These Chewy Oatmeal Fig Cookies are made with a deliciously chewy oatmeal cookie base bursting with pecans and dried figs. They’re full of amazing texture and flavor. They really are the best oatmeal cookies you will ever eat!
For the longest time, I’ve had an aversion to oatmeal raisin cookies. We used to get them as part of catered lunches when I worked in an office, and they never quite satisfied my need for a sweet afternoon treat. I stay away from them, and gravitate toward the platter of chocolate chip cookies, and white chocolate macadamia nut cookies. That is until I discovered the best chewy oatmeal cookies ever existed.
These Chewy Oatmeal Fig Cookies are adapted from Jessica Gavin’s Chewy Cranberry Oatmeal Cookies from her cookbook Easy Culinary Science for better cooking. I’m a big fan of Jessica’s recipes. We’ve made many from both her blog and her cookbook, and they’re always on point and delicious. Plus, I just love all of her extremely useful tips on cooking and culinary science.
How to Make Oatmeal Cookies
Butter is always a good place to start when making cookies, you gotta have butter. Now if you want chewy oatmeal cookies, it’s all about the brown sugar. I used light brown sugar as it is a pantry stable for me, and I found the chewiness level to suit me well. You can turn up the chewiness with dark brown sugar, or turn it down by substituting part granulated sugar.
Obviously, you can’t have an oatmeal cookie without lots of old-fashioned rolled oats. Some nuts add a slight crunch and texture to the cookies. Pecan is quintessential holiday and cannot be beat in these cookies this holiday season. And instead of the classic raisins, I used dried figs. Dried figs are sweet and delicious on their own, and they make these Chewy Oatmeal Fig Cookies even more special.
I guarantee these amazing Oatmeal Fig Cookies will convert the pickiest of cookie eater. I seriously thought I will never in my life touch an oatmeal cookie, and here I am making version after version of these for days. And this will not be the last time you hear me rave about these delicious chewy oatmeal cookies!
If you make this recipe, please let me know! Leave a comment, rate it and don’t forget to tag me @wildwildwhisk on Instagram. I’d love to see what’s cooking up in your kitchen. Cheers!
Chewy Oatmeal Fig Cookies
Ingredients
- 6 oz unsalted butter - soften
- 1 ½ cup light brown sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1 ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup chopped pecan
- 1 cup chopped dried fig
- 1 ¼ cup rolled oats
- 1 ¼ cup all-purpose flour
- ¾ teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
Instructions
- Toast the pecans in a skillet over medium heat for a few minutes until slightly toasty and fragrant. Roughly chop the nuts and add to a medium mixing bowl along with the rolled oats, and a cup of chopped dried fig. Stir together and set aside.
- In a small mixing bowl, stir together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon until even distributed. Set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl or in the bowl of your stand mixer, add softened butter and brown sugar, beat with the paddle attachment on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 1-2 minutes. Add egg and vanilla extract, and continue beating until thoroughly combined, another 1 - 2 minutes.
- Lower the mixer speed to stir and slowly add the flour mixture, mix until just combined. Add the nut, oat and fig mixture and stir until evenly distributed. Give the mixture a final stir with a spatula, scraping the side and bottom of the bowl to ensure even mixing.
- Use a large ice cream scoop to portion the cookie dough. Place cookie dough on a parchment line baking sheet about 2 inches apart. Refrigerate while the oven is preheating.
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Bake one tray at a time in the middle of the oven for 16 minutes, rotate the baking sheet at the 10 minutes mark.
- Remove from the oven and allow cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 5 - 10 minutes, then remove them to cool completely on a wire rack.
Nutrition
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I followed the recipe and these cookies are delicious.
Absolutely loved it. Amazing going to try it again but using dried Apricots
This is a splendid recipe! I made these vegan using plant-based “butter” and a flax egg, and gluten free using Krusteaz gluten free flour blend. With a lot of fresh figs on hand from our fig trees, I substitued finely chopped fresh figs, 1 cup, for the dried figs. The baked cookies have the perfect texture and are delicious. My husband said they’re actually dangerously good and begged me to take them away before he ate the whole batch! I am storing these in the refrigerator to ensure they stay fresh, although I don’t expect them to last long.
