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.
Crispy 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 3/4-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?
Just made these and they’re definitely Keepers!! Mine took longer to get nice and brown, but glad I waited until they looked right. Thinking a handful of chopped pecans wouldn’t hurt next time, but these are Fabulous Exactly like this!! Thanks, Deb!!
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?
I made these yesterday and the are GREAT! Love the salt on top, love the crunch! Thanks for sharing the recipe.
with 3 kids under 6, 1 hubby, 2 dogs, and a huge passion for cooking that takes all of my “free” time … I never thought I would become so fond of a food blog, BUT your Crispy Salted Oatmeal White Chocolate Cookies did it !! I have been reading your blog and trying your recipes for a while now, but these cookies just took me back to my French grand mother and the summers spent watching her baking. THANK YOU and count me in !! ciao
these are delicious! i had to make mine with semisweet chunks (no white stuff on hand). loved them!
Wal*mart makes a white choc. chip that is really excellent. Its cheap too, 1.58 a bag.
This was the first recipe I’ve tried from this blog – and for once in my life, I followed the recipe to the letter (incl 14 T butter). It was FANTASTIC. I can’t believe how good these cookies are. I look forward to now making my way backwards thru your recipes. Keep up the fantastic work. And thanks!!
I made these yesterday and you are ABSOLUTELY RIGHT! These are AMAZING! I used the 14 T butter and they turned out exactly as you have pictured. They are so incredibly good despite the fact that I used white chocolate chips since I had them on hand. So crisp, chewy, sweet & salty. Just perfection in a cookie. Thank you so much for this recipe!
I made these last night w/13 T of butter as a compromise and they were pretty darn good. They tasted a lot like the ones I always make (oatmeal and coconut, minus the salt) so I bet coconut would be a good vegan substitute. The salt was an awesome addition.11
Okay, I’ve been thinking about these cookies every day since you posted them. They might have to be my pregnancy-induced request!
OMG-I mean OMFG! I wanted to make these since I saw the post and finally got to this morning. My tongue is burnt b/c I couldn’t wait to taste them. They are the best cookie ever. I bow down before your baking altar!!! :) Seriously-off the charts good. Thank you!
I saw this post and I have been obsessed with baking these! Sunday afternoon I finally had my chance! Um….YUM!!! I can’t believe how good they are. Right out of the oven they are like caramel, then as they are cooling they have this yummy sticky texture…then fully cooled they are crispy and delicious. I’ll be making more of these for sure!
Mine were thin and chewy :(. They were still so very delicious; I’m a sucker for any sort of sweet-salty combo. I’m wondering where I went wrong to get the results I got? I am looking forward to making these again the right way!!
oh boy! I made these last night and they’re delicious! mine really spread and are very crispy, but I like them that way. The salt does it for me.. I love the combination of sweet and salty.
I made these, and they were FABULOUS, and I don’t even like white chocolate. :-) Thanks, Deb!
Made em! So unusually light and crispy for an oatmeal cookie! Wow, one of my new favs too! Thanks so much Deb for finding this gem! Love using my trendy french salt! Worked fine for white or semi sweet chocolate!
Made these using 12 Tbs rather than 14 Tbs butter and chilled the dough overnight. I used a 2 Tbs cookie scoop to form the cookies pressing each one slightly to flatten. They came out perfectly crisp and thin but not so thin they were wafer-like. I detest white chocolate usually but after all the reviews I had to try this and I’m glad I did. Without the Maldon sea salt they would be mediocre. In fact, I wished I’d been a little more generous with the salt sprinkles. Can’t wait to see how they sell at the farmers market.
I’m having trouble finding FLAKY sea salt. Has anyone used regular sea salt with good results?
ok, color me smitten. these were a phenomenal hit at the memorial day cookout!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/figandplum/2526381202/
deb = great taste in cookies.
I made these today and they are awesome. I love the texture. But I’m curious what everyone uses for the white chocolate. I used Ghiradelli and I’m not thrilled with the taste of it. Does anyone have other suggestions? Thanks!
Oh, and I haven’t found the flaky sea salt, either…
Erin – I have tried many brands of white chocolate (Ghirardelli and Callebaut included) and the ONLY one that I like is Lindt. Unfortunately, it can be difficult to find (I too end up using the Coconut White Chocolate sometimes because it is just easier to find) and does not come in bulk (only the small 3.5 oz bars) but I have yet to find anything else that comes close in taste. Would love to hear about anyone else’s favorite brands of white chocolate as well. Can’t wait to try these cookies – they are on my “to bake” list for this week!
Wow – these look gorgeous. Definitely going to make them this weekend! One question – are rolled oats a must or can I use quick oats, or a combi of both? Just curious about the end texture, since I always associate rolled = more chewy vs quick = more crunchy. Any advice?
Actually, you must use old-fashioned, non-quick oats. If you follow the link to Cooks’ Illustrated under the recipe title, they discuss the different oats they tried for these cookies and were only satisfied with the results of the old-fashioned ones. (I believe the others spread a bit.)
They sound wonderful – I only have wheat flour – do you think they will still turn out?
Just made them and they are out of this world amazing.
oh, ps – i used green & black’s white chocolate, and was impressed. creamy and not too cloying and flecked with vanilla beans.
ah! all clear now – thank you :)
Please, everyone, don’t laugh — try Wal-Mart’s white chocolate chips. Nestle’s premium are a joke — just hydrogenated oils. Sam’s Choice white chocolate chips are made with cocoa butter, no hydrogenated oils, and are delicious. Read the labels and you’ll see.
Deb – Just made these with my 16 yr old daughter. We substituted dried cherries for the white chocolate, and went a tad heavier with the sea salt. These are a keeper! Neither one of us have been fans of crispy cookies, but these have converted us! Thanks for sharing.
Great cookie, made them twice already. Thanks!
I have been looking for a cookie recipe to make for my client’s birthday, and this will probably be the ticket. I’m going to try this and your other oatmeal cookie recipe and make one (or both!). I can see adding cranberries here too maybe. Thanks for the great recipes and this fun site.
Made these this weekend, so good! Mine made 4 dozen though?
i’m just waiting for the second batch of these to come out of the oven. It’s the first time i ever made the same cookies twice, but they’re sooo worth it! They’re simply amazing!
Thanks for the recipe :)
When I baked these last night (with 14 tbsps butter), mine also spread a lot and became very thin and delicate (and kind of ugly :-(). However, the caramellized-salty flavor is still really delicious, so I’ll probably try the recipe again another time. I’m waiting to see how they go over at the picnic I’m going to this weekend.
I just got back from the store and I think the white chocolate I grabbed (cocoa camino “white with cocoa nibs”) is gonna be so good in these. I’ll come back shortly to sing your praises I’m sure!!
They have been made and OMG SO GOOOOD!!!
They remind me of caramel corn. I don’t think this batch will last till morning.
Arg, I think I have proved that cookie recipes originating in the US NEVER work in the UK! My results were DISGUSTING. Like, inedible. They have a weird horrible chemically aftertaste. Any idea what might be different over here? I followed the recipe (I thought) to the letter, and used good chocolate (what a waste).
I really really want to make these cookies, but I’m having a very hard time finding real white “chocolate” that’s not contaminated with tree nuts (I’m allergic). I would love to know if anyone has any recommendations!
Hi Deb — I made these last weekend for a bbq, and they were an enormous hit. Everyone oohing and aahing and saying they were the best cookies they’d ever had. Mine didn’t come out too crispy, though — I’m curious how yours did? Also, I decreased the amount of white chocolate to 3.5 oz. (I’m not the biggest fan, but thought a little would be great), added 3/4 c. of raisins to the recipe, and sprinkled more salt on, probably about 5 flakes each. Really amazing. You can see the results at: http://foodjunta.wordpress.com/2008/06/26/salted-oatmeal-raisin-white-chocolate-cookies-yes-salted/
– Claire
You were right about them being scandalously good!! I tried to keep myself from eating too much of them because I wanted to give my friends to try but before I knew it I had five of them as an afternoon snack. Love it!
I’ve made these cookies and am totally sold! I love them, thanks for sharing such a wonderful recipe!
Dear all.. please tell me why are my cookies some of them soft and some of them crispy? Is that because of I cut down the volume of sugar? I’m so confused..
I made these (again) tonight, and they were really great (again). I hardly eat white chocolate in anything, but it is really good in contrast to the salty cookie.
I think I had at least eight.
I thought butterscotch chips might be good too instead of the white chocolate, because they are pretty sweet. I may never try it though, because I like them they way they are.
My whole family is obsessed with these cookies after I gave them some that I had previously frozen when they came to visit. My mother and brother have both called me up on separate occasions to tell me that they had made them, and then eaten them all in less than a day. I used the Lindt coconut white chocolate too once and it was fine, didn’t taste coconutty or anything.
I hate oatmeal cookies but these are now my all-time favorite cookie! The salty with the sweet, crispy and chewy….delicious! I’ve made them a few times now and I’ve learned I have to make a double batch if they are going to last more than a day or if I’m giving some away.
Holy. wow. These are some mighty fine cookies. I DID make a double batch, because I knew I’d want to keep some for myself (after farming out a dozen or so to my students, colleagues, and my husband’s colleagues). I’m on a BIG salty oat cookie kick these days and this is a nice alternative to the “dense oatmeal raisin cookie rolled in salt” treat I usually get.
These are some amazing cookies! They are now on my favorites list (along with Snickerdoodles.) I didn’t have any white chocolate, so I used Heath brickle topping instead. Oh My! I have to ship most of them off to my daughter to get them out of the house! I could easily eat them all!
I made half the amount of this recipe and used proportionately less butter as well (85g instead of 100g), but would probably reduce butter even more by just a smidgen next time: to 75 or even 70g. Otherwise, the cookies were delicious (I didn’t have white chocolate but can just imagine these wonders with it) and the hint of salt on the tongue is inspired.
I just finished making these (and eating two immediately!) They are delicious! I used semisweet chocolate chips because I don’t like white chocolate. I used 6 oz, and it is almost too much chocolate. Next time I think I’d go with 4 oz. I ended up with 32 cookies. I was very skeptical of the salt, so I only put it on half of the cookies. Now I wish I had put it on all of them. YUM!
i am making these RIGHT NOW. no, seriously…they’re in my oven! can’t wait. (although i do not have any white chocolate, so i am opting to keep ’em pure and simple this time around…)
gorgeous photos. thanks for the recipe!
