“oat”
14 recipes vs 397Recipes with “oat” in the title: less egg (9.6% vs 40%).
“oat” (14)the rest (397)middle half of all
Eggrecipes with oat in the title 9.6% vs the rest 40%
Oatmeal Cookies Lab
Oatmeal Cookies: what 499 recipes agree on
Chewy or crisp: oats, butter, sugar and egg per 100 g of flour.
499 recipes from 121 sites, each reduced to grams and written as baker's percentages: grams of each ingredient per 100 g of flour, so a small recipe and a double batch line up. Below: the typical batch, how far recipes stray from it, and a page for every recipe with a link to the original.
Recipes
499
from 121 sites
Typical flour
190 g
about 1 1/2 cups
Oven
350°F
175°C · median of 444
Bake time
11 min
most 10 to 14 min
The typical batch of oatmeal cookies
The median of all 499 recipes for each ingredient, scaled to 190 g of flour. No single recipe is exactly this: each line is the middle of its own distribution. “Most recipes” means the middle half, from the 25th to the 75th percentile.
| Ingredient | Grams |
|---|---|
| FlourThe scale for everything else | 190 gabout 1 1/2 cups |
| OatsMost recipes use 120 to 230 g | 160 g |
| FatMost recipes use 140 to 220 g | 175 gabout 3/4 cup |
| SugarMost recipes use 220 to 320 g | 255 gabout 1 1/4 cups |
| EggMost recipes use 55 to 100 g | 75 gabout 1 1/2 large eggs |
| LeaveningMost recipes use 4 to 7 g | 6 g |
| SaltMost recipes use 2 to 4 g | 2.5 g |
Bake350°F (175°C) for about 11 minutes.
Volumes are approximate: flour at 125 g a cup, sugar 200 g, butter or oil 225 g, a large egg 50 g.
Every recipe, ingredient by ingredient
Each dot is a recipe, placed by grams of the ingredient per 100 g of flour (100% would be as much as the flour). The shaded band is the middle half of recipes and the line is the median.
Oats
median 85% · most 64 to 122%
Oats absorb moisture and give chew; recipes with more oats than flour are hearty and thick, fewer make a cookie closer to chocolate chip.
Each dot is up to 7 recipes. range 30 to 250%
Fat
median 91% · most 74 to 116%
Butter controls spread and richness; melted butter gives a chewier, flatter cookie than creamed.
Each dot is up to 11 recipes. range 30 to 160%
Sugar
median 135% · most 115 to 168%
Oatmeal cookies lean on brown sugar, whose molasses keeps them moist and chewy.
Each dot is up to 7 recipes. range 40 to 277%
Egg
median 40% · most 29 to 52%
Egg holds the oats together; an extra yolk makes a chewier cookie.
Each dot is up to 10 recipes. range 0 to 88% · 10% use none
Leavening
median 2.9% · most 2.2 to 3.7%
Mostly baking soda, which spreads and browns the dough.
Each dot is up to 9 recipes. range 0 to 6.8% · 6% use none
Salt
median 1.4% · most 1 to 2.1%
Salt sharpens the oat and brown-sugar flavor.
Each dot is up to 8 recipes. range 0 to 4% · 13% use none
Where recipes disagree
Measured by how far apart the 25th and 75th percentile recipes are. The widest gaps are where the choice of recipe matters most.
- Salt. The middle half of recipes use 1 to 2.1% of the flour weight in salt, so a recipe at the 75th percentile has 2.2 times as much as one at the 25th.
- Oats. The middle half of recipes use 64 to 122% of the flour weight in oats, so a recipe at the 75th percentile has 1.9 times as much as one at the 25th.
Recipes agree most on sugar and fat: sugar 115 to 168%, fat 74 to 116% for the middle half.
Around the world
495 of the recipes come in 6 languages with enough of each to compare: English 411, French 28, German 19, Portuguese 16, Spanish 11, Dutch 10.
- Dutch recipes use about half as much fat as English ones (39% against 91% of the flour weight), 30% less sugar (100% against 144%) and under a third as much salt (0.4% against 1.6%).
- Spanish recipes use 26% less sugar than English ones (105% against 144% of the flour weight) and about half as much leavening (1.3% against 3%).
What the words in titles mean
English recipes whose titles use a word, against the ones that do not. What recipe writers do when they pick the word, not proof that it makes the texture.
Recipes called “chewy” (38), “best” (16) or “soft” (14) use about the same amounts as the rest on every ingredient measured here.
“pumpkin”
29 recipes vs 382Recipes with “pumpkin” in the title: less egg (14% vs 40%).
“pumpkin” (29)the rest (382)middle half of all
Eggrecipes with pumpkin in the title 14% vs the rest 40%
The most-reviewed recipes
84 oatmeal cookie recipes have 50 or more reader ratings. A rating count says how many people rated a page, which follows its traffic more than its quality. Against the other 415, medians per 100 g of flour, compared within each language:
On no ingredient do the most-reviewed recipes differ from the rest by more than chance would explain.
