Oatmeal cookies over time
428 of the 499 recipes carry a publication date, from 2003 to 2026. Below: how many pages each year, whether the typical batch changed between the oldest and newest, and the oldest and newest pages themselves.
A date here is the one the page gives for itself: when it was published, or last updated. Sites often refresh an old recipe and its date together, so read these as when the pages went up, not when the recipes were created.
Recipes per year
Dated pages by the year they give. The first bar gathers the 4 pages from before 2007. Shading marks the periods compared below.
How the typical batch changed
Between oatmeal cookie pages dated before 2018 and those dated 2024 or later, the median salt rose from 1.2% to 1.6% of the flour weight. Oats, fat, sugar, egg and leavening show no clear change.
| Per 100 g flour | Before 2018113 recipes | 2018 to 2020104 recipes | 2021 to 2023110 recipes | 2024 and later101 recipes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| OatsNo clear change | 79% | 88% | 97% | 82% |
| FatNo clear change | 90% | 92% | 97% | 91% |
| SugarNo clear change | 132% | 133% | 150% | 130% |
| EggNo clear change | 40% | 40% | 42% | 40% |
| LeaveningNo clear change | 2.8% | 2.7% | 2.9% | 3% |
| SaltHigher | 1.2% | 1.4% | 1.6% | 1.6% |
Each cell is the median baker's percentage in that period: grams of the ingredient per 100 g of flour. Higher and lower compare the newest period with the oldest, only where the change is clear (see how below). Periods are cut at year boundaries so each holds about the same number of recipes.
Ingredients that gained or lost ground
Share of each period's recipes that list the ingredient. Only changes between the oldest and newest periods too large to be likely chance are listed.
| Recipes using | Before 2018 | 2018 to 2020 | 2021 to 2023 | 2024 and later |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SaltMore common | 75% | 95% | 89% | 98% |
| VanillaMore common | 69% | 87% | 92% | 92% |
| Baking sodaMore common | 70% | 87% | 85% | 89% |
Oldest and newest pages
Oldest dates
Sep 25, 2003
Brown Sugar Oatmeal Cookies · bettycrocker.comDec 17, 2003
Apple-Spice-Oatmeal Cookies · bettycrocker.comMay 10, 2006
Cookies de aveia · tudogostoso.com.brAug 4, 2006
Biscoito fácil de aveia · tudogostoso.com.brNov 19, 2007
Cookie de aveia light · tudogostoso.com.br
Newest dates
Sep 23, 2026
Apple Oatmeal Cookies with Salted Caramel Glaze · twopeasandtheirpod.comSep 9, 2026
Single Serve Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies · bromabakery.comAug 18, 2026
Brown Butter Oatmeal Cookies · butternutbakeryblog.comAug 17, 2026
Biscoff White Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies · sallysbakingaddiction.comAug 11, 2026
Browned Butter Oatmeal Cookies · biggerbolderbaking.com
How the dates are read
Each date is the publication date in the recipe page's own structured data. 48 of the 499 recipes have none, or one without a year (such as “December 3”), and are left out.
23 more carry a date their site gave to many pages at once, which marks a site move or redesign rather than a publication: 2018-01-01 on tasteofhome.com (222 pages across Recipe Lab, 9 of them here), 2018-10-08 on bakerbettie.com (46 pages across Recipe Lab, 4 of them here) and 2011-03-07 on jamiegeller.com (6 pages across Recipe Lab, 2 of them here), and 6 more like it. They are left out too.
A change counts as clear when the newest period's median differs from the oldest period's by at least a tenth and a rank test puts the gap at 2.5 standard errors or more. For the share of recipes using an ingredient, the bar is 3 standard errors and 8 percentage points. Every ingredient is tested, so a lower bar would flag chance differences on most pages.
2026 is still in progress, so its bar is short for a reason that has nothing to do with baking.