~chanelle
I made these cookies this weekend and they are delicious! I live in rural Japan, which makes finding Western-style cookies an impossible task. When I showed up to a potluck with these in hand my friends nearly started crying. It was just the taste from home we all needed. Awesome recipe!
I made these, and made them again for work. They are fantastic.
crispy is misspelled though. :)
Forgive my pointing out a spelling error because OH MY GAWD those cookies were so good.
All fixed, thanks.
I’m not sure what i did wrong on this or maybe its the humidity in my kitchen (i live in singapore) but these cookies really spread and were very flat. They were good but not the consistency i would have liked.
My roommate and I enjoy in baking a new recipe every friday so this was a great addition to our list!!!!! We however, we did use white chocolate chips as opposed to shaved white chocolate annnd we also unfortunately were missing baking powder. BUT, we thought the cookies were sensuous!!! they really were fabulous, we cant wait to make them again!!!!
OMG! Saw this recipe last night and HAD to make these today. Very easy, very tasty, will definitely make again. I didn’t have anything other than regular ole sea salt and a salt grinder, but they still came out fabulous. BTW, Ghiradelli White Chocolate chips work very well (and are all natural). Can’t wait to share them!
My new favorites.. everyone LOVED them. I used the Lindt white chocolate coconut bars… YUM!
These were a huge hit (like all the dishes I’ve tried on here). I substituted the white chocolate for fresh cranberries (still have leftovers from Thanksgiving!) and it worked perfectly – added a little tart and brightness to the taste. They are going to make another appearance over the holidays, for sure!
Just made these for my annual Christmas cookie exchange. Last year I made some pretty good oatmeal cranberry cookies. I wanted to bake something similar this year, but with a little twist. I doubled the recipe and used cranberries instead of white chocolate – for something festive (yes, I know that contradicts some of what you were saying about traditional oatmeal cookies) – the salt worked really well with the cranberries! Yummy!
Can I just say, these are amazing! A friend made these for a cookie exchange recently (we found out we were both SK readers, and joked that we’d end up making the same recipe from here…). I couldn’t get enough — they were absolutely delicious. They did spread, but I liked ’em just fine, and the salt totally makes it. Can’t wait to make a batch myself!
Ohhhhh, thank you so much for this recipe! I killed it with these oatmeal, salty nyoms nyoms for my family’s bake off:-)
http://www.sarahcentric.com/the-salties-reign-supreme
Thanks so much for the great recipes:-)
-Sarah
This is exactly the crisp cookie I was looking for! These are thin, not cakey cookies. I eliminated the white chocolate, and added dried cranberries. I made them in my new Cuisinart food processor. It ground the oats up a bit which I really liked. I plan to make these again and again. Thanks for the recipe!
ugh. cookie dough. delicious. last cookie out of oven is mine. yum is an understatement. if only i could think of a superlative for these crunchy buttery (my husbands description) disks of oven lovin.
i used a small scoop and made 5 dozen so i could feed a bunch of kids. still good.
Seriously these cookies are the most delicious thing to come out of my oven, ever. I followed the recipe exactly. I really dislike chewy/cakey cookies, and I’ve gone through many oatmeal cookie recipes in search of the perfect crispy, thin, buttery, not-overly-spiced oatmeal cookie and I finally found it! The sea salt really adds something special, next time I bake them I will be more liberal with the salt. Also, I wanted to add that I found good quality, reasonably priced white chocolate chunks at Whole Foods, under their 365 name brand.
Thanks so much for this recipe!! I love your blog.
These are my new favorite cookies :) I make cookies every week, and have looked for something different for quite some time. I have to add flour for high altitude, but they are truly wonderful!
i’m looking for healthy…olive or canola oil..low sugar or sugar substitue..but love the idea of salty sweet….any ideas for adapting…i realize texture will be different, but that’s ok?
I’m leaving this comment in case anyone ever has the same problem I do, that I can never get cookies made entirely with butter to be as fluffy as cookies made with shortening. For me, the all-butter cookies tend to spread out and get thin and crispy. Which, still delicious! Not really a big problem! But I wanted to see if shortening made a difference with these, so when I made them today I used one whole stick of butter and 6 Tbsp. Crisco, and lo, they were much more like the cookies in your photos. And just as delicious.
Great Web site!
I have attempted this recipe several times now. I can not achieve the “Hollow Crispy” in the picture. I have tried room temperature & chilled dough. Bottom third/middle third & top third of the oven. ( is there such a thing as a middle third ? ) anyway I digress. Thanx to 2/16/09 entry I’ll try half shortening. What AP flour did you use? ( Protein level ) Possible mixture of AP & bread flour to restrict the spreading? Any other frustrated Smitties out there?
these cookies are amazing if you substitute butterscotch chips for white chocolate, which I had a hard time finding in small town Ohio. I also sprinkled kosher salt instead of sea salt, and the smaller flakes added a lot. Love this recipe, and so does everyone I feed a cookie to!
I’ve made these…. TWICE. WOW. Fabulous, addicting, wonderful!! Honestly, I don’t even like crispy cookies, I’m a chewy cookie kinda person – but these are just FABULOUS. I didn’t have the “fancy” salt – and they’re great without it, too :)
White chocolate originates from the cocoa (cacao) plant, but it is not ‘chocolate.’ According to the FDA, to be called ‘chocolate’ a product must contain
chocolate liquor, which is what gives it the biter intense chocolate flavor (and color) to dark and milk chocolates.
Made these cookies today. The texture was different than those in the photo, more chewy, less hollow, but just wonderful!! My husband, who doesn’t like oatmeal cookies, like them too.
Once I stumbled upon your blog, I was hooked — I’ve saved a number of your recipes and tried out the first one — your white chocolate oatmeal cookies — today. They were terrific: oatmeal and white chocolate is an interesting combination. The hubby loved them, too. I made a full batch of dough, but froze half of the cookies prior to baking. Otherwise, we’re probably gobble down the lot!
Alison, a new fan of your blog.
Thank You Smitten Kitchen… They were yummy the only thing is that mine turned out kind of flat after they cooled… What did I do wrong? I will take your advice and stay away from white chocolate morsels… didnt taste as good
Hi Deb, just wanted to let you know something – I read your blog daily, but I never comment because other people are far more clever than me. However, you must know something: these cookies changed my life. I make them probably once a month, and have since last summer, and each and every time they blow me away. Half of the time, I don’t even get one, especially when I take them to potlucks. I just wanted to say thank you, because these are something that I will pass on to my grandchildren (once I get married and have children, of course), and although my future progeny will know them as MY cookies, you deserve full credit. Thanks again.
I made these last week and while the flavor was amazing, mine were also very flat and extremely crispy.
I tried these recipe today, mom loves the crispy oatmeal cookies.
These look amazing!
Hi. I just tried making these cookies… they turned out flat, like many of the other’s. I guess I should have read the comments section first – might try the shortening tip suggested next time.
They were still delicious though! :)
These were delicious, but I should have also read the comments first. Mine were pretty flat, but the chewy, (real!) white chocolatey-ness made up for it a million times over. These cookies are insanely awesome. :)
i can’t believe these cookies were posted a year ago today. they have been the most influential cookies in my life, the only cookie i have even pretended to be interested in since. i sincerely thank you for changing, no, revolutionizing my cookie enjoyment.
Great cookies!
Made this for the first time this week as part of a cookie ensemble I’m giving away as gifts to some folks. I wanted something that would be different from the other offerings (ginger cookies, peanut butter blossoms, standard chocolate chip), and these are perfect! Very crunchy (or “shattery”) and delicious. I added some dried cherries, too, and the result is a very unusual variation on the standard oatmeal raisin cookie.
Thanks for another winner, Deb!
Loved the recipe – my own personal twist was to add 1/2 c of dried cherries. The tartness of the cherries balances very well with the sweet and salty cookie. Try it.
I made these last night, I have to say DEEE-LICIOUS! I am defintely keeping this one and plan to switch the ingredients around a little. next time i will try adding the dried cherries Clare suggested, or maybe something else, who knows?!
This was the second recipe I’ve made from this site after stumbling upon it a couple weeks ago & was a little leery since I was not wowed by the Bourbon Peach Hand Pies. These cookies – WOW! I am trying to restrain myself from going into the kitchen and eating all 2 dozen. I used 2 T scoops and it made exactly 24 cookies, but mine were much larger than the photos and spread out quite a bit. The first batch almost ended up as one giant cookie. I used two cookie sheets for the last 12. Next time, I think I will barely flatten them with my fingertips.
I was leery when they came out of the oven, since they had thinned considerably. However, they had that hollow, shell-ness quality that makes the texture the best part of this cookie. They almost are like eating Pop Rocks, without quite the same explosion!
The white chocolate is a great touch. You barely notice the chocolate – it gives the cookies a nice sweet touch. I think using real white chocolate, instead of scary pseudo-chips, makes all the difference. I used 6 ounces of Ghiradelli.
I did not have flaky sea salt so I just used the kosher salt I had on hand. This adds a nice subtle touch that you pick up in the background.
Gotta run. . . I hear some cookies calling my name.
I stumbled upon this recipe months ago, and have made them quite a number of times. Everytime I make them everyone absolutely LOVES them and they have seriously become my all time favorite cookie. Thank you SO MUCH for the recipe! :)
Definitely the best recipe on the site so far!
Deb, you mentioned that this moved into your top 5 for cookies. Will you share the other 4???
Hmm… now I’m not sure I could choose. The World Peace Cookies, Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip and Russian Tea Cakes would definitely be in there. There’s a Cookie Index over here, which I realize is now a bit out of date, but will hopefully give you more ideas if you’re looking for them.
HOLY. COW. These are amazing. I made these tonight…pretty much followed the recipe to a tee except I ran out of old fashioned oats and had to use 1/2 cup of quick oats… and then my grocery store didn’t have fleur de sel or whatever…so I just got some flaky sea salt. UM. These are great! I was so impressed. Getting a good white chocolate bar is a must for sure. My house smells like love. Thanks Deb!
Sound delish – Do these freeze for month or so like any other cookie recipe?
I made these tonight. All I can say is mmmmmm. I couldn’t find good, quality regular white chocolate, so I used Ghiradelli White Vanilla Bean Chocolate Squares. These cookies are so good!1
Tried these in convection oven and they did not spread — actually looked like the pictures! To be scientific about it, I also baked one in a regular oven, and it did flatten a bit too much — but still tasty of course.