50+ ratings (84)the rest (415)middle half of all
Oatsthe most-reviewed recipes 97% vs the rest 83%
Fatthe most-reviewed recipes 92% vs the rest 91%
Sugarthe most-reviewed recipes 137% vs the rest 135%
Eggthe most-reviewed recipes 40% vs the rest 40%
Leaveningthe most-reviewed recipes 3.2% vs the rest 2.8%
Saltthe most-reviewed recipes 1.7% vs the rest 1.3%
Most reviewed
- Best-Ever Oatmeal Cookies Recipe · biggerbolderbaking.com4.5 from 1,750 ratings
- Whole Wheat, Oatmeal and Amaranth Fruitcake Cookie Recipe · archanaskitchen.com4.9 from 1,453 ratings
- Thin and Crispy Oatmeal Cookies · melskitchencafe.com4.6 from 1,363 ratings
- Oatmeal Cherry Cookies Recipe · archanaskitchen.com5.0 from 1,345 ratings
- Soft and Chewy Oatmeal Raisin Cookies · sallysbakingaddiction.com4.7 from 1,110 ratings
Oven temperature and time
444 of 499 recipes state an oven temperature, and 74% of those bake at 350°F (175°C). The other 55 do not say.
- 350°F331 recipes
- 375°F70 recipes
- 400°F18 recipes
- 325°F9 recipes
- 300°F5 recipes
- 365°F4 recipes
480 recipes state a bake time. Taking the middle of any stated range (“55 to 65 minutes” counts as 60), the median is 11 minutes and the middle half bake 10 to 14 minutes.
Temperature and time together
The single most common pairing is 350°F for 10 to 12 minutes, with 127 of the 431 recipes that state both.
≥400°F 205375°F 190350°F 175325°F 165300°F 1506101418222630
Recipes to start with
Closest to the typical batch
Nearest the median on every ingredient at once.
- Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies Recipes · feelgoodfoodie.netoats 80% · fat 91%
- Banana Oatmeal Cookies · 12tomatoes.comoats 96% · fat 91%
- Oatmeal Cookies · tasteandtellblog.comoats 96% · fat 91%
- Oatmeal Raisin Cookies · sugarspunrun.comoats 96% · fat 91%
- Toffee Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies · houseofnasheats.comoats 97% · fat 92%
Most oats
- Haferflockenkekse baer · ichkoche.atoats 250% · fat 125%
- Biscuits aux flocons d’avoine, cacahuètes et chocolat au thermomix · cookomix.comoats 219% · fat 125%
- Biscuits aux flocons d’avoine · cuisineaz.comoats 200% · fat 150%
Least oats
- Easy Oatmeal Cookies · recipesfromapantry.comoats 30% · fat 76%
- Biscuits d’avoine au pralin · ptitchef.comoats 30% · fat 50%
- Levain Oatmeal Raisin Cookies · houseofnasheats.comoats 31% · fat 59%
Go deeper
- DiscoverEvery recipe plotted on any two ratios.
- CalculatorStart from the typical recipe, move the ratios, get grams.
- IngredientsWhich ingredients recipes use, and the choices they make.
- RatiosWhich ingredients rise and fall together.
- TimelineRecipes by publication year and how the typical one shifted.
- Around the WorldThe typical recipe in each language, and where French, German or Italian recipes part from English ones.
- Title WordsWhat recipes whose titles say fudgy, healthy or small batch do differently from the rest, and which words change nothing.
- All RecipesEvery recipe, sortable, with a page each.
- ClustersThe styles the numbers fall into.
- Decision TreeA few questions that narrow the recipes to the ones you want.
Top sources
- 12crazyforcrust.com
- 12foodnetwork.com
- 12iambaker.net
- 12melskitchencafe.com
- 12sallysbakingaddiction.com
- 12tasteofhome.com
- 12thebakingchocolatess.com
- 11beyondfrosting.com
- 11joyfoodsunshine.com
- 10baketotheroots.de
- 10kingarthurbaking.com
- 9bakerbynature.com
In 7 languages: English 411, French 28, German 19, Portuguese 16, Spanish 11, Dutch 10, Italian 4. Lines in other languages are read in their own units and words, and each recipe page links to the original. 121 sites in all. No site contributes more than 12 recipes.
How the numbers are made
Every ingredient line is converted to grams and grouped (butter and oil count as fat; white, brown and liquid sweeteners as sugar), then divided by the flour weight. That baker's percentage is the only comparison that holds across recipes of different sizes.
99% of the 5,712 ingredient lines got a weight. 25% of those weights were printed by the source; the rest were converted from cups and spoons with standard densities, so treat single recipes as close, not exact. Frosting, glaze, streusel and other toppings are listed on each recipe page but left out of the percentages.
A recipe outside the plausible range for any ingredient is left out rather than allowed to stretch every chart; it is usually a different dish with the same name or a misread line. Of the pages fetched, 472 were left out: 242 outside the plausible range on some ingredient (oats 136, fat 52, leavening 25, salt 13, sugar 9, egg 7), 155 with no flour, or none that could be weighed, 49 with a title that names a different dish, 9 over the 12-per-site cap, 8 duplicates of other pages, 5 made from a boxed mix, 3 with an ingredient in amounts that could not be weighed, and 1 too many lines without an amount.
Every recipe page links to the original, which is where the method is. Recipe Lab does not republish instructions or photos.