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My Dad’s vanishing oatmeal raisin cookies are straight from the Quaker Oatmeal package with a couple of his own additions, of course. My Dad is famous for making these cookies in Phoenix with all their snowbird friends. He takes them to every get-together they attend. Down there, however, he can get these amazingly large raisins from Trader Joe’s (we are talking huge!), and that makes all the difference in the world in these cookies.
Why I Think You’ll Love This Recipe
- For those searching for a chewy, soft cookie that is loaded with raisins, oatmeal, and spices – these are for you!
- These really are the best version of a classic recipe that we all grew up with, give it a try and let me know what you think!
The Famous Quaker Vanishing Oatmeal Raisin Cookies
I don’t think there is a better version of oatmeal cookies than the vanishing oatmeal cookie recipe. They are thick and soft with a satisfying chewy texture and filled with raisins and lots of cinnamon to make them seem sweeter than they are. This recipe has been around for at least 60 years, though it could be more. There are ads from 1905 for the oatmeal itself so that recipe could have come about any time after that!
Types Of Raisins
There are two main types of raisins you can buy in stores: Sultana raisins and Thompson raisins. Sultanas (also known as golden raisins in the U.S.) have a mild taste and soft texture, while Thompson raisins have a stronger flavor and chewier consistency.
How To Make A Chewy Cookie
Somehow, no one makes them better than my Dad does. I made these at his house, but they aren’t as good as the ones he makes. He has the knack of sightly underbaking them just perfectly so that they are exactly the right amount of chewy. Whatever you do, don’t overbake them! That is the trick to making a great chewy cookie. For more super chewy cookies, try my Citrus Gingerbread Cookies or my Chewy Oatmeal Coconut Cookies!
How To Make These Cookies
- Preheat the oven to 350°F.
- Beat the butter and sugars together. Add in the eggs and vanilla, then beat until mixed.
- Whisk together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt and pour into the butter mixture. Stir. Add the oats and raisins and stir in by hand.
- Drop tablespoonfuls of dough onto ungreased cookie sheets. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes or until light golden brown.
- Cool and enjoy.
Karlynn’s Tips
- Make sure you remove them from the oven as soon as they are golden brown. Do not overbake them, or they will not be chewy.
- Let them cool on the pan for at least 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack, or they will fall apart.
- If you don’t want to wash your pan, use parchment paper or even a silicone baking mat.
Let me be perfectly clear: these are always literally vanishing oatmeal raisin cookies. They come by the name honestly, they vanish within the day. Why is it that we can eat these for breakfast, lunch, and dinner snacks like they are going out of style? It must be because they aren’t that sweet and really, isn’t oatmeal breakfast after all?
Happy baking! I have written the original recipe with my Dad’s additions besides the ingredients as noted.
Happy Baking!
Love
Karlynn
More Oatmeal Cookies
Vanishing Oatmeal Raisin Cookies
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup butter plus 2 tablespoons , softened
- 3/4 cups brown sugar, firmly packed
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla, Dad uses 2 teaspoons
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon, Dad uses 3 teaspoons
- 1/2 teaspoon salt, optional if using salted butter
- 3 cups large flake oats
- 1 cups raisins, Dad uses 1 1/2 cups
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F.
- In large bowl, beat together the butter and sugars until creamy. Add in the eggs and vanilla then beat until fully incorporated.
- Whisk together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt in a medium bowl. Add into the butter mixture, mixing in completely.
- Add in the oats and raisins and stir in by hand.
- Drop rounded tablespoonfuls of dough onto ungreased cookie sheets. Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until light golden brown.
- Cool the cookies for 5 minutes on the cookie sheets; then remove to wire rack. If you move them too soon they will fall apart!
- Cool them completely in the rack. Store in a closed container at room temperature, or freeze them in a closed container for up to 3 months. (if they last that long, they won't.)
Notes
- The additions in italics above in the recipe card beside the ingredients are the ones that my Dad has changed. Try them for the best version of these cookies!
