Cinnamon Oatmeal Cookies with Streusel are the perfect cozy time treat. Imagine a chewy oatmeal cookie with a buttery crisp streusel topping. It’s a new twist on an old favorite with a hefty helping of warm fall spices.
No Waiting Required
A lot of oatmeal cookies require two things that take time and intention: softened butter and time for the dough to chill before baking. Somehow time and intention are in short supply in my kitchen.
But you don’t need to sweat either to make my cinnamon oatmeal cookies. Because, bless my heart, I don’t have much patience. I like developing cookie recipes that I can make quickly and don’t require any planning ahead.
This recipe does call for butter, but it’s partially melted. As in, take it from the fridge, put in a microwave safe bowl and microwave it until it’s mostly melted but still some unmelted bits remain.
Word to the wise: make sure to cover it with a microwave-safe plate or lid in case the butter splatters during cooking.
Simple Ingredients for Cinnamon Oatmeal Cookies
And along those lines, these cookies don’t require any special ingredients. Chances are you might already have all or most of them on hand:
Butter, All Purpose Flour, Light Brown Sugar, Granulated Sugar, Baking Powder, Baking Soda, Vanilla, Salt, Old Fashioned Oats, Eggs, Ground Cinnamon, Ground Cloves.
The Best Oats for Cinnamon Oatmeal Cookies
I recommend using old-fashioned oats in this recipe because of the way that they absorb the liquids to give you a nice, chewy oatmeal cookie.
Different types of oats will yield different results in the final cookies because of how quickly they absorb water and the time they take to cook. If you want to go more in-depth on the different types of oats and how they’re processed, check out my Monster Cookie recipe.
Tips for This Recipe
The Streusel is Optional – If you’re short on time or want to keep things simple, the base cookie recipe without the streusel is super tasty. I don’t skimp on the cinnamon.
But, the streusel is what takes these to the next level. It adds a little extra texture and a buttery magic that reminds me of a good coffee cake.
Gently Roll the Dough – When you mix up the dough and go to scoop it, you’ll notice it’s very soft, nearly sticky. This is the correct consistency. It will leave a bit of residue on your hands as you roll it, but it will still be rollable, just take it gently.
Coating the Cookies in Streusel – I roll the dough balls in the prepared streusel first, to coat them all over. Kind of like making Snickerdoodles, where you roll the dough in cinnamon and sugar.
From there, I gently press a few larger bits of streusel into the top and then heap a little more on top of that to build up a good bit of streusel on the tops of the cookies. They spread when they bake so really loading up the dough ball helps to ensure you have enough streusel on each baked cookie.
How to Get Perfectly Round Cookies
I have a round cookie cutter set that I use to even out the edges of cookies so they’re perfectly round.
As soon as the cookies come out of the oven before they fully set, make a circular motion with the cookie cutter around the cookies so that it pushes the edges into the cookie. You’ll also see this helps to make the cookie a little thicker.
You don’t have to do this step, but it the food styling fan in me always does.
Making Streusel
Making streusel is easy! As you’ll see in the directions below, I melt the butter for the streusel before I prepare any of the rest of the recipe. That gives it time to cool off while I assemble the cookie dough. This cooling helps to create a nice crumbly, but not-too-crumbly, streusel consistency.
Just add the combined dry ingredients to the butter and mash it up with a fork until you get something that looks like the example below.
Be sure to leave some big chunks. Those bake up as little golden streusel nuggets on your cookies.
More Favorite Fall Baking Recipes
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Cinnamon Oatmeal Cookies with Streusel
- Prep Time: 30 min
- Cook Time: 45 min
- Total Time: 1 hour 15 minutes
- Yield: 20 cookies 1x
- Category: cookies
- Method: baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
A chewy oatmeal cookie with a buttery crisp streusel topping. It’s a new twist on an old favorite with a hefty helping of warm fall spices.