These cookies are phenomenal! We had a coupon for dried fruit and my husband came home with a huge bag of dried figs, which I don’t like on their own. I found this recipe, made the cookies and wow-ee! So tasty! Can’t wait to serve them to our company on Wednesday!
Thank you so much for trying this recipe!
Well, I made a booboo, I forgot the brown sugar. I did not have much granulated sugar, but did have turbinado, so I used a half cup of turbinado/granulated mixed. One other thing, I plumped my raisins with hot water, and my figs also with hot water. I used 1/2 cup plumped raisins, and 1 cup of the plumped fig bites I had that were dry. Also forgot cinnamon, but they turned out fabulous. I think the figs made it sweet along with the raisins. I did not miss the brown sugar. I will make them again only using monk fruit sweetner 1/2 cup, no brown sugar, and my 1/2 cup plumped raisins and 1 full cup of plumped figs. The figs got a bit mushy, but mixed well in the recipe. I think that is where the sweetness came in and also, I hate those large chunks of oats in the cookie, so I put them in the food processor and pulsed a few times to kind of cut the oats down to about half. And I did not have pecans, but would add them if I had them. These are good cookies. Try them.
I am VEGAN so I used natural peanut butter instead of butter, piece of banana and 1/4 unsweetened apple sauce for the egg….and Cane sugar 🥹They turned out delicious! Thanks for the recipe…..
Thank you for trying the recipe Marlyn!
These were the best cookies. I followed the recipe to a tee and the only thing I added was some cloves. Everyone loved them. Thanks for the recipe. Its definitely a keeper!
Thank you Eva! Glad to hear everyone loved this recipe!
I had a package of dried figs and was looking for a good cookie recipe. I was lucky to find wildwildwhisk website. I followed the recipe closely. I refrigerated the dough overnight to hydrate the dough. The cookies are delicious, moist and chewy. This will be at the top of my cookie go to list. I am very pleased to have discovered the website. Thank you Trang
People demand these cookies relentless once they’ve had them. I’m pretty sure they have saved friendships that would have otherwise fizzled. They are the best damned cookies you will ever put in your mouth, and you are depriving yourself every day you go without making them.
Wow, thanks for the great review, Scott!!
Hi there Trang,
I couldn’t sleep late last night and was just looking for recipes using dried figs. I came upon your Oatmeal cookie recipe. Baked them last nite, but I just added some toasted pecans.
This recipe is amazing!!!
A great hit with all!
I Will be baking them again!
Thank you!
So glad to hear you found something to help with sleepless evening! Thank you for trying the recipe Trisa.
I ‘be made this three times and our whole family loves them!
So glad to hear, Linda!
Love these cookies! Love oatmeal raisin & these are even better!
Can I make this with fresh figs?
I have not tried it with fresh figs, it might add too much moisture. But if you do try it, please come back and let me know in the comment section if it works for you.
Absolutely delicious! Added generous 1/2 cup of chocolate chips. Otherwise followed directions exactly. Had only a hand mixer too. Made 6 large
ice-cream scoop sized cookies first. Then used my smaller usual size scoop for the rest of the dough. That made an additional 2 dozen cookies which baked for 12 minutes. More practical for my household. Thanks for a great recipe.
On their own, I don’t like the crunchiness/Sandinista of figs but I love the texture inside these cookies . Highly recommend this recipe. It’s now my favourite cookie.
looking forward to making the cookies this week! can I fridgeratr the dough night before and bake them next day. do I need to let it come to room temp or cold dough is ok to bake?
Hi Emily, absolutely! You can bake from refrigeration, the cookies may have a higher dome. I think it’s not necessarily to bring it back down to room temp, but you certainly can if you prefer.
I made these with half the sugar (and a little too much butter because I didn’t know 6 oz was 3/4 cup! added more like 7/8). Deeelicious!! Using icecream scoop was a great tip too. gracias!
Nothing is ever wrong with a bit extra butter 😉 I’m glad the recipe still works out okay with the modifications!
I tried this without the pecans, instead I added a cup of raisins mixed with dried cranberries. Also used a half a cup of cannabutter with the regular butter and these are just excellent cookies. Both the taste and texture oh, and for the adults and a little bit of cannabutter
Thanks for trying the recipe Don! Love to hear what you’ve done with it 😉
did you mean 6 oz of butter….how many tsp. is that?
