These butterscotch chocolate cookies combine two of my favorite flavors with chewy oats and crunchy pecans for an easy cookie recipe that delights with every bite!
For these butterscotch chocolate cookies, I found my inspiration on a bag of Guittard’s butterscotch chips, which are one of my favorite baking ingredients. I was lured in by the appeal of chocolate and butterscotch together, and the addition of oats and pecans won me over—these cookies are rich and decadent without being overwhelming.
Why You’ll Love These Butterscotch Chocolate Cookies
- An under-appreciated flavor. If you hadn’t guessed from this butterscotch pudding and my butterscotch pecan sandies, I adore butterscotch, and it’s put to good use in these cookies. It’s a flavor that often gets overshadowed by its more popular cousin, caramel, but these cookies prove just how delicious butterscotch can be.
- A perfect balance of textures. The chewy oats and crunchy pecans are a delightful contrast to the creamy butterscotch chips and rich chocolate cookie base.
- Easy to make. If you’ve made chocolate chip cookies, you can make these chocolate butterscotch oatmeal cookies!
What You’ll Need
Scroll down to the recipe card to find the ingredient quantities and recipe instructions.
- Semisweet chocolate – You can use chocolate chips or chopped chocolate.
- All-purpose flour – Here’s how to measure flour for baking.
- Baking soda
- Salt
- Quick-cooking oats – Using quick-cooking oats, as opposed to rolled oats, adds chewiness without dominating the texture of these cookies.
- Canola oil – Or another oil you like to use for baking.
- Light brown sugar – Learn more: Light Brown Sugar vs Dark Brown Sugar: What’s the Difference?
- Eggs
- Milk – I always like to bake with whole milk, but whatever milk you keep on hand is just fine.
- Vanilla extract – I love to use homemade vanilla extract.
- Nuts – Pecans or walnuts are best.
- Butterscotch chips – Quality matters quite a bit here. Some brands have a waxy texture and a cloying taste. Guittard is one of my favorite brands, but choose one that has a good flavor to you.
How to Make Butterscotch Chocolate Cookies
- Melt the chocolate. You can use a double boiler or the microwave. Let it cool a bit before moving on with the recipe.
- Mix the dry ingredients. Whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, and oats.
- Mix the wet ingredients. Use an electric mixer to beat the oil, brown sugar, eggs, milk, and vanilla. Then, beat in the cooled melted chocolate.
- Finish the dough. Slowly mix in the flour mixture, then fold in the nuts and butterscotch chips.
- Form the cookies. Roll a tablespoon of dough into a ball for each cookie and drop them on a parchment-lined baking sheet.
- Bake. Place the pans in a 350ºF oven one at a time and bake for 7 to 9 minutes.
- Cool. Let the cookies cool on the pans on wire racks for 5 minutes, then place them directly on the racks to finish cooling. (Learn more: Why Every Baker Needs Wire Cooling Racks)
Tips for Success
- Save some for later. If you have the patience and will-power, these are even better the day after baking them. I know I don’t always heed that kind of advice, so I certainly won’t fault anyone for diving right in shortly after they come out of the oven.
- Don’t over-bake. These cookies are best when they are slightly under-baked. Keep an eye on them towards the end of their baking time and take them out of the oven as soon as they start to set around the edges.
- Let the baking sheets cool between batches. I recommend baking these butterscotch chocolate cookies one sheet at a time. If you don’t have enough baking sheets for that, let the sheet cool completely before adding more dough to it. This will prevent the cookies from spreading or burning on the bottoms.
- Know the basics. Read over my baking tips for beginners before you get started.
Variations
- Try peanut butter chips. They won’t be chocolate butterscotch cookies, but I think peanut butter chips would be an excellent swap for the butterscotch.
- Swap out the nuts. If you’re not a fan of nuts, you can omit them or substitute something else. Pepitas would be great for a similar crunch and nuttiness, but I’ve also been meaning to try this recipe with broken up pieces of pretzels.
- Add some salt. When your butterscotch chip chocolate cookies are fresh out of the oven, sprinkle some flaky sea salt over the tops.
How to Store
Store these butterscotch chocolate cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to a week.
Can I Freeze This Recipe?
You can freeze both the baked cookies and the dough for these chocolate butterscotch cookies for up to 3 months. To freeze the baked cookies, allow them to cool completely and then place them in a freezer-safe bag or container. Thaw at room temperature or in the microwave to enjoy.