Ingredients
Cinnamon Oatmeal Cookie Dough
- 3/4 cup (170g) unsalted butter
- 3/4 cup (165g) light brown sugar
- 1/3 cup (67g) granulated sugar
- 1 3/4 cups (210g) all-purpose flour*
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp ground cloves
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 large whole egg
- 1 large egg yolk
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 2 cups (180g) Old Fashioned oats
Streusel
- 2 Tbs (29g) unsalted butter
- 1/3 cup (40g) all-purpose flour
- 2 Tbs light brown sugar
- 2 Tbs granulated sugar
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 Tbs Old Fashioned oats
- dash of salt
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350F and line a sheet pan with parchment paper.
- Next, melt the butter for both the cookie dough and the streusel. I melt them in separate bowls so I don’t get confused. If taking butter directly from the refrigerator, put it a microwave-safe bowl and cover it with a microwave-safe plate or lid in case the butter splatters during melting. Start by putting 45 seconds on the microwave at full power and then check the butter, continuing to microwave in 20 second increments until it’s mostly melted but some light yellow hunks of butter remain. Then use a fork to stir up the hunks so that the butter is creamy and smooth. Set the streusel butter aside to cool.
- Add the 3/4 cup (170g) melted unsalted butter to a large mixing bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer. Then add in 3/4 cup (165g) light brown sugar and 1/3 cup (67g) of granulated sugar to the butter and beat for 2 minutes until smooth and the sugar has a chance to dissolve a bit.
- In a separate medium-sized bowl, add 1 3/4 cups (210g) of all-purpose flour, 1 tsp baking powder, 1/4 tsp baking soda, 1 tsp cinnamon, 1/4 tsp cloves and 1/2 tsp salt and whisk to combine.
- Next, add your whole egg, egg yolk and 1 tsp vanilla to the butter and sugar mixture in the mixing bowl and beat until the egg is fully incorporated, scraping down the sides of a bowl with a spatula to mix in everything evenly as needed.
- Next add the dry ingredients to the wet and mix until the dry ingredients are fully incorporated and just the faintest bit of flour bits are still visible.
- Then add 2 cups (180g) of Old Fashioned oats and mix until everything is fully combined, then set aside to rest while you make your streusel. This short resting time helps the oats to absorb some of the moisture in the dough, making it easier to scoop.
- To make the streusel, add 1/3 cup (40g) of all-purpose flour, 2 Tbs light brown sugar, 2 Tbs granulated sugar, 1 tsp ground cinnamon, 1 Tbs Old Fashioned oats and a dash of salt to a small bowl and stir to combine.
- Add the dry ingredients to the 2 Tbs cooled melted butter and work them together using a fork until clumps start to form and the butter is fully incorporated. Don’t break up the clumps too much because larger bits of streusel are tasty when they bake up.
- To assemble the cookies, using a 1.5 Tbs cookie scoop, make a dough ball, then smooth it by rolling gently between your hands. The dough will be a little sticky but still rollable.
- Then toss the dough ball gently in the streusel to fully coat the dough ball, pressing a few larger bits of streusel into the top of the dough ball. And sprinkle on a little extra streusel before gently placing the dough ball on the parchment lined baking sheet.
- Continue the process until you fill a sheet pan with 5-6 cookies. Make sure there’s room between each cookie to spread as they bake.
- Put the cookies into the oven at 350F and bake for 11 to 13 minutes. The cookies will be golden in color, but still have just an ever so slightly wet look on top in the crevice areas. That’s when the cookies are done baking. Be careful not to overcook them as they will turn out dry if overbaked.
- As soon as the cookies come out of the oven, using a large round cookie cutter, use a circular motion around each cookie to shore up the edges to make them uniformly round and help to thicken them just a bit.
- Allow the cookies to cool on their sheet tray for 5 minutes until they’re firm enough to transfer to a cooling rack to finish cooling for at least 20 minutes before enjoying. They get chewier the longer they rest.
Notes
- I use Gold Medal all-purpose flour for cookie baking.
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