High Altitude Oatmeal Raisin Cookies
My tried-and-true recipe for High Altitude Oatmeal Raisin Cookies, this recipe is my oldest son’s favorite. Made time and time again and I’ve yet to find an oatmeal cookie recipe I like better!
HIGH ALTITUDE OATMEAL RAISIN COOKIES
Who knew that a cookie could be so divisive? People either love or hate oatmeal cookies. Some swear by raisins and for others only chocolate chips will do. You’ll rarely see me turn down a homemade cookie and will gladly eat one with with cinnamon and raisins or one studded with dark chocolate. An equal opportunist if you will!
Today’s cookie is perfection. Loaded with raisins, lots of cinnamon and the perfect ratio of flour and oats. You’ll see why this high altitude cookie recipe is my go-to and often requested.
THE SECRET TO THE BEST OATMEAL RAISIN COOKIES
One of the biggest issues of high altitude baking is dry baked goods. Blame it on the dry air and high elevation. The secret to these delicious cookies is soaking the raisins. While a tad unconventional soaking the raisins in a mixture of beaten eggs and vanilla adds moisture to the cookies. A heavy hand of ground cinnamon is key to balance the sweet raisins. The end result is perfection!
The soaked raisins do need to sit for an hour so make sure to plan ahead when making these cookies!
BAKING COOKIES AT HIGH ALTITUDE
Adding a little extra flour and using a mix of old-fashioned and quick oats are my tricks for baking at high altitude. It’s easy to over bake cookies when you’re at altitude so take them out before they get too brown. As I always recommend, use a bit less baking soda and/or baking powder than a recipe calls for. All of my recipes are already adjusted an altitude for 7,000 feet so you might need adjust a touch if you live at a high altitude.
STORING COOKIES
I like to double a cookie recipe (you can never have enough cookies!) and save half for later. Sometimes I will form the cookie dough into balls and freeze to bake at a later time and sometimes I will bake the cookies and freeze them baked. Either way, it’s nice to have a cookie stash in the freezer!
Leaving the cookies on the tray for about 5-7 minutes after they come out of the oven so they firm up and hold their shape before transferring to a cooling rack.
MY FAMILY’S FAVORITE COOKIES
Some of the best oatmeal raisin cookies I’ve ever had, this a recipe from my Mom and she’s been making them for as long as I can remember. They are my Dad’s favorite and my oldest sons too. Cookies never last long around our house! Add a handful of chopped walnuts or pecans if you like!!! Either way they’re delicious!!
recipe by Mountain Mama Cooks/ photos by Deborah DeKoff
Oatmeal Raisin Cookies and the Best Mothers Day Present Ever
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The secret to these awesome oatmeal raisin cookies is soaking the raisins in beaten egg and vanilla extract. These are the BEST oatmeal cookie recipe around- trust me!!
Ingredients
- 3 eggs, beaten
- 1 1/2 cups raisins
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup butter, room temperature
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 3/4 cup granulated sugar
- 2 1/2 cups + 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon table salt
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
- 2 1/4 cups oatmeal
- 3/4 cups toasted pecans, chopped (optional)
Instructions
- Combine beaten eggs, raisins and vanilla extract in a small bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and let stand for one hour. *DON’T SKIP THIS STEP- IT’S THE SECRET TO THESE AWESOME COOKIES!
- Preheat the oven to 350F degrees.
- In a small bowl, sift the flour, salt, cinnamon, and soda together; set aside.
- Cream the butter and both sugars together.
- Add flour mixture to butter and sugar and mix well. Dough will be stiff.
- Slowly add the egg/raisin mixture and mix until fully incorporated.
- Stir in oatmeal and pecans if using.
- Bake cookies on cookie sheet for 10-12 minutes.
- Remove from oven and let cool completely.
Notes
This recipe has been created for high altitude kitchens. For sea level bakers, increase baking soda to 2 teaspoons, decrease vanilla extract to 2 teaspoons and increase granulated sugar to 1 full cup.
