Leftover Oatmeal? Make These Amazing Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies!

Use your leftover oatmeal from breakfast to make pumpkin chocolate chip cookies! They’re super moist, pillowy and so delicious!

If you’re like me then you’ve made the mistake of making too much oatmeal for breakfast many times.

I don’t know why but I consistently think I don’t have to measure anything and my kids look like they’re REAL hungry this morning. But lo and behold, I inevitably end up with cups and cups of uneaten oatmeal.

I guess my pride can’t handle not being that person who can just eyeball everything.

A lot of the recipes I looked up only use 1/2 a cup of oatmeal. They’re probably delicious but if there’s only a half of a cup left, I’m gonna pretend I don’t see it as I wash the bowl.

This recipe uses 1 and a half cups and I even doubled it last time because I really over-did it with the leftover oatmeal earlier in the week. It made so many delicious cookies and I’m hooked!

We used the cookies for snacks after school and then breakfast the next day!

Let’s get into it!

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Some things to consider before you start:

-You may need to adjust some things because how you prepare your oatmeal could affect the taste of the cookies. Some people eat oatmeal plain and some other people like a little oatmeal with their bowl of brown sugar (6 year old me). These two methods will result in slightly different tasting cookies. It won’t be terribly different but you can adjust the amounts of sugar, spice, and salt in future batches until you get it just how you like it. I often have peanut butter in our oatmeal and it’s just fine with the pumpkin.

-Measure out the leftover oatmeal so you know haw many batches to make. For example, I had about 3 and a half cups and that’s close enough to 3 so I made 2 batches. If I had around 3/4 cup I would make half off a batch. Just use what you have and if it’s really off, you can always add a little bit of freshly made oatmeal to bring it up to the correct amount. But don’t stress about it. Let it be good enough!

-The other thing to think about is the kind of oatmeal you used. I tend to only use quick oats when eating straight and a combination of quick and rolled oats when baking. I found that my first batch was made with just quick oats and the texture just wasn’t quite right for an oatmeal cookie. It needs some lumps so I added another half a cup of dry rolled oats to the next batch.

-Here’s a quick reminder about the different kind of oats:

• quick oats = instant oats (basically the same)
• rolled oats = old-fashioned oats (they are the same)
• steel-cut oats – take forever to cook but you can use them too if they’ve already been cooked.

How To Make Leftover Oatmeal Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.

Mix 1 and a half cups of leftover oatmeal with 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract, 1/2 a cup of oil, 1 and a half cups of sugar (white or brown is fine, use what you have), 3/4 cup of pumpkin pure (or half a 15 ounce can), and 2 eggs.

Dump in 2 cups of flour, 1 teaspoon of salt, 1 teaspoon of baking soda, 2 teaspoon of cinnamon, 1 teaspoon of pumpkin spice, and 1/4 teaspoon of nutmeg.

I also add 1/2 a cup of rolled oats because I like the texture but you don’t have to.

It should be the consistency of runny muffin batter. If it’s still pretty thick, add tablespoons of milk, one at a time, until it’s right.

Mix that mess up and then add 1 and 1/2 cups of chocolate chips.

Scoop very rounded scoops of batter onto a parchment lined cookie sheet. I was able to fit a lot on one pan because they don’t really spread much.

Bake for 8-9 minutes or until the bottom is lightly browned and the top isn’t gooey anymore.

I used a #50 cookie scoop to make 50 cookies out of this batch.

I can’t find the cookie scoop I use but this one is the right size and is supposed to be great quality: Zeroll Standard Cookie Scoop

The 8-9 minutes of baking time is perfect for a cookie this size.

Let them cool completely then store in an air tight container in the freezer.

Enjoy!

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