The sweet, rich, buttery flavor of butterscotch chips makes the most delicious chewy butterscotch oatmeal cookies. Everyone loves these, and they are simple to make. This small batch of cookies can be baked in the oven or the air fryer.
Butterscotch Oatmeal Cookies, also known as Oatmeal Scotchies, are a long time classic when it comes to cookie recipes. The humble oatmeal cookie, sometimes not the favorite, gets a boost from these sweet butter chips. It’s amazing how that one simple ingredient can make these cookies completely irresistable!
This is a small batch cookie recipe, so you don’t have to worry about having too many cookies. You’ll get a bit less than two dozen soft and chewy oatmeal cookies total.
Keep reading! I’m teaching you how to make your cookies look like the photo above, with butterscotch chips just bursting out of them. I’ll also tell you how to make these simple cookies in your air fryer, and how to freeze the dough so you can bake them in even smaller batches later.
Freshly baked Butterscotch Oatmeal cookies can be yours at any time if you plan ahead.
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Why You’ll Love This Butterscotch Oatmeal Cookies Recipe
- Easy Instructions: Baking cookies isn’t hard at all, especially when you have a good clear recipe to follow. I’m even including instructions for baking soft and chewy butterscotch oatmeal cookies in the air fryer!
- A Quick Cookie Recipe: These cookies come together quickly and don’t require chilling before baking, so you can have fresh cookies to eat in less than half an hour.
- Small Batch: This cookie recipe is a bit smaller than most, using less than a stick of butter and making about 22 cookies. This makes it a great recipe for baking in the air fryer, or if you’re baking for just one or two. Feel free to double the recipe if you’d like to make more.
- Simple Ingredients: The only thing in this ingredient list that you may have to look for is the butterscotch chips. I don’t think many of us keep those on hand, unless we are planning to bake with them. The rest of these items are common baking ingredients.
- Butterscotch Flavor: The rich, buttery flavor of butterscotch is totally underrated. Butterscotch chips make any cookie more delicious.
Key Ingredients:
Complete list of ingredients with quantities and instructions is located in the recipe card below
Unsalted Butter: My choice when baking with butter is to buy the unsalted variety. You can never be sure about how salty salted butter will be, so this lets you control the amount of salt in your sweet recipes. Butter should be left out at room temperature to get soft before you start.
Sugars: Both granulated sugar and light brown sugar are creamed with butter to start the dough for Oatmeal Scotchies. Each has its own purpose in the recipes. Brown sugar keeps the cookies chewy and moist, while white sugar helps them to get crispy around the edges.
Egg: Here’s a tip: Allow your eggs to come to room temperature before adding them to baked goods. They will incorporate more smoothly into the dough this way.
Vanilla Extract: Only pure vanilla extract will do for this recipe. Don’t bother with imitation extracts.
Flour, Baking Soda, and Salt: These three ingredients are standard for most cookie recipes.
Oats: For best results in oatmeal cookie recipes, use quick cooking oats. Instant oats are rolled too think and regular oats are too thick. Quick oats are just right.
Butterscotch Chips: The star of this cookie show is a cup of butterscotch chips. Find these in the baking aisle near the chocolate chips.
How to Make Butterscotch Oatmeal Cookies
Oatmeal Scotchies are so simple to make and they will be ready in 20 minutes! This recipe makes 22 medium-sized cookies.
- Prepare: Preheat the oven to 375°F/190°C, and line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper or Silpat mats.
- Cream: In a mixing bowl or the bowl of a standing mixer, cream together butter and sugars until smooth and creamy. Then add in the egg and vanilla extract. Continue beating, scraping the bottom and sides of the bowl to be sure you get everything mixed in.
- Add Dry Ingredients: Add flour, oats, baking soda, and salt to the mixer, and mix until just combined. Then mix in 3/4 cup of butterscotch chips, reserving the rest for later.
- Bake: Using a cookie scoop, scoop out cookie balls and bake in the preheated oven for 8-9 minutes.
- Finish: Remove from the oven, and while still warm, add a few butterscotch chips to the top of each cookie to make them pretty. Cool on the cookie sheet for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire cooling rack to cool completely.
How to Bake Butterscotch Oatmeal Cookies in the Air Fryer
Bake the whole batch or just a few butterscotch oatmeal cookies in your trusty air fryer. It’s easy, and you won’t need to dirty the cookie sheets!
- Preheat: For cookies, I like to let the air fryer pre-heat for about 5 minutes. For these cookies, set the temperature to 320°F/160°C.
- Bake and Cool: Bake/Air Fry for 6 minutes until the cookies are lightly browned and cooked through. Allow the cookies to cool for one minute in the air fryer basket, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
I love my Cosori Air Fryer! The basket is large and a square shape, so I can fit more cookies in it.
Get more tips for making cookies in the air fryer in this post.
Recipe Tips
To Make More Cookies: Simply double all of the ingredients and follow the recipe as written. This is a smaller batch recipe, so you may want to make more.
