These large, fats darkish chocolate cranberry oatmeal cookies test each field: hearty, flavorful, fantastically gentle and thick, and ideal for pairing with a mug of your favourite scorching beverage. Hunker down on a chilly day with this cozy cookie for a satisfying bakery-style deal with… with out ever leaving the consolation of dwelling!
At this time’s large cookies burst with chewy dried cranberries, melty puddles of darkish chocolate, and crunchy walnuts. Their extra-large dimension retains the facilities extremely gentle whereas the perimeters bake up flippantly crisp and splendidly craggy. Consider them because the sweater-weather, festive-feeling cousin of basic oatmeal chocolate chip cookies.
And for those who’ve baked my large fats peanut butter oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, buckle up—as we speak’s are even greater and fatter!
What You Can Count on:
- Supremely gentle and thick: These are Levain Bakery-style cookies! Utilizing some cake flour, cornstarch, and baking powder makes for ultra-thick, gentle and tender cookies.
- A lot taste & texture: Loaded with chewy oats and dried cranberries, crunchy walnuts, and melty puddles of chocolate.
- Style identical to grandma’s. Simply 1 Tablespoon of molasses offers these darkish chocolate cranberry oatmeal cookies that nostalgic, grandma’s-kitchen oatmeal cookie style. My crew and I extremely advocate including it!
- Bakery-style dimension. We’re scooping XL parts of dough—these cookies are a particular deal with certainly!

Key Substances You Want & Why:
- All-Function & Cake Flour: Utilizing *some* cake flour along with all-purpose flour is essential. In testing, we have been aiming for tall, thick cookies with crisp edges and gentle facilities, one thing like what you see right here on the Swan’s Down cake flour web site. (This submit is just not sponsored.)
- Oats: Oats present a chewy texture, and there’s no scarcity on this dough! I take advantage of and advocate old style entire rolled oats right here, identical to these large large monster cookies.
- Cornstarch: For added softness.
- Baking Powder & Soda: Between the oats and all of the add-ins, these are some hefty cookies. Utilizing baking powder in addition to soda is critical to elevate the cookies up within the oven.
- Butter: Butter is the bottom of any scrumptious cookie recipe. Ensure you are utilizing room-temperature butter—it’s cooler to the contact thanks assume!
- Brown Sugar & Granulated Sugar: Sugar is just not solely used for sweetness, but additionally for offering construction and tenderness. I like to make use of extra brown sugar than white sugar as a result of (1) it has unbelievable taste and (2) it incorporates extra moisture than white, which produces a softer cookie.
- Molasses: That is my secret ingredient in oatmeal cookies as a result of it enhances taste and brings that heat, flippantly spiced richness.
- Vanilla Extract, Cinnamon, & Salt: Every present taste. You can even high the cookies with just a little flaky sea salt once they’re recent out of the oven if desired.

Making & Shaping These Darkish Chocolate Cranberry Oatmeal Cookies
You’ll particularly love this recipe as a result of the method is fast & easy with minimal dough chilling. The dough shall be very thick and just a little sticky:

Chill it for at the least 1 hour, or longer for those who’re in a position to wait.
Success Tip: Spray the measuring cup with some nonstick spray earlier than you scoop the sticky dough, to assist it launch simply. Give the mound of cookie dough a roll between your fingers to form it right into a ball. It’s an enormous ball of dough, so bake these cookies in batches relatively than overcrowding the baking sheet. Nearly 6 on one baking sheet at a time.

Suggestions for Baking Massive, Thick Oatmeal Cookies
Bake at an preliminary excessive temperature, then decrease it: That is sometimes a trick I reserve for muffins, however it works with these cookies in minimizing how a lot the cookies unfold out, whereas letting them rise up.
- Right here’s how: Begin baking the cookies at 400°F; then, after 5 minutes, decrease the temperature to 350°F for the remaining time. The preliminary excessive warmth helps set the form/edges of the cookies, then the remaining time permits the thick facilities to bake via on the regular baking temperature.
Barely underbake, then permit the cookies to chill on the baking sheet. The cookies will proceed to set from the residual warmth of the baking sheet. This retains the facilities gentle and chewy, and prevents the cookies from changing into dry across the edges.

