Name: Jumbo Oatmeal Butterscotch Cookies
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 15 min
Total time: 30 min
Ingredients: 1 cup unsalted butter, (room temperature); 1 cup brown sugar, (lightly packed); 1/2 cup white sugar; 2 large eggs; 2 tablespoons molasses; 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour; 3 cups quick oats; 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon; 1 teaspoon baking soda; 1 teaspoon salt; 4 teaspoons cornstarch; 1 package Instant Butterscotch Pudding Mix; 2 cups butterscotch chips

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Butterscotch is sweet and indulgent, it’s a flavour combination that combines that of browned butter, molasses, and caramelized sugar. Jumbo Oatmeal Butterscotch Cookies are prepared with simplified versions of those ingredients, but also with butterscotch chips and butterscotch pudding too!

Lord Byron’s Kitchen is no stranger to a cookie recipe. At the time of writing this, I would guess that there’s at least 200 cookie recipes published here for everyone to explore and of course, bake! And, jumbo cookies are no stranger either! In fact, I think all cookies should be jumbo, so these Jumbo Oatmeal Butterscotch Cookies are most certainly in good company!

My obsession with these types of cookies all started with my Jumbo Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies. Since I discovered those about four years ago, I continue to bake them and I also bake many variations. That’s exactly what happened in this case. I was craving the flavour of butterscotch, so I decided to switch out the chocolate chips and use butterscotch chips instead. But, it wasn’t butterscotch-y enough. It needed more. And, I found just that in a box of butterscotch pudding mix!

I’ve used pudding mix in cookies before. Remember these Pistachio Pudding Cookies from my second Christmas countdown series? And, I also used pudding mix in these Butterscotch Gingerbread Cookies in the third installment of Lord Byron’s 24 Cookies of Christmas series. But, those were not what triggered my thought process.

As a food blogger, I will often spend quite a bit of time thinking about food. Many times that food already exists a certain way and I think about how to spin it so that it’s completely different. This one particular day, I remembered the chocolate chip cookies that my friend, Deana, used to make. She used to make the best, super soft and moist cookies and she once told me that her secret was a package of vanilla pudding dry mix. It was just what these cookies need, but in butterscotch form!

BUTTERSCOTCH PUDDING CUPS – DO YOU REMEMBER THESE?

When I was a boy, one of my favourite snacks was a pudding cup. I don’t think we called them pudding cups like kids do now, we just called them pudding. And, they were not in those cute little plastic cups with the peel away lid either. Nope, our pudding cups were actually in cans with a peel back metal lid. Is there anyone in their 40s like me that can remember this? The brand was Hunt’s. I think they’re long gone, because I have not seen those canned puddings since the 1980s.

Needless to say, butterscotch was my favourite, and was closely followed by tapioca and then chocolate. That’s why these Jumbo Oatmeal Butterscotch Cookies had to be made. Because, the best cookies are those that brings back the best of memories, right?

There used to be a butterscotch candy too. They were round and individually wrapped, much like Werther’s, but much better than Werther’s. I will eat a Werther’s once in a while, but it’s just not the same. What is it about nostalgia that just takes root and shuns the idea of change or the acceptance of it? Is it just me that hangs onto those simple things and finds it hard to accept change?

WHAT TYPE OF BUTTERSCOTCH PUDDING SHOULD I USE?

Basically, there’s two types of boxed butterscotch pudding – regular and instant. In most cases, you’ll be hard-pressed to find regular pudding mix anymore, because they world has gone and got itself in a hurry. Don’t worry; the instant works perfectly and that’s what I used in this recipe.

You will need just one box of the dry pudding mix. This is the exact box that I used. I know that butterscotch pudding also comes in a fat free version. You can certainly use that if you prefer.

We are not concerned about the fat or sugar content in the pudding. It’s the butterscotch flavour that we want to extract and incorporate into the cookies. Any brand of butterscotch pudding will do just fine. And, if you can’t find the 99 gram size box, get one as close as you can to that. For non-Canadians, 99 grams converts to 3.5 ounces.

HERE IS WHAT YOU WILL NEED FOR THIS RECIPE:

Unsalted Butter – Make sure your butter is at room temperature!
Brown Sugar – With more flavour than regular white sugar, it helps to keep the cookie moist and soft.
Sugar – Sugar will caramelize when baked, which will help to brown the cookies, it will also help the dough to spread and create a crispness to the bottom of the cookie.
Eggs – Whenever you set out to bake, make sure your eggs are at room temperature too – just like your butter!
Molasses – This gorgeous, sticky, sweet concoction is basically just boiled cane sugar. When baking, the best molasses to fancy molasses. Stay away from dark or blackstrap molasses unless instructed otherwise. Fancy molasses is a light molasses.

Flour – Just use regular all-purpose flour. I have not tried this recipe with any other type of flour.
Oats – Use quick oats.
Cinnamon – Commonly found in baked goods, cinnamon adds an aromatic with a warming flavour to these cookies.
Baking Soda – Activated by a liquid, it’s an acid to help with leavening or rising.
Salt – In baking it helps to enhance and balance sweetness.
Cornstarch – When added to cake, cookie and shortbread recipes, cornstarch helps create a crumbly and tender dessert-like texture.
Butterscotch Chips – Butterscotch chips are warming and sweet, which makes them great in baked goods.
Butterscotch Pudding – See section above.

HOW TO MAKE JUMBO OATMEAL BUTTERSCOTCH COOKIES

Start by preheating your oven to Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Prepare a baking sheet by lining it with a silcone baking liner or parchment paper. Set is aside while you prepare the cookie dough.

In a large bowl, use a mixer to blend together the butter, brown sugar, white sugar, eggs and molasses. Beat until smooth. Add the following ingredients in this order: flour, oats, cinnamon, baking soda, salt, cornstarch, and the dry butterscotch pudding mix. Use the mixer, set to low speed, the mix together the dry ingredients slightly before beginning to blend the dry into the wet ingredients. Just mix until combined; don’t over mix.

Now, use a spatula to stir in the butterscotch chips. Use a #20 cookie scoop, or portion the batter into 3 tablespoon mounds. Roll into balls and place onto the prepared baking sheet. Bake only 4 cookies per sheet. These cookies are big! Gently flatten the ball of cookie batter to about 1/2 inch thick. Bake for 15 minutes. Finally, remove from oven and allow to cool on the baking sheet for 2-3 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack to finish cooling.

STORING, PACKAGING, AND FREEZING

If you plan to freeze these cookies, you certainly can! Once they are completely cooled, pile them into a clean, food-safe container. The container must be freezer friendly! You’ll want to ensure a very tight fitting lid too. (I use these quite often when freezing baked goods.) I like to place a sheet of plastic wrap over the top of the container before pushing the lid on. This helps to create a better seal. The goal is to keep all of that cookie freshness locked in!

You can freeze these cookies for up to three months. To thaw, lay them out onto a wire cooling rack in a single layer. Once thawed, get a hot coffee and enjoy!

5 from 7 votes

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