My baby, who isn’t much a baby anymore, has been loving on these cookies for 10 years. The cookies are almost as delicious as him. 🙂
65 Comments
What a great gift! Guess you’ll have to make cookies more often. I’ll have to give this recipe a try. We love oatmeal raisin.
I love the story….and the cookie jar. A gift that you will always remember. I embarrassed my 21 year old daughter by wearing a sweatshirt she painted for me for Mother’s Day about 16 years ago. I just wore it around the house and accepted her request that I not wear it out to dinner. She has always been artistic but as she told me….she has improved over the years!!! She is graduating from college this coming weekend with a degree in Theatre-Costume Design.
Enjoy the Spa!!! And say Hi to your mom for me.
Awww, how sweet! What a great gift! Love the cookies that go inside too:)
What a cute story! Happy mother’s day! I’m also a big fan of oatmeal raisin cookies…sometimes I throw out all the rules and add peanut butter and chocolate chips to the batter too!
Love the cute kid photos! Sounds like a good Mother’s Day.
Oatmeal raisin cookies are a favorite of mine! Yum! I am in love with your cookie jar. It’s perfect!
That is the sweetest gift and your little guy looks so proud! These oatmeal cookies look like the perfect way to break in a new cookie jar.
The cookies look great! I do have one question: do you use quick or old fashioned oats?
I use old fashioned as that’s what I usually have on hand but I think either will work!
I’ve been making these cookies for a few month now. We live at 5100 feet. They are delicious, and come out great every time. They also freeze really well. My husband loves them!
i live in Colorado Springs altitude 6000 ft. i made the cookies for high altitude but they came out flat. the flavor was yummy. i noticed that your sea level recipe had more baking soda in it, should maybe that be for high altitude?
thank you,
Dee
You use less leavening the higher you go in elevation.
I usually read the comments before making a recipe but figured it was for high altitude and followed the directions exactly. It would have been helpful to have more detailed tips for various elevations. We just moved to CO Springs at 6000 ft. and will learn to bake at this altitude. The cookies were tasty but very flat and lacy. Would you suggest cutting down the butter, chilling? adding more flour? Can margarine be substituted? The butter was probably too soft. Next time we will adjust accordingly. 🙂
Too soft butter creates flat cookies no matter what the altitude. I have an entire page dedicated to high altitude adjustments for various altitudes; in fact, I have a print out for just that! Chilling and adding a tablespoon or two of flour could help.
I live in Colorado Springs alt. 6000 ft. i made the recipe for high alt. but that came out flat. the flavor was yummy. what can i do to make them hold there shape?
sorry but i have one more question, did you pack the brown sugar? i did so I’m thinking maybe thats why they are flat
I do pack the brown sugar. You want to make sure the butter isn’t too soft and you might need to adjust the leavening a little bit as well. Sorry they didn’t turn out.
See notes above.
I live in Cochabamba Bolivia @ 2550 meters (about 8000+ feet above sea level). The cookies tastes great BUT a bit flatter than they should be. What should I next time? Thank you!
Make sure the butter isn’t too soft and add a tablespoon or two of flour!
Tried them again & they turned out better! I think the butter was the culprit last time. I will try again with your flour suggestion! Thx! Great recipe! Also made w/fresh block solid brown sugar. Excellent!
I live at 9000 feet and mine came out flat too. I added 3 T of flour, chilled the dough, and put the cookie sheets with the cookie dough on them in the freezer for a few minutes before baking. They didn’t flatten nearly as much with these adjustments.
I’m in Denver at 5200 ft. Followed this recipe to the letter taking care not to let the butter get too soft. These cookies were a flat yucky mess! :(. Is there a typo in the measurements, perhaps?
Boo! I’m sorry they didn’t turn out for you. I make them often and while they’re not the puffiest of cookies, they certainly aren’t a flat mess.
