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Oatmeal Scotchies (gluten-free)

Oct 17, 2019 · 51 Comments

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Oatmeal Scotchies on a cooling rack

Crispy, chewy Oatmeal Cookies studded with butterscotch chips throughout. These are one of my absolute favorite Fall cookie recipes!

Are you a butterscotch chips house?

What I mean is.. is your family as in love with butterscotch chips as mine is?!

Growing up my entire family loved butterscotch chips. Our family favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe has both chocolate and butterscotch chips in them. It was THE cookie recipe growing up for me.

So, you could say butterscotch chips have a special place in my heart.

What are Oatmeal Scotchies then, exactly? A good ‘ole oatmeal cookie made with butterscotch chips. Oatmeal Scotchies should be chewy, filled with tons of butterscotch chips and oats, to make an easy yet unique spin on the classic oatmeal cookie.

Now that I have my own kids, I guess I have to “pass the baton” onto them and start them young on butterscotch chips too! 😉

Oatmeal Scotchies on a tray, with one up front and close

How do you make the best, gluten-free Oatmeal Scotchies?

Let’s get to it.

First, you’ll want to make sure your coconut oil or butter is softened. Which means you can still see the stick of butter (or clump of coconut oil) but it’s lightly melting around the edges.

If your butter or coconut oil is too soft, then your cookies will spread too quickly.

Want thicker cookies? Go ahead and chill the cookie dough in the fridge for 30-60 minutes, prior to baking. Chilling the dough helps it to spread slower in the oven when baking, so you have a cookie that doesn’t spread as far and is thicker.

If I chill my cookie dough, I prefer to scoop it first into cookie dough balls, place them all on a plate, and then let them chill. Easy enough! 🙂

Next, what kind of oats to use??

You can use traditional rolled oats or quick-cooking oats. For those of you baking in high altitude, I recommend quick cooking oats because they won’t dry your cookies out as much as rolled oats will.

This also depends though on how you want the texture of your cookies to be. If you want more present oat chunks throughout your cookies, then use rolled oats. If you want more uniformed cookies, use quick-cooking. I like both!

Last but not least: make sure to use the best butterscotch chips! I like to buy chocolate chips off brand, but I don’t buy butterscotch chips off brand. I recommend Hershey Butterscotch chips.

One Oatmeal Scotchie held up between two fingers, close up

Look at all those butterscotch chips!! Drool!! 🙂

Let me know in the comments below, are you a butterscotch family or do you stick to chocolate chips?!

More Fall recipes coming your way!: Check out my Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Oat Muffins, Snickerdoodle Cupcakes, and Apple Cinnamon Bread (all gluten-free!).

4.63 from 16 votes
A close up of cookies on a tray
Print
Oatmeal Scotchies (gluten-free)
Prep Time
10 mins
Cook Time
12 mins
Total Time
22 mins
 
Servings: 24 cookies
Calories: 122 kcal
Ingredients
  • 1 cup gluten-free all purpose flour (I use Bob's Red Mill 1-to-1)
  • 1 cup oats, certified gluten-free
  • 1/2 tsp baking soda
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp cinnamon
  • 1/2 cup coconut oil, softened (or butter)
  • 1/2 cup brown sugar
  • 1/4 cup sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 3/4 cup butterscotch chips
Instructions
  1. Preheat your oven to 350 and line two pans with parchment paper.

  2. In a small mixing bowl, add your flour, oats, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and stir them together till well combined.

  3. In a large mixing bowl, using a hand mixer, cream together your coconut oil (or butter) and sugars for a couple minutes. Add your egg and vanilla and mix together again briefly.

  4. Pour your dry ingredients into your wet ingredients and stir them together till a cookie dough forms. Add your butterscotch chips to the batter and gently fold them in.

  5. Scoop the dough out onto both pans, evenly spacing the cookies apart. Bake each pan in the oven for 10-12 minutes, or till the edges of the cookies are set and starting to darken.

  6. Let them cool and then devour!

Recipe Notes

Stored in an airtight container these cookies taste best within a week.

Oatmeal Scotchies on a tray and one held up close up

All Recipes, Desserts, Fall Desserts

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Jules says

    June 27, 2022 at 2:05 am

    I had an epiphany after making a few of these from my freezer… use the same recipe for oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. 🍪
    I can’t wait to try it.

    Reply
  2. Megan says

    May 27, 2022 at 10:23 pm

    How do you get them to not spread so thin? I feel like the coconut oil just melted them completely into pools. They were tasty but super thin 🙁

    Reply
    • Chelsea Green says

      May 28, 2022 at 2:03 am

      Hi Megan. Did you use coconut oil that was softened or pretty melted? Coconut oil can be tricky. I’d recommend chilling the rolled balls of cookie dough in the fridge for 30 minutes and then try baking again.

      Reply
  3. Kathryn A Nelson says

    January 4, 2022 at 5:13 am

    Really yummy 😋 thank you for the recipe!! I used an egg replacer and everything was delicious!

