The classic Quaker oatmeal cookies recipe from the old-fashioned oats box or canister, plus tips for making these cookies come out perfectly! These are also known as Vanishing Oatmeal Raisin Cookies. 
Quaker Oatmeal Cookies
Is there anything better than the classic Quaker Oats oatmeal cookies? Probably not, at least in the oatmeal cookie category.
My mom made a variation of these when I was a kid. She loaded them up with lots of extra goodies like coconut, pecans, and chocolate, calling them "cowboy cookies." Many's the time I popped open the storage container to grab a handful of those cookies!
When I reached for the my canister of old-fashioned oats to take a closer look at the recipe, I wondered where the original recipe for Quaker oatmeal cookies came from. When was it invented? When did it start appearing on the box or canister?
One article claimed that "by early 1900s a recipe for the delicious treats appeared on every container of Quaker Oats." This anecdote is repeated, often word-for-word, on other websites.
The official Quaker Oats history says only that an oat cake recipe began appearing on the box in 1908. Oat cakes are not the same as the later Quaker oatmeal cookies. Here's a recipe from the BBC if you'd like to see how oat cakes are made.
So, there certainly were oat cake recipes printed on the box back in the early 1900s, but I haven't found a source yet that reveals when exactly the famous Quaker Oats oatmeal cookie recipe, also known as "Vanishing Oatmeal Raisin Cookies," first appeared. If you have information on this, please leave a comment below.
You can watch the official video to see exactly how to make this recipe right here.
Surprising Things You May Not Know About Quaker Oatmeal Cookies
- The recipe does not specify salted or unsalted butter. This explains why salt is optional. I use unsalted butter and I don't add salt, but this is a personal choice.
- You can use Quaker Old-Fashioned Oats or Quick Oats.
- You can make an adjustment to the flour to make these cookies at high altitude. Use 1 ¾ cups of flour rather than 1 ½.
- You can swap in whole wheat or white whole wheat flour for any or all of the all-purpose flour. I've been doing this for years and it works like a charm.
- You can add more mix-ins, such as chocolate chips, shredded coconut, pecans, walnuts, cranberries, etc.
- You can make this recipe as bar cookies in a 13 by 9 pan.
Other Ways to Use Quaker Oats
- Homemade Granola
- Blackberry Crumble
- Blueberry Crumble
- Apple Crumble
- Cannoli Overnight Oats
- Triple Layer Oatmeal Brownies
Bookmark this recipe so you can have it without having to dig up an actual Quaker Oats canister.
Quaker Oatmeal Cookies • Straight from the Quaker Oats Box!
The classic Quaker oatmeal cookies recipe from the old-fashioned oats box or canister, plus tips for making these cookies come out perfectly!
Ingredients
- 14 tablespoons butter softened
- ¾ cup brown sugar firmly packed
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 ½ cups all purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- ½ teaspoons salt optional
- 3 cups Quaker Oats quick or old-fashioned, uncooked
- 1 cup raisins
Instructions
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Heat oven to 350 F. In large bowl, beat butter and sugars on medium speed of electric mixer until creamy.
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Add eggs and vanilla; beat well.
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Add combined flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt; mix well.
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Add oats and raisins; mix well.
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Drop dough by rounded tablespoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets.
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Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until light golden brown. Cool 1 minute on cookie sheets; remove to wire rack. Cool completely. Store tightly covered. Makes about 4 dozen cookies.
Recipe Notes
For high altitude, increase flour to 1 ¾ cups.
My husband loves these with chopped dates & walnuts or pecans. I use butter flavor shortening & cut back sugars by 1/3. Today I removed 1/2 the dough then added Craisins & white chocolate chips. To the other half I added the dates & pecans. Gonna drizzle white chocolate on the Craisin ones. They’re for our daughter Roberta who doesn’t like nuts in baked goods. Be BLESSED! Joann S.
This was delicious! I only added the raisins. I did not add salt. I took them out of the oven when the edges turned brown! They were soft and perfect. A half recipe made 13 cookies.
I have added cinnamon chips (similar to chocolate chips) to this recipe and I really like it. It’s been a while since I made these so I don’t remember how much. 3/4 - 1 cup maybe.
Also, I’m kind of a purist when it comes to cookies. Someone mentioned adding water to a cookie recipe. I steer away from recipes that call for water or milk. I figure if they can’t get the butter/flour ratio right, then I move on to another recipe.
Thanks for posting this recipe!
Thank you.
Quaker Oats where I shop does not have the recipe under the lid anymore.
Can you send a recipe for one dozen cookies please?
Thank you so much
I had a Quaker Oats oatmeal cookie recipe in the late 80’s to early 90’s that was from the inside lid of the container. I remember it specifically calling for mixing the flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon together in a separate bowl then adding the oats and mixing them together to coat before adding to the bowl of butter/ shortening, sugars, eggs, and vanilla. Does anyone recall this recipe (stirring oats into the flour mixture)? I’m trying to find out if the measurement of ingredients in that recipe were different from the recipes above. Thank you.
They are most likely different. It seems Quaker has changed the recipe a couple of times. I saw one that has just one egg, used shortening, and water. This one has 2 eggs, butter and no water. I made this recipe yesterday, and I baked them in muffin pans so they wouldn't spread. They turned out great. They are nice and chewy.
This is the recipe on the lid of my Quaker oats. It just happens to be our dog's birthday, so I just finished making a batch, with a small change that was awesome. I hate how oatmeal cookies spread and then get hard. So, I decided to bake them in muffin pans. I used a medium size cookie scoop that left just a small amount of pan showing around the dough. I did not chill the dough nor did I press the dough down. I left it as it came out of the cookie scoop, flat side down. I baked them for 12 minutes and left them in the pan for 5 minutes before removing them to a cooling rack. I ran a plastic knife around each cookie before they were removed in case any of them stuck. I omitted the raisins because ick. I did add a few chocolate chips to the last bit of dough. None of those for our dog. I waited until the cookies completely cooled before trying one. I will never go back to making oatmeal cookies on a cookie sheet again. They were nice and soft, slightly thicker than a regular oatmeal cookie. So glad I took that chance with the muffin pans!