I live in Denver and I chilled my dough overnight let sit an hour and then cooked they were the thickest cookies I ever made. So good
These cookies are amazing!! We live at 7,300 ft in Park City and these cookies came out perfect! My only adjustment that I make for any cookie recipe is to mix the baking soda with 1/2 tsp hot water in a small shot glass, then I add it to the dough at the appropriate time in the recipe. It helps to activate the leavening agent and in my experience has made the cookies a little puffier. Next up is your yummy Perfect Fudge Brownie Recipe! From a “normal sea level baker” that’s new to high elevation baking, thanks so much for posting all your wonderful recipes!
Thanks for the comment! I’ll have to try the baking soda in hot water trick!
Thanks for the advice of mixing the baking soda with 1/2 tsp hot water. Will definitely try it next time.
I’m just outside Denver, Colorado and these turned out AWESOME – plus they didn’t dry out as fast as other cookies usually do, so we’re still eating them almost a week later! Thank you for the awesome recipe!
You are so welcome! Enjoy!!!
I live at 8755 altitude, I had to add a little more oatmeal so they were fluffier than flat ,still good !
One of my favorite cookies!
These were great! Put raisins in half of the dough and choloate chips in the other half. Thank you!
I’ve made these several times – maybe I make the cookies too big – it takes at least 15 minutes at 350 F here … sometimes longer. 5300 Ft. elevation. I roll them out in my hand…I’ve also thought maybe the dough could be chilled first and that might help. Whatever…they don’t last long in my house. How many cookies should the recipe make? I get maybe a little fewer than 3 dozen.
I think chilling the dough helps too. It develops the flavour and they don’t spread as much. I usually get about 24-30 cookies.
Just made these today at 8500 ft in Colorado and even my husband who says he doesn’t like oatmeal raisin cookies was eating them! May try with chocolate chips next time.
We live at 4600 feet above sea level in Reno Nevada. This is a wonderful recipe for oatmeal raisin cookies I threw in some walnuts as well but the cookies turned out perfect! Thank you very much for posting this recipe it’s awesome
It’s a family favorite. Glad you enjoyed!!!
Hi, I’m at 7,300 ft in Mexico City and these turned out great. Used what I had in the kitchen. So I halved the butter, used only brown sugar and used baking powder instead of baking soda. Also, not a fan of raisins so I added chocolate chips at the end instead. They are delicious! They are a little cake-like, but overall excellent! thank you for the recipe! Been using them for a long time but this is my first time commenting 🙂
Best oatmeal cookie I’ve ever eaten!
I live at 7500 feet in El Morro, New Mexico. I made these cookies today. The dough was quite dry and crumbly. I added an extra egg so I could shape them into balls by hand. I baked them about 15 minutes and they were still fairly soft. They turned out good. It would have been helpful to know how big the cookies going on the baking sheet should have been and how far apart the cookies should have been placed on the cookie sheets. I believe I got around 50 cookies so clearly they could have been bigger. I will try them again and make a few changes.
It’s hard to know what went wrong not being there. My initial guess is that you added too much flour. If flour isn’t measured correctly it’s very easy to add too much! Adding an extra egg would definitely make the cookies soft. I place the dough, by the tablespoon, about 1 1/2 inches apart on the baking sheet. I use a standard rimmed baking sheet and place 12 cookie dough balls per sheet.
What was under the silicone pad? Did you use parchment paper too?
No. Only use one or another!
Best cookies I have ever made!! Bar none!! I have never been a huge fan of oatmeal raisin cookies but these are incredible. The toasted pecans add a new taste to it and, of course, soaking the raisins makes all the difference!!! Easy five stars!
I use half butter and half Crisco when baking at 7000ft and 6000 ft. Makes a big difference for me. No more Flat Stanley cookies for me!
Barometric pressure also plays a big role in high altitude baking!!! I try not to bake cakes/cookies on days when the barometer is fluctuating.
Hi! Recipe sounds delicious and am going to try! Can you give a weight in grams for your 1 cup of flour? I’m used to baking off of weight, and the weights of spoon and level method seem to be all over the place. Thanks!!
120-122 grams
Thanks! These are the best oatmeal cookies I’ve ever made – and I’ve tried a lot of recipes! Mine always turned out dry and crumbly, especially on the 2nd day. Made these 3 days ago and they’re still soft and chewy and the flavor is awesome! I’m at 6000 ft and the only thing I did differently was chill the dough for an hour because I let my butter get too soft. Thanks again!!
