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brown butter oatmeal cookies in a stack
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Old Fashioned Iced Brown Butter Oatmeal Cookies

Beautiful old fashioned oatmeal cookies filled with delicious caramel-like flavor thanks to rich brown butter. These wonderful, classic oatmeal cookies are slightly crispy on the edges and perfectly chewy in the middle. Finish them off with a light vanilla icing for the ultimate treat!
Course Christmas, Cookies, Dessert, Holiday
Cuisine American
Keyword brown butter oatmeal cookies, classic oatmeal cookies, oatmeal cookies, old fashioned oatmeal cookies
Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 10 minutes
Total Time 30 minutes
Servings 24 cookies
Calories 200cal
Author Monique Volz of AmbitiousKitchen.com

Ingredients

  • Wet ingredients:
  • 1 cup unsalted butter
  • 1 cup brown sugar
  • 1/2 cup granulated sugar
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 2 eggs, at room temperature
  • Dry ingredients:
  • 2 cups whole wheat pastry flour (all purpose flour will also work)
  • 2 cups old fashioned rolled oats (can also use quick oats for flatter cookies)
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • For the icing:
  • 1 cup powdered sugar
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 2 tablespoons milk

Instructions

  • Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
  • Melt butter in a medium skillet or pan over medium heat. After a few minutes, the butter will begin to crackle and then foam. Make sure you whisk consistently during this process. After a couple of minutes, the butter will begin to brown on the bottom of the saucepan. Continue to whisk and remove from heat as soon as the butter begins to brown and give off a nutty almost hazelnut-like aroma. Immediately transfer the butter to a bowl to prevent burning but make sure you scrape all the yummy brown bits from the pan; this is where the flavor is! Set brown butter aside to cool for 5 minutes.
  • With an electric mixer, mix the brown butter and sugars until well combined, about 1 minute. 
  • Beat in the egg and vanilla until smooth and creamy, about 1 minute. 
  • Add the dry ingredients: flour, oats, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt; beat on low speed until just combined.
  • Use a medium cookie scoop or your hands to grab about 1 large teasing tablespoon of dough. Drop on prepared cookie sheet, leaving at least 2 inches of space between each cookie. 
  • Bake for 10-13 minutes or until golden brown on the edges. Allow cookies to cool on the cookie sheet for a few minutes before transferring to a wire rack to finish cooling.
  • When cookies are baking, you can make the icing: Add powdered sugar, vanilla extract and milk to a medium bowl and mix until smooth and no visible lumps. 
  • Once cookies have cooled a bit, spoon two teaspoonfuls of icing onto each cookie and spread out a little, then return to wire rack to let the icing harden. Makes about 2 dozen cookies (24).

Notes

These make a wonderful base cookie to add to! Simply leave off the icing and add chocolate chunks or chips. Dried cranberries, raisins or white chocolate would also be fabulous.
See the full post for tips, tricks, and more ways to customize these oatmeal cookies.

Nutrition

Serving: 1cookie | Calories: 200cal | Carbohydrates: 29.3g | Protein: 2.3g | Fat: 8.3g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Fiber: 2.1g | Sugar: 17g
Monique Volz of AmbitiousKitchen.com