Easy Oatmeal Walnut Cookies

I've been using this particular recipe for ages, literally, twenty years or so. And it's a no-fail recipe, guaranteed. That sounds like a lot, but this recipe delivers.

And except for the walnuts, it uses simple ingredients that are probably in your pantry right now. One of our favorite cookie recipes, especially when we slightly underbake them and we get almost a gooey cookie.

Oats appear often in our recipes, from the perfect oatmeal breakfast muffins to an easy peach crumble, or our fantastic carmelitas bars.

About this recipe

• Very easy to make: you simply mix the ingredients in one bowl. I recommend an electric mixer to make the process easier and faster, but you can make them by hand with a whisk, a large bowl, and some arm muscle.
• Flavor: the mix of sugars and butter makes delicious cookies. They have a caramel undertone and just enough sweetness to let the flavors of the oats and walnuts come through.
• Chewy texture: if stored properly, the texture remains wonderful for a few days. The key is baking them just until they are dry but slightly soft in the center.
• Make ahead: you can keep the cookie dough refrigerated for up to a day before baking it. Or freeze the unbaked cookie balls for up to a month and bake them directly, no need to thaw them!

Ingredients

• Oats: rolled oats (also called old-fashioned oats or traditional oats) are the best for this recipe because they add texture. But you can use instant oats.
• Unsalted butter.
• Sugar: both white, granulated sugar, and brown sugar are used in this recipe.
• Egg: fresh, large.
• Milk: I use whole milk but you can use low-fat or almond milk.
• All-purpose flour.
• Baking soda: make sure it's not expired.
• Vanilla: I use pure vanilla extract or pure vanilla paste when available, but a good vanilla essence (artificially flavored) also works. 
• Salt: I like to use kosher salt when baking. But regular table salt works just fine.

Type of oats to use

There are 2 types of oats good for making oatmeal cookies:

• Rolled oats - also called traditional or old-fashioned oats, are medium-sized and shaped like irregular discs (image below). It's the one in the box we grew up with, that is used to make porridge, the best granola recipe, or oatmeal muffins. This is the most commonly used oat and a sure way to get good results.
• Instant oats - also known as quick oats, are more processed than the ones above. I find that they lack enough texture, but you can absolutely use them.

How to make oatmeal cookie dough

One of my favorite things about this oatmeal cookie recipe is that the base mixture (which is pretty similar to chocolate chip cookies) is super simple to make.

• Mixers: using an electric mixer or stand mixer with the paddle attachment will make this process much easier. The cookie dough needs to be mixed for several minutes in the beginning, which is harder to do by hand.
• Creaming: it's important that the butter is soft and that it's well mixed with the sugar, until very creamy. Add the sugars gradually so they incorporate better, especially if using a handheld electric mixer.
• Adding the egg: don't overlook this step and take the time to beat it for several minutes. It will help the cookies' texture and shape. The dough should be soft and creamy (image below).
• Adding the flour mixture: also called dry ingredients, they include the flour, salt, and baking soda. Add them at low speed. We don't want to develop the gluten in the flour, so it needs to be mixed until well incorporated but no more than that.

Baking

• Preheated oven: make sure it's at the right temperature when you put in the cookies.
• Cookie sheets: I like to recommend turning the baking pan around (back to front) halfway through baking so the cookies bake better. Ovens transfer heat differently and this is the easiest way to bake them evenly, especially if you use a large baking sheet.
• Preparing the pan: after years of baking homemade cookies, I like to lightly butter the pan. It works well for me. But you can use parchment paper or some other type of lining.

Freezing cookies

The way to make a large batch and have freshly baked cookies any time you want is to freeze them individually.

It takes 3 simple steps:

• Measure and freeze: pretend you're about to bake them, measure them (with a cookie scoop), and place them on a cookie sheet, no need to leave much space between them. Pop the cookie sheet into the freezer.
• Transfer to a bag: once the raw cookie balls are frozen rock solid transfer them to a plastic bag or freezer container. That way you won't have the cookie sheet stuck in the freezer until you decide to bake.
• Bake straight from the freezer: when you want fresh oatmeal walnut cookies, take the number of frozen cookie balls you want to bake, place them on a cookie sheet, and bake them as directed in the recipe below. They might take an extra minute or two due to the freezing temperature they have when you put them in the oven.

Other uses for oatmeal cookies

• Run out of granola? Crumble a few of these over your bowl of yogurt and fruit.
• Want to play around with your crumble recipes? Omit the milk in the recipe and use this cookie dough as a topping for apple crumb bars, raspberry apple bars or cherry crumble.
• Make sandwich cookies: if you make small-sized cookies, you can fill them with dulce de leche and have awesome alfajores cookies.