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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sharen buchan says
Well folleowed the instructions exactly; and like another poster, found that 9 minutes was the perfect time for the “golden brown” moment. The only thing I found was that the “large flake oats” did not cook. Yes cookies are soft and chewy, very nice, BUT the uncooked oatmeal not so good. The cookies are in the freezer now I am hoping the freeze-thaw will help with the oatmeal. OH and the raisins I used Thompson raisins (Sun Maid) and I did not wash them first been a while since I used raisins and forgot that step, yes there is grit in the cookies. 🙁
Diane Kosmas says
I was drawn to this recipe because of your dad’s extra ingredients because my husband and I also do the same with recipes. I just made a batch this afternoon and they are awesome. I love the extra cinnamon in them as well as the extra raisins. I used half golden raisins and half dark raisins in mine.
Nurse Laura says
I am terrible at cookies! So for years when my son came home from deployments I made the bars listed on the lid of the Oatmeal container. I added half bag of chocolate chips and a half bag of butterscotch chips and left the raisins out at times. It’s a family fave!
pat allen says
These are no doubt the BEST COOKIES I have ever made
I have used several of your recipes and seand have never been dissappointed
thank you
Mary Sells says
They are amazing! 😍
Mary Sells says
These are the BEST raisin oatmeal cookies that I have ever made. I’ve only made them twice and multiple people have asked for the recipe.
Cathleen Harvea says
Well … I doubled BEFORE checking to see how much oatmeal I had. I was short about 3/4 cup of oatmeal and they turned out fine. I divided the dough into 3 and added dried cranberry & pumpkin seeds to one … raisins to one … and chocolate chips to another. Thank you for your recipes I quite often prepare your recipes. Appreciated!
Toni Lee says
Just to say they don’t sell “Large Flake” oatmeal at the supermarkets I frequent. I used rolled (old fashioned) oatmeal.. It would be less confusing if the ingredients on the list were like you would put on your shopping list. Thanks for sharing your family recipe though.
Rhonda Tippery says
These were delicious
cheryl says
very good recipe my only change was soaking raisins in rum
Amy says
I have used this exact recipe for years, then I found out about plumping the raisins, soak them in boiling water and drain them before using and the cookies stay fresh for over a week, and I add cinnamon chips!
Willy says
YUM!
Genevieve Broadway says
Turned out sooo good! I made this recipe just as written, except for the sugars. I swapped brown sugar for coconut palm sugar and white sugar for monk/erythritol. Thanks to your dad’s little extras, these were so yummy. It turns out, a 9 mins bake is the right amount of chewyness for me. I made a double batch and added a pecan on the tops of some before baking. I love this recipe. Thanks to you and your Dad for sharing.
Chris says
I just made the original version and then found this, which has your Dad’s modifications. Had I made them with your Dad’s modifications they would have been even better. . I also added some nutmeg. I came across some older Quaker versions (1955) and then they used shortening (instead of butter). I also used quick STEEL cut oats. I was curious how they would turn out compared to other kinds of oats. One cup of quaker oats is 80 gms however 1 cup of the steel cut oats I was using weighed 130 gm….so I just went by grams and used 240 gms of steel cut (as if they were quaker). They turned out very well – but would have been nicer with more raisins and the extra cinnamon
Nelsene Layden says
Just a thought to help you with that Trader Joe’s raisen fix … They sell 1 # of the goldens for $12.00 + . You may be able to order the regular dark raisens for less, but I’ll tell you that I have had to make these cookies without raisens at all and they still rock.
Jeanne Paderofsky says
I add 2 tab of wheat germ. Adds a bit of fiber.
Elizabeth says
Not sure what happened but when I made these, they came out super flat and looked like lace cookies. I thought I just had dough that was too warn so I put the second pan in the refrigerator to ensure they were chilled prior to baking. Same result. Great taste, but awful appearance. Anyone have any suggestions?
Kelly says
You might not have had enough flour, Sally’s baking addiction has an article about cookie issues and she suggested that for cookies that spread too much.
Danya says
if you mix cookies, can you cook them the next day?
Wendy says
How old was your baking powder ????
sierramohair@yahoo.com says
Made these cookies for my family and they LOVED it. They were impressed and I was happy that it turned out perfect.
Susan says
Oatmeal raisin cookies are my hubby’s favourite ever and he said these are the best ever by far. I plumped golden raisins (boiled water for four minutes in microwave then poured over raisins and let them sit for 20 minutes then drained and lightly pat dry) the first time I made them but not the second and it didn’t seem to make a difference. Karlie, can you suggest why my cookies didn’t spread much or ‘flatten’ like yours look in the picture? Mine pretty much held the shape they had on the cookie sheet before they went in the oven. They still looked great and tasted fantastic!