These cookies are AMAZING! I’m so glad you posted these… I love classic, chewy oatmeal raisin… but my boyfriend doesn’t like cinnamon, nuts or raisins… and prefers crispy cookies(I tend to give him my burnt leftovers). He craves oatmeal cookies, plain… but I couldn’t just make them “plain”. This is EXACTLY what I was looking for~! I’m taking them to him tomorrow. I am positive he will LOVE them. :D Thank you~~
I just tried these, and they are amazing! I used a little bit more sea salt, and these cookies turned out rather larger than I was expecting! I was very impressed with the texture. They are chewy yet crispy. I can’t quite figure it out, but I love it.
I have a daughter in college and wanted to send her and her friends some yummy cookies. I have tried for over a year now to find the perfect cookie recipe. This is it! Everyone of her friends loves them and so do we. I am now Smitten with Smitten Kitchen! I am going to try the Peanut Butter cookies next. Yay!
Finally! A success with cookies!!!!
After the disaster with snickerdoodles, my craving for good home made cookies intensified to an unbearable level. This recipe promised more than a simple satisfaction: the white chocolate and salt combination teased the imagination; and its simplicity beckoned irresistibly. This morning, before breakfast, I walked to the store, got the maldon salt and chocolate and then had to force myself to eat breakfast first and bake later.
Well, now I am happily chewing the pieces that broke off while transferring the cookies to the cooling tray, trying to convince myself that crumbs and small particles do not have the same calorie content as the cookies.
These cookies are FANTASTIC!
I made a few tweaks:
1. Added a couple of handfuls of coarsely chopped, roasted macadamia nuts, because I think white chocolate and maca are meant to be together.
2. Dry roasted the oatmeal in a large skillet, on the stove top. It’s a trick I learned from my mother. It brings out the nutty, wholesome flavor of oatmeal and truly enhances the flavor of anything containing oatmeal. Just put all the oatmeal in a heavy skillet ( I use non stick), and roast it over med. high heat, stirring constantly for a few minutes, just until it starts turning pale golden. Transfer to a shallow cooling plate immediately, if you leave it in the skillet, it will burn, even with the heat off.
3. While roasting the oatmeal, I added to it a couple of tablespoons of finely shredded unsweetened coconut flakes, when the oatmeal was almost ready, in order to avoid burning them.
4. Used about 3/4 cup white sugar, instead of the whole. Next time, might reduce even more.
5. Used 4 ounces of chocolate instead of 6 and founded it to be plenty.
The addition of the nuts changed the structure of the cookies a little bit: they are not as hollow as in Deb’s photo. But it is still perfect: slightly crunchy without being hard, with just enough softness and chewiness in the center.
Couple of things I will take into account next time:
These must be baked on good quality baking sheets. I baked one batch on a cheap, thin one, and the bottom almost burned by the time the cookies were done.
Perfect timing is crucial: I think I prefer them just before the top starts turning golden. I found that if I let them become uniformly golden, when cool, they are crunchier than is desired. I liked the batch that was golden just around the edges the best. These were very fragile though. I had to let them cool on the baking sheet for a couple of minutes before sliding them on the cooling tray.
All in all, this is a recipe that will go into the “Great Recipes” file. The only gripe I have with this particular batch of cookies (nothing to do with the recipe though) is that the chocolate has to be higher quality. I used Ghirardelli white baking chocolate and it falls short of the truly sublime level that these cookies can attain.
Oh, and they did not spread (unlike the unfortunate snickerdoodles)!!!! I did put them in the fridge for about 15 minutes after shaping, just in case. And I used parchment paper, instead of the usual butter/flour method, which I think also helped. Still, they must be baked in small batches with at least 2.5 inches between them, to achieve perfect round cookies rather than stuck together pancakes.
Thank you, Deb!!!!
Oh my, I just made these for a work potluck, and I must say they are beyond delicious. Mine have an amazing texture that definitely can be described as “shatter-y.” Also, I used Green & Black’s white chocolate. Yummy yummers.
I also put them in the fridge for a bit after shaping and mine hardly spread.
They taste like rich brown butter, caramelized sugar, and nutty, toasted oats! The crunchiness is so delicate, unlike most oatmeal cookies, which tend to be either cakey or tough and chewy. I had semi-sweet chocolate chips on hand, so I used those, but I would definitely try white chocolate in the future. I think finely chopped walnuts would be delightful too.
i made these this week and they are heavenly. i hadn’t read through all of the comments and used 14 tbsp. of butter (seemed like a lot, but i dove right in)…they did spread out over the pan…but whatever – i just cut my big sheet of cookie into squares. these are just too delicious for me care about how they look!
I made a batch of these and one sheet spread out, the others stayed perfect! The spread out ones are good, the thicker ones are wonderful.
As far as preventing the spread, I think the dough needs to be cooled first — I stuck it in the fridge for about 40 min between mixing and scooping. But one cookie sheet (the one that spread out) was resting on the stovetop, which was warm from the pre-heated oven. The cookie sheet that didn’t rest on the stovetop came out perfectly.
Also, next time I’ll probably add more salt and use dark chocolate. I used a block of Guittard white chocolate but found it dried out a little.
I really want to reduce the amount of butter as much as I can in this recipe, but don’t want to jeopardize the taste of my cookies. Does anyone have any suggestions? I would gladly appreciate it.
Thanks. :]
Hi Deb! I plan to try this cookie recipe of yours. I have wasted much $$$ trying out chocolate chip cookies (with macadamias, walnuts) and each recipe I’ve tried always ended in failure. The taste of these cookies were good, but they really flattened out! On behalf of all us not-so-experienced bakers, can I venture to request you to end our suffering of having to toil so much and see our work “pfft” before our eyes? I have tried many things based on advice given to get my cookies to puff up respectably but nix, negative no, they still failed to do so. Wonder if you might consider enlightening us in this area. THANKS!
I was making these cookies again and noticed everyone in the comments wants fluffy cookies. That blows my mind– I slam my baking sheet on the counter when the cookies get too tall. i feel flat cookies stay moist longer and taste more bakery-like. So what’s the proper cookie texture for these and other cookies? my attitude is, if i wanted something fluffy i’d make a cake.
I made three batches already. I first batch was fantastic, however I thought they were too greasy and too sweet. The cookies were thin – although super yummy. The second, I reduced the butter to 150g and used grated chocolate (Was baking late at night and didn’t want to be too noisy banging away at the chocolate bits.) They tasted almost like flapjack. Not enough butter – too dry. The lack of chunky bits of chocolate was a huge mistake. So that was a no no. The third time, 180g butter, 3/4 cup of white sugar. Chilled the dough overnight. Just perfect. Thank you Deb for the recipe.
Tonight, I came across this article from David Lebovitz’ blog: How to Prevent Cookies From Spreading. http://www.davidlebovitz.com/archives/2005/12/how_to_prevent.html
Just put the 2nd round in the oven… the 1st round is almost gone! These are wonderful! Thank you :)))
these are fantastic. made them for a party and they came out perfectly exactly as written. probably the best cookies i’ve ever eaten, and they taste even better after two days. i don’t usually like white chocolate, but if i didn’t know they had white chocolate in them i’m not sure i’d be able to identify it.
I made these back in spring and they were amazing. After tasting them, I think I was able to fool people into thinking that I actually knew what I was doing.
I wanted to ask what the difference is between using light brown sugar or dark brown sugar. I just used whatever brown sugar my mom had in that big unlabeled jar of hers. And when a recipe just calls for “brown sugar”, which kind should I reach for???
May — The difference between light and dark brown sugar is the amount of molasses within; dark has more, and a stronger flavor. If a recipe doesn’t specify, you can use either.
I have never cared for oatmeal cookies, but something about this recipe called to me and I tried them yesterday. As promised, they are delicious!!! I could eat these all day (help! the cookie jar is shouting my name!).
I made these tonight after thinking about them for like, months – OH MY GOD they are so good. Next time I’ll use 12 tablespoons of butter though – the 14 has them toeing the “too buttery” line. Very very minor complaint though – they are seriously amazing! Thanks Deb!
I had an interesting moment this afternoon when trying to make half a batch of these cookies. How do you use half of an egg? I assume you want equal parts yolk and white, but how do you do it?!
Hi Shelley — Yes, you can split eggs. Here is how.
My friends and I had a Christmas cookie party last week, and this recipe won hands down, not that it was a competition or anything. These cookies are delicious, and they do remain good days after. For what it’s worth the words “oatmeal” and “white chocolate” make my nose crinkle in hopes of finding a luscious plain-old chocolate-chip cookie nearby. But these are suprisingly and delightfully satisfying. Thanks for the recipe!
Just chiming in with the rest about how amazing these cookies are – many, MANY, batches have been made over the last couple of months, and like you, I have so many cookbooks and saved recipes that it is not often I make something even twice. These cookies are just that good, thank you!
I made these last weekend and they are fantastic, Deb – super delicious! My hubby’s coworkers loved them.
I made these cookies last weekend and they lasted about 2 days . . .we DEVOURED them! You are right, these are by far some of the best cookies I have ever tasted.
Oh my god I’ve never made anything off a blog 10 seconds after reading it…they’re amazing. Thank you for the fantastic recipe, I want to have them for breakfast with my coffee!
I splurged on White chocolate godiva bars just for this!
I made these but substituted the regular white chocolate with Lindt white chocolate coconut bars..-on sale at A&P two for $4.
I broke up two of the bars (but ate two squares). Let me tell you, coconut works wonderfully in this cookie recipe. As for the crispiness of the cookies, I think I like my cookies chewier but these were still wonderful and very easy to make.
Nicole! I made the same exact thing because there was no lindt white at my grocery, but they did have Lindt white coconut. It was beyond delicious. I also bought a ghiradelli white chocolate baking bar, and found it not very tasty, I think it might have to be lindt and only lindt. BUT, I also made it with a toblerone, and it was like toffee-ish chocolatey sweet heaven!!!! For another half batch I tested a 60% Callebaut dark chocolate and since the chocolate wasn’t too sweet, it was more of an adult cookie I suppose, complex, not to sweet, yummy but more for a chocolate fix.
Also I think that underbeating after adding the chips and oatmeal can cause that greasy flattened result. Maybe developing some gluten is necessary, and when I did it, it worked for me. I didn’t use unbleached King Arthur Flour because though it is my favorite flour it’s gluten content makes for hockey pucks when it comes to cookies. I have read in Cook’s Illustrated that white bleached flour makes for tender cookies and I’ve found this to be very true. Also the original recipe calls for you not to over bake this and leave it on the baking sheet to cool to add to the crispiness.
These. are. AMAZING!
