High-Altitude Oatmeal Cookies

Back for the weekend with more giant cookies. Look, if you haven’t tried them yet, this is a great time to start! These cookies are insanely yummy, HUGE, and honestly very convenient. This time we’re doing an oatmeal version full of dark chocolate and toasted walnuts and listen, it’s my favorite of all of them so far. For real!

If you don’t already know, I love oatmeal cookies, but more than anything I really just love oatmeal cookie dough. I don’t know why, but I just think it’s the best cookie dough to eat raw. I mean that’s not what we’re doing here, and ya know, safety, but it’s so yummy. Anyways, onto the cookies!

How to Make High-Altitude Oatmeal Cookies

If you have a stand mixer, now is the time to use it. We’re working with cold butter, and while it can be done with a hand mixer, it’s really much easier with a stand mixer, so I highly recommend using one if you can!

We’re starting off by stirring together the dry ingredients and putting them to the side for later on. Then it’s time to work on the walnuts and chocolate. First, preheat your oven to 300 and toast some walnuts for about 15 minutes, or until they are, well, toasty. Chop those babies up, along with 8 oz of dark chocolate.

Next up, we’re working with cold butter here, so you’ll want to cut it into small cubes before beating it together with the sugars. The mixture will be sandy and a bit chunky- that’s ok! Add in the eggs and vanilla extract next, and mix until just combined. Again, the mixture may still be a bit lumpy, but don’t worry, it’ll all come together. Here’s what those two stages look like:

Toss in the dry mixture and slowly mix until it’s almost completely combined. Then, add in the walnuts and chopped chocolate, and continue mixing until everything is well incorporated and looking lovely. It can take a little working to get the dough well combined here, but just keep mixing or even pulsing with your stand mixer until everything comes together.

Now it’s time to form your cookies, so line a small baking sheet with parchment paper, and get started. When I say these are big, I mean it! The whole batch only makes about 12-15 huge cookies. You want to grab about 1/2 cup of dough and gently press it into a ball. You don’t want to roll these cookies or press them too tightly, you just want to gently press them together to form a ball. Place your cookies onto the baking sheet, and cover with plastic wrap. Pop the whole tray into the freezer for at least 1 hour, and up to 3 months before baking!

When it’s time to head to the oven, place the cookies on a large baking sheet lined with parchment and give them some space! Bake them up until puffy and just setting- they will keep cooking as they cool, so don’t worry if they don’t look completely done when you take them out of the oven. Cool and enjoy the best dang high-altitude oatmeal cookies you can make!

Tips & Tricks for High-Altitude Oatmeal Cookies

Making these giant cookies is a bit different than your average cookie dough. Here are my tips and tricks to help you along the way.

• Use cold butter like straight from the fridge cold. This is why we’re using a stand mixer- it’s a bit harder to work with, but it helps create the final texture of the cookies!
• Don’t pack the dough together by scooping it or rolling it together. You want it to just be gently pressed into a ball, and it doesn’t have to be perfectly round. This helps them bake up thick!
• Freeze the dough fully before you bake the cookies. If you’re not going to bake them right away, freeze the cookies on your sheet tray and then transfer them to a freezer bag. They can be stored like this for up to 3 months before baking!
• Use any nuts you like, or none at all if you want to leave them out! I love walnuts in cookies- the texture just fits really well here!
• You can also use any chocolate you like here but I would definitely encourage you to buy it as a bar, and chop it yourself instead of using chips. Then you’ll end up with all kinds of different sized pieces, and it creates those yummy pools of chocolate!
• These make GIANT cookies and the whole batch will only bake about 12-15 cookies. You can make them smaller, but they won’t take as long to bake so keep a close eye on them to avoid over-baking.
• The butter will clump while you mix but don’t worry. We’re using cold butter here, so it won’t fluff up and mix evenly like you may be used to. It’s ok if you see a couple of small chunks throughout as you mix, but once you add the dry ingredients, it should mix in more thoroughly.
• I’m at about 5,000 ft above sea level and I find that most people who live between 3,000 ft and 7,000 ft above sea level do not need to make any adjustments to my recipes.

5 from 2 votes

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Giant Oatmeal Cookies

Servings 15 giant cookies

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups walnuts
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 cups old fashioned oats
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 cup cold unsalted butter cubed
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 cups packed dark brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 tbs. vanilla extract
• 8 oz chopped dark chocolate

Instructions

1. Preheat your oven to 300 degrees and have a small sheet pan ready. Give your walnuts a rough chop, and put them on your baking sheet in a single layer. Bake for 12-15 minutes, or until they are fragrant and lightly toasted. Let the walnuts cool completely before adding to the cookie dough.
2. In a medium bowl, stir together the flour, old fashioned oats, salt, baking powder, and baking soda, and set the mixture aside. In the bowl of a stand mixer, using a metal paddle attachment, beat together the cold butter, sugar, and brown sugar. The mixture will become sandy and will still have small chunks of butter running throughout.
3. Beat in the eggs, and vanilla extract until combined. The mixture will be lumpy, but that’s ok! Slowly beat in the flour mixture until well combined- this will take a bit of working! Then, stir in the toasted and cooled walnuts and chopped chocolate until well distributed.
4. Line a small baking sheet with parchment paper. Start forming your dough into balls by grabbing about a heaping 1/2 cup of dough and gently pressing it into a ball. You want to just gently press it together without rolling it or firmly forming the dough- it’s okay if it’s a little rough around the edges. The whole batch should make about 12-15 giant cookies!
5. Cover the tray with plastic wrap and freeze the cookies for at least 1 hour, and up to 3 months before baking. When you’re ready to bake, preheat your oven to 375 degrees. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
6. Place 6 dough balls onto the sheet evenly spaced. Bake the cookies for 16-18 minutes, or until the cookies are puffed and look dry on the top. They cookies will be very thick, and they may not be done in the middle yet, but they will continue to cook as they cool! Cool the cookies on the pan for 15 minutes, and then transfer to a cooling rack. Enjoy!

Nicole Hampton

Hello and welcome! My name is Nicole, and Dough-eyed is a food blog for people who want to bake for their family and friends in high-altitude areas. Think of me as a friendly voice there with you in the kitchen, here to give you confidence when you’re baking, and to help you with the struggles of baking at high-altitude. Come back every week for new recipes, tips, and advice on high-altitude baking!