportions, so I think next time I’ll use the 12. I also used 7 oz of chocolate (Green & Black’s comes in 3.5 oz bars, and once I start chopping…) But you know what, Deb, you’re right. These ARE better than the oreos. Thank you for sharing them!
Mark — Thanks for telling people the correct level of butter!
The recipe is now edited. While the correct butter amount in the original recipe is 14 tablespoons or 1 3/4 sticks, I’ve been scratching my head since we returned Saturday night, trying to remember whether I used that or 12 tablespoons! I am sorry, but I just can’t remember (I made these so long ago, then put them off so not to be cruel to those not eating flour on Passover, and then another week, and another…etc.) However, logic would stand that we should use the recipe as CI intended.
These look amazing! I just made blondies and I can’t keep my hands off them. This is next on the cookies-to-bake list.
i made these today deb. absolutely wonderful. i am in love with your site all over again.
I lasted a whole 2 days after buying a chunk of white chocolate before making these cookies. I think I’m growing as a person. Or it could have also been the fact that I made the macaroni and cheese. And could. Not. Stop. Eating. It. So happy right now. My first batch of cookies spread out a lot too, but I think it’s cuz I flattened them too much before baking. The second batch was perfect. Thanks deb!
Deb, these sound terrific (I’m a sucker for all things salty sweet), but, really, c’mon, you can’t just say the homemade oreos are squeezed out and these are in. What are the other cookies in your top five?
I used just the 1 1/2 sticks of butter since I had half a stick from something else, and my cookies were fine. My boyfriend was very disappointed that I wanted to use the white chocolate as directed since that was the one ingredient that I couldn’t use a vegan substitute for (unless I went with dark chocolate instead). Maybe I’ll indulge him next time. I also need to be a little less hesitant with the salt on the top.
I just made these cookies and used the 1 3/4 sticks butter, but they spread out to the point where they are almost like thin wafers! Any thoughts on chilling the batter a bit before putting them in the oven or should I just use less butter?
Good gravy, girl! How big did you make those cookies?? I only used the 12 tablespoons of butter (and didn’t miss the extra two, quite frankly) but came out with 3 dozen cookies of a perfectly respectable 3 inch size. I don’t want to think what 2 dozen would look like with the same amount of dough. You’re right though, these are fabulous cookies — thanks for sharing!
Your comments are making me worry that I used the 12 tablespoon level (that I’d mistyped) and not the 14 tablespoons in the original recipe. Sadly, I’m not going to know for sure until I get a chance to make another batch of these cookies, hopefully very soon.
As for the spreading, it’s hard for me to see exactly how much your cookies spread, but these are “spreaders” so to speak–probably end up 2 times or a smidge more of the diameter they started with.
You’re right, there are so many oatmeal cookie types to wrestle with. It looks like you’ve settled on a real winner. I love the white chocolate sweetness combined with the salt. And, welcome back! It looks like you had a lovely lovely trip.
If you say these are in your top five, I have to take your word for it. I’m not a big white chocolate fan either, but I love salty cookies. I can’t wait to try these. Some friends of mine and I are having a So You Think You Can Dance premiere party next week, and they expect new foods. These are entertaining the dancing troops. Thank you for saving me!!
I didn’t get the gorgeous hollowed-out texture, but I was still very pleased with the results. I substituted a handful of dried cranberries for white chocolate chunks, which was delicious. This also gave me an excuse to buy fleur de sel, which was fun (and really did make a difference in the cookies - I baked a control group because I’m OCD like that).
And for the record, mine came out thick and barely spread out at all! Interesting how we’re getting such different results from the same recipe…
Dang! What wouldn’t I pay for that little piece of dough under your finger…just pop it into my mouth…and leave none for the nits! Your pictures of Prague (sp?) are enthralling. Really, how come you’re not a pro photog? Or are you?