Just pulled them out of the oven and I might just eat them all! I might reduce the sugar a little bit next time, but boy oh boy, am I ever glad I doubled the recipe so I could freeze the remainder of the dough!
Thank you for this lovely recipe!
These cookies are absolutely AMAZING! I don’t even think that word does the proper justice to how delicous these were.
I made these for a cookie contest at work, except I added candied bacon (bacon glazed w/ maple syrup & coated in light brown sugar, then baked until carmelized). They got RAVE reviews!! I’ll find out tomorrow whether they’re a winner.
OK Deb, that dough, WHAT EXACTLY ARE YOU TRYING TO DO TO ME?? IT LOOKS LIKE BEATEN CHEESECAKE. GOD WHY?? I’m so sad I only have about a cup of oats in my pantry right now. :(
Wonderful! I made them with white chocolate, as per instructions, but ran out and subbed in some rough-chopped pecans: also delicious. I was worried they’d be spreaders, so I froze them before baking, which helped with the worst of it.
I’ve had some trouble finding high-quality, flaky sea salt here, but realized that there IS margarita rim-salt in the cupboard. Next time, could this work??
I was a little worried that I wouldn’t like a hollowed-out cookie, but I made them tonight because a friend told me these were the best cookies she’d ever eaten. And…I’m sold. The hollowing out makes the outer “shell” of the cookie melt in your mouth, while still being chewy. The chewiness comes from the almost caramelized nature of the cookie. And I love white chocolate chunks. These are excellent. I was a little shocked at how high the oatmeal-dough ratio was, but it all worked out in the end :) Thank you!
I’m a new follower and *boy* do I love everything you’ve made/tried/done experiments on. This was my first attempt at recreating your success and it was delightfully delicious. I ran out of butter (horrified? I’m ashamed.) so I substituted a bit of Crisco and they still turned out fabulous, if not a little chewier, which I like. Delicate, crispy on the outside, chewy on the inside… The perfect cookie.
Winner.
Hi Deb, I love these – thanks! I’m planning to make them for a bake sale at my daughter’s preschool this wkend. I was thinking of freezing them just for one night so they stay fresh (I’d like to make them Th PM for Sat morning, but need to deliver them Fri afternoon) – do you think that’ll work? Thanks!
OMG, these were SO good that I made them to bring to a friend’s house, and the next day was regretting bringing the entire batch and not keeping a stash at home that I ran out and bought more white chocolate and made more!
I was in the need to bake cookies tonight (this is what I use to thank / bribe people!!) and while checking out your mushroom crepes I saw this. Thank you! You are saving me the time of searching for something new! I can’t wait!! I love salty with my sweet.
OMG OMG OMG these cookies are absolutely my favorite, and hell yeah the salt on top gives them a whole new party in my mouth.
Mine was spreading perfectly and got the hollow just like deb’s.
Too bad I didn’t use fancy white chocolate although I used my very fancy maldon salt for the sprinkling.
Will definitely make them again and again.
Will definitely use lindt white chocolate next time!
Omg I love you deb!
I made these today for the millionth time. So delicious. Even more delicious when I make them into mini ice cream sandwiches tonight…
YUM. I’ve made these at least 10 times now. Everytime they get rave reviews and I get endless requests for them. I’ve made them with dark chocolate, I’ve made them with toasted coconut, and (my fave) with macadamia nuts, toasted coconut, a bit of freshly squeezed lime juice and lime zest. Every version has been insanely good. This is definitely my favorite cookie recipe ever, and it’s managed to turn all my family and friends into white chocolate fans. Thank you thank you thank you Deb.
These will forever be in my favorite cookies file.
I’ve never commented before, but I wanted to thank you for these–they’re incredible! I’m also not a huge white chocolate fan, so I was shocked by how much I loved these. They may be the best oatmeal cookies I have eaten. Ever. I also added toasted, chopped macadamia nuts and candied ginger, but I’m sure the recipe would still be stunning without them.
Note to gluten free geeks: This converts easily. I used a superfine brown rice/sorghum/potato starch/tapioca blend to sub, and added some xanthan. Used BRB GF oats. YUM YUM YUM. Both times I’ve added coconut. It really helps to let the dough chill for a couple of hours.
Good lord, these are good. And the flaky salt on top is required.
Oh, one more thing–I preferred them with a bit less butter.
Next time I double the recipe, I’ll add another egg.
Made these yesterday as a quick dessert…DELICIOUS! Everyone loved them! Mine were more flat, but still delicious. I also used a tiny sprinkle of fine sea salt on each cookie as I didn’t have any flaky sea salt. Thanks for another great recipe!
I’m not a big white chocolate fan, and I didn’t have any on hand, so I made these with your average, run-of-the-mill semisweet chocolate chips, and I was very pleased with the flavor! Personally, I like cookies to be on the flatter, larger side with some crisp to them, and these were perfect. My oven runs a little cool, and I baked them for fifteen minutes. Also, I used a 1″ cookie scoop, and it made exactly 30 cookies for me. Another note: I didn’t sprinkle the sea salt because I have rather pedestrian supplies on hand, but I can promise you: these will be positively delicious without it! And I adore Felicity’s idea of making ice cream sandwiches with them! For the 4th, I think I might just make a grocery store run and pick up some vanilla frozen yogurt for the cause.
These were good but didn’t hollow out the way I’d hoped, probably due to my fear of burnt cookies (yech!) and my consequent tendency to undercook the dough. I found them just a tad too mild, though, even with the sea salt; in the future, I think I’d add some orange zest or something, just for a bit more zip. My brother loved them, though.
Oh yeah, and I didn’t buy quite enough white chocolate (I buy my chocolate in bulk), so I used milk chocolate for the other half; I’m sure dark chocolate would work nicely, as well.
I am about to make these cookies, but all I have is salted butter at home, I’m thinking about using it and just not putting additional salt in the cookie?
i am currently making these cookies, but they look very flat and i have 7 minutes left on the timer in the oven. i think i might have made the balls too big because they’re pretty huge; not that my family will argue with that.
Just wanted to thank you for this recipe. I’ve only made this once, but my coworkers who’ve tried it have raved about it, saying this might be the best cookie they’ve had (quite a statement I must say) and have been asking when I’ll make it again.
FABULOUS! All the same size because you roll them into balls. They look great and taste divine. I did them virgin. No chocolate, no raisins….just pure oatmeal cookie. New favourite cookie recipe of all time.
These are delicious!!!!
I was looking for a cookie to make with some white chocolate I had and came across this recipe. So easy to make and so, so, so delicious! They were a tremendous hit. Made first batch as directed and decided to cut the amt to 1 tbsp per cookie. Much better cause we had more to eat! Warning: These cookies are hard to stop eating once you get a taste. They are just awesome and our new favorite cookie! Thanks for posting the recipe. :)
Oh, btw, forgot to mention we added 1 bag of chopped craisins to the recipe.
my cookies come out really flat. what am i doing wrong?
I love this recipe! Thank you soo much!
I found your site when I was looking for a recipe for dinner a year ago, and I have to say that I have made alot of your recipes. This Cookie recipe I love and so do my friends and family–Every time I make them I have to hide a few…
Instead of using the oats in its natural state–I grind them down in my blender into a powder and than add them in the mix. I can’t wait for your book to come out!
Hello there, first comment for me.
I thought to share some info that might help others.
I made these cookies a couple months ago and they turned out too thin.
I made a few changes today when I tried these again, which helped and the cookies flattened, but not as much as before.
First, I put the dough bowl in the fridge for 15 minutes, before shaping on the baking tray. I also put the tray itself in the fridge for 10 minutes while the oven preheated.
Now I found that was not enough, and the cookies still overspread (very thin) if baking for 19-20 minutes at 165c (Celcius).
However if I put the tray on the above middle rack, and baked for 5 minutes at 175c, then for 14-15 minutes more at 165c, they turned out much better, 1cm thick, like it seems it should be.
It seems that if the heat is high enough (175c for 5m), the cookies will get shaped faster and stop spreading and keep that shape for the remainder of the baking process (165c for 14-15m or until golden brown).
Note that I did also use convection option in the oven, for those 5 minutes at 175c, not sure if that matters as well or not. I baked only 1 tray at a time.
Thanks for the lovely site and recipes.
i made this swapping lots of ingredients with what i had on hand – quick oats, dark chocolate shavings, almond essence, dried sour cherries, light brown sugar only reduced to total 1C. Also i got lazy and didn’t want to shape balls, so i just shaped the dough into a log that i refrigerated for a couple hrs before cutting and baking..
the end result is a very pleasing adults’ cookie that reminds me of those slice-and-bake chocolate cookies with almond slivers, but are so much better! those were my first cookies ever, and i am delighted that they turned out so well.
i do think that following your original recipe to the T would treble the awesomeness tho! so this goes to my stash of cookies-to-be-christmas-gifted recipes; then i’ll make sure to have the right oats and chocolate :)
I don’t know what your policy is on swearing in the comments, but let me just say that I made these last night, and when I ate one, all I could say was “D*%n.” Like, in a good way. The white chocolate really is perfect with the salt. And I didn’t think I was a crunchy oatmeal cookie person, but I think these have changed my mind. Yum.
I stumbled across this blog by accident on Friday and decided to make these first. I used Ghirardelli white chocolate chips and everything turned out fine. I also chilled the dough prior to baking and in between batches. My cookies were not flat and have a nice chewy yet crunch consistency. Now if I only had milk to go along with these delicious cookies!
Tonight I (tried to) baked these for the 3rd time since I keep craving the cookies in ytour photos. Unfortunately, every time they have turned into one (delicious) giant flat cookie. I have tweaked and nudged in all directions based on readers’ comments and I’m just not sure what to do.
Unbelievably amazing. I used a 1tbsp scoop and it made exactly 5 dozen cookies. I can’t imagine fitting 12 2tbsp cookies on one tray! Made recipe exactly as directed and am now in love. The white chocolate almost melted to nothing, leaving just a nuance behind. Love it.
Hi Deb, can you recommend a brand of white chocolate that you really love? Thanks a bunch!
deb-
I just made these cookies for my annual family cookie bake off. I was so excited for them, but the final product of the first batch basically melted into soup. We tried to add more flour, and it helped somewhat, but after looking over the cooks illustrated version, we realized what went wrong. You put in the recipe that it needed 14 tablespoons, 1 3/4 cups of butter. I followed the “cups”, but when I noticed the other recipe, 14 tablespoons translates to 1 1/2 cups, not 3/4. When doubling, it added a ton of extra butter. I just wanted to help out any future bakers. I’m going to attempt them once again!
