These quick and easy oatmeal muffins are moist, hearty, and deliciously wholesome! They’re simple to make and perfect for a grab-and-go breakfast, an afternoon snack, or a quick treat with your morning coffee. They’re loaded with oats and boast a quick streusel topping that adds just the right amount of sweetness and crunch.
What You’ll Love About This Recipe
Oatmeal muffins might not sound like the most exciting treat, but trust me, these are anything but boring! Here’s why you’ll love them:
Flavorful: These oatmeal muffins are infused with warm cinnamon and rich vanilla for an extra burst of flavor. The simple streusel topping adds a touch of sweetness and a delightful crunch, elevating these muffins to a whole new level without feeling too indulgent.
Moist: While oatmeal muffins can sometimes be dry, these are wonderfully soft and moist (yes, my two favorite words!). The oats are soaked in hot milk to ensure they soften, preventing an overly chewy texture. Plus, the batter is enriched with vegetable oil (I use canola oil, but options like avocado oil work just as well) to keep the muffins moist and tender.
Easy: These muffins are incredibly simple to make—no electric mixers or special kitchen tools required!
Customizable: These oatmeal muffins are highly customizable. Add your favorite ingredients like fruit (you can add blueberries to create popular blueberry oatmeal muffins!), nuts, raisins, or chocolate chips to create a version that’s uniquely yours.
Want more muffin recipes? Check out my banana crumble muffins, chocolate muffins and blueberry muffins!
What Type of Oats to Use
For oatmeal muffins, I prefer to use quick-cooking oats, as they create a softer and less chewy texture in the muffin. Quick-cooking oats are smaller and finer, which allows them to absorb the wet ingredients more evenly, leading to a tender crumb. They also soften faster during baking, which helps achieve the ideal moist and soft muffin without any tough, chewy bits.
In contrast, rolled oats are larger and have a chewier texture. While this isn’t necessarily a bad thing, it can change the overall texture you’re aiming for. If you prefer a heartier bite, rolled oats can work, but quick-cooking oats are my go-to for achieving a softer muffin!
My Top Tips for Perfect Oatmeal Muffins
To ensure your oatmeal muffins turn out perfectly every time, keep these key tips in mind:
Don’t Overmix: Be careful not to overmix the batter. Overmixing can result in dense, tough muffins, so gently fold the wet and dry ingredients together until just combined.
Don’t Overbake: Avoid overbaking your muffins. Keep an eye on them and check for doneness by inserting a toothpick into the center—if it comes out clean, they’re ready. Overbaking can dry out the muffins, making them less soft and moist.
Don’t Overfill the Muffin Liners: Be sure not to overfill the muffin cups—fill them about ¾ full to allow room for the muffins to rise without overflowing.
Measure Accurately: For an even texture, ensure your ingredients are measured properly. I recommend using a scale, but if you don’t have one, make sure to measure your flour correctly by fluffing it up, scooping it out, and leveling the top—don’t pack it in.
Bake in a Preheated Oven: For nice, tall muffins, preheat your oven to a high temperature (I recommend 425°F / 220°C). The initial high heat will help your muffins rise beautifully. After about 8 minutes, lower the heat to prevent overbaking and drying out the muffins (detailed instructions given in the recipe card below).
By following these simple steps, you’ll achieve perfectly tender, fluffy oatmeal muffins every time!
How to Make Oatmeal Muffins
You can find the full list of ingredients for this recipe in the recipe card at the end of the blog post (for easy navigation, hit the ‘jump to recipe’ button at the top of the blog post). Here is a quick visual breakdown of the recipe (recipe video is also provided in the recipe card below).
Preheat oven to 425℉ (220℃) conventional and line a 12-hole standard muffin tin with muffin liners. Set aside.
Sift together flour, cornstarch, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon. Whisk until well combined. Set aside.
In a large bowl combine hot milk and oats. Stir to combine and allow to sit for 10 minutes. In the meantime prepare the streusel.
Streusel: In a small bowl combine flour, light brown sugar, oats, cinnamon and salt. Mix until well combined and no large lumps remain. Add in melted unsalted butter and stir until the mixture becomes crumbly yet slightly moist. Set aside.
Return to the milk/oat mixture and add in light brown sugar, unflavored vegetable oil, eggs and vanilla. Using a whisk, mix until well combined.
Add in pre-sifted dry ingredients from earlier to the wet mixture and using a spatula, fold until just combined and the batter is uniform. Do not overmix.
Distribute the muffin batter evenly among the paper liners, filling each about ¾ full. Avoid overfilling, as this can cause the muffins to overflow during baking. Give the streusel a quick stir, then evenly sprinkle it over the tops of the muffins.
Place the muffin pan into the preheated oven and bake for 8 minutes at 425℉ (220℃) and then while the muffins are still in the oven, lower the temperature to 350℉ (180℃) and bake for a further 10-12 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean, or with a few moist crumbs on it.
Allow to cool in the muffin tray for 10 minutes, before transferring to a wire rack. Enjoy!
How to Store Oatmeal Muffins
To keep your oatmeal muffins fresh, store them in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days. If you want to keep them longer, you can refrigerate them for up to a week. For maximum freshness, you can also freeze them. Just place the muffins in a freezer-safe bag or container, and they’ll stay good for up to 3 months. When ready to enjoy, simply thaw at room temperature or warm them in the microwave.
Easy Oatmeal Muffins (Moist & Hearty!)
Print Pin VideoIMPORTANT: For accuracy, I would recommend using the gram measurements provided, as those are the exact quantities I use. Cup measurements are given as estimates (based on US cup measurements) to make it easier for those who do not have a scale.
