Slice-and-bake cookies bring back memories of refrigerated cookie dough in a tube. And of slicing off hunks of dough and baking it as an after school snack growing up. Only about half the dough in those tubes got baked into cookies. The other half was eaten as-is. I lived. These cookies are a version on that them, except healthier. They’re made with hearty whole-rolled oats and wholesome whole wheat flour. The oats provide an abundance of texture and the wheat flour adds a slight nuttiness to these uber-chewy cookies.
I love raisins in my oatmeal cookies and these are loaded. I used both regular raisins and a golden raisin medley. If you’re not into raisins, you can omit them, or add nuts in their place. Or add additional chocolate chips. And as much as I love raisins, I love chocolate, too. I have two other oatmeal raisin cookie recipes and it was about time I included some chocolate in one. Making the dough is a standard operation. Creaming butter, sugars, an egg, and vanilla; adding oats, flour, baking soda; and folding in raisins and chocolate chips.
After the dough comes together, remove it from the mixing bowl and transfer it to a large sheet of plasticwrap. Mold it into a log about a foot long and about 3 inches in diameter. Seal up the plastic and roll the log back and forth a few times to get it as round as possible before you freeze it. One handy trick for keeping the dough from getting as smooshed and lopsided in the freezer is to slice open a cardboard paper towel roll and place the log inside that. It’s like a carseat for the log. The dough needs to chill in the freezer for at least two hours, or up to two months, before slicing and baking. In the future when the urge arises for a cookie or two, it’s nice knowing you have a dough log in the freezer and you can slice off just what you need.
It’s easier than you think to slice through the frozen log. Let it come to room temp for about 5 minutes first, or nuke it for 10 to 15 seconds before slicing. Place the log on a cutting board, use a very sharp knife, and slice away. My slices are nearly 1-inch thick. Don’t make your slices thinner in an effort to yield more cookies or for portion control. Your cookies will turn out flat and thin, and likely too crispy and crunchy. Keeping the slices thicker helps the edges bake up chewy, while the interiors stays soft, tender, and moist.
For these cookies in particular, overall dough mass as well as surface area and the ratio of edge-to-center plays a big role in how the cookies bake. The New York Times Chocolate Chips Cookies {from Jacques Torres} and Christina Tosi cookies, including Compost Cookies and Cornflake Chocolate Chip Marshmallow Cookies, are baked with this surface area principle in mind. They start with huge wads of dough that approach one-third cup in an effort to achieve that chewy edge-soft center cookie nirvana.
These slices aren’t anywhere near that massive, but be mindful that you can’t start with thin slices or you’ll never achieve that perfect balance of chewy yet soft. When baking, don’t bake more than 8 to a sheet because they do spread, slightly more than the average cookie.
Bake for about 15 minutes, much longer than most cookies, but remember the dough was frozen going into the oven and the slices are 1-inch thick. They do firm up as they cool so don’t be tempted to over-bake or they’ll set up too hard and crisp and the bottoms could burn. They have an old-fashioned flavor quality and my husband especially enjoyed them. They’re not a gooey, messy cookie, which is fine by him because prefers cookies that are texture-filled, hearty, and these deliver.
They’re so, so chewy. Yet they’re soft and moist enough that they bend and flex rather than crumble. The brown sugar-dominant dough helps to keep them soft and adds richer flavor. Between the oats, wheat flour, and two kinds of raisins, they’re on the healthier side of the cookie spectrum.
Sorebought dough-in-a-tube will always have a special place in my heart, but the homemade version of slice-and-bakes isn’t too shabby. Especially when there’s so many different things to sink my teeth into in one of these babies.
Related Recipes
Thick and Chewy Oatmeal Raisin Cookies – The thickest oatmeal cookies I’ve ever had, and are packed with density, chewiness, texture. There’s an abundance of raisins and they’re soft without being cakey in the least Tried this recipe? Leave a review! Consider leaving a 5 star rating if you’ve made and loved one of my recipes!
Oatmeal Raisin Cookies – Almost the same ingredients as the cookies above, but melted butter and unchilled dough so they bake up much thinner but are still chewy. A nice recipe if you don’t want to use a mixer and don’t have time to chill the dough. You can be eating cookies in 20 minutes flat from start to finish
Dark Rum Oatmeal Raisin Cookies – Now you don’t have to choose between drinks or dessert with rum-soaked raisins baked into these cookies that are so soft and moist they’re bendable
Coconut Oatmeal Toffee Cookies – Add your favorite add-ins like butterscotch chips, white chocolate chips, or raisins to these easy, small-batch, no mixer required cookies
Oatmeal Raisin Rolls – Part healthy and hearty chewy dinner roll, part soft cinnamon roll. They’re full of texture from the raisins and oats, lightly sweetened from honey in the dough and are then brushed with honey-butter prior to baking, and perfumed with cinnamon. They can be made in advance or frozen, if desired
Cinnamon Raisin English Muffin Bread with Cinnamon Sugar Butter – If you’ve never made bread before, this is a goofproof, foolprood, no-knead bread recipe. You’ll never have a need for storebought English muffins again, especially because this bread is spiked with cinnamon-sugar and raisins
Raisin Bread for Raisin Lovers – Lightly sweetened and cinnamon-spiced dough is chock full of raisins. It couldn’t even hold any more and I love this bread for that reason
Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Granola Bars (no-bake, vegan, GF) – One of my favorite ways to combine oats, cinnamon, and raisins is in these easy, no-bake granola bars that are similar to Quaker Chewy Granola bars, but because you control the ingredients, you get to decide what does and doesn’t go into your granola bars. These are my favorite no-bake granola bar and very popular with readers