Sorry you had trouble but the recipe above is correct; it says 14 tablespoons or 1 3/4 sticks not cups. Hope you have success next time; they’re worth trying again for!
Absolutely delicious! I recommend adding a few more flakes of sea salt (7 or so) so that every bite has that equal balance of salty and sweet. I entered these in a bake-off (I won!) and so I decided to drop the word “oatmeal” from the name — didn’t want to scare off folks into thinking these were traditional, chewy, raisin-filled oatmeal cookies (these are so much better). But the name is all I would change about the recipe! YUM!
I made these swapping the white chocolate for an equal amount of butterscotch chips (I know, I know…those chips are kinda fake tasting but I have a secret love for them). I really liked the light texture of the cookie (versus heavy, gloppy, or heavily spiced oatmeal cookies), but I may cut down on the sugar a bit if I did them again with butterscotch. I loved adding maldon salt before baking – it really makes the cookie!
Hi Deb I was wondering, what would be the bake time if I made these smaller? Say… a little less than a tablespoon? Thanks! : )
I made these today for a cookie exchange I am part of tomorrow but I`m not sure they`ll make it out of the house. They are out of this world awesome!!! Thank you so much for sharing!!!!
I’ve made this recipe so many times, and it has been perfect every time.. but this time, I tried to double it and screwed up! Good thing is, my mistake made the BEST cookies ever! I doubled everything except for the butter, and only used half a cup of oats (because that’s when I realized that it was getting waaaay too dry!)… I decided to just go with the flow, and added dark chocolate chips to one portion, butterscotch chips to another, and white chocolate + walnuts to another.. baked 1 Tbsp portions for about 10 mins and holy cow! Chewy middle, crispy outside.. delicious! So glad I made the mistake!
I found your blog because a friend posted the link to these cookies back in December and have been a silent stalker since then, reading through past recipes, hitting surprise me more times than I’d like to admit. I’ve tried a few of the recipes (all delicious), but for some reason hadn’t gotten around to buying some white chocolate and making these cookies. Until this past Sunday…and I have to admit they are everything I’d hoped they would be and more. I agree with someone else who commented that if the recipe made 24 cookies for you, they must have been HUGE. I ended up with about 36+ decent sized cookes. all of which I want in my belly. Cooking them long enough definitely creates the magic. I pulled the first set out too early – they were slightly browned, but still soft in the middle. I kept the next sheet in longer until they were a deep golden brown. Perfection. Now that I’ve made the recipe that brought me here in the first place, I figured I may as well also take the time to comment and let you know that you = awesome and I love this site almost too much!
I made these using the German “Ritter Sport” white chocolate hazelnut candy bars. That’s all my corner store in San Francisco had in the way of white chocolate. They turned out GREAT. My new favorite cookie. More favorite than your adapted Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip cookie and I LOVE peanut butter. Thank you, I have made dozens of your recipes, all wonderful, and have FINALLY decided to post my kudos. Many Thanks!
I went online looking for alternative oatmeal cookie recipes that maybe wouldn’t turn out like a muffin top. Found this one pretty quick. Knew it was the one to try… right away! I was at my in-laws’ with their ingredients and made some changes and subs:
– I’m big on whole grain to “slow down” the sugar in the body, so I substituted half whole wheat flour and half oat flour for the white flour.
– I often whisk dry ingredients together in one of those 2 cup Pyrex measuring cups. Works great!
– Subbed half the butter with Smart Balance.
– Was out of brown sugar, so added 1.5 Tb of molasses (for “dark brown” sugar) to butter and 1c sugar before creaming.
– Added 1 tsp maple extract with vanilla.
– Used thick cut oats.
– Only had regular semi-sweet morsels. What the heck threw them in!
– Used regular sea salt.
– Refrigerated while I ate some raw dough–just to be sure it was OK–before rolling into balls. Worked well. An hour or two would be better.
Way good! Crispy outside, chewy inside. Good chocolate would be even better. Also tried rolling some balls of dough in various coarse ground nuts and seeds = pecans, pumpkin seeds, almonds, even some flax seeds. Almonds were the best and looked enticing.
Sweet and salty! That’s how I make my cooked oatmeal, too.
I tried this recipe yesterday and the cookies are amazingly delicious….I admittedly ate 3 with coffee for breakfast.
Mine turned out crispy on the outside and chewy in the middle and, they flattened out quite a bit while baking. The texture was fine…very cookie like but, I was SO intrigued by the ‘hollow’ description of your batch Deb. Can anyone suggest what I might have done wrong or what I could do for batch #2 to make this happen?
Thank you, Deb. These are delicious! I always try to bake them on the less cooked
side because I can’t stand overcooked cookies.After 13 minutes, these cookies were PERFECT. Sweet and salty goodness…My dad, who never says “mmm” was just smiling the whole time. Thanks!
Yum! I made these today, but tweaked it just a little bit!
Instead of the table salt, I used the coarse sea salt, added shredded coconut and topped each cookie with a FULL pinch of sea salt prior to baking! Delish! Thank you!
I don’t know if it’s a British thing but I’ve always been rather suspicious of this American salty/sweet thing :-) but having made a batch of these last night I have to say I am completely converted! And although they came out more flat than hollow they are indeed ‘shattery’ which I love.
White chocolate + salt = inspired!
I have no idea what Laura (post 101) is doing wrong, apart form the conversions being a pain I have no problem with U.S. cookie recipes, as they say ‘the proof of the pudding is in the eating’ and I’ve already eaten too many of these!
Holy Macaroni! These cookies are AWESOME! I’ve been wanting to try them for almost a year, and I finally did tonight. My husband and I agreed that they are the best oatmeal cookies we’ve ever had. I didn’t even have the sea salt on top and they tasted awesome just as they were. :)
These were SO delicious. I only used the 12 tablespoons of butter and that was plenty. I also turned my oven up to 360 which stopped my cookies from spreading. I baked one batch at 350 and one at 360 and at 360 the spreading wasn’t an issue. I posted them here: http://seddy5.typepad.com/blog/2011/05/crispy-chewy-salted-white-chocolate-oatmeal-cookies.html
These are awesome! I made this and refrigerated the dough and took it to work with me! I work at an hotel that has a cookie convection oven. I baked them for 14 minutes three trays at a time. The cookies turned out great! Thy look just like your pictures. And the taste, insane. Completely insane. The problem now is what happens when I want to bake a batch at home…no convection oven!
These are my favorite cookies so I calculated the nutrition information if anyone’s interested. per cookie (1/24 of recipe): 164 calories, 8 g fat, 21 carbohydrates, 2 g protein. definitely worth the splurge!
Made these on Friday for the weekend, and yes, they’re delicious. But:
1. Like others here have notes, when I used the full 2 Tbsp of dough per cookie, they were massive. Not that there’s anything wrong with huge cookies, but after the first tray came out of the oven, I reduced to 1 Tbsp of dough. That was more what I was looking for.
2. Tried one fresh from the oven and it was PERFECT. Had another few today, and while still delicious, they didn’t quite retain that OH-WOW-NO-WONDER-THIS-IS-ON-DEB’S-TOP-5-LIST quality.
But would I make them again? Definitely.
Hi-
I just made a batch of these for a sick friend. I love reading through a recipe and knowing most of the items are in my cupboard. I work in an organic foods cooperative so having to grab white chocolate on the way out the door was simple. I finished the first batch, tried one, and I agree that they are very very delicious. I also think that they are better completely cooled so that they crisp up rather than at that very tempting slightly warm stage. I’m off to drop a dozen off at the home of an ill friend. Cheers!
Wow wow wow, just made these without any chocolate, amazing!!! I used only 3/4 cup white sugar & will definitely put the dough in the fridge next time & not flatten them so much as they did spread but more crispness that way, so it’s ok. The texture & flavour of these is just a joy to eat :)
Thanks for the inspiration! I want to make these but couldn’t find flaky sea salt…should I just use regular sea salt, or omit it altogether?
You can use regular sea salt, but it’s best if it’s fine. Go easy on it.
These are in the oven and I hope they are as good as everyone states. I was looking for oatmeal choc chip recipe and came to your site. I really felt like making them, so I did not read the comment section. I thought these were going to be big, but I was attracted to the realization that I could bake the whole batch in one go. They have spread and are touching each other, but they still look good. One thing about big cookies though, when I want a snack I usually want two or three cookies. One of these cookies is really two or three. Will I be able to stop at just one? It is unlikely! My hubby is skinny, he can eat as many as he wants.
Thanks so much for this recipe! I’ve made it multiple times and they are my mom’s absolute favorite – every time I ask if she wants a certain cookie for a gathering, she’s always requested this one. I’ve made some of my own adaptations – cut the butter to 10 T (1 1/4 sticks) and the white sugar to 1/3 c. And then if we don’t have white chocolate, I’ll use butterscotch chips and walnuts. So good!
I have been looking forward to making these since Christmas (when I discovered them on your site). I’ve been dieting for my wedding these past 9 months & now that I am married, I’m eating sweets again! I’m making these right now and the first batch is INCREDIBLE!!!! Yum, yum, yum!
Hey! :)
I LOVE your blog… and your beautiful pictures help motivate me to cook/bake (I’m embarrassed to say that I REALLY need the motivation). Anyway, I just made these cookies and they were SO SO good. I actually ran out of sugar and had to use half granulated sugar/half brown sugar and the cookies still turned out great. :)
Thanks for sharing
I made these this weekend for a friend who completed the marathon and they were out of this world. No surprise as I’ve felt the same about all your recipes that I’ve tried (balsamic braised brussels sprouts are in my top 5 for sure!).
I think chilling the dough is definitely a good idea as my first batch did spread a lot of a silpat. I didn’t have white chocolate on hand but semi sweet chocolate chips and a few butterscotch chips worked well too.
I love these cookies. L-O-V-E. I’ve been making them for the past couple years as my go-to favorite cookie recipe…
Now, I have a question: My husband and I recently moved to Belgium, and I am desperately craving these…. However, I have not been able to find Baking Soda at the grocery store. Will they work without it? Or will they be flat and not as “shell-like”. (I did find Baking Powder, so at least there’s that.) Thoughts? Or am i doomed to live without these until I’m back in baking-soda country again.
Made these tonight and misread the ingredients. I only put in 3/4 of a stick of butter instead of 1 3/4. I didn’t realize the mistake until they were in the oven, but guess what? They turned out great (had no chocolate on hand, so I just made them without). Very tasty –I’ll be sending these morsels to my Nephew at St. John’s to keep them out of my mouth.
