As soon as the crisp fall air starts to rustle the changing leaves, I start to crave all the fall flavors. Along with the usual suspects—pumpkin, apple, maple, and spices—I crave anything caramelly. Caramel (salted and not) of course, but also its highly underrated cousin, butterscotch.

And while homemade butterscotch sauce is probably far superior (case in point: these Butterbeer Cupcakes), there’s something nostalgic about the artificial taste and shortening-like texture of a bag of butterscotch baking chips. I think it’s because it reminds me of butterscotch Dilly bars from Dairy Queen (which have always been my favorite).

These Brown Butter Oatmeal Scotchies are an ode to that nostalgic butterscotch flavor.

A Grown-Up Version of a Childhood Classic

These, however, are not the oatmeal scotchies (a.k.a., oatmeal butterscotch cookies) of our youth. They are a decidedly more adult version. Not quite R-rated, but darn close.

Here’s what’s different:

Brown butter adds to the rich, nutty, caramelly flavor.
A touch of molasses deepens the flavor for a darker, muskier taste.
And a splash of rum brings it all together and makes these cookies just ~slightly~ boozy. (Maybe they are R-rated after all?).

If you loved oatmeal scotchies as a kid, you’ll love this grownup version.

How To Brown Butter

If you’ve never browned butter before, you can read all about how to brown butter in this post, which includes photos and a few tips. But here’s a quick overview:

Melt the butter in a light-colored, heavy bottomed saucepan on medium heat, occasionally swirling the pan or stirring.
The butter will froth up and snap and crackle like crazy. The froth will clear out, and the crackling will continue. Keep swirling or stirring from time to time.
Eventually, it will froth up again and the crackling will stop. Once the crackling stops, keep a closer eye on it, and stir or swirl more often. At this point it will start to brown and smell nutty.
Once the butter is an amber color, remove it from the heat and pour it into a heatproof dish. (If you leave it in the pan it will keep cooking and could burn.)
Pop the butter in the fridge until it’s cooled completely but still soft (about an hour).

Then, you can use it just as you would regular butter in your cookies.

Tips for Making Your Best Brown Butter Oatmeal Scotchies

This isn’t a difficult recipe. In fact, aside from browning the butter, it’s a pretty basic method of making cookies. Nevertheless, here are a few tips to make your oatmeal scotchies the best they can be.

Brown the butter until it’s a nice dark amber color (just shy of burning it, really). Also, make sure that when you pour the brown butter out of the pan that you get all those delicious brown bits at the bottom—that’s where all the flavor is.

Let your butter chill until it’s cooled completely and becoming solid again, but still soft. If it’s too melty (and especially if it’s warm), you’ll end up with flatter, thinner cookies. And these are made to be thick, soft cookies.

Use quick-cooking oats. I tried this recipe with both quick-cooking oats and old-fashioned oats. And while I typically prefer old-fashioned oats in my cookies (I love the chewiness they bring), in this case the quick-cooking ones won out. They give the cookies the soft texture I was going for, with just a bit of chewiness (but not much).

Use your favorite rum. It doesn’t have to be expensive, it just has to taste good. Not a fan of rum or don’t have any on hand? You can sub any kind of milk or even heavy cream (which my other oatmeal cookie recipe uses). Or you could try subbing rum extract, but if you do that I’d replace the 1T of rum with 1 tsp of rum extract and 2 tsp of milk.

Don’t use too many butterscotch chips. I know they’re the whole point of these cookies, but less is more in this case. Too many chips make them way too sweet, and you miss all of the underlying flavors. One cup is just the right amount, in my opinion.

Whether you were an oatmeal scotchie fan as a kid or have never had them, I hope you enjoy these cookies as much as I do. Happy baking!

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