    Reply
  4. Elizabeth says

    December 25, 2021 at 11:48 pm

    Can you ou use a butter substitute like earth balance instead of coconut oil or regular butter? I also need a dairy free option but this looks delicious!!

    Reply
    • Chelsea Green says

      December 30, 2021 at 3:46 pm

      Hi Elizabeth. Yes, these should work just fine with Earth Balance (or I like Country Crock Plant Butter). But if you need them to be dairy-free you’ll have to omit the butterscotch chips as well. You can replace them with dairy-free chocolate chips though!

      Reply
  5. Jessica says

    December 23, 2021 at 9:32 pm

    Just made these and they oily pools of dough. I even refrigerated the dough before baking. Bummed.

    Reply
    • Chelsea Green says

      December 30, 2021 at 3:47 pm

      I’m sorry to hear that Jessica!! I’m curious, what flour did you use?

      Reply
  6. Elizabeth LaManna says

    December 20, 2021 at 10:00 pm

    Has anyone ever tried this recipe as a pan cookie?

    Reply
  7. Kim says

    November 14, 2021 at 3:02 am

    These cookies were SO good, you would never know they’re gluten free. I used butter because I didn’t have any coconut oil. My daughter who has Celiac loved them! Thank you for sharing your recipe!!

    Reply
    • Chelsea Green says

      November 15, 2021 at 4:54 pm

      So great to hear that Kim, thank you!

      Reply
  8. Traci H says

    September 12, 2021 at 5:36 am

    FYI…. most butterscotch chips are NOT gluten free. I learned that the hard way!

    Reply
    • Chelsea Green says

      September 13, 2021 at 10:25 pm

      Great point, Traci! That’s exactly why I recommend to not buy off brand butterscotch chips, and recommend using Hershey’s (which is clearly labeled gluten free).

      Reply
  9. Julie says

    July 6, 2021 at 12:25 am

    These are fantastically delicious! I just made my 2nd batch and doubled it. I will bake a dozen right away and flash freeze cookie dough balls for those times when I just want a couple. All of my family members who are not GF love these as well. Thank you!

    Reply
    • Chelsea Green says

      July 6, 2021 at 2:04 am

      Great to hear! You’re welcome, Julie!

      Reply
  10. Julie says

    February 21, 2021 at 11:44 pm

    AHHH-MAZING! I followed the recipe and they turned out so great! With my coocie scoop, I ended up with 1.5 dozwn (btw, in case anyone doesn’t know what a dozen is, it’s 12 😉 ) I am about two months in to being a GF “woman of a certain age”, and these return some “normalcy” to treats and baking. Thank you!

    Reply
    • Chelsea Green says

      February 22, 2021 at 11:38 pm

      So great to hear! Thanks Julie 🙂

      Reply
  11. Casey Decker says

    February 10, 2021 at 4:56 am

    I have a question. I notice you didn’t add xanthan gum. Usually recipes with gluten-free flour call for a teaspoon, unless it is already added to the flour.

    Reply
    • Chelsea Green says

      February 10, 2021 at 5:02 pm

      Yes, Casey, I would recommend using a gluten-free all purpose flour blend that already contains xanthan gum.

      Reply
      • Casey Decker says

        February 18, 2021 at 5:48 am

        Thank you, Chelsea! Will give them a try!

        Reply
  12. Holly says

    December 22, 2020 at 2:39 pm

    For some reason the dough was incredibly dry but I added a little bit of water and that fixed it! I kept checking the recipe to see what I did wrong but nope…

    Reply
    • Chelsea Green says

      December 22, 2020 at 4:30 pm

      Hi Holly. That’s odd! Maybe your butter wasn’t quite soft enough? Oatmeal cookie dough does tend to be more dry and hard to work with, but it shouldn’t be so overly dry that you can’t scoop cookies out.

      Reply
  13. Tracy from Virginia says

    December 22, 2020 at 4:21 am

    I used 1/2 cup quick oats and 1/2 cup rolled oats and I substituted overflowing 1/4 cup coconut sugar for the white sugar. Gooey in middle and crisp on edges. Delicious! Tastes just like the recipe I had for years. My family has always loved scotchies. When I became gluten free in 2014, I thought I would never make and eat these again. Thank you!

    Reply
    • Chelsea Green says

      December 22, 2020 at 4:26 pm

      Awesome! I’m so happy to hear that it brings back that nostalgia for you and you enjoyed them! Love it.

      Reply
  14. Kat says

    November 17, 2020 at 5:34 pm

    This is my very first comment I’ve ever put on a recipe blog. I’ve been GF for a decade and I have tasted MANY cookies. These… wow, these are incredible! I used butter, 1/2 tsp pumpkin spice and pumpkin chips and WOW. I didn’t even have “good” GF flour… just some 1-to-1 stuff on clearance at Walmart. This is the very, very, very first time I will say that a cookie didn’t even taste GF! (When people have said that in the past, I never believe… because nothing is as good as the real stuff I remember from years ago.) Thanks for sharing this!