Yes, that’s what I had in the recipe card, 6 oz of unsalted butter. 1 stick is 4 oz so that’s 1 and a half stick. That’s a lot of tsp, 36 to be exact, you probably don’t want to measure using a teaspoon.
Hi, do you think steel cut oats would work in this recipe?
Hi Mary, no steel cut oat takes a long time to cook, it will not work in this recipe. You’ll need old fashioned rolled oats.
Best cookies I ever made! By the way, I’ve made a lot of cookies! They are delicious fresh and even better (if that’s possible) frozen. I’m not kidding. I carefully followed the recipe except I used two small eggs since our eggs were so little, and I forgot to roast the pecans.
Thanks Linda! So glad you enjoyed these cookies 🙂
Have alot of chocolate chips. Was thinking of adding some to the cookies recipe.
Hi Sharon, you can certainly do that! I would probably add half a cup.
Made these this afternoon. I never leave comments, but I have to say, these are delicious! Like ridiculously yummy. Omitted the nuts due to allergies with no problems at all. Pinning so I can make them again.
Love your cookies
Thank you Lissa!
🙂🙂🙂👍🏻👍🏻
We just finished drying our figs and came across your Chewy Oatmeal Fig Cookie recipe. Oh my gosh, these are excellent! While the batter appeared dry I didn’t change one thing. I measured, mixed and baked just as written. It IS the perfect chewy cookie. Thank you for sharing the recipe.
This is the first time I’ve visited your blog but I can assure you it won’t be the last.
Thanks again.
Wow, homemade dry figs sound amazing! I’m glad you found the blog and enjoyed this recipe 🙂
Wonderful recipe! Thank you! I used 1 cup of light brown and 1/2 cup of dark brown and they were absolutely perfect! I am in the UK and usually use grams to measure for recipes and I did not want to try to convert your recipe so I used my newly purchased cups and everything was spot on! I will be making these regularly! Thanks again! 😊
Thank you so much Emma! I have a lot of UK readers who have been asking for grams and have been slowly converting all old recipes to show both ways. But I’m so glad you had a cup! 🙂
I got a set of cups which have incorporated measuring spoons, for £3, from a supermarket so it wasn’t expensive and although I was a little nervous about using cup measurements, it really was very simple and your recipe is both detailed but also straightforward enough to follow. I will not be put off trying recipes that only state cup measurements from now on. So, thank you again! 😊
Yay! I’m so glad you got over that little fear, keep on baking girl!
I made it today. It was good! I was wondering what to do with so much dried fig in the pantry. I like the Cookies, unfortunately found it too sweet 😩. Thank you for the recipe and next time will trying to reduce half of the sugar portion.
Made them! Love them! Perfect spin on regular oatmeal raisin!
Can these be made mixing by hand? I don’t have an electric mixer.
Yes, the most labor intensive part will be beating the wet ingredients. You want to make sure to beat until fluffy. I’ve made smaller batches of cookies by hand before and it’s definitely possible, an electric mixer just makes it easier.
Hello from London, thank you for sharing your recipe! My partner has cancer and is undergoing treatment, sometimes food is of no interest to him but I have adapted your recipe using a mix of wholewheat and spelt flour and I add lots of walnuts, almonds, sunflower & pumpkin seeds, prunes & apricots so there’s a lot of goodness packed in. Today I used 1/2 coconut oil 1/2 butter and only a 1/4 cup of dark brown sugar with a couple of spoonfuls of honey & I always at least double the amount of cinnamon (& can’t get hold of vanilla at the moment). Easy, healthy, delicious, not too sweet and a simple way for him to get a nutrient boost without any fuss even if he’s not hungry! I also tried shaping the
dough into a log and refrigerated it before slicing and baking – it was perfect, thank you!
Hi Suzie, I’m so glad to hear you found a way to make your partner something tasty and nutritious. I can say I know exactly what you’re going through, my mom is a 3x cancer survivor. You will get through it, keep your spirits up, find something mood-lifting to do, like baking 🙂 Hang in there, I know you and your partner can do it! And thank you for visiting, baking, and sharing your story.
SO delicious! I made with these modifications, all accidental and couldn’t resist these things!