Amazing! I love to bake and I’ve tried many different oatmeal raisin cookie recipes. This one is the very best one ever! It’s easy and and yummy and they came out soft and chewy just the way we like them. Even after two days, they’re still soft and chewy! I used 1 cup quick oats and 1 1/4 cups old fashioned oats since your recipe suggests using a combination. This will definitely be my go-to recipe from now on! Thank you!
Thank you so much for this recipe! I’m at 7500 feet and these came out great. After a recent high altitude baking fail, I was so pleased to have these turn out great. Although, I was lazy and made them into bar cookies instead of drop cookies. I find that this is a good safety net to avoid flat cookies when baking at high altitude. I did have to add 1 tablespoon of water along with the eggs and raisin mixture. Not sure if my eggs were too small or the air was too dry, but it did the trick and helped my batter form. I also did half raisins and half Craisins (cuz that’s what I had on hand) and I subbed walnuts for the pecans. I topped this with a simple vanilla glaze and they were delicious. Thank you again for the detailed instructions and I will be returning to your website for high altitude recipes!!
Thanks for sharing your notes and experience. I just made these last week!
Oh my! I live in CO at 8300 feet elevation. These came out nice and fat and tasty! Love them!!!
We live in Cuenca EC. At 8500 . I had to learn a whole new way of baking. When we first moved her 9 years ago my first experience was a chocolate cake that exploded . It makes it so much easier when someone like you are kind enough to share and take the guess work out of a recipe. I followed the recipe exactly and these cookies came out beautifully….moist, soft,and chewy. Thank you so much! Cant wait to try some of your other recipes. I would insert a picture but don’t know how …lol 😉
Absolutely scrumptious! Will never make any other recipe of oatmeal raisin cookies again. I’m in Colorado, 8500 feet elevation and these are perfect! Thank you.
Went into this recipe with hi hopes. The cookies taste marvelous but they spread. Dang hi altitude got me again.
As you cans see from the other reviews, this is a pretty well liked recipe. Was your butter too soft? Did you measure the flour correctly. Both of those can lead to spreading cookies- high altitude or not.
The move from sea-level (CA) to 7300 near Taos, NM took a lot of cooking adjustments, especially baking. Old favorite recipes defied adjustment until I found Mountain Mama’s site. As a rule, when trying a new recipe, I am an exact follower. These oatmeal-raisin are my husband’s favorite and this recipe is perfect. I didn’t roll them, or refrigerate. I don’t make huge cookies so I got @6 dozen.
Do you use old fashioned oats or quick oats for this recipe? I live in Castle Rock CO and read your high elevation baking tips page (I printed it too ) I have this dough chilling in the fridge. I made it two days ago. I’m baking it tonight and came back to check the temp and bake time and happened to see in a comment that you used old fashioned oats or a combo of both? The recipe just said oatmeal. I was going to used old fashioned, but I used all quick oats based on what the high elevation baking tips suggested. I hope they turn out okay
Regular, old-fashioned oats.
This is my go to recipe. Love these cookies, as do family and friends. Best high alt cookies! All my others go flat.
Five stars!
I’ve made it several times and they are great, but we have recently gone with a gluten free diet.
Can I substitute gluten free flour for the all-purpose flour and would it be a 1:1 substitution?
Much thanks!
Five stars!
I’ve made it several times and they are great, but we have recently gone with a gluten free diet.
Can I substitute gluten free flour for the all-purpose flour and would it be a 1:1 substitution?
Much thanks!
Hi Kelly – I have used a few of your recipes and appreciate your advice. My problem is that my cookies come out too crunchy – which “I” like, however, most people do not. I live in Trinidad Colorado – 7800′ elevation. I know I need to adjust the cooking times and temp. Suggestions?
Make sure your butter isn’t too soft and you are correctly adding enough flour. Flat, crispy cookies are usually a result of one or both of the two suggestions.