I made these cookies this past weekend. Used the original amount of butter and quick oats and not so great white chocolate and plain ol’d kosher salt. They were still amazing! I can’t imagine the result the next time I make these with the proper ingredients. The cookies are actually a little evil because I am so addicted – they call to me for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Thanks so much, Deb. Your recipes, as usual, are divine.
I do NOT bake, but I love crispy oatmeal cookies and I decided to make these based on the reviews…and they ARE the best cookies ever! Seriously good. Like many others, I was skeptical about the white chocolate, but they don’t even taste like they have white chocolate in them (I chopped/shaved my pretty well and didn’t leave “chunks” in there). I did one batch with semi-sweet chocolate but they were not nearly as good. I totally agree with those who ate them pretty much right out of the oven…it would be a sin to let them all cool before trying! I’m not sure they’ll maintain their crispness tomorrow but we’ll see…luckily i have to bring them to a cookies exchange, otherwise I think I would eat them all tonight! By accident, I discovered that you can make them more or less thin and depending on how much you smoosh your disks…try them! They are heaven on a plate. My new addiction.
I followed the recipe exactly and my cookies were wonderful. I took them to a party and everyone raved. Great recipe!
I hate to say this since all the reviews for these cookies are so smashing… but I made these cookies this weekend and was so disappointed… Something was just way off about them. They seemed to spread way to much when baking and weren’t puffy at all. They also were very inconsistent in how each tray cooked. Some trays turned out okay and others were a disaster. Maybe I screwed up the recipe somehow? I did use White Chocolate Chips (Sorry Deb!!) but it was all I had on hand. Maybe that was the problem? I think I need to try again!
Hi Courtney — No, it’s not just you. The comments to date have definitely made it sound like people get different results from these — many spread thin, some stay thick like mine. People seem to like them either way but they’re definitely something I need to get back and retest one day.
Hi! First time caller, long time listener. :) Regarding the recipe, when you say sugar, you mean regular every day sugar, not caster sugar? Love your site!
Hi Angela — Granulated or white sugar.
Hi Deb! Just wanted to give you a million thanks for sharing this recipe. I’ve repeated it many times in the last three months. Earlier, I found some dough balls I had frozen two weeks ago, threw them into the toaster oven and ten minutes later the cookies were as tasty and light and crispy as ever! Thanks again! Happy new year!
Hi Deb! Same here, I’ve been following along for a little while, but this is my first time commenting. I was searching for an oatmeal cookie recipe for a desert I decided to make for a dinner party tonight: maple ice cream sandwiches! I just tasted one of the cookies (I omitted the chocolate) while my ice cream churns… and they’re EXACTLY what I was looking for! Thanks so much.
(For the record, mine did spread quite a bit, but they’re crispy, with a little bit of chew to them, and 100% delicious. My salt could be saltier though… I used Himalayan salt.)
Made these for a baby shower this weekend & gave the extras to my dad. Just got this text message from him: “I think that was basically the best cookie I’ve ever had in my life. Thank you.”
Had to pass the compliment along!!
OH. MY. GOODNESS. Delicious. I think calling these oatmeal is a bit of a misnomer. They have oatmeal in them, yes, but they are far from traditional oatmeal cookies. To me they are like blondie brownies in cookie form. It is the caramelized sugar and butter goodness I think.
I was nervous about the salt, I knew it would taste good, I just didn’t want to accidentally put too much and then ruin the cookies. But just a couple of flakes were perfect!!
I probably should have read ALL the comments because I had the classic case of cookie spread described by others. I took these little disasters to work, and ya know what? People FREAKED out about how much they loved them and yelled at me for maligning them! They are by no means attractive but in the end they really appeal to people. Im going to try to make these again for my own satisfaction but I have a feeling my coworkers would kill me if I corrected the “mistake” that made them flatten out!
I have just made these and they are absolutely delicious! i will definitely be baking these again!
Like Maasikas said on June 13, 2008, I cooked these and in the oven the dough spread out thin and when I took them out they were crispy on top and falling apart and granola like on the bottom. They didn’t really taste like cookies, more like bad granola flapjacks. I think my dough was far runnier than the dough shown in the pic above…how to fix that? More flour? :(
I had no problems, and am having to slap hands so we can make them last for at least two more days!
My first time commenting on a recipe, but just had to rave about these cookies – and this incredible website by the fabulous Deb Perelman. I was looking for recipe to use the white choc I had and discovered these. OMG!!! I make cookies almost every week and these jumped to the top of the list of my son’s favorites. After he ate more than he should have he told me he loved me very much. What better praise is there than that?
Thank you, thank you, thank you, Deb!
Looking forward to making some of your Passover desserts.
I made these yesterday for a party, and they were a huge hit. I am not a white chocolate fan in the least, but I used a four oz bar and it really did make a difference. And the salt was perfect. One taster said, “these could convert me to white chocolate.” Thank you!
Deb, I used 12 T of butter rather than the 14 T and found them to be a tad dry (I think u were right about using 14T). I ended up adding some brown sugar whipped cream I had in the fridge to help them. I also subbed 3/4 cup whole wheat pastry flour plus 1/4 cup all purpose which turned out great. I agree with you on not using white chocolate chips. THANKS!
I made these tonight with a few small modifications. New favorite cookie of all time!! I know you said that you weren’t a fan of white chocolate before and either am I so I still did them with a really good dark chocolate. I also added about 1/4 cup creamy peanut butter subing for about the same amount of butter. Thank you so much for this recipe. Promise I’ll try white chocolate next time!
These are my absolute favorite cookies. The texture is spot on and the flavor is to die for. I like to add some dried cherries or cranberries in there as well. I also can not find flaky sea salt, so I just use coarse sprinkles.
Thank you so much for the recipe!
yum, just made these all the way in nz and they are sooo good. What a fantastic recipe, cheap and easy to make. I have already had 2 and they are still warm. They have oats in them so surely they must b healthy haha, that’s what I keep telling myself!!!!
Hi! I made these, and they were great, but they spread out like everyone said. But! I weighed my ingredients out, and think this may help some others:
135g AP flour
4g baking powder
3g baking soda
2g salt
198g white sugar
188g butter
57g brown sugar
289g oats
Good luck!
Somehow this did not turn up well for me. The cookies went flat as soon as they come out from the oven. They are not fluffy and crunchy like the photos :(
This happened to me before when I made any chocolate chips cookies recipes except the one from cooks illustrated.
Still taste yummy, though still a bit too sweet to my taste even after I reduce the white sugar amount to 180gr (I always weigh my ingredients since I don’t have measuring cups).
I would like to try it again, but can anyone tell me please why my cookies didn’t turn up like the photos. I tried also to put the dough in the fridge pre baking. Didn’t help…. Sigh….
I will never make another oatmeal cookie recipe again. As long as I live. These are the food of the GODS!
If anyone else is lucky enough to have a gourmet chocolatier who makes white chocolate chips for baking, 6 ounces equals about a cup. XOWD
I had the same problem that Luks did. My cookies spread out and are flatter than flat. Why does this happen?
So I’m beginning to practice my holiday cookie repertoire and hope to include these. I’ve made them at least 4x now and they all turn out a little differently. The one time they managed to look as lovely as yours, Deb, was when I (accidentally) melted the butter and let it beat for a few extra minutes (hoping to give it back some structure) until it was really light and airy – I had to squish the little dough balls together so they wouldn’t fall apart while shaping them. It was also the only time I’ve kept the full measure of sugar. Can’t figure out what makes it work yet, but I’ll report back if I do. Thanks for the fabulous recipe!
We made these this afternoon,a long with a batch of Orangette granola. The kitchen still smells heavenly, with all that caramelly goodness (and hey: oatmeal! so good for you too, amiright?) Half of the batch with candied ginger, the other half with a melty specialty milk chocolate bar, all chopped up. DEEEEElicious. Great recipe. merci!
Yes, my cookies fell flat,too! I was so looking forward to that beautiful ‘hollow’ texture. (I have a thing about texture!) but…the taste was awesome!! Of course we ate them soon after coming out of the oven so they were still a bit chewy. SO good. I only used about 4 oz. of white ghiradelli chips..it was plenty. After reading all of the comments, I think I will make a few adjustments like a bit less sugar, chilling the dough, and maybe even using a bit of whole wheat flour. Anyway, thanks for the wonderful website……I have tried many of your recipes and for the most part,have been great. Keep it up! Cathy
these cookies are amazing!! I always make them when I want to impress people :) never met an individual that does not fall over for them. Unbelievable, i would absolutely recommend these.
Hello, I am a longtime follower and devourer of these cookies! After watching them fall flat in the oven when the dough had just come out of the fridge, I conducted a little experiment. When cooked on our silpat, they were flat, but when cooked on parchment they kept their shape. I hope this is helpful-they are delicious either way!
Thank you again for making another fail safe recipe! You are my best not-so-secret weapon when I need a trustable source.
These are such a mixed bag for me — I make them all the time, as they always bring such joy, but they’re totally inconsistent — sometimes I get the shattery air pockets, sometimes dense and chewy, sometimes (as in my latest batch), just really flat and greasy — still delicious after spending some time on grease-absorbing paper towels, though. The flavor is awesome, in any case, but I’d advise: 1) definitely parchment over Silpat, and 2) dialing back the butter a TBSP or so and adding a bit more oatmeal, and 3) rolling into very neat little balls — when they do spread, they spread fast and far, and they are so rich, they’re really better as 2-3 bite cookies. Thanks, Deb, for a recipe I keep coming back to even if I’m not totally sure what I’ll get :)
These cookies are delicious. I am not a white chocolate fan but love these and so does anyone I share them with. The only change I have made is to divide the batch into about 36-40 cookies so they do not bake together on the baking sheets.
Thank you, Deb. Love your website!!
I have baked this cookies four times. Each time, I add some nuts (walnuts, coconuts…), dried cranberries…etc. They always turn out delicious :-))
Many people wrote that cookies came out flat. It helps that you put the
cookies on the tray in a refrigerator for 5 – 10 minutes just before baking.
Thank you, Deb
I was looking to impress and you had me at ‘scandalously good’ — that was exactly what I was looking for. I made these today and I got to enjoy 5 minutes of ‘Oh my god, this is so good. No, seriously, I am eating this slowly because I don’t want it to end!’ I was delighted; that is exactly why I love baking for others. :)
I wound up refrigerating the dough for a few hours because I’d accidentally gotten the wrong oats and had to rush off for a work thing. The balls seemed kind of big when I was rolling them, but they spread out really nicely into what I consider the perfect portion of a cookie. I got a great compliment, that the cookies looked like something in a bakery.
