Dishpan Cookies
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Dishpan cookies are the perfect cookie in my book! Soft and chewy with slightly crispy edges, they live up to their name, as you never know what kind of delicious texture and flavor surprise is hiding inside.
I suppose I’ve always had a soft spot when it comes to homemade cookies. As a girl, my mother made fresh homemade cookies like these dishpan cookies twice a week, every week!
Living up to their name, dishpan cookies contain all sorts of goodness and the batter is generally far too massive to fit into a bowl in order to mix. So, what does the cookie dough include? A delicious combination of brown and white sugar, with vanilla extract, flour, quick oats, and cornflakes. This cookie recipe makes a very old-fashioned-tasting cookie. This recipe reminds me of something I had in our lunchroom at school as a child. We’ve included several recipe variations below, so you can make your own version of cookies (that’s what they’re all about).
These are also GREAT cookies to give away. These dishpan cookies travel well, freeze well, stay fresh longer than most cookies just sealed in a jar on the counter, and they also mail well. Even better, if you like crisp cookies, just bake them two minutes or so longer and you’ll have them! If you like chewy, bake them just until done.
Recipe Ingredients
- Light brown sugar
- White sugar
- Vanilla
- Oil
- Eggs
- All-purpose flour
- Baking soda
- Salt
- Quick oats
- Cornflakes
In a large bowl or dishpan, add sugars, vanilla, oil, and eggs. Cream well.
It will look like this.
In a large bowl, stir together the flour, salt, and baking soda.
Pour the into the wet and mix well.
Now pour in your oats and mix well.
Now add your cornflakes and mix REALLY well!
You can stop when the dish pan cookie dough is well mixed.
Drop 1/4 cup-sized scoops of onto an if you want them to be the size of mine. If you want smaller, just drop by tablespoons or slightly larger, your preference.
Bake at 375 for 10 to 12 minutes. Add a few minutes more if you want them crispy. These will stay chewy and fresh for about two weeks, but folks have enjoyed them very much even after that!
BEWARE OF COOKIE MONSTERS!
Take some to your neighbors, your kid’s teachers, your friends, or your Mama!
Storage
- Store your dishpan cookies in an airtight container either at room temperature or in the fridge for up to 2 weeks.
- The cookies also freeze really well. You can either freeze the cookie dough or the baked cookies.
Recipe Notes
- I like to make these cookies LARGE. I measure out 1/4 cup-sized balls and bake them to be extra-large. This cookie is sturdy enough to handle the larger size plus it is a nice little gift when you simply put one cookie in a cellophane gift bag and tie it with a curling ribbon, as I did this morning when I attached them to invitations for my daughter’s birthday.
- Here are some fun dishpan cookie recipe variations. Mix and matching ingredients are the best part of baking dishpan cookies!
- 2 cups of oats and 2 cups of sweetened coconut flakes to make coconut oatmeal dishpan cookies.
- 1 cup of quick oats and 2 cups of semi-sweet chocolate chips for a unique take on a .
- 1 1/2 cups of oats, 1 cup of chocolate chips, and 2 cups of Rice Krispies.
- Add 1 cup of chopped nuts or raisins to our original recipe.
You might also enjoy these cookie recipes!
White Chocolate Chip Big Cookie
How to Make Snickerdoodle Cookies
Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies
3 Ingredient Peanut Butter Cookies
Ingredients
- 2 cups light brown sugar
- 1 cup white sugar
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
- 2 cups oil
- 4 eggs
- 4 cups flour
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 ½ cups quick oats
- 4 cups cornflakes
Instructions
- In a very large bowl or dishpan, cream together the sugars, vanilla extract, oil, and eggs.2 cups light brown sugar, 1 cup white sugar, 2 teaspoons vanilla, 2 cups oil, 4 eggs
- In a separate mixing bowl, mix together the flour, baking soda, and salt. Combine the wet and dry ingredients and then fold in the oats and cornflakes.4 cups flour, 2 teaspoons baking soda, 1 teaspoon salt, 1 ½ cups quick oats, 4 cups cornflakes
- Drop ¼ cup-sized dollops of dough onto an ungreased cookie sheet. This batter might be a little dry and you may have to smoosh it together with your hands to get it into a ball when you put it onto the pan.
- Bake for 10 to 12 minutes at 375, or until edges are lightly browned. If you want them to be chewy, bake a little less. If you want them to be crispy, a little more. I always double this recipe and do half chewy, half crunchy. They keep really well and are great for breakfast.
- This freezes well both as a dough and as a finished cookie.
Nutrition
“Kind words can be short and easy to speak,
but their echoes are truly endless.”
~Mother Teresa
Submitted by Vickie. Thank you Vickie!
