White Chocolate Gingerbread Oatmeal Cookies

These White Chocolate Gingerbread Oatmeal Cookies are a festive spin on my classic oatmeal cookies. They’re soft and chewy and studded with sweet white chocolate chips in festive colours. They’re also full of warm gingerbread spices such as cinnamon, cloves and ginger, and are the perfect addition to your holiday baking list.

These cookies are my new favourite holiday treat. They’re a combination of my favourite butterscotch oatmeal cookie  classic gingerbread and oatmeal molasses cookies. Gingerbread is one of my absolute favourite Holiday flavours, so I had to incorporate it into my holiday baking this year. I will admit, a traditional gingerbread cookie doesn’t do it for me. I mostly don’t enjoy the hard texture. But I love the spicy flavour. These gingerbread oatmeal cookies are the perfect balance of gingerbread spice and soft, chewy oatmeal cookies.

Tips for the Best White Chocolate Gingerbread Oatmeal Cookies

1. Pulse the oats: This is a handy tip I picked up from reading Sally’s Baking Addiction blog. I’ve always just added my oats whole, but she suggests to break them down slightly to achieve a superior chewy cookie. You can do this in a food processor or blender. If you don’t have either of those, just use a knife to chop them up. You want a variety of sizes in the oats.
2. Chill the dough: It’s not necessary, but it’s strongly recommended. Chilling the dough will firm them up and help prevent them from spreading too much in the oven.
3. Keep the cookies small: I recommend using a metal cookie scoop to portion out your dough into 1 and 1/2 Tbsp balls. These cookies do spread out, and once baked are the perfect size.
4. Under-bake the cookies: This is key to a perfectly chewy centre. The sweet spot for me was 12 minutes. The cookies will still be puffy and appear under-baked when you pull them out of the oven. As they sit to cool, they will flatten slightly and set. The longer you bake the cookies, the crispier they will become.

Key Ingredients in White Chocolate Gingerbread Oatmeal Cookies

• Molasses: This is a fundamental ingredient in gingerbread and (as the name might suggest) in oatmeal molasses cookies, which this recipe is based on. Molasses adds an unmistakable rich, deep flavour. Without it, you just have oatmeal ginger cookies, which are great in their own right. To make these cookies, however, you need molasses. I recommend using Fancy Molasses (I use Crosby’s brand). Avoid Blackstrap molasses. It’s darker, and has a deeper and more robust flavour.
• Gingerbread Spices: Classic gingerbread spice is comprised of ginger, cinnamon, cloves, allspice and nutmeg. Fresh nutmeg is my favourite when freshly ground. I buy whole nutmeg and grate it using a microplane.
• Old Fashioned Oats: As mentioned above, breaking down the oats into a variety of sizes is key to a chewy cookie with phenomenal texture.
• White Chocolate Chips:  Typically, I’d say buy the best quality white chocolate you can find and afford. However, in this case, I love the festive colours of these chocolate chips I found in the bulk bins. Use whatever you can find or have on hand.

Looking for more Holiday recipes?

• 4 Ingredient Shortbread Cookies
• White Chocolate Lentil Shortbread
• Date Square (Matrimonial Cake)
• Chestnut Praline White Chocolate Brownies

White Chocolate Gingerbread Oatmeal Cookies

These chewy oatmeal cookies are full of festive gingerbread spices and loaded with white chocolate chips.

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Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Keyword: Cinnamon, Ginger, Oatmeal, Old Fashioned Rolled Oats, White Chocolate

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Cook Time: 12 minutes

Servings: 40 cookies, depending on size

Calories: 104kcal

Equipment

• Food Processor or High Powered Blender
• Stand or hand-held mixer

Ingredients

• 2 cups rolled oats
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 Tbsp cornstarch
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 1/2 tsp ground ginger
• 1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp ground cloves
• 1/4 tsp allspice
• 1 cup unsalted butter at room temperature
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 2 eggs
• 1/4 cup fancy molasses*
• 1 cup white chocolate chips

Instructions

• Add the oats to a food processor or high powered blender and pulse a few times to break them down**. You want to have a variety of sizes, but you do not want all the oats to turn to flour.
• In a medium bowl, whisk together the pulsed oats, flour, baking soda, baking powder, cornstarch, salt, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and allspice.
• In the bowl of a stand mixer, or using a large bowl and hand-held mixer, beat the butter for 2-3 minutes.
• Add the granulated and brown sugars and beat until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Make sure to scrape down the sides of the bowl a few times as you go.
• Add vanilla, eggs and molasses and beat on medium-high until well incorporated, about 1 minute.
• Add the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and pulse the mixer until it has just barely combined.
• Mix in the chocolate chips on low speed or by hand.
• Cover the bowl in plastic and place in the fridge to chill for at least 1 hr.***
• Preheat oven to 350°F
• Line baking sheets with parchment and set aside.
• Scoop the cookie dough, using a 1.5 Tbsp scoop, and place on the baking sheet.
• Bake for about 12 minutes. The cookies will still look slightly under-baked and soft in the center.
• Let cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to a cooking rack to cook completely.
• Store in an airtight container on the counter for 3-4 days. To freeze, place in a zip too bag or other airtight container. Freeze for up to 3-months.

Nutrition

Calories: 104kcal | Carbohydrates: 20g | Protein: 2g | Fat: 2g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 1g | Trans Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 9mg | Sodium: 106mg | Potassium: 77mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 12g | Vitamin A: 14IU | Vitamin C: 1mg | Calcium: 29mg | Iron: 1mg

Nutritional calculation was provided by WP Recipe Maker and is an estimation only. For special diets or medical issues please use your preferred calculator

Notes

*Spray your measure cup with cooking spray, or lightly coat with oil before measuring the molasses. This will help the molasses release from the cup without sticking.

**You want a variety of texture in the oats (some whole, some broken down, some turned to flour). This will help create a nice chewy cookie. If you don't have a food processor or blender, you can also chop the oats with a knife.

***Chilling the dough is recommended but not necessary. Chilling the dough will help prevent this wet sticky dough from spreading too much while baking.

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