Mine came out kind of crispy-chewy, and that is perfectly okay with me. These are some seriously delicious cookies. Thanks so much for sharing this recipe!
Deb, this is recipe 5 I have tried of yours and every one has been phenomenal!
I made these today for a dinner party and they were a smash hit! I substituted about 4 tbsp of the butter with coconut oil. They turned out crispy delicious. Thanks Smitten!
Made these during the blizzard a few weeks ago. So amazing!!
Will be added to my list of favorites
Just made these..I added a little clove and a little cinnamon (I’m one that has to have a spicy oatmeal cookie) and I used chips (real, natural, vanilla) They were AWESOME! Thanks!
PS, I flattened mine more too beforehand.. to about 1/2 inch..they were perfect size and crunchiness
We’ve been making a similar recipe for years, it’s my husband’s favorite! Our favorite addition: dried apricots! Wonderfully bright flavor, perfect for spring or fall.
I was in the mood to bake cookies today and wanted to try something different than my usual go-to recipes. So, I searched google and your site came up. I looked at all the wonderful pictures of cookies and stopped when I got to this one. Something about the crispiness and oatmeal and white chocolate just drew me to them. The first batch is out of the oven and I couldn’t wait to try one, almost burned my tongue. However, I forgot the salt on the first batch. Even without the salt, these are really good cookies. I think next time I bake them, I may throw the oats in my little food chopper for a pulse or two, just to break them up a bit. Otherwise, wonderful! Thank you for the recipe!
I have made these before and they were a hit with my daughter and her college friends! But the blessing came when my dear friend made me some and surprised me with my own batch the day I had shoulder surgery! How wonderful to be able to munch on these delicious cookies while recovering on the couch with my ice pack! Yum!
I have made these probably 50 times now – they are a HIT among my friends, family and coworkers! Thank you for making me look like I actually know how to bake :) Such a fun, quick, easy recipe. People are really surprised by, and love, the big flakes of sea salt.
Made these with dehydrated strawberries and poppy seeds. Too good.
Hm, I had a problem with my cookies puffing up beautifully in the oven but falling to a flatness that would be envious in a chocolate chip but rather disappointing for these. /sigh
I suspect too-old baking soda is to blame, but they tasted delicious nonetheless. :)
Hi There, I just made these and they are great. They did spread out quite a bit so maybe next time I will try less butter? Anyway, I made these for a house guest coming on the weekend. How do you suggest storing these so they are as good in 5 days as they are now (or is it possible)? Thanks
Just made these and they were great. I reduced the white sugar by 1/4 c and added a 1/2 cup (packed) of toasted coconut (from sweetened flakes, hence the need to reduce a little sugar). I uses my 2″ scoop, so I have about 50 from the recipe, and I did not flatten them at all. 9 min in the oven and they are perfect. A really beautiful cookie, too, which is just what I need since I bake cookies for my church and like them to be attractive AND delicious. Thanks, Deb!!
I made these a few weeks ago. Everyone said the best cookies ever and requested more. I went to make them today. I only had frozen butter. Had no time to soften it to cream it. So I melted it instead, actually browned the butter. Added a bit more salt. These are even better!
I adore salty sweets so obviously these are a favorite of mine. Thanks for the delicious treat!!
These are the best cookies!
I increase the salt to 1/2 teaspoon, decrease the butter to 10 tablespoons and add a 1/4 c of heath bar toffee chips. nom nom nom…
OMG, I made dozens of these with white chocolate, craisins and a little orange zest for a large family Thanksgiving gathering . When I previewed them for the family I got a bit of kvetching about the oatmeal and the white chocolate and god forbid, CRAISINS! (how dare I sully a cookie with a CRAISIN?!) How fast did they disappear? How many requests did I get for the recipe? Needless to say, there were a huge hit.
This recipe is the bomb for oatmeal cookies!! Kinda sorry I used cheap chocolate (white almond bark) next time I’m springing for the good stuff. But they were still delicious. Leave some room on the pan they spread>
Fantastic recipe! It was really easy to put together so I’ll have to try a few variations next time I’m in the mood for cookies. One question though, in your instructions, you said to divide them into about 24 total dough balls. I feel like the cookies turned out HUGE. The spread of the dough was really surprising, so I had to make the balls even smaller. Is there an explanation for the crazy spread? Compared to your pictures, they didn’t seem quite as thick.
OMG, these cookies are out of this world. I have always had good results from SK recipes (my husband is so happy I discovered your kefta recipe). Today I made these for the first time.
They are so amazing, they might not last the night. I used this awesome white chocolate bar.
http://shop.divinechocolateusa.com/White-Chocolate-with-Strawberries/p/DIV-001170&c=DivineChocolate@Bars
The subtle strawberry note takes them to another level.
If I ever stop eating them, I will get the pictures on the blog later tonight. And, I will have to hide them from my husband.
They do make a mess when they shatter, though. I may be vacuuming the love seat where he sits.
By the way, I used two of the 3.5 ounce bars. The cookies were OK with that and there were no problems. I got 28 bars.
I meant cookies, not bars. Must be that sugar high.
just wanted to chime in and say that i successfully made these with steel cut oats today. i was feeling remarkably lazy and didn’t want to run to the store for a second time (i thought i had old fashioned and didn’t check before i left the house, anyhoo…) they still had that wonderful light crispness, the texture was just a bit nuttier.
I’ve been making these for at least a year and a half and they are undoubtably the best cookies I’ve ever made/had/seen. Whipping the egg whites first makes a huge difference in texture.
It’s 2014 and I am STILL bringing out this recipe whenever I need to impress/need a housewarming gift/no other cookie will do! I LOVE THESE COOKIES!!
These turned out great on a snow day! We made them with a smaller amount of white chocolate, plus about 1/4 cup of mini chocolate chips and about 1/4 cup of coconut. Perfection.
hi – haven’t made these yet. just wondering if they will freeze or better not? thanks, i’m a fan.
To AUSTE (253) in Belgium : to find BAKING SODA here, you should look for “BICARBONATE DE SOUDE” and if you don’t find it in any supermarket, you just ask for it in a Pharmacy. Hope this help if the problem wasn’t still not solved.
Deb, I love your site and all its wonderful recipes. Do continue the good work.
Thanks for sharing so much goodies.
Can I use instant oats?
BEST COOKIES IN THE WORLD! I am not joking. I took these to a party and they were gone in lightning speed. I have since vowed to never make any other cookie Again. Hahah and I am making a batch to send to overseas friends who simply must experience the crisp, chewy, buttery, sweet, salty delightfulness that are these cookies. Thanks Deb for yet another baking masterpiece!
I made these last week, and while delicious, they spread horribly. I looked online for a bunch of tips on how to prevent spreading, and I thought why not try to bake it in a muffin pan? This way, they’ll be inhibited from spreading too much. I lined each with a small piece of parchment paper, and as soon as the batch was done, I flipped the cookies out of the pan onto a large piece of parchment paper, and let it cool. As they were cooling I pressed them a bit to make them flatter, and they came out beautiful looking as well as tasting as described above. Maybe I lucked out, but if anyone’s having spreading issues, maybe try this?
Going to try baking these cookies again. Boy, did they spread. 12 to a large baking sheet resulted in one big cookie so I cut it into 12 squares. Very tasty but too buttery for my taste so will cut back on the butter and make 48 cookies instead of 24 and allow plenty of room for spreading. Determined to have these cookies turn out pretty next time so they look as good as they taste.
I just made a batch. They spread just as the previous commenters described. What causes this? How do I prevent this? Thanks.
I love this recipe and I’ve made it probably a half-dozen times or so, always the same as far as I can tell. It comes out two different ways, though: 1. Delicious and crackly/crunchy, but with no hollow. 2. TRANSCENDENT, with the hollow. Sometimes, I’ve even had some of each in a single batch. Any guesses what makes the difference?
I have made these cookies 5 times over the last year. Everyone loves them and requests the recipe. I use a 3/4 oz (size 40) cookie scoop and I always get 30 cookies. They do spread, so don’t put more than 12 on a sheet. I do hate to admit that I use Guittard Choc-au-Lait vanilla milk chips (hard to find), and they are delicious. The biggest compliment to these cookies was from my neighbor who “hates’ sweets. He tasted one at a birthday party and actually asked me to make him a batch. Thanks for a great recipe
I reduced the amount of butter to 170 grams (12Tb or 1.5sticks) after reading other comments about spreading too much, it also helps to keep the butter cool and not runny when you beat it with the sugar. This way the biscuits only spread out slightly and tasted delicious. Great recipe, thanks.
I made these last night using 170g butter as recommended above and they turned out brilliantly – nice and crispy and delicious with Lindt white chocolate!
I made these cookies, when making them I got side tracked and doubled the amount of oats, and when my almost full canister of oats was gone, I was thinking Deb is crazy that’s a lot of oats! But of course it was my error and I had to make another base to compensate, by that time I was too tired to bake the cookies, especially since I would be baking a lot of them, so I made the dough into a roll, wrapped it, stuck it in the fridge and forgot about it, for a week. Finally baked them this evening and they baked up beautifully and are delicious. Point of the story is, the dough stays well in the fridge for at least a week! Off topic, I adore artichokes and think chicken breasts should be banished-from everywhere!
Just enjoyed one warm from the pan though I used good quality dark chocolate, it’s all I had and the 12:30 am craving was strong, so I went ahead with it anyway. Long story short, I 100% agree that these should be made with white chocolate over dark, for anyone considering the latter. While certainly delish, these would be outstanding with the lighter stuff. (Dark is good, but does seems slightly out of place, if I may).
Love your website! I’ve been coming here for a couple years now and have made 50+ of your recipes (per my conservative estimate), but I am a first time commenter – just wondering if I was to add a bit of coconut, how much should I add and whether that would change the proportions of the other ingredients?
Wow, thank you. I’d be more inclined to swap some of the oats with an equal volume or weight of coconut.
How would you suggest adding fresh cranberries to this recipe without changing the overall texture to this cookie?
I haven’t had luck with adding fresh fruit to drop cookies. They taste great right out of the oven, become stale a couple hours later, thus, no shelf life. Better off with dried.
I bake these with pistachios and dried cranberries (3 ounces of white chocolate, cranberries, and pistachios). They are fabulous and dissaappear quickly. I also make them flute-free with whatever GF all-purpose flour I ave in hand.
i just tried to make these and the cookies dissolved into conjoined puddles! any idea where i went wrong?
