I Tried Quaker Oats and King Arthur's Popular Oatmeal Cookie Recipes—Here's the Winner

There’s a bit of lore around oatmeal cookies in my family. My mom wasn’t much of a baker, but she tried for many years to get us to like oatmeal raisin cookies. She probably baked dozens of different recipes over a three- to four-year period. Finally, one fall, she nailed the oatmeal cookies from the original Quaker Oats canister—perfumed with cinnamon, just sweet enough, and boasting a delightful oaty chew that was both buttery and savory. I still remember it!

She never did make a batch of oatmeal cookies like that again, and she swears it’s because Quaker Oats changed the recipe.

I’m a mom now with my own oatmeal cookie quest underway—determined to convince my children of their deliciousness. So I wanted to see how Quaker’s Best Oatmeal Cookies hold up against a popular recipe from King Arthur Baking Company. Could a classic back-of-the-canister cookie recipe compete with a bakery-style version from the experts at King Arthur? I put these two recipes head-to-head, and here’s what I learned.

How To Make Quaker’s Best Oatmeal Cookies 

As you might imagine, Quaker Oats has quite a few variations on its oatmeal cookie recipe. I was never able to figure out which one my mom used back in 1998. For this recipe test, I wanted to try its flagship version, aptly named Best Oatmeal Cookies.

The cookies start with a hefty dose of butter or margarine. Brown sugar and granulated sugar are added and creamed together. Then an egg and a splash of vanilla extract get mixed in.

Once the butter-and-sugar mixture is combined, you add all-purpose flour, baking soda, ground cinnamon, salt, and a bit of freshly grated nutmeg. Finally, the oats go in. The recipe calls for either quick-cooking or old-fashioned oats; I went with quick-cooking, just like my mom used to. Raisins are optional—I skipped them.

The recipe instructs you to scoop rounded tablespoons of dough, so I used my favorite cookie scoop to portion the cookies onto an ungreased baking sheet.

Both the unlined, ungreased sheet and the relatively high baking temperature (375°F) seemed unusual to me. My first batch baked unevenly—some cookies spread quite thin while others kept a nicely rounded shape. Before continuing, I gave the dough another quick mix with my hand mixer, and the second batch baked more evenly. (A good reminder that mixing consistency really matters with this dough.)

How To Make King Arthur Baking’s Oatmeal Cookies 

I first learned to make King Arthur’s oatmeal cookies from the book King Arthur Baking Company The All-Purpose Baker’s Companion. While the website has nearly 30 oatmeal cookie variations, this recipe is the most straightforward and classic.

The King Arthur version starts by creaming butter, shortening, and both brown and granulated sugars together. The recipe has you add the cinnamon, nutmeg, salt, vanilla extract, and a teaspoon of vinegar directly to the butter-sugar mixture. The vinegar tempers the sweetness and helps activate the baking soda—an unexpectedly smart trick.

Next, an egg is added, followed by all-purpose flour, baking soda, oats, and golden raisins. Like the Quaker Oats' recipe, King Arthur offers the option of quick-cooking or rolled oats; this time, I chose rolled oats.

The dough is portioned into rounded tablespoons and baked at 350°F on a parchment-lined baking sheet. The cookies spread a bit, as the recipe warns, so it may be worthwhile to bake nine cookies instead of 12 per sheet to prevent them from merging.

The Winner: King Arthur’s Oatmeal Cookies 

Oatmeal cookies are simple to make and yet incredibly delicious. I was truly rooting for the Quaker recipe to win. It has no fussy ingredients or complicated steps. However, only some of the cookies baked beautifully.

About half of the 36 cookies spread significantly in the oven. Luckily, I didn’t have trouble removing them from the baking sheet, even without greasing or lining it. The cookies that did hold their shape were pleasantly chewy with crisp edges, and the combination of brown sugar and cinnamon was lovely.

The King Arthur oatmeal cookies required a few more ingredients—butter, shortening, vinegar, and raisins—but they didn’t take any extra time to mix.

They baked up perfectly rounded with crisp edges and soft, chewy interiors. The vinegar and golden raisins resulted in a cookie that wasn’t overly sweet and kept my family coming back, bite after bite—and I say this as a raisin hater!

Next time, I’ll follow my own advice and bake fewer cookies per tray, but I’ll definitely be making King Arthur’s oatmeal cookies again soon. They were the first to disappear—and the clear winner in my household.