Soft-baked and ultra chewy magic 5 cookies are loaded with chocolate chips, butterscotch morsels, coconut, pecans, and cinnamon. They’re just like my oatmeal scotchies with even more flavor and texture to love in each bite.
Today we’re kicking it old-school with a classic favorite: oatmeal cookies! Not just any oatmeal cookies, but magic 5 oatmeal cookies—extra chunky, packed with flavor, and lots of texture. They’re a combination of oatmeal scotchies & oatmeal chocolate chip cookies with even more goodies packed inside.
What Are Magic 5 Cookies?
Magic 5 cookies get their name from 7 layer bars, aka magic bars or hello dollies. I typically call them 7 layer bars or magic bars, but what’s in a name? No matter what they’re called, you’ll get a bar piled high with any combination of sweet, crunchy, nutty, sticky, and chocolate-y that you can imagine. One of my favorite versions is my recipe for ultimate magic cookie bars. Today’s cookie variation has 5 add-ins, which is why I call them magic 5 cookies!
If you grew up on oatmeal scotchies, consider these cookies a wild upgrade. No no, a magical upgrade.
We’re Using My Favorite Oatmeal Cookie Base Recipe
Oatmeal cookies will always be my favorite. Between my family’s recipes, my cookbooks, and my website, I have about 30 oatmeal cookie recipes under my belt. Today we’re using my favorite oatmeal cookie base recipe and adding lots of goodies. Here are some of my other recipes that begin with the same oatmeal cookie base recipe: oatmeal raisin cookies, oatmeal creme pies, oatmeal scotchies, oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, and iced oatmeal cookies. It’s the very best base oatmeal cookie recipe and here’s why:
- Ultra buttery
- Soft centers & crisp edges
- Unbelievable texture
- Sweetened with brown sugar
- Loaded with chewy oats
- Cinnamon spiced
- Flavored with molasses
- Taste just like grandma’s
- Pretty quick—only 30 minutes of chill time
Ingredients in Magic 5 Cookies
- Flour: All-purpose flour is the structure of the cookies.
- Baking Soda: Baking soda helps the cookies rise.
- Cinnamon: Can you even have oatmeal cookies without cinnamon? It pairs wonderfully with all of the add-ins, too!
- Salt & Pure Vanilla Extract: Both provide flavor. Try using homemade vanilla extract.
- Oats: Oats provide a fabulously chewy texture and we’re using 3 whopping cups here. Use thick old-fashioned whole rolled oats, not quick oats. Quick oats are thinner and more powdery, so you’ll miss out on a lot of texture.
- Butter: Make sure you’re using proper room temperature butter, which is cooler than most think. Warmer butter is actually the first mistake that bakers can make, which results in cookies that over-spread.
- Brown Sugar + Granulated Sugar: Sugar is not only used for sweetness, but also for providing structure and tenderness. I like to use more brown sugar than white sugar because (1) brown sugar has incredible flavor and (2) brown sugar contains more moisture than white. This promises a softer oatmeal cookie.
- Eggs: 2 eggs help bind everything together.
- Molasses: Molasses is my secret ingredient in oatmeal cookies. 1 scant Tablespoon enhances all the wonderful flavors—just like how Grandma used to make them.
- Chocolate Chips, Butterscotch Morsels, Coconut, & Pecans: These are what make today’s magic 5 cookies taste like traditional 7 layer bars/hello dollies. You can sub white or dark chocolate chips for the semi-sweet chocolate, peanut butter chips or another variation for the butterscotch, chopped walnuts for the pecans, and/or leave out the coconut if you’re not a fan. Stick to about 2 cups of total add-ins. All these add-ins work well in my loaded oatmeal cookies, too. And around the holidays, try my holiday magic 5 cookies!
Today’s cookies are slow bend cookies. These jam-packed magic 5 cookies have slightly crisp edges with soft centers and enough chew that they won’t immediately break when broken in half—aka a “slow bend cookie” as I like to call them. They’re super dense and hearty with that distinct nutty, toasty oatmeal cookie taste. I love these!
