These rolled oat oatmeal cookies are bursting with a molten lava caramel chocolate center. Plus they are drizzled with milk chocolate for an extra decadent holiday treat!
For long time (or even short time) readers of CMA, you likely know my obsession with oats. I have ’em in probably about 90% of my recipes. Okay, not quite that many, but gosh I use oats a lot!!
Some of the most popular recipes on this site list oats as one of the top ingredients. I’m particularly fond of grinding up oats in the blender and using that as a substitution for regular white flour. Making oat flour is one of my favorite things to do when baking — it takes about 10 seconds flat in the blender and lends the most unbelievable texture and flavor to recipes. You know the recipes I’m talking about right? The healthy pumpkin chocolate chip cookies perhaps or the banana and peanut butter muffins? And that’s just two out of the dozens!
But today I’m talking about oats in their good old-fashioned form – whole oats mixed into cookies. Except these aren’t just ordinary oatmeal cookies –they got a major make-over in the form of oozing and dripping caramel PLUS chocolate. These cookies are unbelievably chewy, flavorful, and also incredibly easy to make. Seriously – if you have a last minute party needing some cookies, this recipe is your savior. And that’s just talking about time commitment to making these; I haven’t even begun to tell you how popular you will be after bringing these cookies to said party! Hint: very.
These cookies only require 10 ingredients (but really, does salt and vanilla even count?!) and 8 ingredients if you leave off that extra chocolate drizzle. No chilling is required for these cookies either – in fact you don’t even need to leave the butter out in advance to bring it to room temperature — score!
I know, I know, …we should probably just call these magic cookies. 🙂 The dough is simple – flour, old fashioned oats, brown sugar (make sure to pack it in), salt, butter, and vanilla. Once that dough is all mixed together you can grab off a large piece and flatten it in your hand. I liked to get it as flat as possible and then press two Rolos (unwrapped of course!) into the center. Wrap the dough around the chocolate caramel candies and roll the cookies until a circle is formed. The important thing for these cookies is to make sure those candies are completely covered. If not, they tend to leak caramel all over the baking sheet.
For recipe experimentation, I started with just one candy in the center. I quickly found these cookies definitely need two for an ultra gooey and flowing center so don’t try and skimp with only 1 candy!! I also tried these cookies with quick oats but old fashioned oats are definitely the way to go!
Time to get baking; I’m quite confident this is going to be your new favorite holiday baking treat! 🙂
Molten Caramel Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 and 1/2 cups white flour
- 1 and 1/2 cups Old Fashioned Oats
- 1 cup packed brown sugar
- 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup + 1 and 1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- Rolos 2 per cookie
- 1/3 cup milk chocolate chips
- 1 teaspoon vegetable oil
Instructions
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Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
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In a large bowl, stir together the flour, oats, brown sugar, baking soda, and salt.
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Melt the butter and combine along with the vanilla extract.
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Stir everything together until a thick dough forms. You may need to knead the mixture with your hands.
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Place the dough in the fridge while you unwrap the caramel-filled chocolate candies.
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Flatten the dough in your hand and press two caramel-filled chocolates into the center of the cookie. Press the edges up around the candies and completely seal into a large cookie. Make sure none of the caramel-filled chocolates are exposed or it will leak out during baking.
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Bake for 9-12 minutes. Slightly underbaking these is the BEST! It lends a softer cookie with melted and gooey caramel. Overbaking these makes the caramel harden when cooled.
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I pulled out the cookies generally at 9 minutes, allowed them to sit on the cookie sheet for another 2-3 minutes, and then transferred to a cooling rack to allow them to harden up a bit.
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To top with chocolate, combine the chocolate chips and vegetable oil in a microwave safe bowl. Microwave for 30 seconds, stir for 15 seconds, and then microwave for bursts of 15 seconds until completely melted.
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Take a spoon and dip it in the melted chocolate. Run the spoon from left to right over the cookies to get the chocolate drizzle.
More recipes to use oats in:
Oatmeal Cookie Pumpkin S’mores Gooey Bars
We had some friends over for a little party to try the cookies and of course they were too cute to not take pictures of!! 🙂
To have a match-y sort of table with the winter canisters, I wrapped various boxes (most were tissue boxes) in brown kraft paper. Using wire cutters, I cut apart some wreaths into small pieces. I got some snow spray and sprayed all of the little greenery pieces and pine-cones. I tied each box with some thick twine and then super-glued the green pieces and pine-cones on top of the boxes.
It’s times like this I wouldn’t mind ripping the cookies out of those kids’ hands…Chelsea these look INSANE. Actually salivating looking at the cookies! I love using oats too, but often in a flour form. Pinned!
I love all things oatmeal too! I cold eat them at every meal…and sometimes do.
THESE COOKIES. OMG girlfriend, these are blowing my taste buds off my head! Those centers! And those super adorable kids! LOVE it all …pinned!
I have the same obsession with oatmeal. And caramel. And chocolate. So these cookies are basically a dream come true. Now if only a batch or two would magically show up in front of me 😀 Pinned!
