How to make old-fashioned Iced Oatmeal Cookies! These cookies are densely packed with chewy pulverized oats and then dipped in a shiny vanilla frosting. Recipe includes a how-to video at the bottom of the post!
I’ve already shared quite a few oatmeal cookies: my soft, bakery-style oatmeal cookies, an oatmeal chocolate chip cookie recipe, and my popular no-bake cookies! Today I’m sharing a fun, old-fashioned, frosted favorite!
Hello and Happy Monday! I’m back in cold and snowy Pennsylvania after spending the weekend in 75 degree Florida (and Disney!) with my family.
Returning to icy weather isn’t exactly my idea of the best way to start off the week, but at least we have Iced Oatmeal Cookies, right?
With firm exteriors and chewy centers, these cookies aren’t as soft as some of my other favorites, but they were specifically designed to have this firm but chewy texture. These are fun and beautiful cookies (can cookies be beautiful? these are to me), so let’s get started!
Tips for Making Iced Oatmeal Cookies
Start with melted butter, but let it cool!
Using melted butter is one of my favorite techniques when making cookie recipes. It imparts a chewy texture and excellent flavor. However, let the butter cool until it’s near room temperature before adding your sugars. It should still be liquid (not re-solidified) but if the butter is hot it will melt your sugars, leaving you with a greasy and unusable dough.
You will need a food processor for this recipe
To give these iced oatmeal cookies that dense, chewy texture, I found the best method was to briefly pulse the oats in a food processor. You don’t get the same results using instant oats, so I do recommend starting with old fashioned oats and pulsing them. This is the food processor I use and love (affiliate).
Your dough will be crumbly once you add your oats
This is OK and the dough is supposed to be this way! Because of this, though, you will want to use your hands to work the dough together and roll it into smooth balls (for neat, uniform-looking iced oatmeal cookies).
It’s also very important (with all cookies, but especially these) that you do not over-measure your flour or you’ll end up with dry, crumbly cookies. I’ve included notes in the recipe below on how to properly measure your flour: stir, spoon, and level, never scoop your flour!
Oatmeal Cookie Icing
The frosting that I used for these iced oatmeal cookies is essentially the same as my sugar cookie icing. I absolutely love this recipe because 1) it’s not royal icing, which I don’t care for, 2) it’s simple to make –essentially foolproof, and 3) it dries shiny and hard on your cookies.
It does use light corn syrup (this is what helps give these cookies their beautiful shiny finish), but I’ve learned that not everyone keeps corn syrup on hand or loves using it (which I thinks comes from a misunderstanding… corn syrup is not the same as high fructose corn syrup). I tested the icing without and found that it will work if you leave out the syrup. However, you won’t get the signature shine and the icing doesn’t seem to set up quite as firmly as it does with the corn syrup.
When made as directed, iced oatmeal cookies will take several hours at room temperature for the frosting to set completely and for the cookies to be stackable without messing up the icing.
Enjoy!
Treat yourself to a FREE E-BOOK!
Other Recipes You Might Like:
- Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies
- Oatmeal Cookie Bars
- Oatmeal Muffins
- White Chocolate Cranberry Oatmeal Cookies
Iced Oatmeal Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup unsalted butter melted and cooled 10 minutes (226g)
- 1 cup dark brown sugar tightly packed (200g)
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar (100g)
- 2 large egg yolks
- 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2 cup all-purpose flour (250g*)
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
- 2 cups old fashioned rolled oats (190g)
ICING
- 1 ½ cups powdered sugar (190g)
- 1 ½ -2 Tablespoons milk
- 1 Tablespoons light corn syrup**
- 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F (175C) and line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. Set aside.
- Combine melted, cooled butter and sugars and stir until well-combined.
- Add egg yolks and vanilla extract and stir well. Set aside.
- In a separate, medium-sized bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon.
- Gradually stir dry ingredients into wet until completely combined.
- Now you'll need to prepare your oats. Add old fashioned oats to the basin of a food processor and pulse briefly (7-10 times, don't over-do it or you'll end up with oat flour!)
- Stir your oats into your cookie dough until well incorporated.
- Scoop dough by heaping 2 teaspoon-sized scoops and gently roll between your palms to form a smooth round ball (dough may be crumbly). Place cookie dough at least 2" apart on baking sheet and use your fingers to gently press down on each cookie to lightly flatten.
- Bake on 350F (175C) for 12 minutes.
- Allow cookies to cool completely before covering with icing.
TO MAKE ICING
- Combine powdered sugar, 1 1/2 Tablespoons milk, corn syrup, and vanilla extract in a small bowl. Whisk until well-combined, if frosting is too thick, add more milk as needed. The frosting has reached the correct consistency when you lift up the spoon and it drizzles a thin ribbon of icing back into the bowl, that should hold its shape for just a second before dissolving back into the rest of the icing (see my video below for a visual).