To freeze the dough, form it into balls and place them on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Freeze the dough balls for about an hour before transferring them to a freezer-safe bag or container. When you’re ready to bake, just add a few extra minutes to the oven time to account for the dough being frozen.
More Recipes With Butterscotch
- Oatmeal Butterscotch Cookies
- Mini Chocolate Pound Cakes with Butterscotch Glaze
- Salted Butterscotch Blondies
- Butterscotch Peanut Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Butterscotch Pudding Pie with Chocolate Chip Cookie Crust
Chocolate Butterscotch Cookies
These easy chocolate butterscotch cookies are loaded with oats, chopped pecans and butterscotch chips in every delicious, chewy bite!
Ingredients
- 2 cups (340g) semisweet chocolate chips or 12 ounces of semisweet chocolate, roughly chopped
- 3/4 cup (90g) all-purpose flour
- 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 & 1/4 cups (100g) quick-cooking oats
- 1/4 cup (59ml) canola oil
- 1/4 cup (50g) firmly packed light brown sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 2 tablespoons milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup (120g) chopped pecans or walnuts
- 1 cup (170g) butterscotch chips
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone liners.
- Melt the chocolate in a double boiler or in the microwave. Set aside to cool.
- Combine the flour, baking soda, salt, and oats in a medium bowl. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, mix the oil, brown sugar, eggs, milk, and vanilla using an electric mixer. Mix in the melted chocolate.
- Gradually add the flour mixture, and mix just until combined or a few small streaks of flour remain. Stir in the nuts and butterscotch chips.
- Using about a tablespoonful of dough at a time, roll the dough into balls. Place the cookies about 2 inches apart on the prepared pans. Bake one pan at a time for 7-9 minutes. The centers will still be slightly soft but will set as they cool.
- Cool the cookies on the pans on wire racks for 5 minutes. Then, transfer the cookies directly to a wire rack to cool completely.
Notes
Recipe adapted from Guittard.
Store these butterscotch chocolate cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to a week.
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20 Comments on “Butterscotch Chocolate Cookies”
The printable recipe page is overlapped by the ad. Not sure if it’s my computer or a glitch. Just thought I’d let someone know.
Try it now, Brandy.
What a wonderful looking cookie and I’m sure it tastes amazing! I absolutely love your blog and am always anxious to see what you’ll post next. Can’t wait to try these out!
I really shouldn’t be looking at your site while I’m hungry – these look so so good! I like the idea of oatmeal in there to downplay the sweetness a bit – and I’m a big fan of butterscotch chips 🙂
Delicious cookies. I love butterscotch desserts so much.
These sound wonderful! I’ve always thought that butterscotch is an underused ingredient!
You guys are trying to kill me; too much chocolate but I can’t say no!
Wow, these look amazing! Im always so interested to find things that are marvelous that I can make at a moment’s notice with things I already have in my pantry!
I like the flavor of butterscotch, but I always find butterscotch chips to be too large and (as a result) overly sweet. However, these cookies looked so good that I could not resist- so I wound up processing a cup of the oatmeal with a cup of the butterscotch chips in a mini-food chopper. You can still taste the oats, but the butterscotch flavor is not quite as overwhelming. Other than that, this recipe is fantastic. I never thought using oil in a cookie recipe would taste as good as this did!
I’m going to make these…not sure I can wait until the next day to eat them but I’ll try
Stupendous! I’m in charge of craft service this Sunday and this recipe just knocked the intended dessert right off the menu. Thanks!!
Gary
WOW! These look awesome. I love butterscotch chips, but have not seen Guittard butterscotch around here. I will have to find them! Thanks for sharing.
Yum! These cookies look soooo good. I’m going to make them for my boys (but I’ll substitute the egg and milk as I’m vegan-bet it’ll still be tasty)…they’ll love ’em!
I want this i really love chocolates.Thanks for sharing this to us 🙂
They look to die for are they good for diets.
Baking day on sunday cant wait to try these. YUM YUM !!!
These look SOOOOOO good… alas I totally lack any kind of willpower when it comes to delicious cookies, so I’d better just watch the pretty pictures and read your delectable words ;).
smiles,
F.
chocolate, steak, and wine……it is a moment.
Are quick cooking rolled oats the same as old fashioned Quaker oats?
Hi, Lindsay. Quick cooking oats are usually smaller than old-fashioned oats (which is the main reason they cook more quickly). For such a short oven time, the quick cooking oats are probably a better choice, but you can substitute old-fashioned if you prefer.