For those who’re craving a bakery-style cookie full of texture and taste, these large, fats darkish chocolate cranberry oatmeal cookies are positive to fulfill. They’re cozy, festive, and truthfully scrumptious any day of the yr.
This recipe is a part of my annual cookie countdown known as Sally’s Cookie Palooza. It’s the largest, most scrumptious occasion of the yr! Browse dozens of cookie recipes over on the Sally’s Cookie Palooza web page.
Description
Additional-thick, bakery-style oatmeal cookies full of darkish chocolate, chewy dried cranberries, and crunchy walnuts. These soft-centered, crispy-edged cookies get their unbelievable texture from a mix of all-purpose and cake flour, plus a contact of molasses for heat, old style taste. A comfortable, ultra-thick cookie good for year-round baking. Don’t skip the dough chilling and see recipe Notes for questions and solutions relating to numerous substances.
- In a big bowl, whisk collectively the oats, all-purpose flour, cake flour, cornstarch, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. Put aside.
- Utilizing a handheld mixer or a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar collectively on medium-high pace till creamy and mixed, about 3 minutes. Add the eggs, molasses, and vanilla, and beat on excessive pace till mixed, about 1 minute. Scrape down the edges and backside of the bowl and beat once more as wanted.
- Add the flour combination to the moist substances, plus the chopped chocolate, dried cranberries, and walnuts. Beat on low pace till mixed. This can be a thick, heavy, and sticky dough, so you might want to start out and cease your mixer a pair instances.
- Cowl and refrigerate the dough for at the least 1 hour (and as much as 4 days). If chilling longer than 1 day, let the dough sit at room temperature for at the least half-hour earlier than rolling, as it is going to be very agency.
- Preheat the oven to 400°F (204°C). Line baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats.
- Use a 1/3-cup measuring cup to scoop the cookie dough, about 3 ounces (85g) every, and prepare 5–6 cookies on every baking sheet.
- Bake for five minutesl; then, with out opening the oven, scale back the temperature to 350°F (177°C) and bake for a further 10 minutes.
- Take away the cookies from the oven and permit them to chill on the baking sheet for 10–20 minutes earlier than transferring to a wire rack to chill utterly.
- Cookies keep recent lined at room temperature for as much as 1 week.
Notes
- Make Forward & Freezing Directions: You may make the cookie dough and chill it within the fridge for as much as 4 days. Baked cookies freeze effectively for as much as 3 months. Unbaked cookie dough balls freeze effectively for as much as 3 months. Bake frozen cookie dough balls for an additional minute, no must thaw. Learn my ideas and tips on tips on how to freeze cookie dough.
- Particular Instruments (affiliate hyperlinks): Glass Mixing Bowl | Whisk | Electrical Mixer (Handheld or Stand) | Baking Sheets | Silicone Baking Mats or Parchment Paper | Cooling Rack
- Can I Skip the Cake Flour? You may skip the cake flour, however the cookies received’t be fairly as gentle and thick. Cake flour has a decrease protein content material than all-purpose flour, which retains these extra-large cookies tender as a substitute of dense. For those who don’t have any readily available, you may make a fast substitute: measure 1 cup (125g) of all-purpose flour, take away 2 Tablespoons of it, and change these 2 Tablespoons with cornstarch. Whisk effectively earlier than utilizing. It’s not precisely the identical as actual cake flour, however it works properly right here.
- Can I Use Fast Oats? We don’t advocate it. Fast oats take in liquid otherwise and can produce thinner, drier cookies. Old style entire rolled oats are greatest for thick, chewy texture.
- Molasses: 1 Tablespoon of molasses offers these cookies distinctive depth of taste. Use unsulfured or darkish molasses (not blackstrap). For those who don’t have any, merely depart it out—don’t change with the rest.
- Chocolate: We use and advocate Ghirardelli 60% bittersweet baking chocolate. You may substitute 1 cup (180g) of chocolate chips.
- Totally different Dimension Cookies: Use 1.5 Tablespoons (30–35g) of dough for regular-size cookies, or 3 Tablespoons (60–70g) for big cookies. Cut back the 400°F (204°C) bake time to three minutes and the remaining 350°F (177°C) bake time to round 7 minutes. Hold a detailed eye on them.
- Combine-In Variations: Hold complete mix-ins to round 2–3 cups. Strive dried cherries or chopped dried apricots as a substitute of cranberries, pecans or macadamias as a substitute of walnuts, or swap in white or semisweet chocolate. You can even merely skip the nuts utterly and never change them with something.