I have made these…oh so many times. Deb has got it 100% correct – use nice white chocolate. It’s the different between good and sublime. I like mine a little on the soft side of crispy and usually take them out a minute or two earlier than the recipe calls. Plenty crispy still, perfectly chewy on the inside
I’ve made these many times, just made them again. Remind me not to make cookies when the temperature is close to 90. Even though I chilled them for a few minutes, one pan spread all over and I ended up with one giant cookie. They’ll taste terrific anyway!
These were great. I made some without white chocolate, some with and some with dark chocolate. Another great SK recipe!
Deb, these are a huge favourite at our house, and a friend of my son’s recently asked me to bake *a few* for her wedding next week – 80 people are coming! They have to have two each, no?? My freezer is currently filled with 60 of these delicious cookies, with more to come…thank you so much for this fantastic recipe!!
Oh god these are evil and delicious. Used white chocolate chips and a splash of leftover toffee bits as that’s whatvwe had on hand
I made this recipe in 2008 when it was first posted and I had used white chocolate chips. Despite my blunder these were still the best cookies I have ever made.
I made these tonight. I thought they were good, but they have not unseated my favorite cookie recipe, which is Salted chocolate chip tahini cookies.I think that in general, I like cookies that have a more cakey consistency. These were a bit buttery for my taste.
Do you have a favorite version? I know there are a few popular tahini chocolate chip cookies out there, don’t have a favorite yet.
These were incredible. They were the right combo of chewy and crispy-buttery and unbelievably easy to make. I even committed the crime of using white chocolate chips (but at least they weren’t Nestle or grocery-store brand! Does that help??), and they were still great, with the exposed chips on top all toasted and nutty.
I just made them tonight, they are amazing! I love making oatmeal cookies and spread vanilla ice cream in the middle, it’s always a hit with everyone. Those did not disapoint, they are prefectly crispy and chewy at the same time.
Any chance we could have weights for ingredients here? I love these cookies but it’s such a hassle getting all the measuring cups out…
these were amazing. Made them for my co workers and they devoured it in minutes
These are SO good. You definitely need the good quality chocolate. I made 24 cookies and they spread quite a lot. Not sure if that was something I did but next time I’ll make them smaller. I can’t wait to make again. And despite mixed reviews, I may try the dark chocolate next time.
Because I always scour the comments for those who have vegan-ized recipes, I feel compelled to post that these turned out great when I swapped in Earth Balance for the butter and a flax egg for the egg. They did spread a bit, but I like them thin and crispy. I’m going to make them again and perhaps refrigerate the shaped dough before baking to see if I can keep them a bit thicker.
But this gets a vegan thumbs-up!
Thank you for this, Danielle. I’m a vegetarian and always have Earth Balance on hand and my bestie just went vegan (a formerly schnitzel-loving German gal), so I wanna make these for her.
can chocolate be used instead of white chocolate?
I have definitely made these with chocolate and they were a great hit with the people I gave them to. They were also gluten free and no one noticed.
I have made these many times and ADORE them. One of my favorite versions of this cookie is to sub apricots and toasted chopped almonds for the white chocolate – or use all three! So good.
I just made these last night and they were delicious! My only problem… they flattened a lot and didn’t come out like your photos. I followed the recipe perfectly.
I have returned to this recipe again and again, occasionally using differemt forms of chocolate or adding nuts; they are my absolute favorite cookie. They do tend to be a little inconsistent so I looked up all the weights this time for good measure. Thank you for this jewel.
I have made these many times, always to rave reviews! The recipe as written makes approx 50 cookies that spread to 2.75 inches each. Make sure to leave room between. I usually use Lindt white chocolate bars but Trader Joe’s sometimes has real white chocolate chips around the holidays. Also, I think that refrigerating the dough for a few hours or overnight makes them better. The shattering texture is real! So amazing!!
I’ve made these cookies countless times and every time, without exception, people FREAK OUT about how delicious they are. I took them to a random person’s Halloween party last year and had the host track me down through our mutual friend just to demand the recipe. They’re my go-to cookie when I want to wow a crowd! I’ll be making them again tonight for a Game of Thrones gathering.
Hey Deb, any chance of a conversion to grams for this classic winner of a cookie recipe?
I’ve made these maybe 100 times – they are my go-to cookie for picnics, parties and when I just want to treat my household! People are always shocked at how good they are, particularly because many folks don’t really care for white chocolate – but in this application, the white chocolate is absolutely perfect. Sometimes if I use a little too much butter they spread out, but I find that’s helped by chilling the dough a little bit, and making sure you spread them out nicely in the pan. Also, I take them out a little earlier than the recipe calls for and let them crisp up outside the oven (keeping them on the cookie sheet and allowing them to solidify). That makes them the PERFECT texture! Thank you SO much for this recipe – people constantly rave about my “perfect” cookies!
These cookies are amazing! My husband dislikes white chocolate and oatmeal cookies but he raves about these cookies. Delicious!
Just made these and they are delicious. However, they definitely fell more into the thin and lacy category than the pictures on the post. They spread a lot and had to be cut apart. Perhaps I over beat the butter and sugar? Maybe a 30 minute chill? Thoughts?
This is an easy and delicious recipe. I used white chocolate chips as that’s what I had and I don’t think the recipe suffered. Definitely don’t skip the sea salt at the end.
Oh hi it’s cookie season and I’m wondering if you know how long these will keep? Thanks!!
Great base to mess around with. My mods: swapped 3/4c butter w mashed sweet potato, added cinnamon to flour mixture, used chocolate chips, cranberries, orange zest. Big hit all around!
Love this recipe, and have to restrain myself from making it too often!
I have a general question for you regarding any of your baked recipes. We’ve moved rather frequently, and every time I’ve figured out an oven (down to the exact times required for favorite recipes), a move comes up and I’m left to try and discern baking times with different equipment. Le sigh. Any thoughts on your personal preference using convection bake with adjusted bake times vs. standard?
I chose this recipe because I was looking for an oatmeal cookie that wasn’t cakey or containing dried fruits, nuts or cinnamon; I wanted a crisp, summer oatmeal cookie. One I could use as a fruit salsa dipper or to crumble as a garnish for various parfaits or fruit salads or sundaes. This is the one. It’s not so flavorful as to be tempted to eat them all before using them as planned, but as a cookies can be dressed up by a smear of jam or your fabulous hot fudge sauce or butterscotch sauce cold from the fridge. Perfect for summer!
Thank you for sharing this recipe, which is now our home’s go-to cookie sandwich base. Two of these cookies with some natural peanut butter or better yet Tillamook Double Nutty Peanut Butter ice cream sandwiched between these, and it’s divine!
Made these today. I cut the white chocolate amount by half and traded it for chopped candy cane Kisses. I hardly ever bake, but my wife makes Smitten Kitchen recipes all the time, so I’m hoping to provide a surprise when she gets home.
A flake or two of salt on each cookie? Ha! That doesn’t cut it with me…8-10 flakes for us! I mixed my chocolates and added dried sour cherries and some unsweetened coconut flakes as well. These are absolutely delicious. I can also see these with macadamia nuts, as others mentioned. Yummy! And thanks for a really terrific cookie!
Best cookie ever! I added macadamia nuts and it is now my happy bliss cookies. Thank you for this recipe. It’s the perfect combination of texture, sweet and salty. Perfect amount of of sugar so you might dangerously eat too many!
Can this dough be frozen and then baked from frozen?
Yes
Probably my favourite ever cookie recipe! I use Dove’s gluten free flour and bake them a little longer as I like them crispy :-) I also threw in a handful of flaked almonds for a bit of extra crunch. This is one of those recipes that can take a bit of adaptation but the central tenet of good white chocolate & flakey salt it what makes them so perfect.
Love this recipe. I am a big fan of cookies and I often end up buying them when I can actually make hem at home!
I have tried baking some cookies but they often break. I have to try your recipe!
Will try and let you know my experience:)
I made these a few days ago, and because I’m a total heathen, (😉) I used not only semi-sweet chocolate chips, but also toffee chocolate bar bits, a half bag of each. This was like the 1000th time I’ve made this recipe and as usual it turned out amazing! I agree that good quality white chocolate is best, but even with my plebeian substitutions, this recipe works! Even my daughter who is a confirmed soft and chewy cookie kind of gal loves them! The only other alteration I made was to add 1/2 tsp cinnamon. Bear in mind that I only did this because it seems to work better when using semi-sweet chocolate. If I was using white, I would have left it out and followed the recipe exactly! Thank you so much for this recipe, it’s a keeper in our house!
Finally made these tonight. Accidentally switched the amounts of baking soda & baking powder, but it was too late since it was all already in the flour. Doubled the recipe, using 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour + 1/2 cup almond flour. For sugar, used only 2 cups total – a mix of white, brown & coconut palm sugars. Used 16 tablespoons Kerrygold unsalted butter + 6 tablespoons Earth Balance margerine. Only used 4 cups total whole (long-cooking) oats & added chopped macadamias & walnuts with the (*flinch*) Giaradelli mini white chocolate chips. Tablespoon of vanilla, baked 14 mins on parchment. I chilled the dough in 1-tablespoon rounds for an hour in the fridge & they stayed a nice shape during baking. Even with my mistakes/changes/subs, these are PHENOMENAL. Thank you, Deb!!
I just made these! I’ve made them before and they were completely delicious and hassle free. This time however I had a bit of a problem with the cookies spreading together. I was using two cookie trays for 24 cookies – next time I would divide them over three trays. I managed to salvage though by slicing up the giant amalgamated cookie into pieces when still hot from the oven. They are now cooling nicely and will be wonderful.
I was looking for a cookie base for butterscotch-dark chocolate cookies and this one is tasty but spread a lot, even after chilling the dough. The bake was very uneven, with raw middles and already brown edges, leading to over-baking.
I should have stuck with the chocolate-pecan recipe I know and love, but this one IS delicious!
Made these cookies this afternoon and your 5 banana banana bread this morning. Both were outstanding! Happy holidays!
I made this recipe and put half the dough in the freezer, and baked half. The first batch I baked were flat and crispy. I baked the second half and added 1-1/2 T. of flour, and they look like the picture, they aren’t lacey. Delicious! Thanks for the recipe!
What do you recommend for white chocolate for baking?
For these cookies, almost anything works. But in general, the better the chocolate brand, the better their white chocolate — I like Guittard, Callebaut, and Valrhona.