Brown Sugar Oatmeal Muffins
on Feb 16, 2020, Updated Aug 22, 2024
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Brown sugar oatmeal muffins have all the spicy and sweet warming flavors that you love in baked goodies. Plus they’re moist, super simple, and full of natural fiber!
Breakfast lovers unite! These fibrous, sweet, and warmly spiced muffins are so so easy and even more tasty! They make for a perfect breakfast food or snack any day.
I adore these brown sugar oatmeal muffins because they’re just sweet enough, thanks to the brown sugar. Then the warming spices of cloves and cinnamon add a spicy undertone that is so good for a morning pick-me-up or midday bite. This recipe makes between 14 and 18 muffins, or 12 regular muffins and 24 mini muffins.
Table of Contents:
Table of Contents
Why You’ll Love this Recipe:
- Easy to make
- Standard ingredients you should have on hand, or are easy to find at the store
- They can make ALOT no matter what size muffins you make!
- They freeze and store in the fridge great
- Great for breakfast or an on the go snack
Ingredients:
- Oats– rolled or old fashioned
- Milk– I use whole milk for this, but any milk will do the trick. Even almond milk!
- Light Oil– Like avocado or coconut
- Light Brown Sugar
- Eggs
- All-Purpose Flour
- Baking Soda
- Baking Powder
- Ground Cinnamon
- Cloves
- Salt
See recipe card below for full information on ingredients and quantities
Frequently Asked Questions:
I prefer rolled oats or old fashioned oats in these muffins. Quick oats will create a mushier consistency, while rolled or old fashioned oats keep some of their structure and bite.
Using the combination of milk, oil, and brown sugar creates a richly moist muffin. The liquid, plus the oil, plus the sweetener creates a wetter batter that holds the moisture well as the muffins bake.
Over mixing muffin batter can create tough muffins or cause them to bake unevenly. They will form elongated holes, or have peaked tops.
Preheat your oven to 400 degrees F for this muffin recipe. Bake the muffins for 20 to 25 minutes, or until they’re golden brown and a toothpick comes out clean. Mini muffins need to be baked for 14 to 16 minutes.
Baking powder and baking soda specifically add a nice puffy texture to muffins by helping them to rise well. Flour and eggs also contribute to binding and rising the muffins.
Yes! These freeze super well. Store them in an airtight container or freezer-safe sealable bag for up the 4 to 5 months. Thaw them out by placing them in the fridge overnight or on your counter for 2 to 3 hours.
Muffins can be delicate, so be sure you measure your ingredients properly to ensure they’re moist and fluffy! The most common reason behind dry or hard muffins is mixing the batter too much. Also, keep an eye on them when baking. Over-baking them can cause dry muffins.
More Muffin Recipes to Consider:
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Spice Up Your Morning With Gingerbread Muffins
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Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins
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Apple Cinnamon Muffins
Muffin Recipes
Banana Nut Muffins
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Brown Sugar Oatmeal Muffins
Ingredients
- 2 cups rolled or old-fashioned oats
- 1 cup milk, (I used whole milk)
- 1/3 cup light oil, (like avocado, vegetable, or melted coconut)
- 1 cup light brown sugar, packed
- 2 large eggs
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon cloves
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. and grease 14 to 18 muffin cups well. (I grease a whole set of 12 on one pan and then grease the middle 6 on a second pan. This recipes makes 14 to 18 muffins depending on size OR you can do 12 regular sized muffins and about 24 mini muffins.)
- In a medium bowl, add the oatmeal and the milk, stir to combine, and set aside.
- In a second medium bowl, add the oil and brown sugar, and mix to combine until the sugar looks smooth, about 1 minute.
- Add the eggs and mix well to combine.
- Add the flour, baking powder, baking soda, ground cinnamon, cloves, and salt to the egg mixture, and fold to combine.
- Add the oat and milk mixture to the flour and egg mixture, and fold until just combined, careful to not over-stir.
- Place the batter into the prepared pans, filling the cups 1/2 full.
- Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until the centers are cooked through and nothing comes out on a toothpick when you insert it into the center. (Mini muffins will bake in 14 to 16 minutes.)
- Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 10 minutes before removing the muffins from the pan to finish cooling on a wire rack (if you leave them in the muffin tin they sweat and the bottoms get soggy).
- Enjoy warm or at room temperature.
- This recipes freezes well.
Notes
- This recipe can be made with half all-purpose and half whole wheat flour.
- You can dust the top of these muffins with a few pieces of oats before baking, it’s a pretty little detail, if you like.
Added a little extra oil and milk and it was perfect. Moist and not too sweet.
These muffins turned rock hard once they cooled and were very dry. I won’t be using this recipe again.
Can I substitute buttermilk for the milk?
Yes!
Moist nice flavour without the cloves. I added toasted pecans and chocolate chips to half. This will be my go to Oatmeal muffin recipe
Very good! Next time I will try using melted butter instead of oil. Might top with chopped pecans and whole oats next time. Baked in 20 minutes, made 12 muffins. I immediately turned temperature down from 400 to 375. (I think 400 would dry out the muffins.)
Great flavor but baking time of 20 minutes is too long. Next time I’ll bake at 375 for 18 minutes.
Hi! I use whole cloves for mulling. is there a ground clove for baking? Not something I use regularly.
There is! Ground cloves for baking and they are easy to find!
The second time I made the brown sugar-oatmeal muffins, l added 2/3 cup rough chopped butterscotch chips. I baked this second batch in 9 X 13 glass casserole. I cut the resulting cake-like quick bread in 4 inch squares so that they would be easy to wrap in foil, drop in a freezer bag and put in freezer. When I think I want one of my square “muffins” for breakfast in the morning, I grab a foil wrapped square and leave it on the counter overnight.
I didn’t have a muffin tray so i baked it in a rectangular bread dish and it was delicious! I baked it with the oven setting set to fan the first 20 minutes but the middle wasn’t done so i chaned the setting to top and bottom only and baked for another 7 minutes. When I tell you the smell surrounded the house! You can be sure that this recipe is really tasty and will wotk great for breakfast or brunch or a simple snack<3
This is SUCH a good idea! Thank you for sharing!
Would using quick oats ruin this?
No they’ll work great!