Loaded Oatmeal Cookies

These oatmeal cookies earn the “loaded” title. Every bite hits you with something different: chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, plump raisins, and toasted walnuts all packed into a brown sugar and cinnamon oat dough.

Brown sugar is the only sweetener here, and it does more than add sweetness. The molasses in brown sugar keeps these cookies chewy and soft long after they cool. White sugar would make them crisper, but chewiness is the whole point of a loaded cookie this thick.

The dough is more mix-ins than batter, which means each cookie is dense, chunky, and substantial. Drop rounded tablespoons and leave room between them. They spread during baking.

Kitchen Tips

• Cream the butter and brown sugar until genuinely fluffy, not just combined. That air you’re beating in determines how light or dense the cookies turn out
• Pull them from the oven when the edges are lightly browned but the centers still look slightly underdone. They firm up during the 2-minute rest on the cookie sheet
• Let the cookies cool on the sheet before moving to a rack. Transferring them too soon breaks them apart since the melted chips haven’t set yet
• Use quick-cooking oats, not old-fashioned rolled oats. Quick oats absorb more moisture and create a denser, chewier texture

Variations

• Peanut butter loaded: Add a half cup of peanut butter to the dough and swap walnuts for peanuts
• White chocolate cranberry: Replace chocolate and butterscotch chips with white chocolate chips and dried cranberries for a holiday version
• Double chocolate: Use cocoa powder in the dough and keep the chocolate chips for a chocolate-on-chocolate loaded cookie