- To dip cookies, grip cookie by the base and dip just the surface of each cookie into the frosting. Pull straight out and place dipped cookie icing-side-up on a cooling rack to set. It will take several hours at room temperature for the icing to set completely and for the cookies to be stackable.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
This post contains affiliate links. This means that if you purchase anything through these links I will get a small commission at no extra cost to you. Please view the disclosure policy for more information.
Krissy says
Just made these cookies…haven’t tried one yet!! Waiting on the icing to settle. (don’t know how long I can wait ugh)!! Great and easy recipe!!! Love it!!
Sugar Spun Run says
The waiting game can be a long one, especially while you smell how delicious the cookies smell, right? I am so glad that you found the iced oatmeal cookie recipe easy to follow, Krissy! I hope they are worth the wait! 🙂
Denise Jones says
I just made these cookies for a Christmas cookie swap and absolutely can not wait until everyone tries these! They are SO good! They take me back to my childhood and the neighborhood bakery that used to sell them. The only thing I did different was use light brown sugar (only because I didn’t notice the “dark” in the ingredients list until I got home :/ I love recipes with videos and yours is so easy to follow. I’m going to make your chocolate chip snowball cookies next. Thanks for the awesome recipe!!
Sugar Spun Run says
That is wonderful, Denise! I am so happy that you enjoyed them and I hope that everyone at your cookie swap does too! Thanks for commenting. Let me know how the snowball cookies turn out! 🙂
Debbie Roman says
I made these wonderful cookies, they tasted better than my fav Archway cookies! I noticed that the longer they sat, the better they tasted. Thank you so much!
Sam says
I am so glad you enjoyed the cookies so much, Debbie! 🙂
Robin McAnelly says
Can you use the quick oats by any chance?
Sam says
Hi Robin! I have tried it with instant oats, but you just don’t get the same dense, chewy texture. I really recommend the old fashioned oats here. 🙂
Kenyetta Blount says
These are absolutely delicious and very easy to make. My husband use to go to the dollar store here and purchase these cookies they come in a purple pack… but when I made them from your recipe he said he will never go back to the dollar store again lol. I’ve made these before but from a different recipe, so I guess melting the butter makes a big difference (does melting the butter help them spread out better) because now I melt my butter in mostly all my cookie recipe, and they spread and taste better. I absolutely love your recipes keep them coming
Sam says
I’m so glad you are enjoying the recipes!! Thank you so much for commenting, and these are so much better than store-bought, aren’t they!? 🙂
Uerc says
I love making these kinds of cookies at my home. Keep sharing such recipes.
Dave says
OMG better than store bought. Yer recipies are amazing and oh so good
Sam says
Thank you so much, Dave! 🙂
Jodie Porter says
Hi! Could you make these without putting the oats in the food processor?
Sam says
Hi Jodie! I am not sure how they would turn out, unfortunately. 🙁
Cathy says
I just made them without putting them in the food processor, I added raisins and walnuts as well. Turned out great.
Leah says
Have you ever frozen them. Would you recommend before or after icing them if you were going to freeze them?
Sam says
I have not frozen them. If I needed to freeze them, probably the best way to do it would be to roll the dough out into balls, wrap individually and then bake when ready. 🙂
Shenita says
First things first I absolutely LOVE all your recipes I tried this one today and they didn’t turn out so well, when do you add the cinnamon? The cookies smelled good but they were thick and not flat.I’m not sure what I did wrong here but I’m gonna try again.
Sam says
Hi Shenita! Whoops looks like I omitted the cinnamon from the instructions, I’ve gone back in and added that, thanks for pointing it out to me! You add it with the salt and other dry ingredients.
So these are a denser cookie to start and this makes them very susceptible to not spreading properly or coming out too dry if the flour is over-measured. Did you use weights or cups? Did you see my notes on how to measure flour properly if you used cups? If those steps were followed I’m not sure why they would’ve come out too thick. I do recommend lightly flattening them before baking, but even if you accidentally skipped that step they still should have spread for you at least some.
Beyond that, I’m not sure what might have gone wrong but am happy to troubleshoot with you further!!
Roberta says
I did today. Family enjoyed. I think I should make my frosting a little thinner next time. But tasty yummy!
Sam says
I am so glad everyone enjoyed them, Roberta! The icing is really easy to make thinner, just add a little more milk to make your desired consistency. 🙂
susan says
Would this wok with Flax Eggs instead of egg yolks?
Thank You!!!
Sam says
Hi, Susan. I haven’t tried it so I really don’t know. If you do, let me know how it turns out. 🙂