These look amazing Chelsea! I love the ooey, gooey chewiness! I want some of these now!
THE BABIES! They’re just too cute!!!! Ugh, jealous of your life. Meanwhile, that first pic with the caramel drizzle is killin’ it. Pinned!
Oh my gosh, best cookie EVER, Chelsea! I just want a whole plate of these right now, please! I love the caramel and oatmeal combination. What a delicious cookie! Pinned!
I am pretty sure these cookies wouldn’t stand a chance!
I love those pictures and these cookies! So adorable! Pinned!
I. AM. DEAD.
these have gotten be the greatest oatmeal cookies I have eva eva seen, obsessed!!!!
Oatmeal cookies are my favorite! These look incredible!
I think caramel immediately becomes even more desirable when it’s listed as “molten” lol. 😀 Because I just want to grab all of these cookies through my laptop screen and run away with them. Awesome way to jazz up classic oatmeal cookies, Chelsea!
I LOVE OATMEAL COOKIES AND THESE LOOK AWESOME! VERY CREATIVE RECIPE-MOLTEN COOKIES! CAN’T WAIT TO TRY THEM!
How come food looks so much better when cute kiddies are holding it?! But your cookies look amazing even without them! And I LOVE your table decoration! So creative!
I eat oatmeal most mornings. And I put oatmeal is all kinds of things that don’t even ask for it. Always a welcomed addition. These cookies are SPECIAL!
These look so gooey and delicious!! Must try them! 🙂
What a fantastic idea to put not one , but two rolos in these cookies! Love all that gooey caramel and chocolate in the middle! Totally dying to try one of these. 🙂 Also I think you saw it on instagram, but I showed my roommate your blog and she immediately made your best ever healthy chocolate chip cookies. They were delicious!
I am a sucker for oatmeal so love your obsession with oats too! These cookies are just absolutely amazing! I am dying over that ooey gooey center – love that you stuffed two rolos in there! And both of the little ones are just the sweetest and cutest! Love their adorable faces!
Wow! These cookies look absolutely delicious. I really shouldn’t come over and read your posts before lunch…because now all I want is one of these oatmeal cookies. Maybe I should bake some this afternoon…for Santa, of course! Thanks for sharing! #client
Oh my, look at those candy centers!!! These cookies look fantastic Chelsea! Oats really are the best – I love using them in cookies!
I put oats in tons of things too! I love the texture it adds! These look great!
Oats are just—awesome! Hearty and chewy and they add so much to so many different recipes! And girl….molten. caramel. and chocolate. IN COOKIES! *swoon*
o.m.g…I love the twist you have on these oatmeal cookies! dang girl…..Im scared to make them as I would eat them all! Do you know if they freeze? Id love to batch them out for the holidays….
These are decadent YUM things! I could eat a bunch, b/c oats are goooood for you!!! Your Littles are adorbs, by the way. When I give mine cookies, that’s when all becomes peaceful and quiet 🙂
I have never seen oatmeal cookies like these before Chelsea! You always have the most creative (and delicious) ideas… pinned!
I’m as obsessed with oats as you are! I buy them in bulk and go through them so quickly, between all of the granola, oatmeal, cookies, and so much more that I make with them! These cookies look incredible! Pinned!
These cookies totally are magic! Can’t wait to try! Pinned 🙂
So decadent! I adore oats in cookies!
I love this fun twist on oats. I also use a TON of oats, but this cookie recipe looks superb! You have the most creative recipes 🙂
I just made these, and they turned out great! Thanks for the recipe 🙂 A couple of notes: My dough turned out really crumbly at first, so I wound up adding about two more tbsp. of butter and that seemed to help it come together. Also I found that when I put two Rolos inside the cookies they were HUGE, and I knew I wouldn’t have enough dough to make as many cookies as I wanted. It might be worth doubling the dough so you have enough cookies. I wound up using just one Rolo in each cookie, and they weren’t as gooey. Overall though, these are delicious!
These look amazing, and I am planning on making them for a cookie exchange this year. But I don’t see anywhere in the directions how many cookies this recipe yields? Just curious b/c I will need about 3-4 dozen cookies and I’m not sure how to properly manipulate the recipe for what I need! Thanks!
I just finished making these and taste testing them with my daughter:) They are delicious! I don’t normally like oatmeal cookies but these were so yummy. I used two mini rolos instead as they were on sale but they definitely weren’t as oozy as I would have liked. I also added an extra 1/2 tbsp of butter although I should of added more as it was still pretty crumbly to work with. The recipe made 18 cookies.
These look delicious. They have all of my favorites:caramel, chocolate, and oatmeal! Can’t wait to make them!!!!
Thank you!! 🙂 I hope you love them!
Do these stay gooey even after cooling?
The caramel stays soft 🙂
would these be okay to make the dough a few days in advance and freeze it??
I’m sorry; I’ve never tried freezing the dough so I’m not sure what the result would be.
So I’m making these now and the dough is very dry… do you not use eggs? I don’t know why it’s so crumbly 🙁
Did you spoon and level the flour? They might be dry because of too much flour or oats! No eggs 🙂