Ingredients
- 1 cup (120 g) all-purpose flour - plain flour in the UK
- ¼ cup (30 g) cornstarch
- 1½ tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp baking soda
- ½ tsp salt
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 cup (240 g) whole milk - hot
- 1¼ cups (113 g) quick-cooking oats - see note 1 if you want to use old-fashioned rolled oats
- ¾ cup (150 g) soft light brown sugar
- ½ cup (105 g) unflavored vegetable oil - I use canola oil
- 2 large eggs - room temperature
- 2 tsp vanilla extract/essence
Streusel
- ½ cup (60 g) all-purpose flour - plain flour in the UK
- ¼ cup (50 g) soft light brown sugar
- ¼ cup (22 g) quick-cooking oats - see note 1 if you want to use old-fashioned rolled oats
- ½ tsp ground cinnamon
- ⅛ tsp salt
- 3½ tbsp (50 g) unsalted butter - melted
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425℉ (220℃) conventional (see note 2 if using a convection oven) and line a 12-hole standard muffin tray with muffin liners. Set aside.
- Sift together flour, cornstarch, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon. Whisk until well combined. Set aside.
- In a large bowl combine hot milk and oats. Stir to combine and allow to sit for 10 minutes (see note 3). In the meantime prepare the streusel.
- Streusel: In a small bowl combine flour, light brown sugar, oats, cinnamon and salt. Mix until well combined and no large lumps remain. Add in melted unsalted butter and stir until the mixture becomes crumbly yet slightly moist (see note 4 if it's too dry or too wet). Set aside.
- Return to the milk/oat mixture and add in light brown sugar, unflavored vegetable oil, eggs and vanilla. Using a whisk, mix until well combined.
- Add in pre-sifted dry ingredients from earlier to the wet mixture and using a spatula, fold until just combined and the batter is uniform. Do not overmix.
- Distribute the batter evenly among the muffin liners, filling each about ¾ full. Avoid overfilling, as this can cause the muffins to overflow during baking. Give the streusel a quick stir, then evenly sprinkle it over the tops of the muffins.
- Bake for 8 minutes at 425℉ (220℃) and then while the muffins are still in the oven, lower the temperature to 350℉ (180℃) and bake for a further 10-12 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean, or with a few moist crumbs on it.
- Allow to cool in the muffin tray for 10 minutes, before transferring to a wire rack. Enjoy!
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Nutritional information are estimates only as they are automatically calculated by a third party application. Actual values may differ based on brands and types of products used.
30 Comments
I m not the best cook but I followed the directions and these are amazing! Fluffy, great taste, thanks MK! I did add chopped pecans to the strudel topping.
Aww yay! So glad you enjoyed the recipe Sandy 😀
Hi,
The muffins were delicious! I used quick oats and followed the recipe to the script. They looked beautiful when I removed them from the oven. BUT….I need your help!! The muffins were very dry (not moist at all). After watching your video, I noticed two differences in my attempt at these muffins. First, the oats seemed to absorb ALL the milk and when it came time to use it, the mixture was pasty. Second, my batter was not liquidy. Rather, it was more paste-like. I would LOVE to try these again. Do you have any suggestions to make this attempt more successful?
Thanks so much,
Rob
Hi Rob!
So glad to hear you enjoyed the recipe, but so sorry to hear they were dry! Sounds like your batter ended up being a lot thicker than what is ideal – the two things I can think that may have been the reasons is 1) perhaps the oats we are using are slightly different? It seems your oats absorbed a lot more moisture than mine did – were the oats used plain oats with nothing else added in? Or 2) more milk was needed. I would recommend using the gram measurements for best results if you didn’t already 🙂
If you still end up with a paste like mixture, you can try adding in some milk to thin out the batter.
Hope that helps for next time! 🙂
Easy to follow and delicious! Yet another great recipe from MK!
Thanks so much Kathrine! So glad you loved the muffins 😀
Thanks for all the wonderful recipes you post,I can’t wait to try the oatmeal muffins
Aww you’re so welcome Did! Hope you enjoy the muffins 🙂
Is it possible to use cold milk and more time to soak the oats instead of hotbhot milk?
Hi Angela 🙂
I haven’t tried that myself so I’m not too sure how that might affect the texture of the muffins sorry!
Would love to hear how it goes if you decide to try it out 🙂
Thanks for including centigrade oven temps for uk cooks
You’re welcome Anne! Here in NZ we use centigrade as well, but most of my viewers are from the US hence the fahrenheit temps too 🙂
Hope you enjoy the recipe!
We are very excited to try this recipe.
Awesome! Hope you enjoy it Debbie 😀
Loved these! Even my super picky 11-year-old ate them. I did not add the topping and only used about half of the sugar because I’m trying to reduce my sugar intake. I’m sure the topping is lovely. I would absolutely make these again.
Aww awesome! So glad you guys loved the recipe M and that it still turned out wonderful with the reduced sugar as well! Really appreciate the feedback 🙂
I made this recipe today, well, except for the streusel. I forgot about it. The oatmeal muffins are moist and soft and so delicious without the streusel. I had a little bit of batter left over so I added some raisins and made a few extra oatmeal raisin muffins. These are my new breakfast go-to! Thanks for the recipe!
Lorice
Yay! So glad you loved the oatmeal muffins Lorice 😀
The addition of raisins sounds delicious!
Really appreciate the wonderful feedback 🙂
How much of other ingredients can you add to this. I’d like to add pecans, coconut or blueberries. Do I need to adjust baking powder etc. 1/2 cup one cup?
Thanks
Hi Sharon! I think about 1/2 cup of extra mix-ins would work well, otherwise there might be too much batter (unless you have multiple tins, it which case you could add a little more). I haven’t tried with extra ingredients myself, but I think the same amount of baking powder should work fine.
Hope that helps and hope you enjoy the recipe!