These big, fat dark chocolate cranberry oatmeal cookies check every box: hearty, flavorful, fantastically soft and thick, and perfect for pairing with a mug of your favorite hot beverage. Hunker down on a cold day with this cozy cookie for a satisfying bakery-style treat… without ever leaving the comfort of home!
Today’s giant cookies burst with chewy dried cranberries, melty puddles of dark chocolate, and crunchy walnuts. Their extra-large size keeps the centers incredibly soft while the edges bake up lightly crisp and wonderfully craggy. Think of them as the sweater-weather, festive-feeling cousin of classic oatmeal chocolate chip cookies.
And if you’ve baked my big fat peanut butter oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, buckle up—today’s are even bigger and fatter!
What You Can Expect:
- Supremely soft and thick: These are Levain Bakery-style cookies! Using some cake flour, cornstarch, and baking powder makes for ultra-thick, soft and tender cookies.
- So much flavor & texture: Loaded with chewy oats and dried cranberries, crunchy walnuts, and melty puddles of chocolate.
- Taste just like grandma’s. Just 1 Tablespoon of molasses gives these dark chocolate cranberry oatmeal cookies that nostalgic, grandma’s-kitchen oatmeal cookie taste. My team and I highly recommend adding it!
- Bakery-style size. We’re scooping XL portions of dough—these cookies are a special treat indeed!
Key Ingredients You Need & Why:
- All-Purpose & Cake Flour: Using *some* cake flour in addition to all-purpose flour is key. In testing, we were aiming for tall, thick cookies with crisp edges and soft centers, something like what you see here on the Swan’s Down cake flour website. (This post is not sponsored.)
- Oats: Oats provide a chewy texture, and there is no shortage in this dough! I use and recommend old-fashioned whole rolled oats here, just like these big giant monster cookies.
- Cornstarch: For added softness.
- Baking Powder & Soda: Between the oats and all the add-ins, these are some hefty cookies. Using baking powder as well as soda is necessary to lift the cookies up in the oven.
- Butter: Butter is the base of any delicious cookie recipe. Make sure you are using room-temperature butter—it’s cooler to the touch thank you think!
- Brown Sugar & Granulated Sugar: Sugar is not only used for sweetness, but also for providing structure and tenderness. I like to use more brown sugar than white sugar because (1) it has incredible flavor and (2) it contains more moisture than white, which produces a softer cookie.
- Molasses: This is my secret ingredient in oatmeal cookies because it enhances flavor and brings that warm, lightly spiced richness.
- Vanilla Extract, Cinnamon, & Salt: Each provide flavor. You can also top the cookies with a little flaky sea salt when they’re fresh out of the oven if desired.
Making & Shaping These Dark Chocolate Cranberry Oatmeal Cookies
You’ll especially love this recipe because the process is quick & simple with minimal dough chilling. The dough will be very thick and a little sticky:
Chill it for at least 1 hour, or longer if you’re able to wait.
Success Tip: Spray the measuring cup with some nonstick spray before you scoop the sticky dough, to help it release easily. Give the mound of cookie dough a roll between your hands to shape it into a ball. It’s a big ball of dough, so bake these cookies in batches rather than overcrowding the baking sheet. Just about 6 on one baking sheet at a time.
Tips for Baking Big, Thick Oatmeal Cookies
Bake at an initial high temperature, then lower it: This is typically a trick I reserve for muffins, but it works with these cookies in minimizing how much the cookies spread out, while letting them rise up.
- Here’s how: Start baking the cookies at 400°F; then, after 5 minutes, lower the temperature to 350°F for the remaining time. The initial high heat helps set the shape/edges of the cookies, then the remaining time allows the thick centers to bake through at the normal baking temperature.
Slightly underbake, then allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheet. The cookies will continue to set from the residual heat of the baking sheet. This keeps the centers soft and chewy, and prevents the cookies from becoming dry around the edges.
If you’re craving a bakery-style cookie packed with texture and flavor, these big, fat dark chocolate cranberry oatmeal cookies are sure to satisfy. They’re cozy, festive, and honestly delicious any day of the year.