    Reply
    • Chelsea Green says

      November 17, 2020 at 8:43 pm

      AWESOME to hear!! Thank you Kat. I loved reading this 🙂

      Reply
  15. Nat says

    November 16, 2020 at 5:48 am

    Cookies are delicious!! This recipe is perfect and worked great at 7,000 feet in Flagstaff, AZ! I did not make any changes to the recipe.

    Reply
    • Chelsea Green says

      November 16, 2020 at 4:42 pm

      Great to hear, thanks Nat!!

      Reply
  16. Sam says

    October 17, 2020 at 11:58 pm

    Anyone know of a source for gluten free dairy free butterscotch chips?

    Reply
  17. Roxie Weller says

    July 14, 2020 at 12:54 am

    Bravo! I just tried this recipe and they are amazing ~ Thank you so much for sharing this deliciousness.

    Reply
    • Chelsea Green says

      July 14, 2020 at 2:19 am

      Thank you so much Roxie! Love hearing that.

      Reply
  18. Theresa says

    July 3, 2020 at 7:00 pm

    So I followed someone else’s path and used almond flour instead of gluten free flour and increase the oats by half a cup. I also added one extra egg yolk because the dough just seemed really dry to me. They turned out fabulous!

    Reply
  19. Sam says

    May 20, 2020 at 2:24 am

    Great recipe! I subbed almond flour and added an extra 1/2 cup of the trader joe oats – added an extra 3-4 minutes to make them crispy bottom and they are perfection!!! Thanks!

    Reply
    • Pooja Jotwani says

      May 27, 2020 at 4:24 pm

      Did you sub almond flour 1:1 for gf flour? So 1 cup almond flour and 1.5 cups oats?

      Reply
  20. Jackie says

    May 17, 2020 at 11:28 am

    Very good cookies. I used peanut butter chips only because I didn’t have butterscotch. My family loved these. I will be making them often.

    Reply
    • Chelsea Green says

      May 19, 2020 at 7:28 pm

      Great to hear, Jackie! And yum, peanut butter chips sound good too!

      Reply
  21. Lisa says

    April 28, 2020 at 2:18 am

    Thanks for sharing!! These look great. Can’t wait to try them

    Reply
    • Chelsea Green says

      April 28, 2020 at 5:24 pm

      Thanks, Lisa! Hope you all love them!

      Reply
  22. Lois says

    April 18, 2020 at 6:48 pm

    Could I use Oat flout?

    Reply
    • Chelsea Green says

      April 19, 2020 at 3:48 pm

      Hi Lois – I wouldn’t recommend using oat flour in place for these cookies. I don’t think oat flour works quite as well in cookies in general (more of a personal preference though), but you can try it, I just don’t know for sure how they would turn out.

      Reply
  23. Desiree Olive says

    March 27, 2020 at 8:44 pm

    These are absolutely delicious! Hard to stop eating them

    Reply
    • Chelsea Green says

      March 30, 2020 at 1:47 am

      Haha yes it’s hard to eat just one! So glad to hear that Desiree, thanks for the sweet comment.

      Reply
  24. Denise says

    February 22, 2020 at 5:13 pm

    Love these! No changes to recipe!

    Reply
    • Chelsea Green says

      February 24, 2020 at 3:12 am

      Awesome, thank you so much!! 🙂

      Reply
  25. Georgia says

    February 10, 2020 at 10:50 pm

    These cookies are absolutely awesome! I used Pillsbury Best GF All Purpose Flour because I didn’t have access to Bob’s.
    Thank you for sharing this wonderful recipe!

    Reply
    • Chelsea Green says

      February 11, 2020 at 2:05 am

      Awesome!! Thank you, Georgia, for the comment! So glad you enjoyed them.

      Reply
  26. Trisha says

    December 22, 2019 at 3:27 am

    Does it matter if they are Gluten free quick oats or GF old fashioned oats?

    Reply
    • Chelsea Green says

      December 23, 2019 at 2:33 am

      Hi Trisha, I would recommend old fashioned oats. Unless you’re baking at high altitude, then I would recommend quick cooking.

      Reply
  27. Susan says

    November 23, 2019 at 3:24 am

    where can I find gluten free butterscotch chips?

    Reply
    • Chelsea Green says

      November 23, 2019 at 9:21 pm

      Hi Susan. From what I’ve read Hershey’s butterscotch chips are gluten-free, and you can find them at Walmart or Kroger/King Soopers I believe. I’m betting Safeway may have them too. Or you can get them off amazon, https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00B1R5F4C/ref=as_li_qf_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=milehighmittsblog-20&creative=9325&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=B00B1R5F4C&linkId=096a2899f2521124ede946faafa55e9a

      Reply
      • Karen S says

        November 22, 2020 at 6:14 pm

        Guittard Butterscotch Baking Chips – no artificial colors or flavors, no hydrogenated oils, free from peanuts, tree nuts, gluten. They do not use ingredients that are genetically engineered.

        Reply

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Hey, I’m Chelsea! I'm a Colorado Mom baking up simple, gluten-free recipes at over a mile high above sea level. Here you'll find healthy breakfasts and snacks, decadent desserts, and fun drinks. Join me, whether you bake in the mountains or not! Read More…

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