More Favorite Cookie Recipes
- Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Sugar Cookies (and Chocolate Sugar Cookies)
- Monster Cookies
- White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies
- Oatmeal M&M Cookies
- Peanut Butter Cookies
Magic 5 Cookies
- Prep Time: 1 hour, 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 10 minutes
- Total Time: 2 hours
- Yield: 24 cookies
- Category: Cookies
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
These soft and chewy magic 5 cookies have it all—chocolate chips, coconut, pecans, butterscotch, and oats! Don’t skip chilling the cookie dough. It’s my trick to prevent the cookies from spreading!
Ingredients
- 1 and 1/2 cups (188g) all-purpose flour (spooned & leveled)
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 3 cups (255g) old-fashioned whole rolled oats
- 1 cup (226g) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- 1 cup (200g) packed light or dark brown sugar
- 1/4 cup (50g) granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs, room temperature
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 1 Tablespoon (15ml) unsulphured or dark molasses (do not use blackstrap; I prefer Grandma’s brand)
- 1/2 cup each: semi-sweet chocolate chips (90g), butterscotch morsels (90g), sweetened shredded coconut (40g), chopped pecans (64g)*
Instructions
- Whisk the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, salt, and oats together. Set aside.
- Using a hand mixer or a stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment, cream the butter and both sugars together on medium speed until smooth, about 2 minutes. Add the eggs and beat on high until combined, about 1 minute. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl as needed. Add the vanilla and molasses and mix on high until combined.
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix on low until combined. With the mixer running on low speed, add the chocolate chips, butterscotch morsels, coconut, and pecans. Dough will be thick, yet very sticky. Chill the dough for 1 hour in the refrigerator (and up to 2-3 days). If chilling for longer than a few hours, though, allow to sit at room temperature for at least 30 minutes before rolling and baking because the dough will be quite hard.
- Preheat oven to 350°F (177°C). Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats. Set aside.
- Roll balls of dough (about 1.5 tablespoons of dough per cookie; I like to use this medium cookie scoop) and place 2 inches apart on the baking sheets. Bake for 10 minutes until very lightly browned on the sides. The centers will look very soft.
- Remove from the oven and let cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely. While the cookies are still warm, I like to press a few more chocolate chips and/or butterscotch morsels into the tops—this is only for looks!
Notes
- Make Ahead & Freezing Instructions: Cookies stay fresh covered at room temperature for up to 1 week. You can make the cookie dough and chill it in the refrigerator for up to 2-3 days. Allow to come to room temperature then continue with step 4. Baked cookies freeze well for up to 3 months. Unbaked cookie dough balls freeze well for up to 3 months. Bake frozen cookie dough balls for an extra minute, no need to thaw. If interested, here’s how to freeze cookie dough.
- Special Tools (affiliate links): Glass Mixing Bowl | Whisk | Electric Mixer (Handheld or Stand) | Baking Sheets | Silicone Baking Mats or Parchment Paper | Medium Cookie Scoop | Cooling Rack
- Add Ins: About 1/2 cup of each is best, but I like to add a little more shredded coconut (maybe up to 2/3 cup!). If you don’t like any of the 4 add-ins listed, try subbing in another like dried cranberries, raisins, chopped walnuts, white chocolate chips, etc. Just make sure you don’t go over about 2 cups total.
- Check out my top 5 cookie baking success tips before beginning. It includes how to prevent cookies from spreading and why room temperature makes a difference.
As others said, the cookies were not done in 10 minutes. I baked them for an additional 2 minutes, which turned out to be too long, as they are very dry! This may be my fault and not the recipe. I hate underdone cookies and tend to overcook them. Maybe just an extra minute would have done it.
I tried making this recipe, but when I took the cookies out after 10 minutes, they still looked raw. I let them rest on the sheet for 5 minutes, thinking they’d do more baking there, but they were still too raw and soft after to even move them to a wire rack. I didn’t make any changes to the recipe and I weighed my ingredients, so I’m not sure what went wrong. I chilled the dough for longer than 1 hour, but I also let them sit out at room temperature before rolling and baking, as instructed. Your recipes are my absolute favorite and they never let me down, so I would very much appreciate any advice on what might have happened this time. The cookies smell amazing and I’d love to bake them correctly!
Hi Shirley, Oven temperatures can vary. You can leave them in the oven for another minute or two!
Hi Michelle, thank you for the tip! I’ve done that, but I’m not sure if they cookies are ready. I know the recipe says they’ll look very soft in the middle, but after resting on the baking sheet, they still feel too pliable to move to the wire rack. Is that texture normal?