Other Flavors: Butterscotch oatmeal cookies are truly perfect as they are, but I wouldn’t object if you wanted to add a handful of chocolate chips or sweetened coconut to them for some extra sweetness.
Add the Chips on Top: If you add all of the butterscotch chips into the dough when the cookies bake the chips will be all hidden inside. Adding 4 or 5 chips to the top of each cookie allows everyone to see what’s inside of them, and they look so good!
How to Store Butterscotch Oatmeal Cookies
Baked Cookies can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for 4 or 5 days or in the freezer for up to 3 months. Enjoy them frozen or thawed, your choice!
How to Freeze Oatmeal Cookie Dough
It’s fun to have frozen cookie dough in the freezer. You can bake a tray at a time in the oven or just a few at a time in your air fryer.
To freeze the dough, scoop it into balls and place it on a baking tray. Freeze the dough on the tray until the dough balls are solid, then transfer to a freezer-safe bag or container. You can store the uncooked dough balls for up to three months!
When ready to bake, put them in a preheated oven or air fryer and bake as the recipe instructs. You may need an extra minute or two of baking time.
Recommended Cookie Making Tools
These tools are all in my kitchen, and help me bake cookies with ease. Pick up any that you don’t already have, and you’ll be ready for baking any time.
- Pyrex Mixing Bowls: There’s something about these clear glass mixing bowls that brings me back to baking with my mother. They are a must for me, even though I’ve tried other bowls, I still come back to these every time.
- Hand Mixer: No need to use a fancy stand mixer for a batch of cookies when a hand mixer does the job just fine. I use this one from Kitchenaid.
- Measuring Cups and Spoons: This set from OXO is just so well designed! There are magnets in the handles so they stack and stick to each other perfectly.
- Kitchen Scales: for measuring ingredients or portions by weight, this glass kitchen scale is my favorite.
- Cookie Scoop: This scoop is a small size, and makes one tablespoon sized scoops, perfect for most drop cookie recipes. I suggest keeping a medium cookie scoop on hand as well.
- Cookie Sheet: I love my Nordic Ware half sheet pans. They are very high quality and last forever.
- Silpat: To line the cookie sheets, a Silpat silicone mat in half size is perfect for making everything non-stick, and you’ll never need to buy parchment paper again.
More Easy Cookie Recipes
FAQs
Quick cooking oats are my preference for including in oatmeal butterscotch cookies. Oats come in a variety of thicknesses. Instant oats are too thin for cookies, and regular oats are too thick. Quick oats are perfect.
I didn’t find that it was necessary for my dough to be chilled. If your cookies seem to be spreading too much, chill the dough for 20-30 minutes before baking.
If you enjoy nuts in your cookies, consider adding a 1/4 cup of chopped pecans or walnuts to this recipe.
Butterscotch Oatmeal Cookies
Equipment
- Hand mixer or,
- Spatula
- 2 Cookie Sheets or half size baking pans
- Medium cookie scoop
- Cooling Rack
- Air Fryer optional
Ingredients
- 7 tablespoons (90g) unsalted Butter softened to room temperature
- ½ cup light brown sugar packed
- ¼ cup granulated sugar
- 1 large egg at room temperature
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- ¾ cup (90g) all-purpose flour
- 1 ½ cups (80g) quick cooking oats
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup butterscotch chips divided
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375°F/190°C, and line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper or Silpat mats.
- In a mixing bowl or the bowl of a standing mixer, cream together butter and sugars until smooth and creamy (2 minutes).
- Add in the egg and vanilla extract, beat and scrape off the bottom and sides of the bowl to make sure you get everything.
- Add flour, oats, baking soda, and salt, and mix until just combined.
- Mix in ¾ cup of the butterscotch chips.
- Using a cookie scoop, scoop out cookie balls and bake for 8-9 minutes.
- Remove from the oven, and while still warm, add a few butterscotch chips to the top of each cookie.
- Cool on the cookie sheet for 5 minutes then transfer to the cooling rack to cool completely.
Air Fryer Instructions
- Preheat the Air Fryer to 320°F/160°C.
- Bake/Air fry for 6 minutes until they’re lightly browned and cooked through.
- Allow the cookies to cool for 1 minute in the Air Fryer basket, then transfer to cool on a wire rack.
Notes
- To Store: Keep cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days.
- To Freeze the Dough: Scoop it into balls and place them on a baking tray. Freeze on the tray until the dough balls are solid, then transfer to a freezer-safe bag or container for storage for up to three months. Bake in the oven or air fryer as directed.
- To Freeze the Cookies: Baked cookies can be stored in an airtight container for up to three months.
- This is a small batch cookie recipe. Feel free to double it if you’d like to make more.
Nutrition
Butterscotch Oatmeal Cookies are going to be your favorites. Keep this recipe handy for the next time the urge to bake cookies strikes, and be sure to keep a bag of butterscotch chips in the cupboard.
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