Soft & Chewy Cherry Oatmeal Cookies with Pecans

These giant cherry oatmeal cookies are so soft and chewy! They full of bits of fresh cherry and crunchy toasted pecans with cinnamon, a bit of salt for depth, and maple syrup to keep them super moist and flavorful with just the right amount of sweetness.

Thick, chewy, moist, soft oatmeal cookies are a thing of beauty! I love soft oatmeal cookies, especially when they're huge like these ones are. I also love that they're punctuated with fresh cherries and crunchy toasted pecan.

They're a really perfect breakfast cookie but I also often find myself eating one as a cheeky (but slightly less guilty) after dinner snack.

Ingredients for cherry oatmeal cookies

Quick cooking oats: Quick cooking oats are par-cooked and rolled smaller than rolled oats. This makes for a more moist cookie!

Flour: Flour gives structure to the cookies that they wouldn't have with oats alone.

Egg: Eggs bind all the other ingredients together.

Softened butter: Butter adds flavor and moisture. You can use room temperature butter or soften it in the microwave for 20-30 seconds until just soft but not melted.

Brown sugar: Brown sugar is the main sweet element in these cookies.

Maple Syrup: Maple syrup adds a bit of sweetness, flavor and moisture. You can also substitute agave syrup or honey.

Cherries and toasted pecans: The cherries and pecans are the stars of the show. They add a lot of flavor and texture. Prepare them to go into the dough by slicing the cherries (half sliced thinly and half cut in halves, for textural and flavor nuance) and roughly chop the pecan into small pieces. If cherries and pecans aren't your jam, they can easily be swapped out. For example, you could do blueberries and walnuts, or ripe pear with hazelnut.

Baking soda: Baking soda gives the dough some lift.

Vanilla and cinnamon: Vanilla and cinnamon add warm, spiced flavor notes to the cookies. I used Nielsen Massey vanilla bean paste but you can also use a vanilla bean or just regular vanilla extract if that's what you have.

Salt: For flavor balance and depth.

Instructions

Making the cookies is really simple and easy. You just need to mix the ingredients together in the sequence below and you're done.

1. First cream together the butter and sugar. This is to ensure there are no clumps of unincorporated butter in the mix.
2. Add the eggs, vanilla, cinnamon and maple syrup and mix until well combined and even.
3. Add the cherries and pecans, mix until they're combined.
4. In another bowl mix the oats with the flour, salt and baking soda until evenly combined.
5. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix until even.
6. The dough is ready to be scooped onto parchment lined baking sheets.

Once the dough is mixed, use a quarter cup measuring spoon, an ice cream scoop or even just a spoon to scoop out about 15 large cookies on two parchment lined baking sheets.

Just be sure to keep enough distance between the cookie dough so it has a bit of room to expand.

Make Ahead

You can make the dough ahead of time and keep it in the fridge in an airtight container or zipper bag for 2-3 days.

Storing

Store the cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 2 days. Any longer and it's better to put them in the fridge (but there's a good chance they won't be around any longer than that!).

Related

If you like cherries in baked goods you may also like my cherry cheese danishes with walnut crumble. Or one of these other desserts:

Recipe