This recipe is part of my annual cookie countdown called Sally’s Cookie Palooza. It’s the biggest, most delicious event of the year! Browse dozens of cookie recipes over on the Sally’s Cookie Palooza page.
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Description
Extra-thick, bakery-style oatmeal cookies packed with dark chocolate, chewy dried cranberries, and crunchy walnuts. These soft-centered, crispy-edged cookies get their incredible texture from a blend of all-purpose and cake flour, plus a touch of molasses for warm, old-fashioned flavor. A cozy, ultra-thick cookie perfect for year-round baking. Do not skip the dough chilling and see recipe Notes for questions and answers regarding various ingredients.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the oats, all-purpose flour, cake flour, cornstarch, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. Set aside.
- Using a handheld mixer or a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar together on medium-high speed until creamy and combined, about 3 minutes. Add the eggs, molasses, and vanilla, and beat on high speed until combined, about 1 minute. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl and beat again as needed.
- Add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients, plus the chopped chocolate, dried cranberries, and walnuts. Beat on low speed until combined. This is a thick, heavy, and sticky dough, so you may need to start and stop your mixer a couple times.
- Cover and refrigerate the dough for at least 1 hour (and up to 4 days). If chilling longer than 1 day, let the dough sit at room temperature for at least 30 minutes before rolling, as it will be very firm.
- Preheat the oven to 400°F (204°C). Line baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats.
- Use a 1/3-cup measuring cup to scoop the cookie dough, about 3 ounces (85g) each, and arrange 5–6 cookies on each baking sheet.
- Bake for 5 minutes, then without opening the oven, reduce the temperature to 350°F (177°C) and bake for an additional 10 minutes.
- Remove the cookies from the oven and allow them to cool on the baking sheet for 10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
- Cookies stay fresh covered at room temperature for up to 1 week.
Notes
- Make Ahead & Freezing Instructions: You can make the cookie dough and chill it in the refrigerator for up to 4 days. Baked cookies freeze well for up to 3 months. Unbaked cookie dough balls freeze well for up to 3 months. Bake frozen cookie dough balls for an extra minute, no need to thaw. Read my tips and tricks on how to freeze cookie dough.
- Special Tools (affiliate links): Glass Mixing Bowl | Whisk | Electric Mixer (Handheld or Stand) | Baking Sheets | Silicone Baking Mats or Parchment Paper | Cooling Rack
- Can I Skip the Cake Flour? You can skip the cake flour, but the cookies won’t be quite as soft and thick. Cake flour has a lower protein content than all-purpose flour, which keeps these extra-large cookies tender instead of dense. If you don’t have any on hand, you can make a quick substitute: measure 1 cup of all-purpose flour, remove 2 Tablespoons of it, and replace those 2 Tablespoons with cornstarch. Whisk well before using. It’s not exactly the same as real cake flour, but it works nicely here.
- Can I Use Quick Oats? We don’t recommend it. Quick oats absorb liquid differently and will produce thinner, drier cookies. Old-fashioned whole rolled oats are best for thick, chewy texture.
- Molasses: 1 Tablespoon of molasses gives these cookies exceptional depth of flavor. Use unsulfured or dark molasses (not blackstrap). If you don’t have any, simply leave it out—do not replace with anything else.
- Chocolate: We use and recommend Ghirardelli 60% bittersweet baking chocolate. You can substitute 1 cup (180g) of chocolate chips.
- Different Size Cookies: Use 1.5 Tablespoons (30–35g) of dough for regular-size cookies, or 3 Tablespoons (60–70g) for large cookies. Reduce the 400°F (204°C) bake time to 3 minutes and the remaining 350°F (177°C) bake time to around 7 minutes. Keep a close eye on them.
- Mix-In Variations: Keep total mix-ins around 2–3 cups. Try dried cherries or chopped dried apricots instead of cranberries, pecans or macadamias instead of walnuts, or swap in white or semisweet chocolate. You can also simply skip the nuts completely and not replace them with anything.
