Brown Butter Iced Oatmeal Cookies

Say hello to my latest cookie obsession. Brown Butter Iced Oatmeal Cookies. They’re everything I want in a cookie. Soft centers, crinkly, craggily, chewy edges and filled with buttery, warmly spiced flavor. They’re reminiscent of the Mother’s iced oatmeal cookies we all know and love from our childhood but they are waayyyy better than anything store-bought. Like a 1000 times better.

What makes these cookies so good?

I’m calling it. These Brown Butter Iced Oatmeal Cookies win MVP for the coziest cookie ever. Aside from being both pretty AND delicious, here’s a few reasons why I love these cookies:

Delicious flavor and texture. Soft on the inside, perfectly chewy on the outside and topped with a sweet vanilla glaze, these cookies are as good as it gets! They’re brimming with plenty of cozy spice flavor and the browned butter really kicks things up a notch.

Easy to make. You can whip up this cookie dough in just minutes with a bowl and a whisk. No fancy mixer required. The dough will need to be chilled but trust me, it’s worth the wait!

Perfect for gifting. Bake up a batch for your holiday cookie swap, office Christmas party or just to devour one by one by the fire on a cold winter night. Once the frosting sets, they’re sturdy enough to stack, wrap and ship to your favorite cookie lovers everywhere.

A holiday tradition! These nostalgic cookies are just like the ones Grandma used to make which makes them a real crowd pleaser during the holidays. Pro-tip: double (or triple!) the batch because they won’t last long.

Ingredients

Make these easy and delicious cookies with just a handful of pantry staples. Pro-tip: always keep molasses on hand, especially during the fall and holiday baking season. Here’s what you’ll need:

• Flour
• Butter
• Sugar
• Eggs
• Oats
• Molasses
• Spices
• Vanilla
• Salt

How to make brown butter iced oatmeal cookies

These cookies are easy to make but do require chilling before baking. I like to make the dough and then pop it in the refrigerator overnight and bake the cookies off the next day. You’ll just need a bowl and a whisk – no fancy mixer required! Follow this simple step-by-step guide and check the recipe card below for ingredients and detailed instructions.

Step 1: Brown the butter. If you are new to browning butter, check out this post for my favorite Brown Butter Brownies where I walk you through it step-by-step. Set the butter aside to cool for 20 minutes.

Step 2: Meanwhile, pulse the old fashioned oats in a food processor until they are a mixture of fine crumbs and larger bits.

Step 3: Once the butter has cooled down, add the sugars and whisk to combine well.

Step 4: Add the eggs and vanilla, mixing to incorporate.

Step 5: Add the molasses and stir to combine.

Step 6: Combine the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt in a separate bowl.

Step 7: Add the dry ingredients and the pulsed oats to the butter and sugar mixture. Swap out the whisk for a large spatula and fold the ingredients together. Do not over mix.

Step 8: Scoop the cookie dough into equal size balls (I recommend using a kitchen scale for perfectly uniform cookies). Place them on a parchment lined baking sheet and cover with plastic wrap. Chill for three hours or overnight.

Step 9: Once the dough is chilled, preheat the oven to 350°F and bake the cookies one sheet at a time in the center rack of the oven for 9 to 10 minutes. The edges should be set and the centers will be puffy and slighty underbaked. The cookies will deflate a bit while cooling.

Step 10: Remove the cookies from the oven and cool on the baking sheet for 5 to 10 minutes before carefully transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

Step 11: Cool the cookies to room temperature and then dunk them in a shallow bowl filled with the glaze. Do not submerge the entire cookie in the glaze, just dunk the top. The icing should be fairly thick so that when you try to pull the cookie away you meet a little resistance. Allow the excess icing to run off the cookie before flipping it back upright. Set on a wire rack to set. The icing will fully set in about 2 hours.

Tips for the best cookies

Pulse the oats. Those perfectly crackled tops are thanks to all that texture from the oats. Be sure to pulse the oats before incorporating into the dough – it makes all the difference!

Do not over bake. No one, and I mean no one, likes a dry cookie. These cookies can easily end up overbaked if you don’t keep an eye on your oven. Check the cookies at the 8 minute mark. The centers of the cookies should be slightly under baked. The cookies will continue to bake as they cool.

Cool completely before adding icing. For those picture perfect tops, be sure to cool the cookies completely before dunking them in the vanilla icing. If the cookies are too warm, the icing will melt into the cookie. They’ll still be delicious but you’ll miss out on those picture perfect snow-like tops.

How to store

I am not kidding when I say these cookies won’t last five minutes on your kitchen counter. They’re just that good. And, as a bonus, your kitchen will smell heavenly! Keep any left over cookies tightly covered at room temperature for up to 6 days. They actually taste even better the second and third day once the icing has settled in to all those cracks and crevasses.

To freeze the cookies, you can freeze them before or after icing. Cool the cookies completely and if adding the icing first, be sure to let the cookies sit at room temperature until the icing sets. Wrap the cookies in two layers of plastic wrap and place in a large freezer bag for up to 3 months. Defrost at room temperature before serving.

Iced Gingerbread Oatmeal Cookies Variation

To make an extra festive holiday cookie with a delicious gingerbread twist, make the following adjustments to the recipe:

• Replace the quantities of cinnamon and nutmeg listed on the recipe card below with 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon, 1 teaspoon ground ginger, 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg, 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves.
• For the glaze, add a generous sprinkle of cinnamon or try topping the cookies with my Brown Sugar Maple Glaze. O.M.G, the combo is lights out delicious!