If you live in a house divided between crunchy and chewy oat-cookie-lovers, this recipe is for you: Bake them for less time for soft and chewy cookies or leave in the oven a bit longer for cookies with a delightful crunch. Jam-packed with dried fruit and nuts, the cookies also contain two forms of oats for even more texture and flavor. Oat flour lends tenderness and a natural nutty sweetness, while King Arthur Rolled Oats make the cookies hearty but not too toothsome.
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Preheat the oven to 375°F. Lightly grease 2 baking sheets or line with parchment.
In a stand mixer fitted with the flat beater or working with a hand mixer in a large bowl, beat together the butter and sugar until well mixed, 2 to 3 minutes. Add the egg, vanilla, cinnamon, and salt, then beat until fluffy, another 1 to 2 minutes, scraping the bowl as needed.
Beat in the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and oats until well combined.
Mix in the fruit and nuts until evenly incorporated.
Scoop the dough into golf ball-sized rounds of dough (about 2 tablespoons/40g each); a jumbo cookie scoop works well here. Distribute the dough balls evenly between the 2 pans (12 cookies per pan), spacing them about 1 1/2" apart.
Using your hands, flatten the dough into pucks about 2" in diameter and 1/3" to 1/2" thick. If the dough starts to stick, lightly wet or grease your hands.
Bake for 15 to 16 minutes for soft cookies, or until just set around the edges and pale in the center, or 18 to 20 minutes for crunchy cookies, or until golden brown. Halfway through baking, rotate the pans from front to back and top to bottom.
Remove the cookies from the oven and let them cool on the pan before serving at room temperature. (Cookies are fragile until cool.)
Storage information: Store leftover oat cookies in an airtight container, at room temperature, for several days. If you want to keep them soft and chewy, store them with a brown sugar saver or with a slice of white bread. Freeze for longer storage.
Tips from our Bakers
This recipe was developed using King Arthur Rolled Oats and Oat Flour. Since oats vary greatly in how much liquid they can absorb, cookies made with different products may spread more or less. For best results, bake a test cookie first. If it spreads too much, add additional oat flour to the dough and test-bake another cookie.