Lateshea Pearson says
This was my favorite cookie to bake when I was a kid! One of my tweaks was pecans and cane syrup. It solidified the oatmeal raisin cookie as the King of Cookies! For me at least.?
Julie says
Hi, I love these and printed it out this morning because I have these wonderful organic Thompson raisins. I buy them in a round carton at a large store called Woodmans. This brand has both white and purple raisins, both are delicious, I prefer the purple ones.
Katherine Swidan says
Absolutely the best oatmeal raisin cookie EVER!
Sage says
A HEALTHIER OPTION:
My family has been using this recipe for 60 years.
We use ALMOND FLOUR
GOLDEN RAISINS (best for baking)
CHOPPED WALNUTS
HONEY…NOT WHITE SUGAR
RAW BROWN SUGAR.
Margo Haynes says
Thank you Marti Schelly for sharing such a great Tip! It is definitely the easiest way to plump them up! I too am glad that Quaker continues to place this recipe in their box. You & your family be sure to have a blessed Thanksgiving this year!
Margo Haynes says
This is my favorite recipe for oatmeal raisin cookies, I googled this recipe for your Dad’s Vanishing Oatmeal Raisin Cookie Recipe. It has been on the Old Fashioned Quaker Oats boxes as of 2015, so it has been out there for our enjoyment for 20 years! The recipe on the box yields 4 dozen cookies & it makes no difference whether you use Old Fashioned Oats or Quick Oats as long as the oats are uncooked. Here is the link where I found all of this information & it is a little bit more than halfway down the page.
blog.thenibble.com/2015/11/21/recipe-vanishing-oatmeal-raisin-cookies-from-quaker-oats/ I collect cookbooks, though I lost more than a few in a flood one year. Somewhere, years ago, I found this spice mixture in a tiny frayed 50 page brown paper cookbook: 1 1/2 tsps. Cinnamon, 1/4 tsp. ground Ginger, 1/4 tsp. ground Cloves & 1/4 tsp. ground Nutmeg. I can’t remember if it was for a spice cake or pancakes or mashed sweet potatoes. However, more than once, I’ve mashed up about 5 or 6 baked sweet potatoes, mashed them down a bit & in the depression added about a stick butter to melt & sprinkled a portion of the spices (I don’t add all of the spices at once) into the melted butter & added about 1 cup of either chopped pecans or chopped walnuts mixed into the potatoes. I very seldom have to add a tiny bit of brown sugar to the potatoes because they seem to be sweet enough with the tiny miniature marshmallows lightly browned on top of the sweet potatoes. The potatoes need to be taste tested before & after adding the spice mixture because the amount of the spices used depend on the size of the potatoes & just how much mashed potatoes they made in that bowl.
Marti Schelly says
I learned from a co-worker many years ago that “plumping” the raisins keeps the cookies fresh and moist longe and tastes amazing. Plump by placing raisins in steamer basket over boiling water for maybe 5 minutes before adding tp copkie dough. So glad Quaker continues to place this recipe on their box.
Laf says
Made dads recipe exactly as it was printed with extra vanilla, cinnamon and raisins… so deliciously perfect!
B.Scott says
Can these be frozen if so do I thaw in the refrigerator?
Gia says
Thinking of my dad & so making these today…miss him so much- he made the best cookies too! Can’t wait to try these…❤️
Dale Richardson says
I have a lid off an old Quaker Oats container that has the Vanishing Oatmeal Raisin Cookies recipe. It originally called for 2 sticks of butter and 1 cup of brown sugar firmly packed, and 1 teaspoon salt. The rest of the ingredients are the same. Somewhere along the line they adjusted the butter and brown sugar amounts. I make mine with these specs. And be sure to using the long cooking oats not the quick cooking kind.
Wilf Urbanoski says
Found Superstore has PC medium huge organic raisins. Winco and Sprouts have them in bulk
Anna says
Just made these, they are amazing! I used all purpose all purpose gluten free flour, substituted 1egg with a banana and added dark chocolate chips. Definitely will make again.
Lisa Langston. says
I have your cookbook and love it!!!!!!!!
Lisa Langston. says
I love your dad!!!!!!! Do you think he will adopt me!!!!!!!