4oz butter
No nuts (just didn’t have any)
1 tsp almond extract (total accident)
1 tsp vanilla (to try to split the diff)
4/5 cup dried figs, 1/5 cup dates (just didn’t have enough dried figs)
I ate them for: snack, dinner, breakfast, lunch, and snack #2. PROceed with caution!
Hey Megan, so glad to hear you liked them with the modifications!
Do you think I could substitute dates for the figs? Thanks!
Hi Laura, yes, you can substitute any dried fruits you have in this recipe. Just expect a different flavor, I think dates will be quite sweet, sweeter than the figs, but should work just as well.
Was gifted some dried figs so looked for a 5 star recipe. Gurrrrrrtl, this recipe is the TRUTH! Perfect recipe!
Awesome!!! So glad you love it, Tracy 🙂
Best chewiest cookie I ever ate! Very, very good!
Thank you Cindy! So happy to hear you enjoyed these 🙂
OMG, I just made these….and they are truly heaven! Slightly crisp edges with a really chewy texture and buttery and slightly nutty flavor, combined with the oats and figs……AMAZING! These oatmeal cookies put your standard recipes to shame. SERIOUSLY! The only adjustment I had to make was the name time. I used 2 different types of cookie sheets, and one baked them about 2-3 minutes quicker. Not an issue for me, though, as I always monitor the things I cook and bake.
Thank you Linda! Always a good idea to watch your baked goods a couple mins before the listed time since ovens can run at slightly different temp too. But I’m so happy to hear how much you enjoy these!
This recipe was doomed as soon as I started. First off I bought the wrong oatmeal so I had to go back to Walmart and then my mixer would not start so I pulled out my food processor to beat the butter and sugar to find out it was broke also and now I had to use my hands. I only had walnuts so I use them instead of the pecans but to my surprise the cookies were amazing a
possibly my favorite oatmeal cookie recipe now my favorite cookie
Hi Angela, I’m glad to hear it turned out well even though you faced so many obstacles! 🙂
I made these and they were a HUGE hit! I used dark brown sugar and it was fantastic! Super chewy in the center and slightly crisp on the edges…a perfect cookie to me!
Thank you so much Dustin! I’m super happy to hear how much you enjoyed these cookies 🙂
I used very ripe fresh figs which I cooked down to reduce the water content and carmelizing the sugars. It was 1 cup cooked figs with 1 stick of butter and walnuts instead. They were a hit 🤗
Excellent Jane, such a great idea to cook down fresh figs when they are in season. Love it!
Hi – thanks for your recipe. I’ve used it as base and experimented with different nuts and fruit. I’ve made a few variations on your version:
1. I dont use sugar and use xlyitol instead, Only 60g (2oz?) but that may not suit everyone.
2. This of course does not result in a chewy cookie and also the sugar binds the cookie together so I add an extra egg white. I use the yolk for something else like hollandiase sauce.
3. I also use more butter about 250g (is that 9 oz?) that helps with the dryness as well
4. I don’t roast the nuts as they get roasted as part of the process of baking
5. I find that all cookie dough really benefits from time in the fridge. So after mixing I divide the dough into 2 logs and wrap in plastic wrap like a bonbon with twisted ends and leave in the fridge for a few hours or overnight. I then slice with a bread knife (the serrated blade helps to cut through the nuts and dried fruit) into nice even portions and bake.
I have tried quite a few different nut/fruit combos: pistachio/hazelnuts/almonds/cranberry/raspberry/blueberry and they all have been great
Thanks for all the tips and modifications Anna. I hope others will find it helpful and I’m glad you enjoy these cookies. I do love all the variations, have you try dried mango and macadamia nuts version?
How well do they freeze? Baked and unbaked?
I usually don’t freeze baked cookies because it’s nicer to have freshly baked ones instead. These will freeze well unbaked, freeze them on a baking sheet first when you’re portioning them into balls, then once they’re solid, put them in a freezer bag all together is fine. Bake from frozen or put a few on a baking sheet and let them thaw while preheating the oven, they will need a couple more minutes when baked from frozen and one thing to note is they usually don’t spread as much when frozen but will taste just as good. But do not thaw them by just taking the bag out of the freezer, they will just stick together.