I needed to make a huge batch of cookies, as prizes for an online guessing game. Risking all the time and energy of doing a new-to-me recipe, I gave this one a go. I tripled the batch and ended up with 142 large cookies. Just perfect!
The cookies were a smashing success for my taste-tester. In fact, my spouse couldn’t eat dinner last night because he’d been stealing cookies off the trays each time he walked by the table! 🙂
To go with the theme of the guessing game, I partially baked the dough and then added a bit more dough as a ‘topper’ halfway through the cooking time and then finished the baking time. As they turned out, we had crispy on the outside edge and soft in the center. Delightful.
Thank you so much!! A great recipe, I’ll be making more–maybe even in single batches!
I a so glad you gave them a try Grace!!! These are one of my all-time favorite cookies!!!
I want to make these for my kids for the end of year school gifts, just wondering how many cookies does the double batch make? They sound delicious! Can’t wait to give them to the kids! Thank you!
How many cookies does your doubled recipe make, please?
Not sure if you’ve checked back, but I was looking for the amount as well. This comment was down a bit from yours. Hope that helps!!
“Have these in the oven at the moment – the house smells amazing! I just made a single batch and I’m making them “normal” size….so far I have 6 dz scooped out and thats not even half the batter! Its a good thing I’m making them for my mom’s 80th birthday gathering – her brothers can’t eat enough cookies lol I tossed in some choc chips, toffee bits, raisins and since i didn’t have corn flakes so I used Special K – so far so good! These taste soo good – though I think next time I’ll only make a half batch, these should last me most of the summer!
I have never counted how many they make because I always have people wanting them :). Last time I made a double batch I froze some to give to family at Thanksgiving and am happy to report they froze beautifully! If anyone gets a count of how many holler back! I’ll try to remember to keep track next time.
I want to make these gluten free for one of my adult daughters I know I can with the flour exchange so I am going to try with rice krispies and see how they turn out.
Years ago at a festival I tried some cookies that were called dishpan cookies, I had the recipe for several years then somehow lost it. It had oatmeal, coconut, of all things grape nuts and chocolate chips. They were divine. I may try this with grape nuts for the rest of my family and myself.
Hi Mary!! I would love to hear how they turn out and what exchanges you use. There are several readers here that ask about gluten free recipes and I know that they would love to hear how you did it!!
These are the best ever cookies!! Made them today. The cookie dough is wonderful! Love you and your website!
Thank you so much for trying them Debby!! Glad to hear they were a hit!!
I love giant cookies like this! I don’t know if I could pick a favorite either but these would totally rank highly on the list!!
Christy: I got up really early, and baked 6 of these-smaller ones though. Last night I looked at other recipes for these on Allrecipes and they had twice the amount of white sugar as yours, and some recipes added 1 cup each of raisins, dates, coconut and nuts. Truly dishpan cookies! Actually, more like Kitchen Sink Cookies. 8) I just wanted to see some more pictures of the cookies, read more reviews, and wasn’t after different recipes.
I made your recipe and made 2 cookies plain, 1 with some coconut, 1 with butterscotch chips, 1 with Craisins, and 1 with raisins. I broke bits off of each kind so that I could sample all of them, and left the dough out so I could put in the add-ins that I liked. Know what? I liked them plain best. I cooked them crispier-somewhat unintentionally because I was online ordering flannel sheets. Next batch, I’ll try chewier, but crispy is good.
The only change I made was to swap the oatmeal for barley flakes because oatmeal and my intestines are not friends. I don’t know how much that changes the taste. I like the cornflakes.
I don’t know if I’ll try the Rice Krispies because if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, and this is just a fine recipe.
This will go into my cookie rotation. I don’t have a lot of recipes that I can make now because I can’t have nuts, peanut butter, oatmeal, chocolate, several fruits, and lots of spices or zest and don’t much care for sugar cookies. These have a very nice, almost caramelly taste that I like a lot and I like the texture of them, too.
I don’t think they need that second cup of white sugar at all. They would probably come out too sweet, and no one needs all of that extra sugar. Several reviewers at Allrecipes commented upon their sweetness. Without all that sugar, they do make a nice “breakfast cookie” as you suggested, and I could see making a full batch and dividing the dough up into small batches in the freezer for those times that I want cookies but I’m just too lazy to make them. I see why this is your favorite cookie. Thanks!
I’m always looking for new cookie recipes, so I will have to give these a try! You asked if we had baked for anyone recently–my younger son’s birthday was this past Saturday (he turned 32!) and I made him a Turtle Fudge Cake. I love to bake, but we all have a few extra pounds that we’re trying to get rid of, so baking is mostly reserved for holidays or special occasions.
I hope you enjoy the cookies Beverly!! I know your son enjoyed the cake, it just sounds heavenly!