Best Steel-Cut Oats Chocolate Chip Cookies Recipe

Ingredients

See recipe card for exact amounts.

Ingredient Notes

oats – the key to this recipe is to use quick cooking steel cut oats and cook them before you make the cookies with them. I have not tried this exact recipe with any other type of oat. 

butter – I like unsalted sweet cream butter. If using salted butter then the additional salt called for in this recipe can be left out. 

large eggs – we take the eggs out of the refrigerator about an hour before we make the cookies.

flour – we use regular all purpose flour and have not tried this with any other flour. I am sure at least half of the flour can be swapped with whole wheat flour for an even heartier cookie. 

sugar – we use equal parts white sugar and light brown sugar. Dark brown sugar can be used if that is what you have.

baking powder – this is the leavening agent we chose to make these fluffy. 

salt – I use regular table salt, kosher salt or sea salt can be used if you don’t have table salt. Keep in mind that kosher salt has larger flakes and sea salt has more minerals giving it a more complex flavor profile.

vanilla – we like pure vanilla extract and not imitation vanilla or vanilla flavoring. 

chocolate chips – use your preference, either milk chocolate chips or semi-sweet chocolate chips. 

How to make steel cut oat cookies

1. Take the butter and eggs out of the refrigerator. 
2. Make the quick cooking steel cut oats according to the package directions and cook for the longest time specified. Pour them into a bowl and let them cool while the butter and eggs come to room temperature, about 45 minutes to an hour.
3. Preheat the oven to 375°. Line the cookie sheets with parchment paper.
4. Mix the flour, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl with a spoon.
5. In a large mixing bowl, using a hand mixer, cream the butter, sugars and vanilla together until well combined; add the eggs and beat until combined. Add the cooked oats and mix until combined.
6. Add the dry ingredients and stir, with a large spoon, until combined. Stir in the chocolate chips. 
7. Drop by rounded tablespoons, or use a cookie scoop, onto the prepared baking sheet and bake for 9-11 minutes, or until they look set and no indentation remains when touched. 
8. Let cool on the cookie sheet for about 5 minutes before moving to a wire rack to cool the rest of the way.  

Recipe tips

• A stand mixer with the paddle attachment can be used instead of a hand mixer, or these can be mixed by hand if you don’t have either one. 
• I use a one tablespoon cookie scoop. 
• We reserve 1/4 cup of the chocolate chips to put on the tops of the cookie dough before we bake them so they look like the ones you see in these photos. The chocolate will get all over the zip top bag if that is what you store them in. If you aren’t concerned with being able to see most of the chocolate chips then you can add all of them in at once.
• I use a 17 1/2″ X 13″ aluminum baking sheet and it holds 15 cookies. 

Variations

• ​Swap the chocolate chips with raisins and add about 1/2 teaspoon of ground cinnamon. 
• Add in about 1/4 cup of chopped nuts.
• Replace half (or all) of the chocolate chips with 1/2 cup of dried fruit, such as cranberries, apricots, currents or dates.
• Use a different flavor baking chip, there are many good options. Need some ideas? Taste of Home has a great article about 13 kinds of baking chips.

Tips for making good cookies every single time

• Only bake cookies on the rack that is nearest the center of the oven. I almost never bake anything on more than one rack at a time in my electric oven. 
• Make sure you don’t put the cookie dough onto a hot cookie sheet or load one up while it is sitting on the stove. The heat will make your cookies spread before they start baking and will result in a flatter cookie. 
• Start with room temperature ingredients. I take the butter, eggs any other liquid that goes into the recipe out of the refrigerator about 1 hour before I want to start making the cookies.
• The type of pan used makes a big difference in how brown the cookies will get. An aluminum pan, like the one I use most, results in a light cookie with almost no browning, and a dark non-stick pan results in a browner cookie. For the most part, I like my baked goods to be lightly browned so I tend to use lighter pans. 

Storage

Store cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for 3 or 4 days. As with any home baked cookie these are best if eaten within a few days because they start to dry out. These were still edible on day 5 but were definitely not as good as on day 1 or 2. 

Is there a difference between oatmeal and steel cut oats?

The difference between steel cut oats and rolled oats is the way the whole oat groats are processed. Steel cut oats are cut into 2-3 pieces with a steel blade, old-fashioned oats are steamed and then rolled to flatten them. 

Faith over at Get2dRoot Health and Wellness has a great article where she gives the rundown on the different types of oats. There is even a picture so you can see the difference between everything from oat groat to oat flour. 

Are steel cut oats harder to digest than regular oats?

Because steel cut oats are not steamed and rolled like old fashioned oats they take longer to digest than old fashioned oats or quick oats. Steel cut oats are also known as pinhead oats, course oatmeal or Irish oats).