Perfect. I always freeze unbaked too. My freezer is full of different ones portioned ready to go for Christmas trays!
Was the best cookies I’ve made since my mother taught me!! Shared them with several people and they all loved them??? n that’s why I’m making them again??
Yay!! So glad you like them 🙂 and thanks for visiting!
I make hundreds of cookies for many families at Christmas time. I have never used a large ice cream scoop. I can’t imagine the size!!! So I used my usual scoop and got 33 cookies from the recipe 🤗. They are ssssoooo good. I will add them to my Christmas list.
Because they are smaller, I turned them after 8 minutes. And baked them for another 5 minutes. They are perfect and everyone will love something new! Thank you. I’ll be following you😊😊😊😊😊
Thank you so much Jeanne! I’m glad you found something new to add to your list 🙂
I was excited to try these cookies. They were very cold from the fridge to oven. Mine spread flat and over baked in 10 minutes. They turned out crispy, not chewy. Do not know what went wrong. They have a great flavor, if I can just get them to be chewy and lighter in color. I will try them at eight minutes, but do not know why they went flat.
Hmm… That’s strange that they over bake in 10 mins. How many did you have in a batch? If your cookies are smaller in size, they could cause them to overcook quickly. As for spreading flat:
1. Did you use new baking soda or old? Old ones lose their properties over time and cookies can spread flat.
2. Or possibly not enough leavening agent (either baking soda or baking powder) could also cause them to spread.
3. Maybe not enough flour to give them body? I use the measuring cup to scoop then level, no sifting or fluffing. Different ways of measuring can yield slightly different amount of flour.
4. Perhaps your oven temperature is slightly hotter? Try at a lower temperature next time. Bake a couple at 325F and see how those turn out, then adjust up or down as you see fit for the rest of the batch.
Can u use fresh figs and how many/ what amount?
I wouldn’t recommend fresh figs, they have a lot more moisture compared to dried figs and will completely change how the cookies bake up. Most likely, it will create mushy cookies as the moisture is released while baking unless you also change how much flour you add to the batter to compensate for this added moisture content. Without actually testing the recipe with fresh figs, I cannot say for sure what else you’ll need to change.
My daughter loved these cookies, but I did not quite follow the recipe. Here’s my answer in regards to using fresh figs: Yes, you can use fresh figs! We have a fig tree and had a surplus of figs I wanted to use. I actually looked up how to make dry figs from fresh figs and started to do that, boiling them and was going to dry out on a pan, but since the oven temperature did not go low enough and it would take so long to do it, I gave up on drying them. However, I did cook them first, which removed some moisture, plus added baby oatmeal (I think more flour might have been better than trying to use up expired baby oatmeal, but it didn’t make too big a difference, as my almost-four-year-old said they were delicious!) Sorry I do not know how many I used….must have been a few cups? And of course I cut/mashed them into small pieces first and added them to the butter and brown sugar, not in with the dry ingredients, beating them into the mixture better with the egg beater. Then my daughter decided she wanted to add chocolate, so we melted some Hersey’s Kisses in the microwave and also added some cocoa and hazelnut spread. So it’s not exactly the same recipe, as I said, but fresh figs worked!
Thanks for the detailed comment, Robyn!
Okay I tried on your recipe. An Chile I’m talk good. I’m about to TURNUP on the recipe to make it my own.
Thank you for sharing.
I tried the recipe, great taste! But mine came out puffy and dry, did I miss an ingredient? Thanks!
Oh no, it shouldn’t be too puffy or dry. These cookies are very chewy. Did you use brown sugar? Granulated sugar would dry it out since there’s no molasses. Or perhaps you added a bit more flour? If you add too much dry ingredients, it could dry out the batter also. If you refrigerate too long, it could seem puffy because the cookies wouldn’t spread as much. I’m not entirely sure, but if you try it again, let me know if I can help troubleshoot.
The figs look great in these, I’ll have to see if I can get some. I quite like oatmeal cookies but you’re right, those ones that get handed round the office are always off the mark somehow.
What about less brown sugar? How would that work? Or Any substitute for the brown sugar?
Hi Niki, the brown sugar contributes to the chewiness of the cookies. If you don’t have brown sugar, granulated will work to sweeten, but it will turn out less chewy.
Thank you!
You’re so welcome!