Chai oatmeal cookies are classic chewy oatmeal cookies filled with cozy spices like cinnamon, ginger, cloves, and cardamom. It's the perfect cookie to enjoy with a warm mug of coffee or tea!
Recipe summary
Flavor/texture: Chewy, buttery oatmeal cookies are filled with cozy chai spices. They're the perfect fall cookie!
Chilling time: 1 hour
Yield: 36 cookies
Similar to: Ranger Cookies and Chai Oatmeal Sandwich Cookies
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Ingredients and substitutions
- Wet ingredients - Unsalted butter, brown sugar, granulated sugar, and eggs add moisture and flavor to your cookies. Unsalted butter and the listed salt can be substituted with salted butter if desired.
- Dry ingredients - All-purpose flour, old fashioned oats, and baking soda balance with the wet ingredients and add structure and lift to your cookies. Quick cook oats can work as a substitute for old fashioned, but your cookies will have slightly less chewy texture. I don't recommend using steel cut oats because they're thicker and take longer to cook through.
- Flavor - Vanilla extract, salt, and chai spice blend add flavor to your cookies. Chai spice blend can be store bought or homemade (try my recipe - chai spice blend).
How to make oatmeal cookies
- Mix room temperature cookie dough ingredients together in a large bowl.
- Scoop chilled dough with a medium cookie scoop.
- Spread dough balls evenly on a parchment lined baking sheet.
- Bake until golden brown around the edges and set across the tops.
Heather's Top Tip
For accurate results every time, use a kitchen scale to measure flour by weight. If you don't have a kitchen scale, use the spoon and level method. Stir the flour (especially if it's been packed down in a bag/container), then gently spoon into the measuring cup, leveling off the top with a knife. Scooping with a measuring cup compacts flour into the cup and adds up to 25% extra to the recipe, resulting in dry, bland cookies that don't spread properly.
Cookie tips and tricks
Room temperature ingredients - Room temperature ingredients mix together evenly to create a perfectly mixed dough (without streaks of unmixed ingredients).
Bring ingredients to room temperature quickly - Slice sticks of butter into small, ½ inch slivers. Small pieces warm up faster than a whole stick. Place eggs into a bowl and cover with very warm tap water. They'll come to room temperature in about ten minutes.
Use parchment - Use parchment paper or a silicone baking mat instead of greasing your pan. Adding grease to a baking sheet causes cookies to spread more while baking.
Cookie scoop - Use a cookie scoop (I used a medium OXO cookie scoop for this recipe) for perfectly sized, round cookies. Cookie scoops work especially well for a sticky dough like this one.
More tips - Check out my full post, 10 tips for baking cookies, for more tips on baking a perfect batch of cookies.
Frequently asked questions
Yes, either kind of oats will work in this recipe, but you'll get different results. Old fashioned oats are more "meaty" and substantial. They add chewiness and texture to your cookies. Quick cooking oats are powdery and thin. They'll cook into the dough and leave less texture than old fashioned oats.
Your cookies will keep for up to 5 days in a tightly sealed container at room temperature. To help keep cookies fresh, place a slice of bread in the container with the cookies. While the bread gets stale, the cookies stay soft and fresh. Replace the bread slice as needed.
Yes, in 2023 I updated this recipe based on reader feedback and changed the following ingredients: Less flour and more oats (for a chewier, more flavorful cookie), plus more chai spices, vanilla extract, and brown sugar (for more flavor).
Yes. This recipe requires the chilling step to help the dough firm up so that it doesn't spread too much while baking. No-chill cookie recipes include more flour, which creates a slightly blander, drier cookie once baked. This recipe uses slightly less flour and requires chilling to prevent spreading and results in a more flavorful, buttery, and chewy cookie.
Recommended
📖 Recipe
Chai Oatmeal Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup (226 g) unsalted butter, room temperature
- 1 cup (213 g) brown sugar
- ½ cup (99 g) granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 ½ cups (180 g) all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoon chai spice blend
- 3 cups (267 g) old fashioned oats
Instructions
- In a large bowl, add butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar. Using a hand mixer or stand mixer, beat until fluffy, about a minute. Add eggs and vanilla extract. Beat until fluffy, about a minute.
- In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, chai spices, baking soda, and salt. Gradually stir dry ingredients into butter mixture until just combined. Add old fashioned oats and stir until just combined. Dough will feel sticky.
- Cover bowl or wrap dough in wax paper. Chill for at 1 hour (up to 24 hours) in the refrigerator. Refrigerating helps the flavors meld and also creates a firmer, less sticky dough to roll into balls.
- Preheat oven to 350℉. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
- Remove dough from refrigerator and scoop dough using a 1.5 tablespoon (medium) scoop or shape by hand into 1.5 inch balls.
- Place cookie dough balls 2 inches apart onto a prepared baking sheet. Bake for about 11-13 minutes, or until lightly browned around edges and across the tops. Allow to cool for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.
Equipment Recommendations
Notes
- Storage: Cookies will keep for up to 5 days in a sealed container. To help keep cookies fresh, you can place a slice of bread in the container with the cookies. Replace the bread slice as needed.
- Dough storage: Raw dough will keep in the refrigerator for 3 days. Cookie dough balls (and baked cookies) freeze well, up to 3 months in a sealed plastic container or freezer bag. Allow frozen balls to thaw for up to 10 minutes on the baking sheet before baking, or add 1-2 minutes to the baking time.
- Tips: Be sure to check out my 10 tips for baking cookies, based on reader comments and questions!
Where can find the updated (2023) version of this cookie? Thank you.
Hi sherry, the recipe card shown is the updated version. You can hit the 'jump to recipe' button at the top of the page to take you straight to it!
Cookie was good but didn’t taste anything like chai. I would probably double the amount of chai spice mix
Hi Nadisha, I'm sorry to hear you didn't enjoy the chai oatmeal cookies. This recipe has been updated as of April 2023 to add extra chai spices, more vanilla extract, slightly more brown sugar, more oats, and less flour to allow the flavors of the cookie to shine. We hope you give the recipe a try again!
Wanted to make good old oatmeal cookies, but a little different, and this recipe looked great. I followed the recipe as written, except I added a cup of raisins and 3/4 cup chopped pecans. The cookies stayed nice and thick after being baked, and are tasty. I think they needed the raisins and nuts. If I made them again, I would also add at least one more teaspoon of chai spice. The dough tasted spicy but the finished cookies, not as much as I'd like. Thanks for the recipe!